My Publicist Note Book

  The History Channel Resurrects a Classic  Kirby with the original Kunta Kinte, LeVar Burton.  Casey Crafford Played by LeVar Burton in his professional acting debut, the young Mandinka warrior-turned-Southern slave was brutally whipped until he acknowledged his new slave name.“Your name is Toby. You’re going to learn to say your name. Let me hear you say it. What’s your name?” “Kunta. Kunta Kinte.” “Lord God, help that boy. They’re gonna whip him dead.” Dallas native Erica Tazel as Matilda, wife of Chicken George.  Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/living/article79782887.html#storylink=cpy Nearly 40 years later, an ambitious eight-hour remake of  Roots  will air at 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday on three networks: A&E, History and Lifetime. The new  Roots,  while telling the same story, is very different in a multitude of ways — particularly in terms of its rich visuals, because TV production values h...

Ground-breaking 1970s slave drama Roots is returning - and it's set to be even more brutal Hakeem Kae-Kazim says the new drama will not pull any punches The remake stars Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Malachi Kirby, Forest Whitaker, Anna Paquin and Laurence Fishburne Ground-breaking 1970s television mini-series Roots is having a brutal re-make. The US drama, based on Alex Haley’s book charting the life of slave Kunte Kinte, was one of the highest-rated shows of the decade. Now a new “more realistic” version is being filmed on location in New Orleans and South Africa and will be screened in the UK later this year. One of its stars, Brit actor Hakeem Kae-Kazim, has told how Roots isn’t pulling any punches in how it realistically portrays how slaves were treated. He told of his mixed emotions about agreeing to take the role of vicious Samson - whose role is to “break in” the new slaves. The 52-year-old Hotel Rwanda and Pirates of the Caribbean star, who was born in Nigeria, ...

Music From the Motion Picture  Black Nativity RCA Inspiration released the soundtrack to Fox Searchlight Pictures holiday musical drama “ Black Nativity ” on November 5th. A new film adaptation of Langston Hughes’ stage drama “Black Nativity”comes complete with a soundtrack album that features performances by an all-star cast of vocalists, including Mary J. Blige, Nas and Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson, whose song “Test of Faith”premieres today on Speakeasy, along with the previously released track “Be Grateful.” Hudson in the film plays a single mother raising Langston (Jacob Latimore), who heads from Baltimore to New York to spend Christmas with his minister uncle and aunt, played by Forest Whitaker and Angela Bassett, respectively. Chafing under his uncle’s strict rules, Langston sets out for home, and life lessons ensue. Jennifer Hudson in a scene from “Black Nativity.” From the sound of “Test of Faith,” Hudson’s character has already learned a few of her o...

Eugene Allen, the man whose life and career were the inspiration for Lee Daniels’ The Butler. He served 8 different presidents as a butler in the White House. On August 16, you will be able to see him depicted as Cecil Gaines.  ‪#‎ LeeDanielsTheButler‬ ! The film follows the life of Cecil Gaines, an African-American domestic worker at the White House (played by  Forest Whitaker ) who worked for ten different U.S. presidents from the mid-1950s onward, with Robin Williams playing  Dwight Eisenhower , James Marsden playing  John F. Kennedy , Liev Schreiber playing Lyndon Johnson, and John Cusack playing Richard Nixon, among others.  The suggestion is that President Obama was invited to play himself in a brief scene near the end. President Barack Obama does NOT make his big-screen acting debut in the upcoming White House drama "Lee Daniels' The Butler." "We wanted him to do it," Daniels said, and it was in the script for him to make an ap...