Aries Spears Gives Up Custody of Son – You Want Him! Take Him!

Comedian Aries Spears has voluntarily agreed to give full physical and legal custody of their 3-year-old son to his estranged wife Elisa Larregui.

According to court records, Spears’ wife Elisa Larregui filed for divorce February 7, due to irreconcilable differences. In one of the stipulations of the filing, Larregui demanded full custody of their 3-year-old son.

Although not initially requesting it with the divorce documents … four days later, Elisa filed for a restraining order against Aries, claiming he swung a baseball bat at her and nearly killed her.

According to Elisa’s restraining order docs, Aries was also a verbally abusive father … and had been physically abusive with one of her children from a past relationship.

Elisa was granted a temporary restraining order, requiring Spears to stay 100 yards clear of Elisa and their son unless there’s a prearranged visit.

Spears’ lawyer commented, “The family is mending and for the moment, they have chosen to place some distance between themselves. Aries and Elisa have been communicating peaceably and have worked things out between themselves. Aries looks forward to spending quality time with his son.”

Katt Williams arrested in LA

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Katt Williams, the comedian who has repeatedly found himself on the wrong side of the law, is out on bail after being arrested in Los Angeles on suspicion of child endangerment and possession of a stolen gun.

Police Officer Norma Eisenman says Williams was taken into custody Friday after the LA County Department of Children and Family Services did a welfare check at his home. Authorities found more than one firearm, one of which had been reported stolen.

Eisenman says the DCFS did not specify how many children lived at the home or whether they were removed.

The 41-year-old was arrested this month on a felony warrant related to a police chase. In November, he was accused of hitting a man on the head with a bottle during a fight.

Why Jamie Foxx changed his name

As the two “x” letters in his last name seem to confess, “Jamie Foxx” is in fact a stage name.

The Oscar winner, and star of Quentin Tarantino’s latest violence-filled confection, “Django Unchained” — about a southern slave in 1800s America who transforms into an assassin — was born Eric Marlon Bishop.

Raised in Terrell, Texas, by his mother’s adopted parents, Foxx was not close with his birth parents. And the Texas town was racially segregated. Foxx was raised a Baptist and was a choir leader at his local church as a teen. At that time, Foxx was also playing gigs as a pianist.

While the performance bug bit him in his teen years, he was then still going by “Eric.” In high school he was a top student as well as an avid football player with dreams of playing for the Dallas Cowboys. In college, he studied classical music and composition.

It wasn’t until he started doing comedy — at the prompting of a former girlfriend — that he considered changing his name. And the reason he did it is sort of hilarious: He wanted to be mistaken for a woman.

When Foxx started performing at open mic nights in 1989, female comedians were routinely called to the stage ahead of the male comics — and Foxx didn’t want to wait that long. He chose “Jamie” because of its gender ambiguity. “Foxx” was his way of paying tribute to one of his favorite performers, Redd Foxx — whose moniker was also a stage name. (Redd Foxx, best known for his role in ’70s sitcom “Sanford and Son,” was born John Elroy Sanford.)

Apparently that was the right call because just two years later, Foxx was cast on popular skit comedy show “In Living Color,” which eventually led to his own sitcom on the WB Network and all of the other opportunities that ultimately got him an Oscar as well as a starring role in a Tarantino film.

“Django Unchained” opens wide on Christmas Day.

Source: By Meriah Doty | Movie Talk

Jamie Foxx Responds to Elementary School Shooting

NEW YORK — While promoting his latest film “Django Unchained”, Academy Award-winning actor and comedian Jamie Foxx,
found himself compelled to comment on the Newtown, Conn. elementary school massacre.

Friday, a gunman mortally wounded his mother and then went to an elementary school,
where he killed six adults and 20 children before committing suicide.

Foxx, said Saturday as he promoted the upcoming ultra-violent spaghetti Western-style film of
Quentin Tarantino, “…actors can’t ignore the fact that movie violence can influence people.
We cannot turn our back and say that violence in films or anything that we do doesn’t have a
sort of influence. It does.”

