Jerry Lewis, whose irrepressible zaniness and frantic creativity vaulted him to stardom as a comic movie star who wielded unparalleled green-light power at Paramount in the 1960s, died Sunday. He was 91.
Lewis, who teamed with Dean Martin in the 1950s as one of the most successful tandems in the history of show business, died at 9:15 a.m. at his home in Las Vegas, John Katsilometes of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported, citing a statement from Lewis’ family. Publicist Candi Cazau confirmed the news.
Lewis’ health ailments over the years included open-heart surgery in 1983, surgery for prostate cancer in 1992, treatment for his dependence on prescription drugs in 2003, a heart attack in 2006 and a long bout with pulmonary fibrosis, a chronic lung disease for which he took Prednisone, causing his face and body to balloon.
At the peak of their popularity, Martin & Lewis ruled nightclubs, radio and then the box office with their breezy yet physical comedy act, reigning as the top draw at theaters from 1950-56.
After an especially acrimonious break-up with his partner, Lewis remained as the No. 1 movie draw through the mid-1960s on the strength of such classics as The Bellboy (1960) and The Nutty Professor (1963). As Paramount’s biggest star, he had the creative freedom to make the moves he wanted to make.
Lewis also was known for his efforts as national chairman of the Muscular Dystrophy Assn. He devoted more than a half-century to fighting the neuromuscular disease, hosting an annual Labor Day telethon — and raising nearly $2.5 billion — from 1955 until he was ousted before the 2011 telecast. Lewis was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1977 for his efforts.
Extremely popular throughout Europe, especially in France, Lewis won “best director” awards eight times in Europe, including three in France and one each in Belgium, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain. New Wave critics and filmmakers Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard spurred his popularity in France, where he became known as “Le Roi du Crazy.”
In 1984, Lewis was presented with the French Legion of Honor and in 2009 was honored with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award; he kept the trophy from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on a platform above a TV in his Las Vegas home, where it would rotate at the push of a button.
The son of a professional entertainers, Lewis was born Joseph Levitch on March 16, 1926, in Newark, N.J. His mother played the piano, and his father was a musical arranger. Lewis made his debut at age 5 at a hotel in the Borscht Belt, the legendary upstate New York show-business breeding ground, by singing “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” He dropped out of high school, working as a soda jerk and theater usher, all the while cultivating a comedy routine, in which he mimed phonograph records.
It was not until he hooked up with young Italian-American crooner Martin that his career took off. In July 1946, while performing at the 500 Club in Atlantic City, one of the entertainers working with Lewis abruptly quit, and Lewis suggested Martin, who was nine years older, as a replacement. Their ad libs, including insults and off-the-wall jokes, were a sensation, and their salaries skyrocketed from $250 a week to $5,000. When they appeared on the balcony of the Paramount Theater in Times Square, Broadway became so crowded that traffic backed up to 59th Street.
Their shtick was categorized as “free-for-all humor.” Playing up their physical and personality contrasts — Lewis’ monkeyshines and ineptitude against straight man Martin’s sedate, sexy charm — they became overwhelmingly successful. Producer Hal Wallis caught their act and signed them to a deal at Paramount, and their first film, My Friend Irma (1949), in which they were cast in supporting roles, was a hit.
Typically, their movies followed the same formula: Lewis acted like an overgrown 8-year-old, while the suave Martin would break into song at the most unlikely provocation.
Martin & Lewis subsequently starred in such comedies as At War With the Army (1950), Sailor Beware (1952), The Caddy (1953), Living It Up (1954), You’re Never Too Young (1955) — a remake of Billy Wilder’s The Major and the Minor — and Artists and Models (1955). Hollywood or Bust (1956) was the last film of the 16 they headlined.
Martin got tired of Lewis getting most of the attention, and at New York’s Copacabana on July 25, 1956, the duo made their final nightclub appearance together — 10 years to the day of their first engagement. The feud that developed did not publicly end until the MDA telethon of 1976, when Frank Sinatra surprised the host by bringing Martin onstage. Martin died in 1995.
“Other comedy teams never generated anything like the hysteria that Dean and I did, and that was because we had that X factor — the powerful feeling between us,” said Lewis, who wrote about their relationship in the 2005 book Dean & Me (A Love Story). “And it really was an X factor, a kind of mystery.”
