Florida Sentinel Bulletin

Lucinda Askew, Chief Executive Officer of Talents Blessed By God, spends her time writing, producing and presenting plays. She is pleased that a 2-hour, closed-captioned made for TV m0vie will feature 4 persons with whom she has worked.

The inspirational film, The Glass Window will be broadcast by WMOR-TV32 on Easter Sunday, April 24, 9 p. m. According to Askew, the film is about climbing the corporate ladder and living life in the fast lane. In the movie, a successful business professional is forced to confront his true purpose. He travels from Manhattan to the Carolina coast and on to the Bahamas, where he finds the “Glass Window.”

Talents from Blessed By God who are in the movie are: Marlet Brown, an established hairdresser in the Tampa Bay area; Howard Anderson, an attorney in Hillsborough County; Arthur Timothy Jones, II (pictured, left) is a client manager for Progressive Therapy and William Rowe (pictured, right) is a successful barber in Pinellas County.

NEW YORK — Samuel L. Jackson will make his Broadway debut this fall as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Producers of “The Mountaintop” said Thursday that the Academy Award-nominated actor will star in the play that reimagines the night before the civil rights leader’s assassination.

The play, by Katori Hall, made its debut in London in 2009. It had been rumored that Halle Berry would join Jackson but producers said “child custody issues” ruled her out.

Performances on Broadway will begin Sept. 22 at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on 45th Street. The official opening is set for Oct. 13.

Jackson, known for films like “Pulp Fiction” and “Snakes on a Plane,” originated roles in two of August Wilson’s plays at Yale Repertory Theatre and appeared at the New York Shakespeare Festival.

It seems like Tyler Perry has had it up to here with the criticism. In a Tuesday press conference in Beverly Hills, CA, the director, writer, and actor fired back at his critics, particularly fellow Black filmmaker Spike Lee.

“Spike can go straight to hell! You can print that. I am sick of him talking about me, I am sick of him saying, ‘this is a coon, this is a buffoon.’ I am sick of him talking about black people going to see movies. This is what he said: ‘you vote by what you see,’ as if black people don’t know what they want to see.”

“I am sick of him – he talked about Whoopi, he talked about Oprah, he talked about me, he talked about Clint Eastwood. Spike needs to shut the hell up!”

Perry is one of the most successful Black directors in Hollywood history.

Yet, the filmmaker is often times criticized for stereotypical Black characters in his movies, most notable the gun-carrying, loud-mouthed character Madea, played by Tyler Perry in the popular Madea series.
Some critics have gone as far as to call his movies and plays a “minstrel show” and demeaning to Blacks.

Still, Perry said he doesn’t understand why the majority of his criticism comes directly the Black community, when directors and actors of other races don’t face the same negative feedback from their own communities.

I’ve never seen Jewish people attack Seinfeld and say “this is a stereotype,” I’ve never seen Italian people attack ‘The Sopranos,’ I’ve never seen Jewish people complaining about ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ or Dustin Hoffman in ‘Tootsie.’ I never saw it. It’s always black people, and this is something that I cannot undo. Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois went through the exact same thing; Langston Hughes said that Zora Neale Hurston, the woman who wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God, was a new version of the ‘darkie’ because she spoke in a southern dialect and a Southern tone. And I’m sick of it from us; we don’t have to worry about anybody else trying to destroy us and take shots because we do it to ourselves.”

Perry continued to express his frustrations saying, “So me being frustrated with it, and then they go on to say that people of other ethnic groups or white people don’t go see my movies, and that’s all a lie. I’m standing on stage looking at thousands of people, thousands of faces, with every race represented, and I’m tired of it. I’m tired of just laying down, tired of just being nice and letting them say whatever they want to say however they want to say it without people knowing what the intent really is.”

Tyler Perry’s latest film ‘Madea’s Big Happy Family,’ opens nationwide in theaters this Friday.

Mariah Carey hasn’t even given birth to her twins yet, but she’s already dismissing the idea of more children.

The expectant mother talked about her pregnancy to Life & Style magazine in an issue that hits newsstands nationwide Friday.

When asked if she would like to have more children, Carey admits it would require “a much stronger person” than her to go through pregnancy again, adding she’s “ready to be done.”

Carey and husband Nick Cannon are expecting a daughter and a son this spring.

The singer says carrying multiple babies “can be difficult” but that “it’s all worth it.” She also says she’s ready to have her body back and she misses wearing high heels.

Carey and Cannon gave the magazine a first look at the babies’ rooms in the couple’s homes in Bel Air, Calif., and New York City.

While 50 Cent is preparing to release a new single as promised this week, the G-Unit head is also making headlines for being the latest victim of credit card fraud.

The rapper who resides in Farmington, Connecticut has reportedly been targeted several times by thieves attempting to use his American Express number.

According to the New York Daily News, 50’s been targeted in at least five cities since 2007 including Farmington, Hartford, and New York City.

In a reported incident last year, a man called a local electronic store with the rapper’s pilfered Amex number attempting to buy two $1,000 flat screens.

The store owner became suspicious however and reported the number to Amex who confirmed that the number was stolen.

The store owner refused to deliver the televisions and asked the suspicious customer to pick them up himself.

When two young men not affiliated with 50 Cent arrived, cops were waiting to arrest them.

