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Black Actors Protest Oscar Awards

Black Actors Protest Oscar Awards

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Oscar ceremonies have been picketed over the years in the inter­est of equal opportunity for African Americans. In 1962, a group known as the Hollywood Race Relations Bureau paraded in front of the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium with signs urging “Film Equal­ity for Negroes” and “Negroes Want a Break.” Some of the picketers were arrested for disturbing the peace. In 1996, Reverend Jesse Jack­son led a boycott of the Oscar ceremony because of the absence of African American nominees. Some picketers carried signs that read, “Who will win best white actor and white actress?” Some observers, although sympathetic to Jackson’s goal, accused him of poor timing, given that this particular ceremony was produced by Quincy Jones and hosted by Whoopi Goldberg, both African Americans. One year later, Jackson referred to “an opportunity deficit, not a talent deficit,” warning that “Hollywood must do a better job in reflecting the cultural diversity of society. Until then, every Oscar night is a celebration in excluding people of color from fair share, equal op­portunity and access, a slap in the face to the American dream of a ‘one big tent’ society.” Jackson categorized the protest as the first step in the fight against institutional racism in the entertainment in­dustry. He described the action as part of a long-term struggle that will be continued. Those who favor militancy point to the 1999 ani­mated film Tarzan, which was without a single black character even though it was purportedly set in Africa. Those who view boycotting as an unrealistic protest tool insist that blacks, a large segment of the movie-going audience in spite of their on-screen exclusion, love movies too much to stay away.

African American artists have recently become involved in some al­ternatives to the Academy Awards. Each year on the eve of the Oscar ceremony, there is a relatively little-known private event staged by members of the African American entertainment community. Infor­mally known as “the Black Oscars,” it is not affiliated with the Acad­emy Awards show. Honorees for their work in film during the pre­ceding year receive a special recognition award in the form of an African statuette of the Tree of Life. Proceeds from the dinner benefit a foundation that reaches out to various black charities. Past honorees have included Cuba Gooding Jr., Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Samuel L. Jackson, and Spike Lee.

The National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters (NABOB) presented its Oscar Micheaux Award for Excellence in 1999 to African American film director Carl Franklin.

The annual Independent Spirit Awards has honored various black achievements, such as the film Down in the Delta and its leading ac­tress, Alfre Woodard.

Whether African American actors should pursue these avenues of self-validation or continue the struggle for mainstream inclusion is debatable. It would seem feasible for them to do both.

Some years ago, Karl Maiden, then president of the Academy, de­claimed, “The members of the Academy have done more to combat racial hatred and racial misunderstanding than all the editorial writ­ers in all the newspapers in the world.” As well-intentioned as he was, it takes more than a defensive posture to silence the criticism.

It would be worthwhile for the Academy to publicize more widely some of its good faith efforts. One example is the inaugura­tion in 1977 of a Black American Film History Collection, the first of its kind to be developed by a major film-related institution. Hattie McDaniel memorabilia was the initial acquisition, donated by Edgar Goff, McDaniel’s grandnephew. Two decades later, the Edward Mapp Collection of more than a thousand black cast film posters was presented to the Academy and cataloged in its Margaret Her-rick Library. These historical archives demonstrate the Academy’s recognition of the many contributions made by African Americans to American cinema.

To foster a more level playing field for small, independent pro­ductions, which are more likely to involve African American artists, the Academy might consider placing a limitation on the amount of money a studio can spend on promoting a film for Oscar considera­tion. Such a move would be analogous to the government’s bid to re­form campaign finance funding in the political sector.

The Academy might wish to consider a special award for excep­tional achievement by African Americans in film. The award need not be presented annually, but only as warranted in the judgment of the Academy’s Board of Governors. The precedent has already been established to honor the contributions of artists like Greta Garbo, Charlie Chaplin, Barbara Stanwyck, Cary Grant, and others who never won competitive Oscars but earned the industry’s respect. A special award in the name of Oscar Micheaux, early independent black filmmaker, would not require a stretch from awards currently bestowed in the names of Irving G. Thalberg, Jean Hersholt, and Gordon E. Sawyer.

Certainly the symbolism of a golden triumphant crusader, sword in hand, and its compatibility with the enduring struggle of African Americans in the film industry is hard to ignore.

After years of a Monday-night tradition, the final Oscar ceremony of the twentieth century switched to Sunday night and started a half hour earlier. The annual event, second in viewership only to the Su­per Bowl, entered a ten-year agreement with the ABC network. The seventy-fourth annual ceremony, in 2002, took place in the Kodak Theater, the Academy’s new shared venue on Hollywood Boule­vard, just down the street from the Roosevelt Hotel, scene of the first Academy Awards ceremony.

That evening became a watershed moment in Oscar history for several reasons. For the first time since 1972, three black actors (Halle Berry, Denzel Washington, and Will Smith) were nominated for performances in leading roles. For the first time ever, two black males were nominated in the same year as best actor in leading roles. Another highlight of the occasion was the presentation to Sid­ney Poitier of an honorary Oscar for lifetime career achievement in films. He received two standing ovations. Poitier’s 1963 Oscar had been the first awarded to a black man. The ultimate groundbreaking and record setting came with twin victories for Halle Berry as best actress (the first African American actress to receive this honor) and Denzel Washington as best actor (only the second African American to win in this category). Indeed, Oscar history was made in 2002.

History continued to be made in 2003 when a Benin-born West African, Djimon Hounsou, was nominated as best supporting actor, although no African Americans were nominated that year. The fol­lowing year, 2004, best actor in a leading role and best actor in a sup­porting role statuettes went to two African Americans, Jamie Foxx and Morgan Freeman, respectively. Foxx also enjoyed the distinction of being the first African American actor to be nominated in both acting categories (leading role and supporting role) in the same year. The year 2005 continued to “up the ante” as it were, with three nom­inations for African American actors (two males in leading roles and one female in a supporting role), although not one of the three won. Consistent progress over this three-year period accounts for the lack of surprise at the 2006 announcements by the Academy. Five of the twenty acting nominations went to blacks, two of whom went on to win the Oscar.

With an all-time record of five acting nominations for African Americans at the 79th annual Academy Awards ceremony in Febru­ary 2007, it may be argued that racial barriers have come down like the Berlin Wall. Some question whether this milestone is merely a moment or the start of a movement. Race may have been replaced by class in films, if the plot of the 2006 film The Pursuit ofHappyness is any indication. Generational attitudes also determine receptive-ness by audiences to the appearances of blacks in films. A sixty-year-old white male may not be keen on seeing a black starring in a mo­tion picture; his thirty-five-year-old son may be indifferent; his fifteen-year-old grandson may be totally liberated from racial bias.

It should be remembered that Oscar does not always guarantee a sanguine future. The voice of experience cautions, “Beware what you wish for because you may receive it.” Oscar nominations and even awards can be a curse an actor never evades. Cuba Gooding Jr. and Michael Clarke Duncan, both gifted actors, have been beset with poor quality projects; Alfre Woodard and Marianne Jean-Bap-tiste have turned to other mediums for roles worthy of their talent; Margaret Avery and Jaye Davidson have virtually disappeared.