In true Tarantino form, buckets of blood explode from characters as they are shot or shredded
to pieces by rabid dogs in “Django Unchained.”

Despite Friday’s mass shooting, promotion for the film, which opens in theaters
Christmas Day, continued in New York as scheduled on Saturday.

Tarantino, whose credits include “Pulp Fiction” and the “Kill Bill” volumes, said he was tired
of defending his films each time the nation is shocked by gun violence. He said “tragedies happen” and blame should fall on those guilty of the crimes.

Foxx’s co-star Kerry Washington said she believes the film’s explicit brutality serves an
important purpose in educating audiences about the atrocities of slavery.

“I do think that it’s important when we have the opportunity to talk about violence and not
just kind of have it as entertainment, but connect it to the wrongs, the injustices, the
social ills,” she said.

Joan Rivers Drops Comedy Game

Don’t be alarmed. Joan Rivers is not quitting the comedy game…(at least not as far as we know) but what she is doing is more of exactly what we’ve come to know her for. Dropping game. Straight talk with no chaser. In her recent article for The Hollywood Reporter article, Rivers, 79, grants her readers a brief look into the behind the scenes world of the comedy game. But although the look is brief, she somehow seems to say so much more. Here it is:

 

Steve Harvey Calls It Quits – Finished With Standup

Performing at a sold out MGM Grand, Las Vegas August 2, 2012, legendary comedian-turned-author, actor, and all-around media conglomerate Steve Harvey called it quits — from live stand-up performances.

Harvey, who has enjoyed a highly successful show business career for nearly 30 years, retired from the thing that brought him fame — stand-up. During his self-proclaimed final stand-up comedy show, Harvey hit us with what has been his M.O. since his early days — Leaving Everything Funny On The Stage. True to his lengthy run as one of the nation’s most beloved comics, Harvey under-scored his wild romp around comedic bits with some themes that have always managed to come through loud and clear — themes that speak to the passions of a man who may be a comic, but is certainly no joke.

From informing his swan song audience that “cussin’ started with Moses,” to boldly offering plain-speak about ways to make the alleged triggerman behind the Colorado shooting massacre who now claims amnesia to remember his actions — via the formation of an “A$$-Whuppin’ committee” — Harvey did in his final stand-up show what Harvey has always done: make people laugh, cry and shake the cobwebs off their brains in order to wrestle with the more serious issues of our times.

Harvey, author of the national best-selling book-turned-movie, Act Like a Woman, Think Like a Man, shared that he wrote the book as advice for his daughters. Harvey has been giving straight talk advice to his audience for 27-years — and not only advice on relationships.

One of Harvey’s recurring themes has been living an honest and sincere life of faith. Never professing to be perfect — “Being a Christian is hard; they got too many rules — on a good day I get seven out of ten.” Harvey has always challenged his audience members to treat others the way they themselves want to be treated — even while taking the time to laugh about those church seniors who come to service after more than 8 months on the sick and shut in list to sing in the choir. The MGM roared with laughter as he asked, “Why at 95 do they still have to read out of the hymn book, they should know the songs by now?”

“Always encourage your kids; I don’t care what kind of crazy ideas they come home with,” said Harvey, serious as a heart attack, while somehow finding a way to make people laugh at the painful moment in his own childhood when a teacher belittled Harvey’s own crazy dream of one day being on TV.

Harvey revealed that it was the support of his father during that incident that made all the difference in the world. Thus, it stands to reason that one of Harvey’s recurring refrains during his three decades worth of shows has been a call for parents to be parents. Harvey’s life off stage reflects this same commitment in a multiplicity of ways, not the least of which is his legendary work with mentoring programs across the U.S. And from that, and other such work, Harvey will still be going full speed ahead. Just don’t expect to see him on stage live, cracking jokes.

