Tyler Perry Responds to Spike Lee's Characterization of His Films as "Coonery and Buffoonery"

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Must we always air our dirty laundry in public? Well, Spike Lee picked a fight of sorts with Tyler Perry earlier this year and Tyler Perry responded during an interview on "60 Minutes." Personally, I like Spike Lee's work -- "Miracle at St. Anna," "Do the Right Thing," "School Daze" and "Jungle Fever." I do like some of Tyler Perry's work -- "Dairy of a Mad Black Woman" and "Meet the Browns." I have had enough of Madea and I am looking for some serious work from him and not just comedy. However, I don't think that Spike Lee should have thrown him under a bus, at least not by calling his work similar to "Amos and Andy" skits. There are many African Americans who find some of his characters -- Madea and Mr. Brown -- demeaning and harken back to a period in the African American experience that we need to move away from, but there are also many who love his work.

Tyler Perry said, during his appearance on "60 Minutes" he said he was “insulted” and “pissed off” by Spike Lee’s criticisms of Perry’s hit TV shows and movies. Lee recently called Perry characters such as Madea examples of “coonery” and “buffoonery.”“I would love to read that [criticism] to my fan base,” Perry told "60 Minutes" correspondent Byron Pitts. “All these characters of mine are bait, bait to get people talking about God, love, family, and faith.”

Tyler Perry has an unbelievable gift for comic impersonations and making his audience laugh, but Madea and Mr. Brown are getting tired. Stuttering black men in colorful clothes feel really old -- a little like Amos n Andy. Surely, Tyler Perry can make us laugh with other characters than his usual bumbling black men. To his credit, maybe he has started to move away from these characters through a recent collaboration, "Precious" with daytime queen Oprah Winfrey.

As for Spike Lee, I could also make an argument that he tends cast lighter-skinned Black and/or Latina women as his black lead's love interests. Don't get me wrong, I have no issues with light skinned black women, but it seems that Spike Lee may have a problem with dark-skinned sisters. The reality is that using lighter skinned love interests only reinforces how the black community defines physical beauty and, in essence, socio-economic mobility. That's just as problematic as a bumbling black man like Mr. Brown.

These two men are bringing different things to the table. Tyler Perry has found a way to bring African Americans to the movie theaters, more than Spike Lee has. Spike Lee confronts racial discrimination in his movies and racial equality in Hollywood, still rarely examining his own regressive "color" politics. So, at the end of the day, I guess I'll take my chances with Tyler Perry and his business acumen, but I hope "Madea Goes to Jail" is the last of his movies to feature this big-breasted angry mammy. It's time to let her go. Really.

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Adam Jasinski, Ninth-Season Winner of Reality TV Show "Big Brother," Confesses to Using $500K Prize to Buy Oxycodone Pills & Resell Them

Another reality show cast member has found himself on the wrong side of the law. Authorities said Adam Jasinski, 31, the ninth-season winner of reality TV show "Big Brother" has confessed to using his $500,000 prize to buy thousands of oxycodone pills and resell them. He has been charged with attempting to sell 2,000 pills in Massachusetts to a government witness. A fool and his money will surely part company quickly, especially if his motives are less than honorable.

Federal prosecutors said Jasinski was arrested Saturday after he flew to Boston and showed the witness a sock containing two plastic bags filled with oxycodone, a powerful painkiller that is a popular street drug because of its euphoric effects. Drug Enforcement Administration special agent Todd Prough said as agents tried to arrest Jasinski at a strip mall in North Reading, he struggled and threw the sock under a car parked nearby.

Jasinski won $500,000 on "Big Brother 9" in April 2008. The CBS reality show features contestants who live under constant surveillance and vote once a week to evict each other in hopes of becoming the last house-guest standing and winning the grand prize.

