Martin Lawrence received the 2,753rd star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame this week but his friend Jamie Foxx wasn’t far from his mind. Foxx, 55, has been hospitalized since last week when his daughter announced via his social media accounts that he was dealing with a “medical complication.”
Lawrence told Extra’s Rachel Lindsay that the actor/comedian was improving.
“Well, I hear he’s doing better,” Lawrence said. “My prayers go out for him every night and just wishing the best for him, one of the best that we got in Hollywood. Not only one of the best entertainers but a good person.”
Fellow comedian Tracy Morgan had his own health challenge when he was severely injured in a car accident on a New Jersey highway in 2014. At Lawrence’s Hollywood Star presentation, he told Entertainment Tonight that he believes Foxx will come out of the incident “stronger and better.”
“I love Jamie. Jamie’s a good friend of mine … my prayers go up for Jamie,” Morgan told Entertainment Tonight. “He’s strong, he’s a fighter, he’s gonna come out of it and he’s good. He’s gonna be stronger and better than ever.”
“I’ve been there,” he added. “I was on the other side in a coma for 10 days,” he said referencing his 2014 crash on a New Jersey highway when a Walmart truck slammed into his limousine. His close friend, comedian James McNair was killed and Morgan was hospitalized with severe injuries.
“Jamie, I love you,” Morgan said. “My prayers go out to you and your family. Please get well.”
Martin’s co-star on Martin, Tichina Arnold attended his Walk of Fame induction as well, echoing his comments.
“Jamie’s such a good human being, great person, does a lot for a lot of people, and I just pray for his strength,” Arnold said.
Steve Harvey expressed concern as well, saying he’s always known the Collateral star to take care of himself.
“Jamie’s fit,” Harvey said. “He don’t do nothin’, man. That dude is fit so I was really concerned. I hope it works out. I’m pretty sure it will.”
Foxx was in Atlanta shooting Back In Action for Netflix with Cameron Diaz when his daughter announced that he’d experienced a “medical complication.” No further information has been released, though CNN reports the incident did not happen on set nor was he rushed to the hospital in an emergency vehicle.
Source: AP
In Mo’Nique’s new Netflix stand-up special, the Academy Award winner spends some time talking and joking about her stint on The Parkers. However, a profit participation suit filed today against Paramount Pictures, CBS TV Studios, and others is no laughing matter.
“While the Series has proven to be a major financial success for its producers and distributors, the series’ talent has not been permitted to share in the fruits of that success,” declares the breach of contract action over the sitcom that ran on the now defunct UPN from 1999 to 2004 (read it here).
“Plaintiff is further informed and believes and thereupon alleges that the Series’ writers and creators performed a forensic audit that this forensic audit of the Series’ books and records strongly suggested that Defendants have inequitably structured the Series’ finances to artificially depress its profitability and retain millions that would otherwise be contractually due and owing to Plaintiff,” adds the filing from the deRubertis Law Firm, APC and Schimmel & Park, APLC on behalf of Mo’Nique’s production company Hicks Media.
“Plaintiff only recently discovered the breaches and/or concealment of material facts described herein when it learned of details of the publicly-filed lawsuit by the writers and creators of the Series,” the compliant in the docket in LA Superior Court notes. “Before that, they had been lulled through the words and actions of the Defendants into believing that all moneys were properly paid.”
Though terms like “millions” are to be founded in the suit, the action doesn’t actually specify a number that Mo’Nique and her company are seeking. However, with a wide array of damages, a full accounting and a judicially ordered constructive trust as a part of the relief the plaintiff is seeking and the long runway that The Parkers has had in first run TV and syndication, streaming, we’re talking big bucks here
Now, if you only know Mo’Nique from her work on the spinoff, Precious or her comedy, you won’t be surprised to learn the actress doesn’t have much patience for the particulars of Hollywood accounting and punishments. Back in 2019, Mo’Nique stood up and sued Netflix for racial and gender bias, plus “a discriminatory low-ball offer and ended with a blacklisting act of retaliation.” After the streamer failed to have the action tossed out, the parties settled in June last year. On April 4 this year, the take-no-prisoners special My Name Is Mo’Nique launched on Netflix.
Finding themselves in Mo’Nique’s legal spotlight, reps for corporate mothership Paramount Global did not respond to request from Deadline for comment on this latest lawsuit. If and when the CBS-owners do respond, we will update this post.
Source: Deadline
Martin Lawrence has had an illustrious career in television and film and will receive his just due with a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. The 57-year-old actor and comedian’s star ceremony now has an official date.
“Comedian Martin Lawrence to be honored with [a] star on the Walk of Fame on April 20th! #walkoffame,” tweeted Ana Martinez, Vice President Of Media Relations for the Hollywood Chamber Of Commerce, on Tuesday (April 11). This comes after it was revealed that he would receive a star in June 2022.