With the feel of a long goodbye, Harvey told his MGM Grand audience, “People ask, ‘Where do you get this stuff from?’ I let them know, I just report the news.” And report the news he has — whether it’s sharing stories about personal family issues or old childhood friends like “Ug,” or providing side-splitting, behind-the-scenes insights about hosting the game show Family Feud. Harvey also reflected on and thanked those persons who have been by his side in various capacities throughout his lengthy stint in the limelight.

“Seeing him up there was nostalgic,” said Brandi Harvey, commenting on her father’s last show. “I can remember as a child going to see him; my sister and I use to watch my dad perform live, the ups and downs, before he became such a success.”

“People ask me if he is really finished with stand-up. For the most part, he is done when he says he is done. My father is going to be on a different stage via Family Freud, his new talk show, and of course, fans can still enjoy him on his nationally syndicated radio show,” said the proud daughter.

Thus, through it all — his final live stand-up performance and his entire career, Harvey’s audiences could feel his sincere love of children, his appreciation for the opportunities he has been afforded, the hard work he put forth to take advantage of those opportunities, and his undying belief that we as a society can do and be so much better.

“I just want to thank everybody for 27 years of love and support and God willing I’ll do 27 more, it just won’t be at this. But I really just want to thank everyone!”, Steve expressed at the close of his last performance.

Harvey will certainly be around in many other shapes and forms. When fans take in a show at comedy stages around the country and wonder where the humor with heart went, they will remember that the great Steve Harvey, one of the original kings of comedy, rocked his last live MIC, August 2, 2012, Las Vegas, Nevada; and he will be missed.

Diddy : I want to be the next Eddie Murphy

Puffy has revealed that he wants to be the next Eddie Murphy, saying, “I’m funnier than you think”.

In an impromptu interview with the Los Angeles Times, the 40 year old hip-hop mogul spoke about his desire to be taken seriously as an actor.

He said: “To be honest, as an actor, I had a dream – and everybody had laughed at me – but I was like, there’s nobody to ever fill the void of the way Eddie Murphy was in 48 Hours or, you know, even Chris Tucker.”

“And as a comedic actor, I think I could one day fill that role.

“And people are like, ‘Are you crazy? You’re not even funny’. And I’m like, ‘No, you’ll see. I’m funnier than you think’.

“And that’s my mission.”

Combs plays a music mogul in the Russell Brand comedy Get Him To The Greek, revealed that he arduously prepared for the role, even going so far as creating a background for his character Sergio Roma.

He said: “I think this role will definitely be a revelation to people.

“People have this perception of me – which is my fault – of champagne-sipping and The Hamptons and white fur and just cliché-type of things that are just kind of old and dated and corny…

“That was just part of my image for a second. It wasn’t who Sean is.”

He added: “You evolve – like, I need to retire my diamond necklace and fur jacket now.

“Things change. Times change…”

Gary Coleman’s Ex-Wife No Grief Here

Just hours after Shannon Price decided to pull the plug and end Gary Coleman’s life — the actor’s ex-wife was already smiling and posing for photos.

The photos seen here were taken on May 29 — just one day after Gary died. The woman smiling with Shannon is Sheila Erickson — an agent who worked with both Shannon and Gary.

The photos were taken around the same time she sat down with a camera crew and did an interview about Gary’s death.

Apparently Shannon wanted to do the interview “to get her side of the story out” — amongst speculation that she may have killed Gary.

Gary Coleman Dead at 42

PROVO, Utah – Gary Coleman, the adorable, pint-sized child star of the smash 1970s TV sitcom “Diff’rent Strokes” who spent the rest of his life struggling on Hollywood’s D-list, died Friday after suffering a brain hemorrhage. He was 42.

Coleman was taken off life support and died with family and friends at his side, Utah Valley Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Janet Frank said.

He suffered the brain hemorrhage Wednesday at his Santaquin home, 55 miles south of Salt Lake City. Frank said Coleman was hospitalized because of “an accident” at the home, but she said she had no details on what the accident was.

