Ooohhh, I forgot about Leila. And ST, I agree with you on this one.

LOL! I love you guys! ;)

I just have to be. First of all, celebrities aren't really accessible to the average person. As much as I love Shaq, he's not going to tap average, workaday AfAmerica for a woman.

I think the frustration, however, seeps in when you see desirable and attractive fellows crossing over, particularly when I think a professional black guy with mediocre physicality and game should have no trouble finding a proper partner at home, as it were.

But this is a hijack.

Angelina Jolie Will Play Widow of Slain Journalist

THURSDAY JULY 13, 2006 03:25PM EST

THURSDAY JULY 13, 2006 06:00PM EST UPDATED

By Mary Green and Stephen M. Silverman

Angelina Jolie will play Mariane Pearl, the widow of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, in a movie produced by Brad Pitt's Plan B production company, Pitt has confirmed to PEOPLE.

"The film will focus on the deep collaboration between people around the world in search of Daniel in 2002," Pitt tells PEOPLE. "We hope the film can increase understanding between people of all faiths and portray the story and the people involved as honestly as possible without anger or judgment."

Contrary to reports claiming that Pitt's ex, Jennifer Aniston, was earlier cast as Mariane Pearl, a rep for Pitt and Jolie tells PEOPLE, "Jennifer was never attached to that role. When the project was first brought to Plan B, Jen was a partner in the company at the time."

The film will be adapted from Pearl's memoir, A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl, which chronicles her experience after her husband was abducted by Islamic extremists in Pakistan in early 2002. A month later, his captors released a video depicting his murder.

Pearl, a French journalist, was pregnant when her husband was kidnapped and gave birth to their son Adam in May of that year.

"I am delighted that Angelina Jolie will be playing my role in the adaptation of my book," Pearl said in a statement released Thursday by Paramount Vintage. "I deeply admire her work and what she is committed to."

The film will start shooting in the fall. It is Jolie's first dramatic role since the May 27 birth of her daughter with Pitt, Shiloh Nouvel.

Earlier this week it was reported that Jolie will lend her voice to the DreamWorks animated feature Kung Fu Panda, in the role of Tigress, a martial arts teacher. The film, due next May, also stars Jack Black.


Here's a pic of the two of them together...

http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/271...najolie2zo.jpg

How do you all feel about Jolie playing the part of a woman who is bi-racial, but obviously has more dominant Black physical traits?

Thandie Newton, who is biracial, would have been a much better choice.

Maybe this is just a bad pic, but her African American traits don't look very dominant to me. She almost looks Itialian. I gotta find another picture of her.

ETA:
http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2004/...anepearl,0.jpg
white?

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/images/t...une02/pea1.jpg
black?

Either way, Thandie Newton would look more like her, but I think that Angelina is a better actress. Maybe they could have lightned up Halle Berry and thrown on some curly hair. She would have been a good choice.

Adree 3000 Cartoon
 

I don't recall seeing this here so if its a repeat, my apologies.

I just read in one of my job trade mag's that Andre 3000 will be starting in his own cartoon series on Cartoon Netwrok called "Class of 3000". He will play the lead character, Sunny Bridges, who was a rock star/Nobel Peave prize winner that leaves the world stage to become a music instructor at a school for performing arts in Atlanta.

Sort of like an aminated Fame for 2006.

I think Thandie would've been PERFECT for the role.

Yeah, Mariane looks more biracial (I think one of her parents is actually Afro-Cuban) in the second pic. On the other hand, I remember that Jeanne Crain in Pinky and Susan Kohner in Imitation of Life, both of whom are Caucasian, played biracial/passing characters, so I sort of get Angelina.

When, where and how did he do this?

I think this was 10 years ago or so. Wes was waxing rhapsodic about the virtues of Asian women over AfAm women in an article. He's lost a lot of his black female fan base because of this, and for a time, he was rarely spotted at AfAm entertainment industry events.

Sorry, Steeltrap. :o I meant how did Jamie pull a "Wesley"?

*jelly* of your picture with Idris.

LOL @ you and Laurie Ann.

Thanks for clarifying. To my knowledge, Eric/Jamie hasn't yet pulled a Wesley.
:o

Alicia signs production deal with Disney (BV)
 

Alicia Keys is Hollywood swinging -- for real.

The nine-time Grammy Award winning neo-soul wunderkind has signed a multi-year first look film production deal at Disney, with her producing partner and manager Jeff Robinson.

According to 'Variety,' the first project will be a remake of the 1958 film 'Bell, Book and Candle.' Keys, 26, is slated to play the role originated by Kim Novak. James Stewart and Jack Lemmon also starred in the Richard Quine-directed comedy about a modern-day witch who likes her neighbor but despises his fiancée, and then enchants him to love her instead, only to fall in love with him for real.

The duo reportedly chose the remake as a starting vehicle after Robinson watched the original and saw potential for Keys, who said the goal is to create vehicles that will prevent her from falling into predictable roles.

"I never wanted to play myself, not in the first role or even the second. I want to do the unexpected," she said.

Through their company, Big Pita, Little Pita, Robinson and Keys will aim to develop live-action and animated projects at their company.

Robinson said the company’s name is an acronym for the way he and Keys refer to each other: "It's big pain in the ass, little pain in the ass, and on any given day, I could be the Big Pita, or vice versa."

An office will be opened on the Disney lot, but their base of operations will be in New York City, where Susan Lewis has been hired to run the company.

Keys, who did some minor acting before being signed to Clive Davis' J Records, will make her feature film debut in Joe Carnahan's 'Smokin' Aces,' as an assassin. The Ben Affleck action flick, due out this fall, also stars Common, Ray Liotta, Jeremy Piven, Jason Bateman and Taraji P. Henson.

Keys also recently wrapped 'The Nanny Diaries,' based on the best-selling Nicole Kraus novel of the same name.