“We did it, bruh! We did it!” the comedian said in a reaction video after the announcement. “All the way from Landover, Washington D.C., all the way to Hollywood. We did it. Oh, man. God bless. God bless.”
Martin Lawrence has been a mainstay in film, television, and comedy since the late 1980s. His breakthrough came as the star of the sitcom Martin before he joined forces with Will Smith for the long-running Bad Boys franchise. Lawrence has also appeared in House Party, Boomerang, Open Season, Wild Hogs, Big Momma’s House, and several other major productions.
Earlier this year, Variety revealed that the NAACP Image Award Winner will join Anthony Mackie and Chloe Bailey for the animated film Sneaks. The star-studded cast also includes Roddy Ricch, Ella Mai, Swae Lee, Macy Gray, Quavo, Sam Jay, Coi Leray, Keith David, and Laurence Fishburne. Sneaks is set to be finished in 2024.
If that isn’t enough to be excited for, Lawrence and Smith have confirmed that Bad Boys 4 is in the works. “It’s about that time,” the Oscar winner said before meeting up with his partner in fighting crime.
U.S. actor Jamie Foxx is recovering following “a medical complication”, his daughter Corinne Foxx has said.
The Oscar winner was hospitalized in Atlanta, where he was filming a new comedy with actress Cameron Diaz, according to Hollywood industry publication Variety.
“We wanted to share that my father, Jamie Foxx, experienced a medical complication yesterday. Luckily, due to quick action and great care, he is already on his way to recovery,” Corinne Foxx said in a statement on behalf of the Foxx family shared on Instagram late on Wednesday.
“We know how beloved he is and appreciate your prayers. The family asks for privacy during this time.”
She did not share any further details.
Foxx, 55, is known for films such as “Ray”, “Collateral” and “Django Unchained”.
The Humor Mill Digital catches up with Grasie Mercedes and Aaron Jennings of NBC’s Grand Crew to learn more about the upcoming season 2; what they enjoy doing when they’re not sipping wine on TV, and whether we’ll see sparks fly among the friends this season.
Please watch the interview above!
Even as Chris Meledandri prepares to launch Mario onto movie screens, the Illumination founder and CEO is simultaneously juggling several new movies and sequels in his ever-expanding animation empire. These range from follow-ups to his “Sing,” “Despicable Me” and “Secret Life of Pets” franchises, as well as original movies like this fall’s “Migration,” the story of a family of ducks who live in a pond in New England and no longer have to migrate because the winters are milder. But before all that, there’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which is expected to achieve box office domination when it opens on April 5.
Beyond running Illumination, Meledandri, who sat down with Variety with Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto for this week’s cover story on the making of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” also serves as a creative partner to DreamWorks Animation as it looks to reboot the “Shrek” franchise. In that capacity, he’s keen to see the return of the film’s original voice cast (which includes Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, and Eddie Murphy) for “Shrek 5.”
“It’s not that dissimilar to the process that we went through with ‘Mario,’ where you look at what the core elements are that audiences have loved, and you do your very best to honor those core elements,” Meledandri said. “And then you’re hard at work to build story elements and new characters that take you to brand new places. The original cast is a huge part of that.”
Though no deals are in place, he said negotiations with the actors are going well. “We anticipate the cast coming back. Talks are starting now, and every indication that we’ve gotten is there’s tremendous enthusiasm on behalf of the actors to return,” he said.
And Meledandri has good reason to be optimistic. Following the success of the 2022 “Shrek” spinoff sequel “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” Murphy said in January, “If [DreamWorks] ever came with another ‘Shrek,’ I’d do it in two seconds. I love Donkey. They did ‘Puss in Boots’ movies. I was like, ‘They should have done a Donkey movie.’ Donkey is funnier than Puss in Boots. I mean, I love Puss in Boots, but he ain’t funny as the Donkey.”
Meledandri said he was “thrilled” when he read Murphy’s comments, adding, “It’s evidence of his strong enthusiasm for a role that he so brilliantly inhabited and really created alongside the artists at DreamWorks. I found that comment to be very exciting.”
When asked if he thought Donkey was a character that could support its own film, similar to the fighting feline spinoffs starring Antonio Banderas, Meledandri answered, “Without question.”
Throughout his interview, Meledandri also teased the other animated projects Illumination is cooking up. He’s looking for a fresh way to return to the world of dogs, cats, goldfish, and all other forms of domesticated animals.
“We’re developing a couple of scripts in ‘The Secret Life of Pets’ world,” he said. “While we’re not ready yet to start a film, we’re absolutely continuing to develop in that franchise.”
So what would a possible “Secret Life of Pets 3” look like?