Coleman’s family, in a statement read by his brother-in-law, Shawn Price, said “information surrounding his passing will be released shortly.”

Best remembered for “Diff’rent Strokes” character Arnold Jackson and his “Whatchu talkin’ ’bout?” catchphrase, Coleman chafed at his permanent association with the show but also tried to capitalize on it through reality shows and other TV appearances. His adult life was marked with legal, financial and health troubles, suicide attempts and even a 2003 run for California governor.

“I want to escape that legacy of Arnold Jackson,” he told The New York Times during his gubernatorial run. “I’m someone more. It would be nice if the world thought of me as something more.”

A statement from the family said he was conscious and lucid until midday Thursday, when his condition worsened and he slipped into unconsciousness. Coleman was then placed on life support.

“It’s unfortunate. It’s a sad day,” said Todd Bridges, who played Coleman’s older brother, Willis, on “Diff’rent Strokes.”

“Diff’rent Strokes” debuted on NBC in 1978 and drew most of its laughs from Coleman, then a tiny 10-year-old with sparkling eyes and perfect comic timing.

He played the younger of two African-American brothers adopted by a wealthy white man. Race and class relations became topics on the show as much as the typical trials of growing up.

“He was the reason we were such a big hit,” co-star Charlotte Rae, who played the family’s housekeeper on the show, said in an e-mail. “He was the centerpiece and we all surrounded him. He was absolutely enchanting, adorable, funny and filled with joy which he spread around to millions of people all over the world.”

Coleman’s family thanked fans for their continued support.

“Thousands of emails have poured into the hospital. This is so comforting to the family to know how beloved he still is,” Price said.

“Diff’rent Strokes” lasted six seasons on NBC and two on ABC; it lives on thanks to DVDs and YouTube. But its equally enduring legacy became the troubles in adulthood of its former child stars.

In 1989, Bridges was acquitted of attempted murder in the shooting of a drug dealer. The then 24-year-old Bridges testified he became depressed and turned to drugs after “Diff’rent Strokes” was canceled.

Dana Plato, who played the boys’ white, teenage sister, pleaded guilty in 1991 to a robbery charge. She died in 1999 of an overdose of painkiller and muscle relaxer. The medical examiner’s office ruled the death a suicide.

“It’s sad that I’m the last kid alive from the show,” Bridges said.

Coleman was born Feb. 8, 1968, in Zion, Ill., near Chicago.

Coleman’s short stature added to his child-star charm but stemmed from a serious health problem, kidney failure. He got his first of at least two transplants at age 5 and required dialysis. Even as an adult, his height reached only 4 feet 8 inches.

In a 1979 Los Angeles Times profile, his mother, Sue Coleman, said he had always been a ham. He acted in some commercials before he was signed by T.A.T., the production company that created “Diff’rent Strokes.”

After “Diff’rent Strokes” was canceled, Coleman continued to get credits for TV guest shots and other small roles over the years, but he never regained more than a shadow of his old popularity. At one point he worked as a security guard.

Coleman played upon his child-star image as he tried to resurrect his entertainment career in recent years, appearing on late-night shows and “The Surreal Life,” a VH1 show devoted to fading celebrities.

His role as a car-washing plantation slave in the 2008 conservative political satire “An American Carol” was cut from the final print. The actor also appeared in last year’s “Midgets vs. Mascots,” a film that pits little people against mascots in a series of silly contests for a chance to win $1 million. Coleman met with producers of the film earlier this year to ask them to remove a brief scene of frontal nudity that he says he didn’t authorize.

Coleman was among 135 candidates who ran in California’s bizarre 2003 recall election to replace then-Gov. Gray Davis, whom voters ousted in favor of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Coleman came in eighth place with 12,488 votes, or 0.2 percent, just behind Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt.

Running for office gave him a chance to show another side of himself, he told The Associated Press at the time.

“This is really interesting and cool, and I’ve been enjoying the heck out of it because I get to be intelligent, which is something I don’t get to do very often,” he said.