After the split, Lewis continued in films, basically playing the same type of manic, naive character. Pacting with Paramount in a then-whopping $10 million deal, he agreed to make 14 films during a seven-year period. At the time, it was the biggest personal deal for the services of one star in Hollywood history. Lewis and his production company were given virtual carte blanche by Paramount head Y. Frank Freeman.
Lewis found his first solo starring role in The Delicate Delinquent (1957) and quickly followed with a string of hits: The Sad Sack (1957), Rock-a-Bye Baby (1958), The Geisha Boy (1958) and Don’t Give Up the Ship (1959).
The manic comedies anchored Paramount: In 1960, when the studio was faced with no Christmas movie, Lewis whipped one up in a month. The Bellboy, the first film he directed, was a slew of blackout gags he concocted around the Miami’s Fontainebleau Hotel, where he had just finished a stint performing. In French terms, Lewis had become an “auteur,” co-writing, directing and acting in his films.
He was on a professional roll, playing a series of kind-hearted hyperactive dupes: In 1960’s CinderFella, directed by Frank Tashlin, he offered up a comic gender reversal on the Cinderella tale and danced down an impossibly long staircase to sounds of the Count Basie Orchestra. In 1961’s The Errand Boy, which he directed, he played an inept employee in a studio mailroom.
But it was 1963’s The Nutty Professor that cemented his reputation. Directing himself, Lewis starred as a near-sighted professor and chemistry egghead who dazzles his coeds by becoming the ultra-cool pop singer Buddy Love. The movie also served as the basis for Eddie Murphy’s retooled remake in 1996, with Murphy taking over the nerdy professor role, this time turning into a sharp-tongued comedian. (Murphy presented Lewis with the Hersholt trophy at the 2009 Oscars.)
Throughout the late 1950s and early ’60s, Lewis was constantly in motion, recording several records. His song “Rock-a-Bye Your Baby” sold nearly 4 million copies, and he hosted the Oscars in 1957 and 1959.
Lewis’ career faltered in the late ’60s, however, but not because of a lack of effort on his part. Indefatigable, he claimed to work every day for a period of seven years and regularly had a 3:30 a.m. wake-up call. Yet critics, as well as moviegoers, decided that Lewis, as director/writer/actor, was too much of a good thing; some felt his ego was out of control.
His films dipped drastically at the box office, and he experienced his greatest disappointment on TV in 1963 when his two-hour Saturday night talk and variety show turned off audiences. His manic mania did not play in this socially minded, ultra-serious era. The fact that the French continued to celebrate his talent became something of a running gag.
For 13 years, Lewis later admitted, he also was addicted to the painkilling drug Percodan, which was prescribed for treatment of a chipped spinal column he received while doing a pratfall in 1965 on The Andy Williams Show.
His 1972 film The Day the Clown Cried — a drama set inside a Nazi concentration camp — was never released. He donated a copy to the Library of Congress in August 2015, with the agreement the film not be shown for a decade.
In 1980, after an absence of nearly 10 years from the screen, Lewis attempted a comeback with the film Hardly Working. More successfully, he followed with a straight role as a talk-show host stalked by an obsessive fan in Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy (1982), starring Robert De Niro. Lewis’ dramatic performance as a beleaguered TV star was critically lauded.
He most recently appeared in such films as Cookie (1989), Arizona Dream (1993), Funny Bones (1995) and Max Rose (2016), and he played opposite Nicolas Cage and Elijah Wood in The Trust (2016). He performed a cameo as himself in Billy Crystal’s Mr. Saturday Night (1992) and guest-starred on a 2006 episode of Law & Order: SVU.
ewis also occasionally directed TV shows, including episodes of Ben Casey. TV producers tapped into his unexpected dramatic flair, casting him to appear in such series as Wiseguy in the late 1980s.
He ventured onto the stage in 1995, making his Broadway debut in a revival of the musical Damn Yankees. Playing the devil, he was reportedly paid the highest sum in Broadway history at the time.
As a new generation came to appreciate his work — “Hey, l-a-a-a-d-y,” one of his signature catchphrases, became a favorite of his fellow comedians — Lewis was regularly honored for his achievements.