Talent rather than race will have prevailed when the presence of African American nominees is no longer newsworthy. Then truly can we shout “Hooray for Hollywood”—proud that the Oscars ac­knowledge only the very best in movie making.

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How hardcore was Harriet Tubman really?

How hardcore was Harriet Tubman really?

 

Harriet Tubman, between 1860 and 1875. (H.B. Lindsley/Library of Congress via AP)

The woman who will be the face of the new $20 bill, Harriet Tubman, was a daring and principled fighter. Her dramatic career included defying slaveowners, smuggling dozens of slaves to freedom as part of the Underground Railroad, leading raids in the Civil War, and fighting for women’s right to vote — all of which she accomplished with a disability.

Basically, Tubman was as tough as nails. The former slave risked her life countless times, and even performed an ad hoc dental surgery on herself while on the road for the Underground Railroad, knocking her front tooth out with a pistol, says biographer Catherine Clinton.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced Wednesday that Tubman would be the new portrait on the $20 bill, booting former president Andrew Jackson, a slaveowner with a controversial legacy, to the back. I spoke with Clinton, the author of the 2004 biography of Tubman, “Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom,” about Tubman’s remarkable story, and what the choice to put her on American money means.

The following transcript has been edited for clarity and length.

What do you think of the news that Harriet Tubman will be the new face of the $20 bill?

It’s a great day for those interested in history. We’re quite used to seeing chiseled features of dead white presidents on the money, so to put a woman of color who had such a significant role in redefining freedom and America fulfilling its promise of independence is really exciting. Having someone like Harriet Tubman signifies that Americans are finally recognizing the contributions of women and African Americans to building our nation.

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How do you think Harriet Tubman would feel about being on the 20?

I think it would be a shock to her to be so honored. She was such a humble person that I’m sure she would be very scornful in saying that it’s really not fitting for her to be singled out. She felt very much that she was part of a collective body, as part of the Underground Railroad.

Part of her story that’s less recognized is not just her work on the Underground Railroad, but her work during the Civil War, right?  

She worked as a scout, as a spy, as really a liberator. One night during the Combahee River raid, she led Union gunboats up river to liberate over 750 slaves, deep in the heart of Confederate territory. Because she was working as a spy, she didn’t have the proper documentation, so after the war she couldn’t file for a pension. It wasn’t until 1899 that she received one. Not a widow’s pension, but a pension for her contribution as a military leader, as someone who was risking her life, which she had done for most of her career, from self-emancipation forward.

Is it true that that pension was $20 a month, the same bill that she will appear on?

Yes. It doesn’t look like a lot to us, but it would have been a fair amount in that time.

The Treasury mentioned that the new bills will have a feature that for the first time will help blind people distinguish among them. Is it true that Tubman herself had a disability? I know historical accounts say she experienced fits, seizures and powerful visions throughout her life. 

Yes, isn’t it amazing and fitting that the bill that she will be on will be one of the first pieces of currency to have markers for people who are visually disabled. She was clearly disabled, and she has been embraced by those with disabilities. There are debates among scholars as to what her disability was. Was it an injury from childhood? When she was young, she was hit in the head by a heavy lead weight thrown by an overseer. Or was it the onset of narcolepsy, epilepsy? We have no medical records, we have no knowledge.

But how amazing is it that she took on this warrior role and worked on the Underground Railroad, and all the time, she was someone who was not completely physically healthful. We don’t know the source of it, but we do know that she was someone who never complained. There was a story when she was on the road she had a sore tooth, and she was worried it might prevent her from taking people to safety, so she pulled out her pistol and knocked out her front tooth, so the infection wouldn’t spread.

Are there other parts of her life that you think people should know more about?

I hope that people learn not just the story of the Underground Railroad, but her remarkable post-war career, where she was written about in the paper as a local philanthropist.

And later in life she was an outspoken advocate for women’s right to vote?

Definitely, she would go to the upstate conventions. She was so modest that she would not complain about the fact that she might arrive in a town like Rochester where there weren’t any integrated hotels, and she would have to sit up all night at the train station.

How has she been remembered up until now? Has she been gaining more attention recently?

If you look back at where Tubman stood in terms of American historical narrative just a decade ago, she was relegated to the children’s shelf. Her amazing accomplishments make her so beloved by schoolchildren, but I think that does a disservice to her if we don’t embrace her as what she was: a great American hero. Fighting for herself, for others. Think of all the lives she touched — the people she brought to freedom who were able to marry and have children — and how she symbolized freedom for so many who knew her as Moses.

So I was really committed to telling the full story. Because she worked secretly, clandestinely, because she would guide people to freedom in the night, she led a career that was disguised.

She died the same year that Rosa Parks was born. Many people in the African American community kept Tubman’s reputation and legacy alive, but there was no scholarly biography until 1943, and then it wasn’t until 2004 that actually three biographies came out at once, and since then she’s had quite a renaissance. My philosophy is let 100 Harriets bloom, and now we’ll probably have a billion Harriets bloom.

Is it true that you consulted with the Treasury as they were making this decision?

I was very lucky to be called in as a scholar to talk with Secretary Lew and with Treasurer Rosie Rios, who had really spearheaded this effort under Timothy Geithner, the previous treasury secretary. Lew was weighing the options, opening up the question of who should be on the money and having people write in to the Treasury.

When you met with them, what finalists were they considering?

It was completely open when we met last August. But when I met with him again in November, Secretary Lew had read my biography, and he wanted to discuss specific points, showing that he was looking carefully at Tubman’s entire career. Another scholar made the point that we have had a woman on our paper currency before, and that was Martha Washington, because of her marriage to a president. Wasn’t it time to put a woman on the money for her own accomplishments, not those achieved due to her relationship with a male? There were many worthy candidates being discussed at that meeting. Everyone had their favorite.

How do you think Tubman should be pictured on the currency? Many of the photographs of her that we see are from later in her life. Do you think that’s the right representation?

If you look in my book, you’ll find that there are many pictures of her wearing a turban, which was quite common for women in her era, particularly women of color. But I preferred to use on my cover an image of her where her hair is uncovered and she’s wearing a white collar. If you look at many of the portraits, she is often dressed in a white collar and portrayed as someone who is trying to demonstrate respectability and those values of a black woman’s decency and honor. It’s a hallmark that she is someone who is portrayed with great dignity, and others would comment on her neat appearance. So I certainly hope they use a portrait of her that honors that image that she put forth.

Is there anything else you think we should note?

I think putting her on the bill benefits Americans as much as it benefits her, because we really need to know more about our history, if you can put a woman on the money that had such a remarkable life and career and find that there are so many ordinary Americans or even political leaders who have so little knowledge about the Americans who built our country. The Underground Railroad was one of the most significant grassroots movements in American history. And it really was a tidal wave working against slavery, and a step toward fulfilling America’s democratic promise. By risking everything, Tubman showed just how important the fight against slavery was.