Coleman’s health problems went beyond kidney failure. Last fall, he had heart surgery complicated by pneumonia, said his Utah attorney Randy Kester. In February, he suffered a seizure on the set of “The Insider.”

Legal disputes also dogged him. In 1989, when Coleman was 21, his mother filed a court request trying to gain control of her son’s $6 million fortune, saying he was incapable of handling his affairs. He said the move “obviously stems from her frustration at not being able to control my life.”

In a 1993 television interview, he said he had twice tried to kill himself by overdosing on pills.

He moved to Utah in fall 2005, and according to a tally in early 2010, officers were called to assist or intervene with Coleman more than 20 times in the following years. They included a call where Coleman said he had taken dozens of Oxycontin pills and “wanted to die.”

Some of the disputes involved his wife, Shannon Price, whom he met on the set of the 2006 comedy “Church Ball” and married in 2007.

In September 2008, a dustup with a fan at a Utah bowling alley led Coleman to plead no contest to disorderly conduct. The fan filed a lawsuit claiming that the actor punched him and ran into him with his truck; the suit was settled out of court.

In February — on his 42nd birthday — he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor criminal mischief charge related to an April 2009 domestic violence incident at his home.

Coleman remained estranged from his parents, Sue and Willie Coleman, who said they learned about his hospitalization and death from media reports.

Sue Coleman said she wanted to reconcile and had been patiently waiting for her son to be ready.

“One of the things that I had prayed for was that nothing like this would happen before we could sit with Gary and Shannon and say, ‘We’re here and we love you,'” Sue Coleman said. “We just didn’t want to push him.”

She would not discuss the cause of the estrangement.

___

Associated Press Writer Doug Alden, AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen and AP Movie Writer Christy Lemire contributed to this story.

Chris Rock Isn’t Laughing

Here in the Time of Rock, wherein Christopher Julius Rock III rules again as he has ruled before, but only more so — international sweep! colossal forums! better transportation! — promptness counts for much. “There’s no such thing as early,” Rock himself will tell you, just as his late heroic father often impressed upon him under threat of belt strap. “There’s on time and late. I’m always on time.” Unsurprisingly, then, he has made it a point to be on time for his Time, which is a very good thing for a dire populace that suddenly seeks racial clarity with historic fervor (no mortal, of course, sifts matters of class and skin divide with sharper acuity than Rock, who is black but sometimes employs the term “a fine mocha” because he is just that precise.) Moreover, he concedes that seizing this seismic American Moment is probably a very good thing for himself as well, what with his nobly intended film career in chronic flux and no particularly daring roles to entice: “Eh, you know, so you read a couple of scripts, and it was like, naahhh — hit the road, hit the road. Plus, it’s the election year. It was like, come on, man! This is the time! Black guy runnin’ for president against a woman — it’s tailor-made for me.” Because he is a listener first and foremost, the sharp clarion call of a nation — and also that of his savvy accountants — could not escape his attention. And so, for months now, he has begun dispensing fresh salient insight across the continent and also across the ocean, forcing jaws to plummet and beliefs to jangle in his fiery wake. From town to town, at carefully plotted stopovers (with some tickets scalped for hundreds of dollars apiece), his itinerant wisdom has echoed not unlike rolling thunder, depending on the acoustics provided.