Prough said in the affidavit that Jasinski told him that he has been using his winnings to buy thousands of oxycodone pills and has been reselling them along the East Coast for the past several months. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine on a charge of possession of oxycodone pills with intent to distribute. This incident is proof that old habits die hard. I find it hard to believe that he was not engaged in such criminal activities before he appeared on the reality show. This is another blow for reality television and the nutjobs and criminals they seem to attract.

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Leah Ignagni Named as the Slain Football Great Steve McNair's Other Lover

Steve McNair, who was slain by his girlfriend Sahel Kazemi on July 4, 2009, is back in the news again. This time the second woman he was possibly cheating on his wife with has been revealed. Her name is Leah Ignagni. What a tangled web he weaved and it ultimately cost him his life and left his wife, Mechelle McNair with a hot mess on her hands. In an updated police case summary, Ignagni told police that a woman in the same model car (a Cadillac Escalade) that Kazemi owned had been following her a few weeks prior to the former football great's murder. 

Ignagni said in the summary that when leaving Steve McNair's Lea Avenue condominium, she "observed a female inside a black Cadillac escalade parked outside the building. Ignagni said she noticed the Escalade follow her as she drove to her apartment." Kazemi's former roommate Emily Andrews confirmed that she knew about McNair's other lover. Gee, did she really think he would remain faithful to her if he couldn't remain faithful to his wife? There's more. Andrews said Kazemi told her that she found a tampon in the bathroom wastebasket in the condo and saw a woman leaving on another occasion.

Maybe jealously played a big role in Steve McNair's death, but this should serve as a warning to other married men who play such a dangerous game. It can have lasting and damaging effects. The new police report does not specifically speculate on what role, if any, Ignagni might have played in Kazemi's mind, but they have stated in the past they believed Kazemi killed McNair and herself because of stress, money worries, and jealousy.

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Jermaine Jackson's Ex-Wife, Alejandra Jackson, Says He's Not Taking Care of His Kids, Files Lawsuit for Back-Child Support Payments

Baby mama drama:  Alejandra Jackson, Jermaine Jackson's ex-wife claims the singer has left her so dirt poor  that she has been forced to accept supermarket gift cards from Jermaine's mother, Katherine Jackson, so she can feed the kids. As you know, Jermaine Jackson has been out giving media interviews, popping up on different shows and planning a concert overseas, which means he's making money. He's a dirtbag if he doesn't want to take care of his kids.

Alejandra Jackson filed legal documents in L.A. County Superior Court claiming Jermaine is a deadbeat dad who hasn't paid $35,550 in court-ordered child support payments for their two kids, Jermajesty and Jaffar.

In the docs Alejandra says Jermaine's own mother sees how bad the situation is and often bails her out with "gift cards to Ralphs in varying months so that I can pick up food for our children, usually between $300 and $400."

Alejandra also claims Jermaine was lying to the court when he claimed he only made $35k in 2008 -- pointing out that he lives in the same "estate home" in Calabasas, drives the same "luxury vehicles" and has the same "luxury lifestyle" he had before. Source: TMZ

Once a dirtbag, always a dirtbag. If these allegations are true, then Jermaine Jackson has been giving these so-called heartfelt interviews to make money at his dead brother's expense. Shameful.

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Turbulence in the Skies, Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions Sued by Corrine Gehrls, Former Flight Attendant, Over Termination for "Inappropriate Intimate Conduct"

Gehrls v Harpo - defamation et al -

There is drama in the skies above Chicago. Corrine Gehrls, a former flight attendant on Oprah Winfrey's private jet, has filed a defamation lawsuit alleging that Gayle King's daughter, Kirby Bumpus, lied about a fling between her and the pilot, Terry Pansing, that got her fired. Gehrls is suing Harpo, Oprah's company, along with the two flight attendants she claims lied about her. She's asking for damages in excess of $75,000. The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Gehrls alleges that Gayle King's daughter, Kirby Bumpus, and the other flight attendant on the jet, Myron Gooch, told Oprah Winfrey directly that Gerhls and the pilot, Terry Pansing, engaged in "inapproriate intimate conduct" during a June 14, 2009 flight.