In 1991, he was presented with the Comic Life Achievement Award at the National Academy of Cable Programming’s ACE Awards. The American Comedy Awards gifted him with a lifetime achievement award in 1998. And the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. presented him with its career achievement honor in 2004.
During the late 1960s and early ’70s, Lewis taught in the Division of Cinema at USC, drawing students from across the country, including future director Robert Zemeckis. He authored The Total Film Maker (1971), based on recordings of 480 hours of classroom lectures. Indeed, Lewis was an innovator, the first filmmaker to use a video-assist device on location.
When Lewis was 18, he met singer Patti Palmer, and they wed 10 days later. During their marriage, which lasted from 1944-82, they had five sons and adopted another child. His youngest, Joseph, became a drug addict and committed suicide in 2009 at age 45.
Lewis married his second wife, SanDee Pitnick, in 1983. They adopted a daughter, Danielle.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Legendary comedian and activist Dick Gregory has passed away. He was 84. He was a true legend and barrier breaker.
Gregory was initially hospitalized last week from complications with his health.
Richard Claxton “Dick” Gregory was an American civil rights activist, social critic, writer, entrepreneur, comedian, conspiracy theorist and occasional actor.
Gregory began his career as a comedian while serving in the military in the mid 1950s. He served in the army for a year and a half at Fort Hood in Texas, Fort Lee in Virginia, and Fort Smith in Arkansas. He was drafted in 1954 while attending Southern Illinois University Carbondale. After being discharged in 1956 he returned to the university but did not receive a degree. With a desire to perform comedy professionally, he moved to Chicago.
In 1958, Gregory opened a nightclub called the Apex Club in Illinois. The club failed, landing Gregory in financial hardship. In 1959, Gregory landed a job as master of ceremonies at the Roberts Show Club.
Gregory performed as a comedian in small, primarily black-patronized nightclubs, while working for the United States Postal Service during the daytime. He was one of the first black comedians to gain widespread acclaim performing for white audiences. In an interview with The Huffington Post, Gregory describes the history of black comics as limited: “Blacks could sing and dance in the white night clubs but weren’t allowed to stand flat-footed and talk to white folks, which is what a comic does.”
Gregory attributes the launch of his career to Hugh Hefner, who watched him perform at Herman Roberts Show Bar. Based on that performance, Hefner hired Gregory to work at the Chicago Playboy Club as a replacement for comedian “Professor” Irwin Corey.
Gregory’s first television appearance was on the late night show Tonight Starring Jack Paar. He soon began appearing nationally and on television.
Early in Dick Gregory’s career, he was offered an engagement on Tonight Starring Jack Paar. Paar’s show was known for helping propel entertainers to the next level of their careers. At the time, black comics did perform on the show, but were never asked to stay after their performances to sit on the famous couch and talk with the host. Dick Gregory declined the invitation to perform on the show several times until finally Jack Paar called him to find out why he refused to perform on the show. Eventually, in order to have Gregory perform, the producers agreed to allow him to stay after his performance and talk with the host on air. This was a first in the show’s history. Dick Gregory’s interview on Tonight Starring Jack Paar spurred conversations across America.
New Line and director Tim Story have chosen Jessie T. Usher to play the progeny of detective John Shaft in Son of Shaft, which is gearing up to begin production later this fall. Samuel L. Jackson is negotiating a deal to return to reprise the role he played in the John Singleton-directed reboot of the Gordon Parks-directed 1971 action classic. Also returning, per sources, will be Richard Roundtree, who starred in the original film and returned in the 2000 film, in which Jackson’s character played his nephew. The script for the new film is by Kenya Barris.
The studio and filmmakers searched for months to find the right young actor for the splashy role, before deciding the right guy is Usher. Usher’s biggest role to date came in Independence Day: Resurgence. He returns as the lead of the Starz series Survivor’s Remorse, with the fourth season beginning August 20. He will play the son of the detective, who, after long being estranged from his father, finds himself teamed up with him. The young man is an FBI agent, a cyber expert, and the partnership with dad is an uneasy collision of old school meets new school.
CAA and MGMT Entertainment rep Usher. The new Shaft film is produced by Davis Entertainment’s John Davis and Barris, the black-ish creator. Story is repped by UTA and Barris by CAA and Principato-Young. Jackson is ICM Partners and Anonymous Content and Stone Manners Salsners Agency and Patrick McMinn Management.