“One of the stories that we’re developing involves one primary character from the first two films, but introduces a new set of characters,” Meledandri added. “And then another story that we’re developing is the ensemble. So we’re looking at it from different angles.”
And Meledandri is also “deep into development” on “Sing 3,” a new installment of his hit series about a group of animals competing in a talent competition. “It will involve characters from the original cast, but it will take us into a new world,” he said.
“Sing 2” generated more than $400 million at the box office, but it had the misfortune to debut as the omicron COVID variant was spreading wildly, which depressed ticket sales. However, Meledandri says the film was a streaming smash. The sequel was the third highest-streamed movie overall in the U.S. in 2022 and was streamed over 80 million times on Netflix.
“We don’t just look at box office,” Meledandri says of the decision to make more “Sing” films. “We gauge the audience response in different ways. The streaming success of ‘Sing 2’ signals that fans want to stay in this world with these characters.”
And while little is known about “Migration,” other than it’s written by “The White Lotus” creator Mike White and directed by “Ernest and Celestine’s” Benjamin Renner, audiences at “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” will be among the first to get a look at what Illumination has in store. A trailer for the film will be released alongside the studio’s Nintendo adventure.
“It represents Illumination’s ongoing commitment to telling original stories, which I think is absolutely essential to culture,” Meledandri said.
In “Migration,” the family of ducks finds themselves at odds. With the weather warming, the father in the family wants to remain safe and comfortable in their pond in New England, while the wife wants them to explore the wider wold.
“The film is very beautiful and has a painterly quality that is quite different from anything we’ve done at Illumination,” Meledandri said. “The story is told with humor and heart. It’s a remarkably human story with characters who are very relatable and end up wrestling with issues that we all understand, even though they are ducks. And their qualities as ducks are incredibly well executed, from the smallest detail on a feather to their movements and their flight. So it’s a movie that transports you into this world up in the sky, but at the same time it’s very true to who we are.”
And Meledandri isn’t just sticking to movies. Illumination has teamed with Pierre Coffin, the writer and director of the “Despicable Me” films, on two short series that will premiere on TikTok in May before going to YouTube. One, “Who’s Who,” is set in the world of Minions, while the other, “Bones Story,” tells a wholly original tale.
“We like to follow the creativity of our team,” Meledandri said. “This is something Pierre wants to do and it’s exciting to experiment in serialized storytelling.”
Source: Variety
“Abbott Elementary” will finally reveal Janine’s mother on the ABC comedy’s April 12 episode, and even though it’s April Fool’s Day, we’re not (Cookie) Lyon: It’s “Empire” star Taraji P. Henson, who will play Vanetta on the hit comedy series.
The casting of Henson was revealed Saturday at the Paley Center for Media’s annual PaleyFest LA event, where an “Abbott Elementary” panel featured stars Sheryl Lee Ralph, Lisa Ann Walter, Tyler James Wiliams, and William Stanford Davis in person, as well as Janelle James and Chris Perfetti via Zoom from New York. Pre-taping a message was star and executive producer Quinta Brunson, who wasn’t able to attend — as she’s hosting tonight’s installment of “Saturday Night Live.”
In the “Abbott Elementary” episode “Mom,” Janine (played by Brunson) is planning a Memorial Day weekend solo trip. But that’s derailed when her mother Vanetta, played by Henson, shows up unannounced and asking for help. (The episode’s B story line involves Gregory, played by Williams, looking to brush up on his people skills.)
“Mom,” which airs at 9 p.m. ET on April 12, is the 21st episode of Season 2; the season finale of “Abbott Elementary” airs the next week.
Henson is the latest guest star to appear as a part of Janine’s family, as the show continues to start sharing more background on its characters. Also this season, Ayo Edibiri appeared as Ayesha, Janine’s sister.
Henson earned three Emmy nominations, a Golden Globe Award, a Critics Choice Award and three BET awards for playing Cookie Lyon on the smash hit “Empire.” Her other credits include “Hustle & Flow,” her breakout role that earned her a BET Award for best actress, among other accolades.
Henson has been seen in the films “Hidden Figures,” “Think Like a Man,” “Talk to Me,” “Smokin’ Aces,” “The Family That Preys,” “No Good Dead,” “Hurricane Season,” “Larry Crowne,” “What Men Want,” “The Best of Enemies” and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” which earned her an Oscar nom for supporting actress.
Henson has also lent her voice to the animated films “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” “Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie” and “Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck It Ralph 2.” She additionally won an NAACP award for her role as Miss Hannigan in NBC’s “Annie Live!”
Next up, she appears in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical take on “The Color Purple.”
Source: Variety
The Humor Mill recently got a chance to sit down with comedian, content creator, and actor, Kraig Smith to discuss Roast Dominoes League, a brand new live competition series that takes the art form of trash talk to an entirely new level.
