Friday, June 29, 2007

Chicago Exclusives!!




These Chicago newspaper articles were provided to AB News! by a BassettHound by the name of Zachary Smith He was able to attend Angela and Courtney's Chicago book tour/signings last April. Heres what he told Angie B News!:


I'm elated to inform you that I was able to see my favorite actress in the world Ms. Angela Bassett as well as her husband superstar actor Mr. Courtney B. Vance this past weekend in Chicago.

At the book signing Saturday they peformed an excellent skit and took questions from those who attended. They both are very classy and down to earth individuals. Also I'm glad their Christians and that they just don't take any roles offered to them.

I was able to a picture with them which was a blessing because the owner prevented everyone after me to pose and take pictures with them. I'm glad I was able to because having a picture taken with Ms. Bassett is a chance of a lifetime.

Thanks for all of your help.

Sincerely,

Zachary Smith

Monday, June 25, 2007

Casting News: Meet the Browns

Tyler PerryAngela BassettJennifer HudsonRick FoxJenifer Lewis
Blackfilm.com has revealed exclusive casting news:

NBA player Rick Fox and Actress Jenifer Lewis have joined Angela Bassett and Tyler Perry in the cast of Perry's newest film, "Meet the Browns." Lewis will reprise her role in "Madea's Family Reunion" as the snobby wedding planner, Milay Jenay Lori. Rumors are still circulating that Jennifer Hudson will also co-star in "Meet the Browns." Although Fox and Hudson's roles in the film havent been disclosed yet, my educated guess is Fox will play Angela's love interest and Hudson will play one of Angela's 3 children. And if Lewis' character is reprising her role then a wedding/marriage is most likely underway.

Its still a mystery if Rick Fox aka Vanessa Williams' ex-hubby has any acting chops although he does have a recurring role on the FX show 'Dirt' with Courtney Cox. I hope he can act -- act real well too because Angela will make him look like a fish way far out of water if he cant bring it. I'm just happy to see Angela and Jenifer Lewis working together again since 1993's "Whats Love Got to Do With It." For those of you who read Angie's book, Friends: A Love Story, you know that Ang and Jenifer were roomates in the early 90s when Angela was just starting her career in Hollywood. They were actually roomates when they both got roles in "Whats Love" (Angela as Tina Turner, Jenifer as Tina's mama).

Angela Bassett & Jenifer Lewis"Meet the Browns" starts filming next month in Atlanta and will be in theaters Feb. 2008!

Angela Bassett will face-off with the all-mighty Madea in "Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns," an upcoming feature film adaptation of his popular stage play.

The actress will play the role of Brenda, a single mother who travels with her family from their home in inner-city Chicago to Georgia for the funeral of her father, whom she never met. There, she is introduced to her crazy relatives, the Browns, and also manages to find romance along the way.

Perry will again suit up as the characters of Madea and Uncle Joe in the film, which is due in theaters early next year via Lionsgate. He has played big screen versions of the characters in the films “Diary of a Mad Black Woman” and “Madea’s Family Reunion.”

Bassett, an Oscar nominee for her role as Tina Turner in the 1993 biopic “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” was last seen in Lionsgate's "Akeelah and the Bee" and the Walt Disney Co.'s "Meet the Robinsons."

Perry’s latest directorial outing, “Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married?" is due in theaters Nov. 16 with stars Jill Scott, Janet Jackson, Sharon Leal, Malik Yoba, Michael Jai White and Richard T. Jones.

In other "Meet The Browns" news, Wilson Morales' Blackfilm.com is reporting that former LA Lakers forward Rick Fox and Jenifer Lewis will be joining the cast. There's no word yet on what role Fox will play.

Lewis will reprise the role that she played in "Madea's Family Reunion" as Milay Jenay Lori.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Whats That Got to Do With It?


Random Angela Bassett News!

Angela Bassett to receive Star in 2008
Its long over-due but better late than never right? Ms. Angela is one of the 19 celebrities set to recieve their Star on the Walk of Fame in 2008. Next year is definitely going to be Angie's year, with 4 films coming out and her very own star. If you need more on this, heres the story.


Tyler Perry confirms Angela Bassett will star in 'Meet the Browns'!!

Giancarlo Esposito on 'Gospel Hill' film shoot The first day of filming for 'Gospel Hill' went off without a hitch earlier this week. First-time director and co-star, Giancarlo Esposito got right into the rythm of being a director on Monday's shoot. Even with the South Carolina heat and residents looking on, reporters observing every detail, and Julia Stiles having difficulty with one scene. Heres the story!