For instance: “Bush has fucked up so bad,” he will posit to any and all congregants in braying loops of oratory, “that he’s made it hard for a white man to run for president. ‘Gimme anything but another white man, please! Black man, white woman, giraffe, anything!’ A white man’s had that job for hundreds of years — and one guy fucked it up for all of ya!” And: “Each candidate tells you how humble they are. No, you’re not humble! Do you know how big your ego has to be to say you wanna be president of the United States? Do you know how much Puff Daddy juice you have to drink? How many Kanye injections you have to take?” And: “I actually think America is ready for a woman president. But does it have to be that woman? . . . She’s gonna work in the office where her husband got blow jobs?! There ain’t enough redecorating in the world she can do to change that! . . . There’s one thing Hillary Clinton’s better at than everybody else, and one thing only — and that’s forgiveness! Hillary Clinton is the greatest forgiver in the history of the world. Even Jesus knows: ‘You really good at fo’giveness. I mean, I talk the talk, but you walk the walk!’ ” And: “Barack Obama — he’s a black man with two black names! Barack. Obama. He doesn’t let his blackness sneak up on you. As soon as you hear Barack Obama you wonder, ‘Does he have a spear?’ . . . He’s so cool, too, man. I don’t think he realizes he’s a black candidate! When you’re the only black guy doing something, people expect you to take it up a notch. If you’re the only black playing basketball with a bunch of white guys — they expect you to dunk! . . . Barack has a handicap the other candidates don’t have: Barack Obama has a black wife. And I don’t think a black woman can be first lady of the United States. Yeah, I said it! A black woman can be president, no problem. First lady? Can’t do it. You know why? Because a black woman cannot play the background of a relationship. Just imagine telling your black wife that you’re president? ‘Honey, I did it! I won! I’m the president.’ ‘No, we the president! And I want my girlfriends in the Cabinet! I want Kiki to be secretary of state! She can fight!’ ”

These, of course, are mere droplets from ninety-plus minutes of Never Before Heard meticulously honed societal meanderings — topics ad infinitum traversing war, politics, pharmaceuticals, Roger Clemens, real estate, ejaculation, love, fatness, energy crisis, Anna Nicole Smith, gender discord, women gone missing, debt, careerism, entertainment gossip, SAT scores, gayness, racial correctness (“Now they’re trying to get rid of the word nigger, my beloved nigger. . . .”), Britney Spears and beyond — sprung from the ever-swirling Rock reservoir of dyspepsia, which has been damming up since the airing of his fourth HBO concert special, Never Scared, in 2004. “After I tape a special, I go to sleep for three years,” says Rock, meaning all material amassed for the broadcast is forever purged and discarded on-camera, so that the new can begin percolating while the universe dependably roils forth. And what would roil and erupt during this latest respite has awoken Rock to a world all but screaming out for his interpretive prowess. “I think there was kind of a new hunger for him,” notes trusted confidant Jerry Seinfeld. “Like the Wheel of Fortune, there’s this wheel of culture that turns around and around, and it sometimes lines up with a person at a certain point in their work. You can just feel it, and it’s always exciting to watch happen. Chris has been there before, and now it seems to be his moment all over again, you know?” Or as Rock’s friend Bill Stephney, the revered Public Enemy music impresario, puts it, “The times compel him, and he processes it as only he can. His mind and eyes should be donated to science. He doesn’t really know the gravity of his own power. It’s sort of like the Olympics with him: Every handful of years, there’s a Chris Rock moment. And we just happen to be in that hot zone, which has maybe never been hotter.”

Mo’nique Hits Her Sexual Peak

Actress Mo’nique loved turning 40 because the older she is, the better her sex life gets. The larger-than-life star hit the landmark age in December, and she is already reaping the benefits.

She explains her midlife joy: “I’m experiencing something so different and liberating. Everybody says 40 is the new 20. But I don’t want it to be the new 20. Everything is so better now. At 20, sexually, you don’t know what you’re doing. You look for it, you find it, you lose it a few times.”

International Wax Exhibit Celebrates Black History Month with Jamie Foxx Tribute

In the spirit of Black History Month, Madame Tussauds Las Vegas has chosen to honor Oscar-winning actor and performer, Jamie Foxx, with an official unveiling of his life-like wax statue.

The unveiling kicks off Madame Tussauds Black History month-long celebration exhibit where the new Foxx replica will join other notable African-American figures including Muhammad Ali, Louis Armstrong, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Oprah Winfrey. Each famous wax figure featured in the attraction will be accompanied by a biography highlighting each of the figures’ contributions to American history.

Jamie Foxx is the first African-American in history to receive two Oscar nominations in the same year for two of his films, Collateral and Ray.