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Ingrid Bergman – The image and the woman

Ingrid Bergman

The image and the woman

‘The vainest man I ever met’, was how Ingrid Bergman described her Notorious (1946) co-star Cary Grant. ‘I never had an affair with Cary – but, then who among his leading ladies did?’ She later enlarged on her feelings. ‘I fell in love with Cary Grant…He did not reciprocate the emotion, and that disappointed me. Then I spoke with one of his ex-wives, whom I prefer not to name, and she revealed that he is not prone to falling in love with, let us say, actresses.’ No kidding?

A scene from Notorious

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Robert Capa

At the time Ingrid made Notorious she was deeply in love with war photographer Robert Capa. She even asked him to marry her. The two had met a few years earlier in Paris, but were often separated because of their careers. ‘I’m only interested in two kinds of people’, she once said, ‘those who can entertain me and those who can advance my career’. Capa clearly fell into the first category, but his only genuine interests were war and poker. Women were just a sideline for him, even a beauty like Ingrid Bergman.

At first she patiently waited for him to pop the question, but all Capa did was brag to his poker-playing pals that he was ‘balling the ultimate Hollywood dreamboat’. Over the years his disinterest did not prevent him adding Hedy Lamarr, Vivien Leigh and several other movie queens to his list. Winston Churchill’s only daughter, the notoriously promiscuous Pamela, was another of his conquests. So too was Rex Harrison’s first wife Colette.

Capa and Bergman first met the day she arrived at the Paris Ritz, precisely one year after D-Day on 6 June 1945. The usually penniless Capa, (his compulsion for playing poker was only exceeded by his utter lack of skill at it), intrigued her with his candor and casual tales of his wartime exploits. She soon succumbed to his not inconsiderable charm. Their love affair was supposedly the basis for Alfred Hitchcock’s lead characters in his 1954 thriller Rear Window. Hitch also had a lifelong crush on Ingrid. She shared her favors with several other men whom she found equally irresistible at the time. In the end she and Capa tired of one another and went their separate ways. In 1954 he would step on a landmine in French Indo-China and die before he could be transported to a field hospital.

Away from the screen Ingrid was nothing like her celluloid image of upper-class Swedish innocence. She drank copiously, told crude jokes and enjoyed many lovers. During the war she preferred the company of regular soldiers to that of officers. She refused to eat with the officers and nearly always ate with the enlisted men. She did number the ill-fated Lieutenant-General Simon Bolivar Buckner Junior among her many lovers, nevertheless, but he was killed by enemy fire on Okinawa in 1945. A few years before that, in 1942, her reputation as a bit of a man-eater preceded her arrival on the set of Casablanca. Mayo Methot, the volatile wife of her co-star Humphrey Bogart, became convinced that the two were having an affair during filming and even threatened to kill Bogie. She was, in fact, quite mistaken. There was no affair.

Lt. Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckland Jr.
Ingrid’s performance in Gaslight (1944) had a marked impact on billionaire Howard Hughes who chased after her for months without success. On one occasion he followed her to New York then bought up every available seat on every flight bound for Los Angeles that day, thereby compelling her to return to Hollywood with him on his private plane! It was all to no avail and Ingrid joined that select group of beautiful women who slipped through his filthy rich fingers.

When the very married Ingrid took up with director Roberto Rossellini in Italy whilst making Stromboli for him in 1950, the world’s press attacked her voraciously. Her ‘pure as the driven snow’ on-screen persona was such that the very thought of her carrying on an illicit affair whilst married drove them into a feeding frenzy. By the time filming on Stromboli was completed she was three months pregnant with her son Roberto. The lovers married in May 1950, three months after Roberto’s birth, and the media had a field day. Even the US Congress was calling for Ingrid’s head, yet somehow her career survived and actually flourished. Of her treatment at the hands of the press she had this to say years later: ‘I’ve gone from saint to whore and back to saint again, all in one lifetime.’

Roberto Rossellini
A Walk in the Spring Rain (1970) brought two old flames, Ingrid and Anthony Quinn, together again for another round of lusty, off-screen bedroom athletics. They had already been lovers on the set of The Visit in 1963, a situation made considerably more complicated when Quinn met and seduced Ingrid’s daughter Pia Lindstrom at the same time! He recalled how Pia would ask all kinds of intimate questions about her mother. ‘Did she do this? – Oh, did she do that?’ Tony, being the very essence of decorum, refrained from answering, (or so he maintained in his autobiography). On the set the situation was turned topsy-turvy as Ingrid plied him with in-depth questions about Pia’s hidden talents, but again, according to Tony, he was the perfect gentleman. Evidently, it did not overly bother Ingrid that her young daughter was tag-teaming her in the sack with a 55 year-old lover.

Pia Lindstrom
As for Casablanca, the movie that resides at or near the top of most people’s lists of favorite films, its female lead held no special regard for it at all. Indeed, her daughter said she would react as if she had no idea what people were talking about when they brought it up! ‘I made so many films which were more important’, Bergman said, ‘but the only one people ever want to talk about is that one with Humphrey Bogart.’ Maybe, that is because that one has a timeless magic all its own that none of the others quite had.

Ingrid Bergman died from cancer in 1982 at the age of 67. Every once in a while a screen beauty comes along who is both uniquely attractive and a gifted actress as well. Ingrid’s performances exude a quality that seems to be lacking in most of today’s actresses, or is it merely a certain magic that black and white photography seems to lend to some pictures, for her color movies do not appear to possess that magic? Not to me anyway. Or am I merely just inordinately captivated by Casablanca? Perhaps so.

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John Barrymore – A drunk, a rake & a rare talent

John Barrymore
A drunk, a rake & a rare talent

Barrymore’s siblings, Lionel and Ethel, both won Oscars in their careers, but most critics are agreed that John was the best actor of the three. Of course, not everyone agreed. Playwright George Bernard Shaw detested his ‘Hamlet’, describing it as one of the worst portrayals in history, accusing the actor of indulging his own ego at the Bard’s expense. Garson Kanin, by comparison, marveled at Barrymore’s ability to memorize huge slices of script (and Shakespeare especially), and his ability to alter his voice to fit whichever character he was quoting, whether in front of the camera or merely in idle conversation.

Despite being the owner of an amazing memory, however, Barrymore insisted on blackboards containing all his lines being positioned within his line of vision at all times. When Kanin asked him why he demanded boards, even for a one-word response to a question, Barrymore replied. ‘They are just my safety nets, that’s all.’ He also possessed an uncanny ability to cry on cue and squeeze out tears of varying size. He demonstrated this to Kanin on the set of a movie one day. First a big tear, then a small one. Then he started again and did it in reverse – first a small one from one eye, then a big one from the other. ‘It is not acting’, he said. ‘It is only crying.’ He said he learned how to do it when he was seven years old because he had seen Ethel and Lionel doing it as children as a ploy to getting whatever they wanted.

John at his peak

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John, Ethel & Lionel

In 1906, the 24 year-old Barrymore was staying at a hotel in San Francisco, awaiting passage to Australia to act in a play called The Dictator, when the great earthquake hit. He detested the thought of having to travel Down Under, believing it to be the thespian equivalent of putting on a show in Siberia, and was contemplating his chances of somehow getting out of it when the quake struck with terrifying ferocity.