A source tells the NYDN that the root of Fitty’s problem may be someone who has access to his personal information.

LOS ANGELES — Michael Jackson’s estate reached a settlement Tuesday that ended its lengthy fight with a nonprofit that claimed it was the successor to the singer’s Heal the World charity.

The deal came just as a trial was set to begin to decide ownership of lucrative trademarks.

The singer’s estate battled the Heal the World Foundation in federal court for more than 18 months, alleging it was misusing trademarks and likeness rights to create an association with Jackson’s defunct charity.

The new incarnation of Heal the World Foundation had said it was given authority by Jackson’s attorney to run the foundation in 2005. In recent months, it placed Jackson’s mother, Katherine, on its board of directors and also collaborated with the late singer’s children.

Katherine Jackson had been expected to testify during the federal trial, along with one of the singer’s former attorneys and his former spokeswoman. In a statement, Jackson’s estate said the settlement calls for it to retain the rights to the Heal the World charity and rights to any trademarks the current foundation held.

The remainder of the agreement remained confidential.

Jackson founded Heal the World in 1992 but later abandoned it as he fought child abuse allegations.

The foundation’s current director, Melissa Johnson, claimed one of Jackson’s former attorneys told her the pop star wanted her to run the foundation in 2005. The estate said in a statement that the settlement means Johnson cannot use the Heal the World name or Jackson’s likeness any longer.

Her attorney, Edgar Pease, did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment Tuesday.

LOS ANGELES — Prosecutors want to show images of Michael Jackson dead and alive at the upcoming manslaughter trial of the superstar’s doctor, hoping to contradict defense claims that Jackson was unhealthy or depressed and took his own life.

If their motions filed Tuesday are granted, the jury will see a singing, dancing Jackson in excerpts from the concert movie “This Is It.”

They also will see Jackson’s body on an autopsy table after his death from an overdose of propofol and other sedatives.

Defense attorneys have suggested that Jackson, in desperate financial straits, felt he could not carry out his European concerts unless he could overcome intense insomnia. They say he was so desperate for sleep that he overdosed himself on the anesthetic propofol while his doctor was out of the room.

But prosecutors said the autopsy pictures would corroborate the medical examiner’s testimony that Jackson, although thin, was in good health.

And scenes from “This Is It”, recorded during rehearsals for his planned concert tour, show an active, energetic Jackson engaged in his performance just days before his death, said David Walgren and Deborah Brazil, deputy district attorneys.

“These video clips are completely at odds with someone who, as the defense has claimed, would recklessly take his own life just hours after the last clip was filmed,” said the prosecution motion.

Dr. Conrad Murray has pleaded not guilty and the search for a jury to judge him resumes May 4. Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor is to rule on pretrial motions Thursday.

“This Is It,” which was compiled from weeks of rehearsal footage, was released as a commercial film after Jackson’s death.

Defense attorneys have moved to bar the autopsy pictures from being shown, saying they will inflame the passions of the jury.

The prosecution motion said the photos will help the jury understand medical testimony.

“Moreover, the photographs of Michael Jackson are not gory or gruesome, lessening any potential for prejudice,” the motion said.

Fresh from her release from jail and after remixing Chris Brown’s hit “Look At Me Now”, Da Brat is paying homage to Michael Jackson with a new tattoo on her leg.

Her “brother” Jermaine Dupri broke the news on Twitter Monday, posting a picture and saying,

“Brat just got this, she making me wanna go.”

The tattoo shows MJ holding a microphone and hitting his signature stance—white socks and all.

LOS ANGELES — The new incarnation of Death Row Records does not have the rights to sell Dr. Dre’s iconic rap album “The Chronic” digitally, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder ruling states that the rapper and producer has received far less money than he is due from online sales of the 1992 album, which also helped launch the career of Snoop Dogg.

The ruling does not call for a halt of digital sales of Dre’s music, but entitles him to receive 100 percent of the proceeds of online sales, his attorney, Howard King, told The Associated Press.

The rapper, whose real name is Andre Young, sued WIDEawke Death Row Records last year, claiming it was improperly selling “The Chronic” digitally and using some of his music on compilation albums without his permission.

Snyder’s ruling states the label, which bought the original Death Row Records’ holdings out of bankruptcy, does not have the right to put Dr. Dre’s music on compilation or any other albums.

“For years, Death Row Records forgot about Dre when they continued to distribute his music digitally and combined his hits with weaker Death Row tracks in an attempt to elevate the stature of their other artists,” King wrote in a statement. “We are gratified that the federal court has unambiguously declared that Death Row has no right to engage in such tactics, and must hold all proceeds from these illicit distributions in trust for our client.”

Phone and email messages for WIDEawake’s attorney, Michael Holtz, was not immediately returned Tuesday evening.

The rapper has a long history of battling Death Row Records, a label he confounded but later left.

The most recent case he filed centered on his 1996 exit agreement with the label, which called for him to receive 18 percent royalties on his music created while at Death Row and gave him substantial authority over how the songs were used.

The agreement states that WIDEawake can only sell Dre’s music in the format it appeared in before the deal. Another of Dre’s attorneys, Stephen Rothschild, told Snyder during arguments in court on Monday that meant it could only appear in four formats: CD, cassette, vinyl and 8-Track.