Foxx took part in a two-hour private sitting enabling Tussauds Studio artists to create the highly-detailed $300,000 wax reproduction.

Mo’nique Denies Ex-Fiance’s Drug Allegations

Actress Mo’nique has hit out at claims made by her ex-fiance that she smokes and deals drugs and once threatened to have him killed. Marvin Dawson, 28, dated the 40-year-old star of Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins until she ditched him in 2003 because of his criminal record that included theft, gun and drug possession charges.

But Dawson claims Mo’nique is a hypocrite, telling the National Enquirer, “Not only was she an avid marijuana user, but she also did cocaine. And what’s worse, she began making money dealing coke.”

Dawson also accuses her of tax evasion and adds that when they broke up, “Mo’nique threatened my life. She said if I ever told anyone about her lifestyle, she’d hire someone to kill me.”

Dawson claims he is planning to write a book about his life with the star.

But Mo’nique’s lawyer Warren Brown has hit back: “Marvin Dawson has no credibility – he’s a nut. If she was dealing in kilos of cocaine, the DEA (drugs enforcement agency) should have her on their suspects list. See if they have anything on her. That’s dumb.”

Political correctness? What’s that?

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — The guy just wants to be funny. So why does comic Tracy Morgan often think that he’s tiptoeing through a minefield?

One thing he knows for certain: he hates the feeling. He may be proudly black, but he doesn’t want anyone telling him that jokes about race are out of bounds or that it’s wrong to be funny about religion or even mental illness.

That’s why Morgan felt like he had died and gone to heaven when NBC unleashed the taboo-breaking 30 Rock on unsuspecting viewers and cast him in the role of an addled television star whose behaviour frequently borders on dementia. He knows why 30 Rock has won such a cult following.

“It’s because the characters on the show are the most unlikely,” the Saturday Night Live veteran proclaims. “Me and Alec Baldwin? And Tina Fey? You gotta watch that show. There’s a little bit of something for everybody in there — something that you can identify with and relate to.”

Morgan is still surprised 30 Rock has even made it onto network television. “It’s really an HBO show.” he says. “We push the envelope — and that’s what TV needs. I’m sick of this political correctness. It’s killing comedy.”

Morgan yearns for the bad old days when the network police were less controlling and society was less uptight and TV comedy could poke fun at a whole range of now taboo subjects.

“Back in the days of Archie Bunker and George Jefferson, we used to make fun of racism. Now you can’t say nothing without people wanting to protest and all that stuff. I came up in a different generation of TV. You know what Redd Foxx was like on Sandford and Son? Anything came out of his mouth — and that was comedy.”

So what does Morgan want to say that he can’t say right now?

“I want to be able to say whatever I want to say,” he replies. “Freedom of speech! Not ‘watch what you say!’ ”

In fact, as he continues his affable rant, Morgan is also taking care to be politically incorrect on this particular morning. The 39-year-old smiles happily when reporters express disbelief that the oldest of his three kids is 22. He sees this as a cue to go off on an outrageous riff.

“Hey listen!” Morgan says. “In the ghetto, we use sex as a sedative, man. It eases the pain of poverty. We couldn’t afford a puppy — make a baby! You need something to love in a broken house.”

So how old was he when he had his first child?

“I was exposed early,” he says mischievously, then adds that if he hadn’t made it in the entertainment mainstream, he could have been a success in the pornography industry.

To explain this, Morgan carries his enthusiasm for political incorrectness to an unprintable level.

All of this is in aid of his theory that his brand of comedy works best when it’s based on life and it ventures into taboo territory.

“When I first started doing stand-up I was young,”Morgan says. “A lot of my material was based on imagination.

“Now I’m an adult, and a lot of material is based on observation, and it’s hilarious. Tragedy is funny — all that stuff.

“What I see is what I’m saying. I’m just gonna inject my sense of humour into it and make it funny. ‘Cause if you don’t laugh, guess what. You’ll cry. And I’m tired of crying.”