The first tremor awakened him. The second knocked him into the bathtub. A badly frightened Barrymore promptly handled the situation the best way he knew. He got blind drunk as quickly as he could, a condition he maintained throughout both the quake and the subsequent fire that all but destroyed the city. In fact, he told Kanin that he had virtually no recollection of either. Nevertheless, he managed to write a bogus, detailed report that reached national newspapers, even describing how he was recruited by military troops to help clear the city’s roads. None of it was true, as he admitted 20 years later, but his ‘on the spot’ reporting kept him out of the Australian tour.

San Francisco in ruins 1906

Young Mary Astor
Whenever he was sober enough Barrymore chased women of all ages. Known as ‘the Great Profile’ and one of the theater’s most attractive men, he had little difficulty in catching them. When he invited young Mary Astor’s mother to afternoon tea on his porch in 1920, the lecherous star seduced 14 year-old Mary in his living room. Still, he was believed to have given the youngster a helping hand career-wise and she eventually developed into a most competent actress.

His affair with Evelyn Nesbit, a young showgirl immortalized by Joan Collins in the 1955 movie, The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, resulted in her becoming pregnant to him. She was also involved with married architect Stanford White at the time, so Barrymore arranged for an ‘appendicitis’ operation to fix the problem. Evelyn then declined his proposal of marriage before marrying a rich, mentally unstable, railroad heir named Harry Thaw. Thaw became obsessed over his wife’s previous affair with White, his jealousy culminating in him firing three shots into the man’s head as he sat dining at a crowded restaurant. Harry’s 1907 trial became known as (the first) ‘Trial of the Century’. There would be several more before the century was out.

Evelyn Nesbit, the original ‘Girl on the Red Velvet Swing’

Stanford White

Harry Thaw
Barrymore remained an icon of both stage and screen until booze and old age caught up with him. The grandfather of actress Drew Barrymore was an alcoholic of legendary stature. He once embarked on an ocean cruise in a forlorn attempt to dry out and wound up drinking anything and everything he could lay his hands on that contained any semblance of alcohol. He guzzled mouthwash, perfume, kerosene and Spirit of Camphor until he became violently ill.

In his final years upon the stage he often staggered through his performances, oblivious to catcalls from disgruntled patrons and groans of dismay from theatre managers. During one memorable production he brought forth gasps from the audience when he halted in mid-sentence and relieved himself in a flowerpot!

‘The Great Profile’s’ grand-daughter, Drew
It would be accurate to say that ‘the Great Profile’ managed to drink himself to death by 1942. He was only 60. On his passing a group of his friends, among them Errol Flynn and director Raoul Walsh, held a wake in his honor. Walsh pretended to go home, but he and a couple of friends bribed the caretaker at the funeral home to ‘lend’ them Barrymore’s corpse! They then took it to Flynn’s home, sat it up in a lounge chair, placed a pipe between its dead lips, then awaited Errol’s arrival. He described his reaction in his autobiography: ‘As I opened the door I pressed the button. The lights went on and…I stared into the face of Barrymore…They hadn’t embalmed him yet. I let out a delirious scream…I went back in, still shaking. I retired to my room upstairs, shaken and sober.’

Barrymore himself probably best summed up his approach to acting in the movies. When asked why he refused to learn lines for one of his films, he replied: ‘My memory is full of beauty: Hamlet’s soliloquies, the Queen Mab speech, King Magnus’ monologue from The Applecart, most of the Sonnets. Do you expect me to clutter up all that with this horseshit?’

His knowledge and understanding of acting and actors is probably best demonstrated through an incident that took place during the shooting of a scene in a movie called The Great Man Votes (1939). Barrymore was giving a lengthy, heartfelt talk to his children (played by Peter Holden and Virginia Weidler). Virginia was sitting on his knee playfully twirling his bow tie back and forth as he spoke. Suddenly, Barrymore let out a yell and flung the girl across the floor. Craft-wise beyond her years, Virginia was upstaging him. He knew it and she knew it. Next morning both actors reappeared on the set and shot the scene in one take, no tie-twirling from the 11 year-old girl, no histrionics from the seasoned performer. No animosity or hard feelings either. They were both professionals. An interesting individual was John Barrymore. Come to think of it so was Virginia.

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Tallulah Bankhead – The one and only

Tallulah Bankhead

The one and only

The incomparable Tallulah Bankhead was born in Alabama in 1902 to a father who would become the Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1936 until 1940. A traumatic childhood culminated in her being raped at the age of eleven and at fifteen she ran away from home. Before long she was the toast of Broadway and it was only a matter of time before Hollywood beckoned and she responded. Tallulah’s first Hollywood party was at director George Cukor’s home where she resided for a while. She stretched out naked on a marble bench in the foyer, with just a bunch of grapes in her hands, and greeted guests as they arrived. Quite a few elderly matrons were outraged. The men thought she was sensational.

Openly bisexual, she declared that men were strictly for sex; women for more meaningful relationships. One of those meaningful relationships was with actress Estelle Winwood with whom she shared an apartment for some time. Unlike Tallulah, Estelle would live to a ripe old age (she passed away in 1984 at 100, in fact), her last movie role being as Jessica Marbles’ nurse in Neil Simon’s Murder by Death in 1976.

Other female lovers included Katharine Cornell, Frances Day, Sarah Vaughan, Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwyck, Ethel Barrymore, Greta Garbo, Hattie McDaniel, Ona Munson, Patsy Kelly, Beatrice Lillie, Marlene Dietrich and Fred Astaire’s sister Adele. As for Tallulah’s male lovers, well, the list is just about endless for the lady hardly ever slept alone. She once estimated there may have been as many as 5,000! Friends said she had abortions like other women have permanent waves.

 

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And in Murder by Death (1976)

Tallulah was a danger to her studio because she said whatever she felt like saying and to hell with the consequences. ‘MGM’s star quartet’, she once said, ‘of Garbo, Crawford, Harlow and Cary Grant, were Hollywood’s most desirable women.’ Securely closeted Cary would have just loved that! LB Mayer loathed her and threatened to expose her bisexuality to the press. She countered by promising to tell them about her affairs with Crawford, Stanwyck and Garbo if he tried it. Mayer backed off. At an MGM party she sang the popular song ‘Bye, Bye Blackbird’, substituting the word ‘Jewbird’, just to provoke and entice a reaction from him. She was not intentionally being anti-Semitic. It was just Tallulah being outrageous Tallulah.

LB Mayer

The Will Hays Committee gave every studio a bound volume of The Doom Book. It contained a list of 150 performers the committee deemed as ‘unsuitable for the public’. At the top of the list was Tallulah Bankhead, cited for verbal moral turpitude. Jean Harlow also made the list. Her crime? ‘Baring her body’, according to silly Will. Tallulah earned her top billing even before she referred to Hays as ‘a little prick’ which, all things considered, was a pretty accurate description of the man.

