Today’s Media Links
“Tolkien Trust Sues New Line, May Kill ‘Hobbit’”
This article is a reminder that not all non-Black people in the entertainment business is perfectly free and happy with how the system works. Dig this Billy-Joel-style robbery: “he Tolkien Trust says that New Line paid them only $62,500 to make The Lord of the Rings trilogy of films—instead of the agreed-upon 7.5 percent of gross receipts…”
Cecil Fergerson Appears in Los Angeles Pan African Festival Official Selection
My favorite curator Cecil Fergerson appears in Walking Tall: The Life and Times of Walt Walker, directed by Isidra Person-Lynn and Gail Parker. This is an official selection of the Pan African Film Festival.
Flippant Remarks about The Hottest Chick in the Game Playing Etta James
According to bossip.com, this is what Etta James said about Beyonce playing her in some movie coming up: “I wasn’t as bourgie as she is, she’s bourgeois. She knows how to be a lady, she’s like a model. I wasn’t like that… I smoked in the bathroom in school, I was kinda arrogant, so those are some of the things I would want to tell her.”
I enjoy it when the actual non-hating people involved (like Etta James) talk about subjects that are supposed to make me look like a hater (which is a punk-ass form of self-flattery). The problem with most contemporary, young North American celebrities is that they are a fraction of what came before them. And what’s sad about too many insecure kids is that they would rather make up shit like “hater” instead of really examining what makes them so tricycle weak.
One trend that I noticed that might still be going on today is this stealth ‘invasion’ of Australian, Canadian or British (or some other American English speaker) actors playing young American characters with a flawless American accent. These actors are needed to play roles originally designed for young Americans because most young American actors are not even talented enough to get past the reading comprehension of the script—let alone having a strong stage presence. Too many kids have been worried about the cash and bling instead of the craft.