Morgan even finds it funny that he’s a guy who gets into trouble himself — with the law (because of an alcohol problem) and sometimes even when he’s working.

Morgan found himself in hot water during the making of his new movie, First Sunday, in which he and Ice Cube play a pair of bumbling buddies who set out to rob a church.

Scenes were actually shot in a church and Morgan — a non-attender — found himself in alien territory.

“I didn’t know how to act,” he says. His colleagues kept reminding him that he was in a holy place. “I’m like, wait a minute, ain’t this a movie? Camera men, grip guys — everybody’s behaving except me.”

He insists that he can’t remember why his conduct was so bad. “But I know I got kicked out a couple of times. ‘Mr. Morgan, you’ve got to go now. You just got to go. You’re making all this noise …’ ”

On the other hand, Morgan thinks the film gives him the chance to show that he’s really an actor — his character, a petty thief named LeeJohn, is one of society’s losers. Morgan wanted to be funny, but he also wanted to show some inner pain.

“When I read the role, it hit home with me,” he says. “It almost scared me, because I’ve known that pain. You see LeeJohn at the beginning and he’s a funny guy — a kind of knucklehead.

“And then you see the layers being peeled back. For a comedian, associated with being funny my whole career, it’s awesome when you get an opportunity to be emotional.”

When he worked on First Sunday, he was going through a “weird” time because of a court order which required him to wear an alcohol-detecting monitoring bracelet on his ankle during filming.

“It was heavy-duty stuff. It was a crazy time in my life filming that movie. I had just got the monitor, and I was going through some ups and downs legally — everybody knows my legal woes. So ain’t it incredible that I did this movie at that time? God works in mysterious ways, sometimes right in front of you.”

Jamie Portman, Canwest News Service © The Leader-Post (Regina) 2008

Fascinating Facts

Comedian Steve Harvey is to wed for a second time – less than two years after the breakdown of his first marriage. The actor divorced his wife of 10 years, Mary Shackelford, in December 2005. The couple have one son together, named Wynton. Harvey and his fiancee Marjorie Bridges have yet to announce a wedding date.

Bernie Mac Joins NBC ‘Family’

America, the Mac is back in television.

Comedian Bernie Mac is teaming up with producer Ben Silverman (“The Office,” “The Biggest Loser”) on an unscripted pilot for NBC called “Welcome to the Family.” The show, a reality take on Mac’s 2005 movie “Guess Who,” will follow couples from different religions or ethnic groups who are meeting each other’s families for the first time.

(“Guess Who,” which also starred Ashton Kutcher, was itself a reworking of the 1967 film “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.”)

“It’s all about falling in love, family and learning how to accept someone despite cultural, economic or social differences,” Silverman tells The Hollywood Reporter.

Mac, whose last TV project was “The Bernie Mac Show” on FOX, will narrate “Welcome to the Family” and serve as an executive producer with Silverman. Creator Katy Wallin, showrunner Greg Johnston, Steven Greener and H.T. Owens are also exec producing.

The comedian joined the project at the behest of Marc Abrams and Michael Benson, who wrote for “The Bernie Mac Show” and now work for Silverman’s production company, Reveille.

Mac can currently be seen in the feature film “Pride.” He also appears in “Ocean’s Thirteen” and “Transformers,” both of which are due in theaters this summer.

Bernie Mac Diagnosed with Respiratory Disease

Ocean’s Twelve star Bernie Mac has been diagnosed with respiratory disease sarcoidosis. The funnyman was forced to take a lengthy hiatus from his hit TV show The Bernie Mac Show at the end of last year due to his health problems, but he was certain he was suffering from double pneumonia, which he h as since beaten. Sarcoidosis, which claimed American football great Reggie White in December, restrict oxygen from the lungs and can lead to heart attacks. Mac, 46, now reveals, “I’ve had sarcoidosis since 1983 and it has not altered or limited my lifestyle. I still walk, play basketball and do normal things.”