Will Hays

The movies never really captured Tallulah’s personality. Consequently, she spent most of her career touring in stage shows. Besides, she lived for the applause. It was not until she made Lifeboat (1944) with Alfred Hitchcock that she hit it relatively big with the movie-going public, but her popularity was short-lived. In between movies she partied, boozed, and slept around with whichever gender became available at a moment’s notice. She had a rather disconcerting habit of removing her clothes and standing around stark naked, talking to people as she chain-smoked, whilst swilling Kentucky Bourbon from the bottle. Often, she would answer her apartment door without a stitch on. Deliverymen, telegram boys, whomever, were usually greeted with, ‘Dahling, come in. What’ll you have?’ More often than not they ‘had’ her before leaving.

Tallulah in Lifeboat (1944)

During the making of Lifeboat she deliberately deigned to wear underwear throughout the shoot. The large studio tank was equipped with an entry and exit ladder, and Tallulah insisted that she climb up the entry ladder first, and down the exit ladder last, so that the all-male cast could get an eyeful of her genitalia both coming and going. When one of the cameramen actually complained to Hitchcock about her continually exposing herself, Hitch replied that it really wasn’t his department. ‘Then whose department is it?’ asked the man. ‘I would say ‘wardrobe’, Hitchcock answered. ‘Or possibly ‘hair-dressing’.

She had first come to Hollywood in 1932 to make The Devil and the Deep. When asked why she had deserted her beloved stage for the movies, she famously replied, ‘for the money and to fuck that divine Gary Cooper.’ Coops was never one to look a gift horse in the mouth. He fulfilled her wishes and gave her a dose of gonorrhea for good measure.

Coops & Tallulah in The Devil and the Deep

By 1940 she was using marijuana, cocaine and other chemicals in rectal suppositories! Tennessee Williams said she would insert one and ‘turn into a Zombie and pass out on the floor’. He actually wrote the character of Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar Named Desire specifically for her, but by the time it was ready to be produced she was too old for the role.

In 1965, at the age of 63, she even took a shot at a very young Donald Sutherland when they made Die, Die My Darling. One evening she startled him by suddenly walking into his dressing-room completely nude. ‘What’s the matter, darling?’ she asked. ‘Haven’t you ever seen a blonde before?’ By that time in her life she was surrounding herself with young men who were mostly gay, but ready to satisfy her every whim. She referred to them as her ‘caddies’. Occasionally, she still found a female to share her bed and her cocaine. ‘My father warned me about men and booze’, she delighted in telling reporters, ‘but he never mentioned a word about women and cocaine’.

Donald Sutherland

and Tallulah in Die, Die My Darling (1965)

At dinner parties or at restaurants it was not uncommon for Tallulah to spot a recently arrived actor and loudly exclaim, ‘I’ve slept with every man at this table and you’re gonna be next.’ At other times she would suddenly embrace the frumpiest woman in the room and bellow, ‘You must know by now that I’m mad about you!’ She all but wrecked a society wedding by loudly proclaiming about the bride and groom: ‘I’ve had both of them, darling, and neither of them is any good.’

She also possessed a wonderfully dry sense of humor. On seeing a former lover, a man she had not laid eyes on for years, her first words were, ‘I thought I told you to wait in the car.’ She was in a toilet cubicle one day and discovered there was no toilet paper, so she called out to the lady in the cubicle next door, asking if there was any in there. ‘No, there is none here either’, the woman replied. ‘Well, in that case’, Tallulah came back, ‘do you have two fives for a ten?’

The one and only Miss Bankhead smoked 150 cigarettes a day, drank bourbon by the bottle, snorted cocaine, inserted drug suppositories, and slept with whomever she fancied of either sex or any age. In the end it all caught up with her and she expired at the age of 66, mostly from emphysema. Her last words? ‘Codeine…bourbon.’ She was many things, but boring was never one of them. And in an industry where hypocrisy was a byword, Tallulah never even contemplated it, much less practiced it. As she loved to say: ‘I’m as pure as the driven slush!’

 

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Julie Andrews – The real Mary Poppins?

Julie Andrews

The real Mary Poppins?

It is hard to believe that the star of The Sound of Music will be eighty in October. Even as a 10 year old she possessed ‘an enormous, belting, freak voice with a range of four octaves and some fierce high notes’. ‘Once, to the amazement of me and all the dogs in the area’, she proudly recalled, ‘I actually hit a C above Top C’. In fact, Julie was such an extraordinary talent that in 1948 she became the youngest ever performer chosen to appear at the London Palladium for a Command Performance.

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When she unsuccessfully screen-tested for a contract with MGM there was no doubting her singing talent. Unfortunately, she was also buck-toothed, bandy-legged, had a lazy right eye and her nose and chin were not too attractive either. She was also the embarrassed owner of feet that were already size eight. All things considered it took quite a lot of ‘maintenance’ to enable her prodigious voice to be showcased so that the public would be willing to pay money to hear it. Before too long she was earning considerably more than her parents who were music hall singers on the slide into alcoholism. By the time her limited schooling ceased at the age of fifteen, Julie was providing for the entire family.

Young Julie

Most people who saw her playing Eliza Doolittle in the stage version of the musical My Fair Lady were disappointed when she did not land the role in the film version. Jack Warner, however, needed to bolster the picture’s chances of box-office success with at least one of the two leads being a big international star. Although Rex Harrison was virtually unknown to cinema audiences, he was a certainty to play Professor Higgins once Cary Grant emphatically turned down the role. In fact, according to legend, Cary told Warner that not only would he refuse to play Higgins in the picture, but if Harrison did not get the role he would not even go to see it! Warner simply could not risk his expensive production being placed in the hands of two cinematic unknowns, so the very bankable Audrey Hepburn was given the part of Eliza over Julie, more or less as an insurance policy.

As Eliza Doolittle on stage in My Fair Lady

In the meantime, Julie was signed by Walt Disney to play the title role in Mary Poppins. Never having had an acting lesson in her life she went on to win the Best Actress Oscar for her performance that year, which tends to pose the question: ‘In what other field of endeavor can a rank amateur achieve the ultimate accolade? Just how difficult is it to win an Oscar? At the Golden Globe Awards she thanked ‘Jack Warner for making it all possible’. He was seated directly in front of her. ‘It was grand fun’, she said afterwards. Warner carried on the joke in his speech when he referred to Julie as ‘what’s-her-name?’ Actually, she could have played both roles if offered them, but only at the expense of giving up playing Maria in The Sound of Music because shooting schedules over-lapped. A case of what you miss out on the round-about you pick up on the swing.

As Mary Poppins

Following up the stupendous success of both Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music was not an easy task for someone not steeped in acting technique. Musicals quickly lost their popularity, especially after she starred in two expensive flops (Star! and Darling Lili). Suddenly, she was labelled ‘box-office poison’, so much so that she was paid a million dollars not to make a third one titled She Loves Me). Julie’s movie career virtually came to a standstill until her husband, Blake Edwards, featured her in one of his productions called S.O.B in 1981. The title is an acronym for ‘Standard Operating Bullshit’, incidentally, in case you thought it meant something entirely different.

Topless Julie in S.O.B.