SOurce: Deadline
Lionsgate and Tyler Perry pose the question with BOO2! A MADE HALLOWEEN in theaters October 20. Madea and the gang are back for this hilarious sequel. Madea, Bam and Hattie venture to a haunted campground and the group must literally run for their lives when monsters, goblins and the bogeyman are unleashed.
IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced today that Steve Harvey World Group (SHWG), a media conglomerate led by entertainer, author, entrepreneur and humanitarian Steve Harvey, will launch a new digital experience, including a website and mobile app, built on the IBM Cloud. This experience is expected to provide a deeper level of engagement for the hundreds of millions of fans who tune into the Steve Harvey television and radio shows, read his books and follow him on social media.
“The digital experience on IBM Cloud will expand the Steve Harvey brand beyond Harvey’s entertainment career to highlight his thought leadership, business expertise, commitment to partners and involvement in the community,” said Sunny Duncan, Chief Executive Staff Officer, SHWG. “The website and mobile app will enable SHWG to directly engage the Steve Harvey fan base with targeted content, such as behind the scenes clips and product announcements.”
Augusta Hitech, a software engineering firm and IBM Business Partner, is working with SHWG to develop the technology and launch the new digital experience on the IBM Cloud. The new fan experience is designed to leverage IBM Cloud’s infrastructure as a service, content delivery network and microservices, including API Connect, Analytics and Mobile Foundation, to create a central hub that aggregates Steve Harvey’s companies. This hub will provide business intelligence through data-driven insights to help identify new revenue opportunities and unique partnerships for SHWG.
“IBM Cloud is our first recommendation for clients looking for security, hybrid cloud infrastructure and global scalability,” said Sean Caputo, vice president of product and strategy, Augusta Hitech. “The cloud platform allows us to deliver products to market faster due to its vast catalog of development tools and APIs, and the IBM Cloud infrastructure provides an enterprise-level architecture that delivers the velocity of data required for a digital fan experience. Due to the IBM Cloud’s simplicity and ease of use, we are able to rapidly deploy the Steve Harvey World Group’s digital strategy.”
This collaboration was spearheaded by SHWG’s new chief digital strategist, Amilya Antonetti.
“This new digital experience, coupled with smart engagement and a newly centralized database, will give SHWG complete ownership of the digital experience so that we can enhance it in real time, which is key in today’s experience and expectation economies,” said Antonetti. “We will use data intelligence from the IBM Cloud to help guide our marketing and business decisions as we seek strong brand partnerships, grow each of our business initiatives and continue to enhance the fan experience.”
“IBM’s ability to deliver real-time data driven insights can help drive deeper fan engagement by helping brands discover what fans want and deliver it in a way that builds loyalty,” said Peter Guglielmino, chief technology officer, IBM Media & Entertainment. “We’ve empowered our business partner Augusta with a global, scalable cloud platform that is designed for data, enabling them to rapidly develop a digital experience that will benefit both the Steve Harvey World Group and hundreds of millions of Steve Harvey fans.”
The SHWG website on IBM Cloud will launch September 5, with a mobile app to follow shortly after.
On this day in comedy on June 7, 1961, Comedienne and Actress, Kym Elizabeth Whitley was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio
A former personal assistant to Arsenio Hall, Whitley merged into comedy without having to sleep on another comic’s couch or futon. She got a huge break when she toured with the stage play, Beauty Shop by Shelly Garrett in 1989. In the early 90s she hit the TV circuit and guest starred her way around the channels. Whitley appeared in Vinny and Bobby, The Parent ‘Hood, Martin, Married . . . with Children, The Wayans Bros., Moesha, That’s So Raven, Arli$$ and Curb Your Enthusiasm. She was a regular on Sparks, Black Dynamite, Animal Practice and Young and Hungry and had recurring roles on My Brother and Me, The Parkers, Let’s Stay Together and The Boondocks.
Kym Whitley got into films in 1999 in Beverly Hood. Once in she had a succession of film roles in Next Friday (where off-camera Ice Cube tricked her with real liquor in a scene and not the usual ice tea), Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, House Party 4, Baby Boy, Deliver Us from Eva, Love Chronicles, Along Came Polly, The Perfect Man, Fun with Dick & Jane, College Road Trip, I Love You, Man, Rango, Transformers, We Bought a Zoo and many more.