In case you are not familiar, Kraig Smith has over 120M views across all social media platforms and has gained a new following through hosting multiple shows across the live-streaming platform known as Caffeine. With the live weekly series, Roast Dominoes League, Kraig has fostered a loyal community centered around rap music and shit-talking where his fans can watch their favorite competitors from the world of music, comedy, and culture throw down against one another.
Fans can watch new episodes of Roast Dominoes League LIVE, every Sunday, and on-demand on Caffeine, via @TheComedyPress
Check out the new trailer of the upcoming season HERE on Caffeine!
Check out the interview below, as our host, Eunice Elliott sits down the Kraig Smith below;
A spinoff of the hit drama series Snowfall is in early stages of development at FX, according to sources. No one would comment but we hear that, if it comes to fruition, the offshoot would potentially star Gail Bean reprising her fan-favorite Snowfall character, Wanda.
The spinoff is a continuation of the original story set in 1990s Los Angeles as South Central transitions out of the crack era into the gangster rap business, with areas heavily infested by gangs led by the Bloods and Crips. Wanda would serve as the connective tissue between the original show and the offshoot, which is expected to introduce other main characters.
It is as yet unknown if any other characters from the original could also appear in the new show.
Malcolm Spellman will serve as executive producer and writer of the pilot. Returning executive producers include Dave Andron (co-creator of the original and showrunner of Snowfall), Trevor Engelson through Underground, Michael London through Groundswell, and Tommy Schlamme through Shoe Money, alongside his executive Julie DeJoie.
Also expected to get credit are the original series’ co-creators John Singleton (posthumously) and Eric Amadio, as well as its producer Evan Silverberg.
Following 6 successful seasons on FX, Snowfall will complete its run on April 19th. The series stars Damson Idris as Franklin Saint, a young drug kingpin in 1980s Los Angeles during the height of the crack epidemic.
One of Franklin’s closest associates is longtime friend Leon (Isaiah John), with who he hustles on the streets. In early seasons, Wanda was Leon’s girlfriend who becomes addicted to crack and ends up homeless. She struggles to kick the habit and survives, working odd jobs while focusing on staying clean. Wanda and Leon eventually marry in Ghana in the third episode of the sixth and final season, currently airing on Wednesday nights.
Also in Season 6, civil war threatens to destroy the Saint family. Franklin is desperate and forced to rob his Aunt Louie (Angela Lewis) and Uncle Jerome (Amin Joseph) after being wiped out by former CIA officer Teddy McDonald (Carter Hudson). Meanwhile, Louie has taken over Franklin’s role as Teddy’s sole buyer, undercutting her nephew and creating a competing empire in the process. Franklin is now faced with losing everyone he loves and everything he’s built, and coming through it all will mean out-maneuvering the KGB, the DEA, and the CIA, as well as avoiding the LAPD’s fully militarized, fully corrupt, C.R.A.S.H units. Sergio Peris-Mencheta also stars.
Snowfall was John Singleton’s final project before his death in 2019, which he created alongside Amadio and Andron. The series is executive produced by Singleton, Andron, Schlamme, Amadio, London, Engelson, Leonard Chang, Walter Mosley, and Julie DeJoie. Idris also serves as Producer. Snowfall is produced by FX Productions.
Source: Deadline
In competition, Amazon Studios is in final talks for the package The Pick Up, with Eddie Murphy eyeing to star and Tim Story attached to direct. John Davis and John Fox will produce through his Davis Entertainment banner. Murphy and Charisse Hewitt-Webster also are in talks to produce through Eddie Murphy Productions, and Story also will be a producer.
The package is based on a spec script written by Kevin Burrows and Matt Mider, and the prospect of the elements drove the bidding up to seven figures for the script, sources said. Three others bid for it. The scribes teamed on the 2018 comedy The Package and created the Condé Nast series Gentlemen Lobsters.
Sources called it a heist comedy in the Bad Boys, and Murphy would play a guy who becomes smitten with a woman and finds himself mixed up in a heist attempt. The scribes’ most recent spec Shots! Shots! Shots! was picked up by Universal for Jason Momoa to star in and produce with Dan Lin.
Murphy and Davis have made five films together, the most recent of which is Netflix’s Dolemite Is My Name, a Critics Choice Award winner for Best Comedy. Murphy recently starred with Jonah Hill in the Netflix comedy You People.
Story’s next up is The Blackening, which Lionsgate acquired after its Toronto premiere and is slotted for release June 16th, which is Juneteenth.
Story is repped by UTA and attorney Matt Johnson, Murphy by WME and Ziffrin Brittenham, and Burrows & Mider are with WME and Silver Lake Entertainment’s Yuli Masinovsky.
Source: Deadline