To the astonishment of a zillion Mary Poppins fans Julie went topless for the cameras in this film, inviting media comments like, ‘Mary Pops Out’, and others. ‘I’m an actress, and the part called for it’, was her less than original explanation for transforming forever our ‘butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth’ image of the lady who was Mary Poppins. ‘I’ve always had a rather nice body’, she added. ‘But people who had only seen my movies assumed I was either sexless or puritanical’. Some of us still do. The final nails were driven into her ‘spoonful of sugar’ image when she made Duet for One in 1986. In this movie she walks around naked, utters the ‘f’ word on screen and goes to bed with her lesbian maid! In short, she does everything but kick the cat and then set fire to it.

Off screen, five years later, she put to rest a long-standing rumor that she was actually a lesbian in real life. The rumor stemmed from a prank she and best friend Carol Burnett played on director Mike Nichols that backfired. Expecting him to step out of their hotel elevator at any minute, the two ladies locked in an embrace and proceeded to kiss passionately. A group of Secret Service agents piled out of the first elevator instead of Nicholls, and the President’s wife Lady Bird Johnson arrived in the next one. Needless to say, all were shocked to find the well-known English rose in the throes of passion with a woman. Eventually, Nichols himself exited the elevator to be greeted by the same performance. ‘Hi, girls’, he waved, without as much as a raised eyebrow, and walked past them into the room.

Julie’s good friend Carol Burnett

In 1966, at the height of her fame, Julie attended the opening of the English stage version of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, for which her then husband Tony Walton was the stage designer. Two ladies came across her in the foyer and thought she reminded them of somebody important. ‘Would you mind telling us if you have anything to do with this production?’ one asked the most famous actress on the planet at that time. Julie smiled and said: ‘Certainly. I’m Mrs. Walton. My husband designed the scenery’. Classy.

Aging gracefully

It was Blake Edwards daughter Jennifer who kick-started Julie into writing children’s books. She did so by challenging her future step-mother to agree to write a book if she (Julie not Jennifer) failed to go a day without swearing. That’s right, Mary Poppins has always been a notorious dropper of the four-letter expletive. Is nothing sacred? She lost the wager inside an hour! Her first book, which she called Mandy, sold very well.

One evening while Edwards was attending a party in London and Julie was in Los Angeles, he phoned to tell her he had a special someone with him who wished to say ‘hello’. A terribly British voice that Julie could not place came on the phone and began to chat. Too polite to ask who it was, she waited until Edwards came back on the line to ask him a little jealously, ‘Who was that woman?’ He cheerfully replied that it was Princess Margaret and promptly handed the receiver back to his royal companion just in time for her to hear Julie’s derisory response: ‘Princess Margaret, my arse!’

I have never thought much of The Sound of Music. It has always struck me as Rodgers and Hammerstein’s ‘leftovers’. Compared to South Pacific, Oklahoma! and Carousel, the songs are dull as dishwater. It does, however, have Julie Andrews at her peak and that makes up for its other shortcomings. The lady is an icon when real icons are few and far between.

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All the President’s Men (1976)

All the President’s Men (1976)

The guard who reports the Watergate break-in in the film is the same man who discovered the real break-in on June 17, 1972. It is still possible to purchase a souvenir bottle of ‘Watergate Whiskey’ from the store in the Watergate complex.

The actual room where the burglars’ lookout was situated also still exists across the street at the Howard Johnson Motor Lodge. It can be booked at a special fee if you specifically request that particular room.

The true identity of ‘Deep Throat’ was revealed in 2005. He was W Mark Felt, second in command at the FBI.

Plans to shoot the Washington Post scenes in the paper’s actual newsroom had to be scrubbed because employees kept looking at the camera during filming.

Some even disappeared into restrooms, applied make-up and attempted to ‘act’ in the background.

Take note of when Robert Redford gets a phone-caller’s name mixed up. It was a genuine error on his part, but since he stays in character the mistake seems understandable so it was left in the final print.

Jason Robards picked up an Oscar here for portraying the Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee. During the Second World War Jason served as a navy radioman and saw action in thirteen major engagements. He was in Pearl Harbor on December 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese attack and was later torpedoed twice, once while aboard the USS North Hampton off Guadalcanal, and again off Formosa aboard the USS Honolulu.

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Cambria

March 25, 2016 // screenplay

Cambria The story of an African-American kid in Cambria Screenplay by Alan Nafzger Setting: Los Angeles and Cambria, California Logline: [read screenplay]

Aleppo Syria screenplay

Aliyah

March 22, 2016 // screenplay

Aliyah Screenplay by Alan Nafzger Setting: Aleppo, Syria (2016). Logline: Jewish and Muslim families band together to escape the Syrian [read screenplay]

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Janet Damita Jo Jackson

Tupac Is Alive?

Tupac Alive?

Tupac Lives?

2pac Is Alive?

Janet Jackson

MAY 16, 1966–

“You don’t have to hold on to the pain to hold on to the memory,” Jackson said once of her drama-filled life. She also noted, “We all have the need to feel special”; that wasn’t easy for her, having such ultraeccentric siblings as Michael and LaToya Jackson and being part of the Jacksons, America’s favorite dysfunctional family (once a close-knit unit, later a fractured entity). To date, the full dynamics of this bizarre celebrity household remain shrouded in intriguing mystery, for rarely has any clan member ever agreed on the specifics of growing up in that complex environment where physical abuse, adultery, and sibling rivalry endured.

As a youngster, cute little Janet was overshadowed by her older brothers, show business’s the Jackson 5. However, by the time she was twenty and her album Control was enjoying a triumphant release, she’d demonstrated her own performance magnetism, reinforced by her successful concert act. Constantly reinventing herself over the years (“like a really successful software program,” said Time magazine), Janet shared an affinity for plastic surgery, a love of animals, and an urge for great mystery when it came to marriage, along with her eccentric brother Michael. While establishing her own identity as a show-business icon, she was often in competition with him. After child molestation charges put his career into a decline in the 1990s, she became the most successful working Jackson. On the way to fame and fortune, the five-foot, four-inch dynamo became her own kind of control freak and demanding diva. Then too, as her tattoos, pierced body parts, and later song lyrics suggested, she had traveled a long way emotionally from being that endearing adolescent on the TV variety show The Jacksons (1976–77).

She was born in 1966 in Gary, Indiana, the ninth and final surviving child in the Jackson household. Janet Damita Jo was preceded by Maureen (“Rebbie”) in 1950; Sigmund Esco (“Jackie”) in 1951; Tariano Adaryl (“Tito”) in 1953; Jermaine LaJuane in 1954; LaToya Yvonne in 1956; Marlon David in 1957 (his twin brother, Brandon, died within a day of birth); Michael Joseph in 1958; and Steven Randall (“Randy”) in 1961. Her father was Joseph Walker Jackson, a former professional boxer, who loved music, played the guitar, and earned his livelihood operating a steel mill crane. Her mother was Katherine Esther Scruse, whose childhood bout with polio had left her with a limp and who had once dreamed of becoming a country music star. Katherine was also a Jehovah’s Witness; in the Jackson household, she said, “I was strict; Joe was stricter.”