Whitley was the co-host of the early precursor female panel discussion shows, Oh, Drama on BET. She co-hosted the talk show, The Brian McKnight Show in 2010 and in 2013 she got her own reality show, Raising Whitley on Oprah Winfrey’s network, OWN.
A civic minded individual, Whitley used her celebrity to raise public awareness on childhood food allergies. She co-created the T-shirt, “Don’t Feed Me” for children to wear to alert caregivers of the needs of that specific child. The foods they’re allergic to are printed on their shirt.
In 2004 Kym Whitley was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress (Deliver Us from Eva) by the BET Comedy Awards.
By Darryl “D’Militant” Littleton
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On this day in comedy on June 5, 1981, Nice Dreams was released by Columbia Pictures
Directed by Tommy Chong this was Cheech & Chong’s third film. Nice Dreams is the simple story of two weed-heads who pretend to sell tasty confections out of their ice cream truck, but they’re really pushing weed. What else do you expect from weed-heads? Their goal is to make a lot of money, buy an island, get high and play music all day surrounded by beautiful girls. Thanks to a free stash unwittingly provided by their pot growing neighbor who lives below them – our boys are on their way. The money rolls in.
Obviously whenever there’s weed flowing the cops show up. They’re onto the boys and are on their tails, but these are movie cops meaning they don’t know squat and screwing up is the reason they’re in the movie. While one cop (Stacy Keach) smokes the weed himself in an undercover ploy, his partners arrest the weed growing neighbor and not the weed selling ice cream truck drivers. After a series of misadventures including cocaine snorting, bad check passing, an attempted threesome, a released crazy husband, naked hotel scaling, a mental institution visit, straitjacketing, LSD popping and a lizard man spotting our heroes become male strippers to fulfill their broken dream. The End.
Nice Dreams featured the talents of Paul Reubens, Sandra Bernhard, Evelyn Guerrero, Tony Cox and Timothy Leary. The film made $37 million at the box office.
By Darryl “D’Militant” Littleton
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On This day in comedy on June 2, 1971, Comedian, Jo Koy (Joseph Glenn Herbert) born in Spanaway, WA, 1971.
Though Koy began his career in 1994 he is considered a pioneering comedian in the Filipino community. The product of a European-American father in the Air Force and a pure Filipino mother, Jo Koy was a military baby. Once Koy graduated high school, the family moved to Las Vegas, Nevada where he took up stand-up comedy after handling a little formality like dropping out of college.
Koy developed his act at Catch a Rising Star at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino. With his confidence built he rented the Huntridge Theater and hustled his own show. A Los Angeles talent agent got a load of Koy and booked him on his first national TV spot: BET’s Comic View. The urban circuit agreed with Koy and he also appeared on Laffapalooza and won on Showtime at the Apollo. He toured internationally performing for the troops and then became a cable television favorite. Koy was a regular on the VH1 series of I Love the 70s, 80’s and 90’s. He was on Tru TV’s World’s Dumbest and New Millennium and Chelsea Lately starring Chelsea Handler. He also has the distinction of being one of the rare breed of comedian to receive a standing ovation on The Tonight Show starring Jay Leno.
Koy’s career has not been without controversy. He was derailed for a while after making an anti-gay slur while the cameras were rolling. This faux pas forced Koy to issue a public apology. On the flip side his philanthropic organization, the Jo Koy Foundation does shows for charity, donating the tickets sales proceeds to The Children’s Hospital of Orange County.
Koy has toured with Carlos Mencia, done commercials for AMP’D Mobile Phone, been a semi-regular on The Adam Carolla Show, had his own Comedy Central special and won the prestigious Gemini Award; one of Canada’s highest honors.
By Darryl “D’Militant” Littleton
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On this day in comedy on June 1, 1961, Comedian, Actor, Host, Mark G. Curry was born in Oakland, CA
Once Curry had put in time as an up & coming stand-up comedian on the Bay Area circuit in rough clubs and bars like The End Zone and Sweet Jimmie’s, he was ready for the visual mediums where cameras captured if you were really funny or not and kept it on record. His first outing was the Martin Lawrence film debut, Talkin’ Dirty After Dark in 1991. It must’ve impressed the right people because 1992 became Curry’s breakout year.