Gehrls stated in the complaint that no such conduct took place and added that there is no way anyone could have witnessed such conduct since Winfrey and the other passengers taken sleeping pills and slept throughout the flight.

Gerhls also claimed in the lawsuit that Winfrey favored Gooch and turned a blind eye when Gooch and Gayle King shared the jet's double bed on another flight. The complaint also alleges that Winfrey's only issue with Gooch was his food ordering skills and that Winfrey allegedly said "White folks don't know what southern food should taste like." Somehow I find it hard to believe that Oprah Winfrey would make such an ignorant statement, especially since there are many whites from the South.

According to the complaint, Gerhls and Pansing passed a lie detector test and the results are attached to the complaint as exhibits. Well, I would have guessed right off that Gayle King's daughter would have aspired to be more than a flight attendant on a private plane.

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Police: Miguel Cabrera, Tigers First Baseman, was Drunk during Fight with Wife, Roseangel Cabrera, Had .26 Blood-alcohol Level

Police in the Detroit suburb of Birmingham, MI, were called to the home of Tigers first baseman Miguel Cabrera early Saturday morning, for what has been described in the media as a "family trouble" phone call. The incident was reportedly entered in the police department's log on the same day Cabrera showed up at Comerica Park for that night's game against the White Sox with a bruise visible on the left side of his face. According to Police Chief Richard Patterson, Cabrera had a blood-alcohol level more than three times the legal limit when he became involved in a physical altercation with his wife, Roseangel Cabrera. According to police reports, when he got home after Friday night's game, his wife was not happy he had been drinking so late and a physical altercation ensued.

According to the police report, Cabrera's wife, whose name is listed as Rosangel, was upset when the ballplayer woke up the couple's 4-year-old daughter and was talking on the phone when he came home. Investigators noticed his wife had an injury to her lower lip; they noted the injury to the left side of Cabrera's face.

Police found a damaged cell phone, and the gold chain Cabrera wears around his neck was broken, too. But when officers asked the couple what happened, neither would explain how they were injured, according to the report. Cabrera's wife insisted he leave, and he agreed, so officers took him to the police department to be picked up by the Tigers.

After investigators determined both Cabrera and his wife were "aggressors" in the situation, Patterson said, the first baseman was released. Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski picked Cabrera up at the station between 7:30 and 8 a.m. Saturday, he added. Cabrera registered a .26 blood-alcohol level when tested by police, Commander Mark Clemence said. A person is considered drunk at .08. Source: Detroit Free Press

Never mind the fact that Cabrera's statistics are horrible. He enters Tuesday's American League Central tiebreaker in an 0-for-14 slump since his first-inning single Thursday against the Twins. According to the Free Press, it is his longest hitless streak of the season, and it includes an 0-for-11 series against the White Sox this past weekend. On Saturday, the day of the incident, Cabrera went 0-for-4 and didn't hit the ball out of the infield, including a ground-ball double play to end an eighth-inning threat. Another athlete caught up in a domestic abuse flap. When will these people learn that being inebriated can lead to some serious problems?

Photo credit: Miguel Cabrera, Detriot4Lyfe

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Jay Leno on David Letterman's Extortion Case: "I've Been Extorted Too!"

I must admit, I was not shocked by the David Letterman's admission that he has sexual relationships with some of his staffers. At least he said it before the media got wind of these lurid details. I find it absolutely offensive that he would engage in such behaviors with his staff, but he didn't lie when confronted like some politicians we know -- former President Bill Clinton, John Edwards, Mark Sanford and Senator John Ensign, for example. Also, let's not forget to add Rev. Jesse Jackson to the pot, though he didn't lie about the paternity of the child he fathered with his jump-off.

Jay Leno and the other comedians just couldn't resist taking a shot at their fellow comedian Letterman.

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