When Janet was an infant, her elder brothers were already performing as the Jackson 5, supervised by the ever-present Joseph (none of the children ever called him “Father” or “Dad”). By 1969, the group had been signed by Motown Records, and accompanied by Joseph, they relocated to Los Angeles. Katherine, LaToya, Randy, and Janet followed them several months later. In 1971, as the Jackson 5 flourished with their multimedia appearances, the family moved into a $250,000, two-acre estate in Encino, located in the West San Fernando Valley. Little Janet had childhood thoughts of becoming a jockey, but her stern, controlling father had more ambitious plans. When she was seven, she joined the family act when they performed on a casino club stage in Las Vegas. She and brother Randy did celebrity impressions, sang, danced, and so forth. It was Janet’s first move away from the shadow of her siblings into the limelight.

Young Janet grew up in front of TV audiences. From 1977 to mid-1979, she was part of the sitcom Good Times. Later, in the early 1980s, she played Todd Bridges’s outspoken girlfriend on Diff’rent Strokes and then joined the cast of TV’s Fame from 1984 to 1985. During this period, the Jackson 5 faded from prominence, but Michael—who had left the family compound—had achieved great fame with his solo album Thriller and had fired Joseph as his manager. Needing an ongoing cash flow and someone to manage, Joseph pushed a reluctant Janet into a solo recording career. Her first two albums (Janet Jackson in 1982 and Dream Street in 1983) sold adequately but didn’t stir much industry fever. In 1984, desperate to break out of her smothering home life, Janet dated the slightly older James DeBarge, who was part of a singing family act. Jackson’s family tried to break up the romance, insisting she was too young for such a relationship and convinced (rightly) that James had a serious drug problem. In an act of rebellion, she eloped with DeBarge in September 1984. (Then and later, she denied rumors that her weight gain at this time was the result of an alleged pregnancy—one which the rumor mill said ended in an abortion or a child being born and raised secretly in Europe.) Within seven months of the union, Janet admitted defeat, unable to deal with her husband’s problems. The vulnerable teen returned to the Jackson compound. In November 1985, her marriage was annulled.

Rethinking her career and spurred on by Michael’s success away from Joseph’s micromanagement, Janet ended her working relationship with her father. She took on a new manager, hooked up with producers/writers Jimmy Jam and Jerry Lewis, and turned out her Control album in 1986. Among the disc’s hit singles was “What Have You Done for Me Lately,” which said a lot about the new persona of emancipated, tough, and introspective Janet. With album sales of more than five million copies, she was now rich, an ethnic role model, and very much her own woman. Brother Michael might have earned $65 million in 1989, but Janet had a hot-selling new album, Rhythm Nation 1814, in release. Filled with socially conscious themes, the funky—sometimes somber, sometimes romantic and upbeat—album was a big hit, as was her world concert tour in 1990.

By the start of the 1990s, Janet had a steady boyfriend in Rene Elizondo Jr., the son of a Spanish father and a Mexican mother. She had met him years earlier at her parents’ home, and since then he’d danced in one of her splashy music videos, acted in another, and would later direct one of her short-form music films. With her impressive cash flow, she purchased a spacious $4.5 million home in Malibu and developed a circle of friends among whom she was the queen bee, just as she was on her stage tours. Only much later would it be revealed that Janet had convinced Rene to sign a prenuptial agreement in 1990 (each party would keep what they brought into the union) and that by the end of March 1991 they had secretly become husband and wife. Also during this period, she signed a three-album deal with Virgin Records, a pact that was worth a staggering $35 million to $40 million. (Not to be outdone, highly competitive Michael signed a $65 million deal with Sony Records a few days later.) By now, Janet—the lamb who became a tigress as she gained independence—was battling sister LaToya. The latter, who’d shocked her family with her 1989 Playboy layout, had authored a creative autobiography in 1991. That tome had deeply angered most of her family with its accusations, opinions, and “facts” about her bizarre life as a Jackson.

Vetoing the idea of being showcased in a musical feature film, Janet instead starred in Poetic Justice (1993), a romantic drama. While she claimed to have had little personal rapport with her on-screen leading man, rapper Tupac Shakur, she really loved playing a home girl from the hood. As a result, the chameleon-like singing star took on a layer of gritty toughness that became part of her persona. If her movie was not a big hit (although she was Oscar-nominated for the song “Again”), her new album, janet, was a major success. With songs like “That’s the Way Love Goes”—and enticing music videos to boot—Jackson became a slinky sex goddess for the 1990s. Already her concert tours were major entertainment events, each one more heavily choreographed than the last, with her frenetic nonstop dancing the highlight of each outing. Fanatical about her body shape, she was compulsive about fitness training. Whatever parts of her anatomy didn’t tone or shape to her expectations were rectified with cosmetic surgery. A dynamo in front of audiences, she had become a commanding businesswoman and a determined superstar, who pushed herself relentlessly to deal with competitors like Madonna, Mariah Carey, and (later) Jennifer Lopez.

By the release of her album The Velvet Rope (1997), filled with sexually explicit songs and numbers dealing with AIDS and homophobia, Janet had signed a new Virgin Records agreement, one reportedly worth $80 million. The rumor mill claimed that workaholic Jackson had suffered a strong bout of depression (or perhaps even a nervous breakdown), while the latest incarnation of Janet was proclaiming in interviews the many virtues of coffee enemas. She was paid $3 million to be Eddie Murphy’s leading lady in Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000), and in music videos and concerts, she was the glitzy, hard-driving diva who favored leather costumes. Her album All for You (2001) produced such hits as “Someone to Call My Lover” and documented the songster as a pulsating, sensual icon.

If it was difficult for the public to keep up with the many changing faces of Janet Jackson, it was even tougher for those close to the goal-oriented diva, who was voted one of “The 10 Sexiest Women of 2001” by Black Men magazine. By now, her hush-hush marriage to Rene Elizondo was public knowledge, as the couple had split in 2000. By the next year, they were in the first throes of a court battle in which Elizondo sought to overturn their prenuptial agreement and obtain a more than $10 million settlement. Having dated singer Johnny Gill as the new millennium dawned, Jackson was also seen with Matthew McConaughey in 2002. Said the hunky actor, “I met her at the Grammys and found her to be a very, very sweet lady. We swapped some good music and she’s a dear lady. She’s a sweetheart but we’re not dating, we’re just friends. That’s about all there is right now,” which in Hollywood-speak means “Think what ya wanna.” McConaughey was but one of her recurrent escorts at the time.

As multimillionaire Janet looks to the future as a touring concert diva, the queen of pop, and a four-time Grammy winner, she continues to pursue her creed: “Always follow your heart, and never forget where you came from. Always extend your hand to help others.” P.S., she says, “The sky is the limit!”

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Alamo, The (1960)

Alamo, The (1960)

John Wayne’s choice of English actor Laurence Harvey to play Colonel Travis was considered to be almost blasphemous by most Texans. To overcome their protests, he had Governor Price of Texas make Harvey an honorary citizen of the state before filming began. As a sweetener he gave Price’s brother the most important task of doing the voice-over at the start of the film. His amateurish performance sets the picture’s standards from the outset.

Wayne and Laurence Harvey were cut from vastly different cloth. While observing Harvey walking along one of the parapets Wayne roared out to him, ‘Jesus Christ, can’t you at least walk like a man?’ Harvey, aware of Wayne’s real name, leaned over and sarcastically enquired, ‘speaking to me Marion?