A year after his first film Mark Curry found himself doing two television shows. He took over as host on the syndicated hit, Showtime at the Apollo. At the same time his ABC sitcom, Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper premiered. On that show Curry played a retired NBA baller who is now a substitute teacher when he is not teaching gym. During and following Cooper’s successful 5 season run, Curry appeared in the motion pictures, Panther, the Fanatics, Switchback and Armageddon; also guest starred on Living Single, the Jamie Foxx Show and Martin.
After the turn of the century things kept rolling. Mark Curry had a recurring role on The Drew Carey Show. He played Carey’s boss. On the Holly Robinson-Peete vehicle, For Your Love, he played a doctor and hosted the Comedy Central show, Don’t Forget Your Toothbrush. Curry did movies for the Disney Channel and a few seasons later he hosted Animal Tails and then Coming to the Stage.
In 2006 tragedy struck. While doing laundry (the butler must’ve been off that day) Mark Curry was burned over 20% of his body when an aerosol can accidently fell behind a water heater and exploded. During a lengthy recuperative period, excruciating pain and being placed in a medically induced coma for several months, Curry contemplated suicide. It was the intervention of fellow comedians, Sinbad and Bill Cosby that kept Curry’s mind right and put him back on track. He got it together and went back to work.
In November 2008 Mark Curry returned with a stand-up routine on the Comedy Central special, Laffapalooza hosted by Tracy Morgan. The following year, Curry found himself as host of FoxxHole Live on Satellite Radio sirus. He toured with Earthquake, Sommore, Tony Rock and Bruce, Bruce under the title, “The Royal Comedy Tour” followed up with “Sommore’s Standing Ovation Comedy Tour” featuring Tommy Davidson and Bill Bellamy. Curry co-starred opposite Sheryl Lee Ralph in the Bounce sitcom, One Love and had the role of Marcus on the Scott Baio comedy series, See Dad Run for Nick at Nite for 2012-2015.
Mark Curry has appeared in music videos and continues touring as a stand-up comedian.
By Darryl “D’Militant” Littleton
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On this day in comedy on May 28, 2004, Soul Plane was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer
Labeled as a comedy, Soul Plane became known as a disaster film and the first major casualty of the “DVD Bootleg Era”. The flick was out on the streets before the premiere. At the box office, it lost money big time, but out-of-the-trunk-of-cars it was a resounding hit. Everybody saw it – liked it or not. Based on a popular comedic premise of the time about “what if there was a black airline?”, Soul Plane misses none of the stereotypes prevalent during that period.
In Kevin Hart’s first starring movie role, he plays the guy who owns the black airline. After digesting some bad stroganoff and getting the bubblies on a standard airline, Hart is stuck in a malfunction toilet while his dog is sucked through the jet engine. So, he sues and uses his newfound fortune to buy, what else? – his own airline. Dice hanging from the rearview mirror in the cockpit, malt liquor being served, a disco, a casino, a strip club, a hot tub, spinners and hydraulics are welcome additions for the predominantly black patrons. The white fliers are a family of one and before the flight ends the wife (Missi Pyle) is turned on by brothers, the daughter is intent on screwing a brother, the little boy (Ryan Pinkston) goes wigger and dad (Tom Arnold) hooks up with security guard, Mo’Nique.
Hart’s airline (departing out of Malcolm X Terminal) is fine until they take off. The pilot (Snoop Dogg) fears heights and has to fly low. Doesn’t matter for long because he “dies” after taking some mushrooms that didn’t agree with him. Now it’s up to Hart to land his own plane and with the help of a flight attendant (Sophia Vergara) he pulls it off. Yay!
Soul Plane was directed by Jessy Terrero and written by Bo Zenga and Chuck Wilson. It co-starred D. L. Hughley, Method Man, Loni Love, K D Aubert, Sommore, Queen Latifah, John Witherspoon, Lil Jon, Ying Yang Twins, Richard T. Jones, Brian Hooks, Bernie Mac, Arielle Kebbel, Gary Anthony Williams and Godfrey. On a budget of $16 million, Soul Plane took in $14,190,750 in the US and $631,596 overseas for a worldwide box office take of $14,822,346
By Darryl “D’Militant” Littleton
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