Unfortunately I have some more to report: This whole 'Angela Bassett turned down Monster's Ball' thing will NOT go away. Its been 5 years since that whole controversy was formed from one little old Newsweek article and today silly folks are still talking about it as if Angela was hating on Halle. I usually let them do their ill-informed jabbing without any words in response from me, but Invisible Woman over at Invisible Cinema pushed ALL my buttons in one of her posts yesterday:

Casting Trivia...

Halle Berry-That Angela Bassett turned down Halle Berry's Oscar winning role in "Monster's Ball" and then had the audacity to be pissed that Halle won (she probably thought that legacy should have been hers) and talked greasy about Halle , saying that "it's amazing what happens when someone decides to show their body?" Sour grapes, girl. By the way, has anyone seen Angela lately?

Now of course I couldnt let that go:

Simonique- Its sad that you can report such falsities freely as you're doing. Angela Bassett did turn down the lead role in Monsters Ball but that was the only correct statement you posted about her.Angela Bassett
She was nothing but happy when Halle won the Oscar, they were even at the ceremony hugging and saying "I love you, girl." I personally think Angela should've been the first black woman to win the Best Actress Oscar since she has more talent in her pinky finger than half of Hollywood. Angela never 'talked greasy' about Halle, she only said that Monsters Ball wasnt the role for her and that she is in total support of Halle.

Sour grapes are for people who have no talent or potential in their field. In Angela's case, shes just wading her time until something of substance comes her way. People with her talent can do that, people with none can only strip.

Simonique
a pissed off BassettHound
I think I made my point well enough yesterday because Ms. Invisible Woman herself created a post in response. Continue the debate here: Angela Bassett Stans Stand Up!

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Caption This!

I know I'm ready for another "Caption Me" post. Heres some pictures of Angela Bassett that need you to caption them. Have fun!


#1On the cover of Vanity Fair 1995
There is one woman that is not like the others. She is sexier, she is smiling, and...she is sexier. Can you find her?


#2
Premiere of The Score
Courtney- "I must not have seen Waiting to Exhale"


#3During the filming of the 'Proud Mary' Scene in Whats Love Got to Do With it
"Tina Turner was never this ripped"


#4
Angela with V.P. of Von Dutch Kustom Cycles, Ron Starrantino
The Fast and the Furious meets How Stella Got her Groove Back

Friday, June 8, 2007

2008--The Year of Angela Bassett Films??

Gospel Hill

The people of South Carolina are buzzing about the Hollywood film thats setting up shop right in their local towns. Gospel Hill directors have been scouting locations in and around the Charlotte area for production that plans to start filming later this month. Heres the story:

Gospel Hill poster at Cannes Film Festival 2007
Dorene Watts is executing a Hollywood assignment.

Watts, Rock Hill's MLK Task Force liaison, is looking for individuals with knowledge of and experience in the civil rights movement for the feature movie Gospel Hill.

The $6 million film, starring Danny Glover, Angela Bassett and Julia Stiles, will be shot in York County this summer. Written and directed by Giancarlo Esposito, the movie tells the story of a former civil rights activist and a local sheriff revisiting the grave of another activist 30 years after his death. It is the first feature film produced by Deco Entertainment.

Originally attracted to the area to take advantage of state tax credits for filmmakers, Watts said the group soon learned about the Friendship Nine's lunch counter sit-in at a Main Street five-and-dime store 46 years ago, and it wet their appetite.

"Once they got here and found out all the history here, they wanted to know more," Watts said. "It's become a grass-roots effort to learn about it."

Anyone interested in working as an unpaid extra in “Gospel Hill” is invited to attend one of two casting calls in either Charlotte or Rock Hill.

The first casting call is from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday at the Talent Link training studio at 3010 Monroe Rd., Suite 205. Then, on Tuesday and Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., there will be a casting call at Freedom Temple Ministries at 215 E. Main Street in Rock Hill.

Potential extras are asked to bring a pen and a current photo or 8x10 headshot with a resume stapled to the back. Those without photos can have a Polaroid photo taken for $2.

For more information, contact Talent Link at (704) 335-0027.

Toussaint

Danny Glover continues to feel pressure from Venezuela and Haiti due to his historical epic, Toussaint. Unfortunately the pressure doesnt stop there, Americans have also started showing their disapproval of Glover and his friendly ties to Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez. Heres the story:

Danny Glover & Hugo Chavez
Actor Danny Glover has agreed to make two movies financially backed by the Venezuelan government, but U.S. officials are calling the deal "tainted."