Character actor Chill Wills was nominated for an Oscar for The Alamo (for reasons known only to God and the Academy) and nauseated everybody (especially the rest of the cast and crew) when he took out trade advertisements promoting his performance. These included a picture of the cast captioned: ‘We of The Alamo cast are praying harder than the real Texans prayed for their lives in the Alamo, for Chill Wills to win the supporting Oscar’. Another of his publicity man’s efforts listed every Academy member’s name alongside a picture of Wills that read: ‘Win, lose or draw, you’re still my cousins and I love you all’. Ad nausea.

Groucho Marx responded with an advertisement of his own: ‘Dear Mr. Wills: I am delighted to be your cousin, but I’m voting for Sal Mineo’. Wayne’s insinuations that anyone not voting for his picture was ‘Un-American’, combined with Wills’ obnoxious fawning, soon had wags in Tinsel Town crying ‘Forget the Alamo’. Not surprisingly, neither the picture nor Wills won. Good.

cambria california screenplay

Cambria

March 25, 2016 // screenplay

Cambria The story of an African-American kid in Cambria Screenplay by Alan Nafzger Setting: Los Angeles and Cambria, California Logline: [read screenplay]

Aleppo Syria screenplay

Aliyah

March 22, 2016 // screenplay

Aliyah Screenplay by Alan Nafzger Setting: Aleppo, Syria (2016). Logline: Jewish and Muslim families band together to escape the Syrian [read screenplay]

mohammedsexlife

‘Barbershop: The Next Cut’: Let the Debates Resume

‘Barbershop: The Next Cut’: Let the Debates Resume

BARBERSHOP: THE NEXT CUT

From left, Anthony Anderson, Common and Cedric the Entertainer in “Barbershop: The Next Cut.”Chuck Zlotnick/Warner Bros. Pictures

Movie sequels don’t need — and frequently don’t have — a good reason to exist, other than to take more money from fans. “Barbershop: The Next Cut,” which revives a popular comedy franchise, has plenty of commercial appeal, not least as a kind of hip-hop all-star acting revue, with Common, Tyga and Nicki Minaj joining Ice Cube and Eve, who anchored the original“Barbershop.” That movie was a hit in 2002, and it spawned two earlier sequels and a cable TV series. This comeback feels like the opposite of cynical, though. If anything, it seems unusually urgent. We’re back at the barbershop because there’s an awful lot to talk about.

The last feature in the series, “Beauty Shop,” was released in 2005. More than a decade later, Calvin Palmer (Ice Cube) is still running his father’s old haircutting establishment on Chicago’s South Side. To quote an old Mos Def song: A lot of things have changed; a lot of things have not. The shop, for one thing, is now fully unisex, which causes some grumbling from Eddie (Cedric the Entertainer) and allows for a fuller range of argument and intrigue. Chicago has provided the United States with its first black president, and has also found itself swamped in guns and gang violence. Calvin and his wife, Jennifer (Jazsmin Lewis), worry about their teenage son, Jalen (whose birth was part of the wild climax of “Barbershop” and who has grown up into Michael Rainey Jr.).

Directed by Malcolm D. Lee (“The Best Man,” “The Best Man Holiday”) from a script by Kenya Barris and Tracy Oliver, “Barbershop: The Next Cut” stands as a companion — and, at times, a pointed challenge — to Spike Lee’s “Chi-Raq.” Both films confront the epidemic of homicide in Chicago, and use that tragedy as a prism to examine a host of other topics, including sexual and electoral politics. Of the two Lees, Malcolm is the less polemical and also the more conventional filmmaker. He passes out soapboxes among the characters, but keeps his feet and his camera firmly planted on the ground. Calvin’s barbershop functions as a semi-theatrical set, and also as a town square, a meeting place where every point of view can find a hearing, or at least a chance to be shouted down.

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“Barbershop: The Next Cut” is crowded with subplots and characters. Some seem to be there for purely comic purposes, like One-Stop (J. B. Smoove), an all-purpose, motor-mouthed entrepreneur, and Jerrod (Lamorne Morris), the requisite workplace goofball. Love trouble erupts when Draya (Ms. Minaj) starts flirting in earnest with Rashad (Common), who is married to Terri (Eve). J. D. (Anthony Anderson) is promoting his for-profit catering business as a nonprofit community service project.

But most of this narrative business exists to provide diversion from — and occasions for — a series of wide-ranging, open-ended arguments. These are often very funny, studded with sharp put-downs and Eddie’s woolly non sequiturs. This installment follows its predecessors in declaring the barbershop a piety-free zone. Anything and anyone can be made into a punch line: Bill Cosby, R. Kelly, Michelle Obama’s hips, Black Lives Matter. It’s pretty much guaranteed that you will take offense at some point, but also that you will be able to laugh off your discomfort and move on.

Michael Rainey Jr., left, and Ice Cube in “Barbershop: The Next Cut.” Chuck Zlotnick/Warner Bros. Pictures

And, above all, to think about what’s being said. Debate topics include President Obama’s legacy, sexism, child-rearing techniques, the different experiences of immigrants and African-Americans, among many others. There are also deeper, more complicated issues in play, contradictions that emerge through the story of Calvin’s struggle to understand and protect his son. Like all the other “Barbershop” movies, this one rests on a bedrock of conservative values: It’s a celebration of small business, hard work, family ties and communal solidarity. But it also resists the easy comforts of respectability politics and bootstrap ideology.

The most fascinating — and the most moving — thing about this sprawling, sincere and boisterous movie is its tone. I don’t just mean that it is able to acknowledge real personal and social anguish amid all the joking and banter. In that regard, Mr. Lee shares with Spike Lee an ability to blend the rough with the smooth, to tickle and provoke in a single gesture. In this case, the collision of humor and horror makes a humanist point. Even when terrible things are happening, people will still find time for petty complaints and ordinary pleasures. Nothing can stop us from teasing, flirting or worrying about how we look.

Nicki Minaj, left, and Eve facing off in the barbershop. The movie is directed by Malcolm D. Lee (“The Best Man”).Chuck Zlotnick/Warner Bros. Pictures

Viewed from one angle, “Barbershop: The Next Cut” can seem like a terribly sad film, an expression of fatigue that verges on despair. How can it be that young black men are still dying in such numbers, and that so many neighborhoods are in the grip of fear and alienation? There are plenty of theories, but no good answer.

Yet the film, as if obeying both the imperatives of Hollywood comedy and the long tradition of black activism, refuses to succumb to pessimism. Instead of a political position, it offers a potent metaphor for political participation. At the end, Calvin expresses his faith that, “eventually,” Chicago will pull itself together. That might sound like nothing more than wishful thinking — a thin reed of formulaic faith — if the movie had not already supplied solid grounds for hope in the shape of the barbershop itself. It’s a room full of men and women who agree on almost nothing, except their commitment to the place that gives structure and purpose to their lives. Everyone is welcome, and everyone is challenged and improved. In other words, it’s what democracy looks like.

“Barbershop: The Next Cut” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Some rough language, but that’s what democracy sounds like. Running time: 1 hour 51 minutes.