plus 4, Depp promotes latest movie, but he hasn't seen it - Globe Gazette

Depp promotes latest movie, but he hasn't seen it - Globe Gazette
Movie producer Tyler Perry's mother dies at age 64 - Times and Democrat
CORRECTED: Morgan Freeman Brings Touch of "God" to Mandela Film - ABC News
Overseer: Liquidate film studio in Saints dispute - Shreveport Times
Sacha Baron Cohen sued over Bruno movie - New Zealand Herald

Depp promotes latest movie, but he hasn't seen it - Globe Gazette

Posted: 09 Dec 2009 10:07 PM PST

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Movie producer Tyler Perry's mother dies at age 64 - Times and Democrat

Posted: 09 Dec 2009 10:28 PM PST

Willie Maxine Perry, who helped inspire the character Madea played by her movie producer son Tyler Perry, has died. She was 64.

Tyler Perry announced her Tuesday death on his Web site, where he thanked fans for their prayers. He did not say where his mother died or anything about the cause.

Perry's publicist, Keleigh Thomas, would not give further details Wednesday afternoon.

Perry owes much of his popularity to his portrayal of Madea, a sharp-tongued, iron-willed Southern matriarch played by Perry in a padded suit and wig. She is the central character in films like "Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail,"

In an October interview, Perry told CBS' "60 Minutes" that the character is a celebration of strong black women who is based in part on his own mother.

"Madea's a cross between my mother and my aunt _ she's the type of grandmother that was on every corner when I was growing up," he said. "... She's a strong figure where I come from, in my part of the African American community."

But the character has also earned criticism from some black community figures who argue Perry is reinforcing stereotypes of black women as overbearing, violent and brash. Film maker Spike Lee recently labeled Perry's TBS sitcoms and films "coonery."

Arlene Barron, executive director at the Jewish Community Center in New Orleans, said Maxine Perry had worked there as a nursery school assistant for about 10 years from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s.

On the Net:

http://tylerperry.com/

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CORRECTED: Morgan Freeman Brings Touch of "God" to Mandela Film - ABC News

Posted: 09 Dec 2009 11:22 AM PST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Nelson Mandela received the touch of "God" -- Hollywood-style -- when Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman prepared to play him in new movie "Invictus."

Freeman said he was asked by the 91-year-old former South African president to portray him in the Clint Eastwood-directed film that debuts on Friday and also stars Matt Damon.

"I said to him, 'If I'm going to play you, I'm going to have to have access to you. I'm going to have to be close enough to hold your hand,'" Freeman told reporters recently.

The Academy Award winner for his role in Eastwood's boxing drama "Million Dollar Baby" has portrayed many characters over the years, a slave-turned abolitionist leader, a fictional U.S. president and even "God" in "Evan Almighty," but rarely one who is alive and important to so many people as Mandela.

The elder statesman of African politics was jailed for 27 years due to his militant work to end apartheid in South Africa before being released in 1990 and going on to become the president of his country four years later. In 1993, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

"Invictus" tells of how Mandela brought the 1995 Rugby World Cup Championship to his nation, utilizing the South African team around which to rally his countrymen and ease racial tensions between black and white citizens.

The word invictus is latin for "unconquered" or "unconquerable" and is the title of a poem by Englishman William Ernest Henley, published in 1875.

HOLDING HANDS WITH MANDELA

Freeman, wearing his hat as a producer, worked for years to bring the tale to the big screen.

"I didn't have any agenda as it were in playing the role other than to bring it as close to reality as I possibly could," Freeman said. "The biggest challenge I had, of course, was to sound like him."

The actor said that if he and the world leader were in the same area, he would try to meet with Mandela, share a meal, or sit backstage with him before a speech. Most importantly, he would hold Mandela's hand.

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Overseer: Liquidate film studio in Saints dispute - Shreveport Times

Posted: 10 Dec 2009 12:44 AM PST

NEW ORLEANS — A court-appointed overseer wants to liquidate the remnants of a movie studio tied to a $1.7 million dispute with members of the New Orleans Saints.

Fifteen current and former team members paid the money to Louisiana Film Studios LLC late in 2008 for what they thought would be state movie industry tax credits returning $1.33 for each dollar invested. State officials said the studio never applied for the credits and the money has not been returned.

A group of the credit buyers later forced the company into involuntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. But in a motion filed Tuesday, trustee Gerald Schiff asked a federal bankruptcy court to order a Chapter 7 liquidation of the studio's assets.

Schiff said the shuttered company had no cash, no employees and no source of income and "it is unlikely that the debtor could achieve a successful Chapter 11 reorganization" involving a new business plan to pay off creditors.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Magner set a hearing for Dec. 29. The AP was unable to reach studio head Wayne Read for comment. A cellular telephone number that Read has used was not working.

According to bankruptcy court filings, Louisiana Film Studios has $2.8 million in debts, including nearly $1.7 million for the unredeemed tax credits. The company also owes $700,000 to a construction company half-owned by former Saints player Kevin Houser, now with the Seattle Seahawks.

Read previously said that he was trying to line up new investors for the studio, but no plan has emerged.

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Sacha Baron Cohen sued over Bruno movie - New Zealand Herald

Posted: 09 Dec 2009 07:15 PM PST

WASHINGTON - A Palestinian shopkeeper and father portrayed as a terrorist in the movie Bruno is suing film star Sacha Baron Cohen, David Letterman and others for libel and slander.

The lawsuit filed last week by Ayman Abu Aita in District of Columbia federal court seeks $US110 million ($NZ151 million) in damages.

In the movie, Baron Cohen plays a gay Austrian fashion journalist trying to make it big in the United States. To achieve worldwide fame, Bruno travels to the Middle East to make peace. He interviews Abu Aita, and a caption labels the Bethlehem shopkeeper as a member of the militant Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade.

Abu Aita is suing CBS and Letterman's company Worldwide Pants over an interview before the film's release where the Late Show host and Baron Cohen discussed Bruno's encounter with a 'terrorist'.

In the interview, Baron Cohen, 37, said he set up the meeting in the West Bank with the help of a CIA agent. Baron Cohen said he feared for his safety and interviewed the 'terrorist' at a secret location chosen by Abu Aita. A clip was then played on The Late Show with David Letterman.

According to the lawsuit, however, the interview with Abu Aita took place at a hotel chosen by Baron Cohen and located in a part of the West Bank that was under Israeli military control.

Film distributor NBC Universal and director Larry Charles are also named in the lawsuit.

A spokeswoman for Universal Studios declined to comment. Tom Keaney, a spokesman for David Letterman, also said he would not comment.

Baron Cohen, a British comedian, also faced multiple lawsuits after his earlier movie, Borat, including one for $US30 million filed by residents of a remote Romanian village who said they were misled into thinking the project was a documentary about poverty. Most of the lawsuits were thrown out.

Abu Aita is prominent businessman, a Christian and a "peace-loving person who abhors violence, the latest lawsuit states. Before the film, he "enjoyed a good reputation for honesty and a peaceable nature" in his community, Abu Aita's lawyers wrote.

They go on to write that any accusations or insinuations that Abu Aita is or ever was associated with the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, or any other terrorist activity is "utterly false and untrue".

Attorney Joseph Peter Drennan said Abu Aita was never offered a release to sign to appear in the film.

"This is an important lawsuit because it is about the dignity of a specific person. It is about his reputation, about his standing in the community," Drennan said.

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