The Venezuelan National Assembly is giving the national production company, La Villa del Cine, $19.7 million to make the two films. The first, which Glover will direct, is about Francois Dominique Toussaint-Louverture, a Haitian independence leader (Angela is set to play his wife in the upcoming film). The second is a film adaptation of the Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel, "The General in His Labyrinth," about Simon Bolivar.

Both movies will be filmed in Venezuela.

"I think that [Glover is] just a pawn in Hugo Chavez's propaganda machine," Rep. Connie Mack (R-Fla.) told Cybercast News Service. "It's sad. What I don't get is why a well-known American, let alone any American, would be part of a propaganda machine with Hugo Chavez, and that's clearly what he's doing.

"They'll live in this country and enjoy the freedoms that we all enjoy," Mack said. "We have men and women around the world fighting for and defending our freedom, yet they'll go and support a communist dictator in Venezuela."

The films, Mack added, "are just part of that overall plan to try to paint the West or the United States in a bad light."

Mack noted that Glover has "long been a supporter of Chavez's radical left-wing policies. He is also a member of the board of the television network TeleSur, a Chavez-funded network that has teamed up with Al-Jazeera to spread anti-democratic messages across Latin America."

The congressman lashed out at Glover for turning "to an avowed enemy of the United States - and someone who in his own right has snuffed out dissent and free speech - for movie financing smacks of radicalism and opportunism run amuck," Mack said. "That's [$19.7 million] he could spend on helping the people of his country get out of poverty."

Glover, 60, has supported Chavez's political revolution since he was first elected in 1998, and backed the 2006 creation of Villa del Cine the anti-US Chavez regime said would go up against "the Hollywood film dictatorship."

Venezuelan Culture Minister Francisco Sesto defended the joint film project with Glover, saying in a published letter of his own: "The funds earmarked for this movie will be invested exclusively in Venezuela ... creating jobs and providing excellent experience for our national film industry."

He also called it "naive" to think the movie industry would be out of 18 million dollars, since the money did not come from Villa del Cine's operating funds but were part of an "additional credit."
Meet the Browns
Tyler Perry
Tyler Perry has just disclosed the official synopsis for his film adaptation of his play, Meet the Browns. The story-line proves to be very far from the stage plays' plot, instead of gearing all the focus on the wacky Brown family the attention is mainly given to Angela's character, the down-on-her-luck, single mother, Brenda.

We're not totally sure if Angela will be playing the main character (one source says shes signed on to do the film for sure, another source says nothings official yet). The good news is this most recent source says Angela will be starring in Meet the Browns alongside Dreamgirl diva, Jennifer Hudson.

No matter what the outcome, the new story-line and focus for Meet the Browns makes this role ideal for Angela. She'd be leading her own film again and she'd be able bring all the drama she can muster up to the role! Its perfect and heres the story:

Tyler Perry's reuniting with Lionsgate for the fifth time with Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns. Perry will play Madea and Uncle Joe in the film which is based on his stage play.

Production is expected to begin on Meet the Browns this summer in Atlanta. Lionsgate plans to release the film in early 2008.

Angela Bassett set to star in Meet the Browns!The Official Synopsis

A single mother living in inner city Chicago, Brenda has been struggling for years to make ends meet and keep her three kids off the street.

But when she's laid off with no warning, she starts losing hope for the first time - until a letter arrives announcing the death of a father she's never met.

Desperate for any kind of help, Brenda takes her family to Georgia for the funeral. But nothing could have prepared her for the Browns, her father's fun-loving, crass Southern clan. In a small-town world full of long afternoons and country fairs, Brenda struggles to get to know the family she never knew existed...and finds a brand new romance that just might change her life.
All four of these movies (including the Robert Townsend flick, Of Boys & Men) plan to hit theaters next year. It looks like 2008 is going to be Angela's comeback year. BassettHounds stay tuned, we'll keep you updated!

Saturday, June 2, 2007

Random Angie B Interview!




Check out this pretty humorous interview with Angela Bassett at the ceremony for Forest Whitaker's Star on the Walk of Fame.




But dont forget to tune into BET this Sunday. Angela and Courtney B. will be talking about what they know best-- marriage, on the newest season of Meet the Faith. If you're not in church (or sleeping) tomorrow morninng grab the remote at 11 AM!









Angela, Courtney, and host of Meet the Faith Ian Smith during the filming of the show (Feb. 28th 2007). I had to add this picture because PDA between these two is rare but great to see. Notice how Ang and Court are all over each other! To check out more pics of Ang and Court on Meet the Faith visit [A Hot Mess]

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