My Publicist Note Book

Laurence Fishburne is exec producing 'Party Girls,' a Freeform dramedy about the first female leader of the Black Panther Party and her daughter. 'Party Girls,' which has a script-to-series commitment, is inspired  by Ericka Suzanne, the daughter of Elaine Brown, the first female leader of the 1960s political movement. Ericka Suzanne Freeform is looking to explore the life of Black Panther Party  leader Elaine Brown and her daughter, Ericka Suzanne. Disney's younger-skewing cable network is developing Party Girls, a single-camera dramedy inspired by the true story of Ericka Suzanne, the daughter of the first female leader of the Black Panther Party, Elaine Brown. The 1970s-set dramedy has received a sizable script-to-series commitment. That means that if network executives are happy with the script, the project would bypass the traditional pilot process and be ordered straight to series. Dayna Lynne North (Insecure) will pen the script an...

At 88-years of age, Clint Eastwood has another major box office success on his hands. As of this weekend,  The Mule , which Eastwood both stars in and directs, has cleared an incredible $100 million. Much of the box office discussion as the year turns has been about  Aquaman  riding an impressive wave and  Bumblebee  and  Mary Poppins Returns  battling it out for the fishman's scraps. But those blockbusters aren't the only films in theaters, and another December release has been quietly plugging away and making a surprising amount of money.  Clint Eastwood's  The Mule  has smuggled a cool $61.1 million at the domestic box office. The Mule  opened on December 14 opposite  Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse  and  Mortal Engines , and has brought in $61.1 million through its first three weekends. The film has held strong at #5 at the box office in its...

‘I’ll make it for $40 million if you can get Denzel Washington, 35 if you can get Wesley Snipes, and 20 if you can get Laurence Fishburne.’ Whitewashing has long been an issue in Hollywood, from the days when directors put actors in blackface in yellowface to more recent roles when characters of color are erased altogether. And though whitewashing hasn’t gone away completely, with recent scandals following Scarlett Johansson in  Ghost in the Shell  and Emma Stone in  Aloha , there has been a huge cry from audiences to let characters of color be played by actors of that same ethnicity. Should Arab Princess Jasmine be played by an Indian actress? No way, but when a ‘Hellboy’ actor gives up a role that had been reconceived for him, it sets a dangerous creative precedent that impacts Hollywood and could even stunt efforts toward inclusion. The cry has been so loud that when the news that fan-favorite characters, like Lara Jean Covey in Netflix’s  To...

For the past four decades, Laurence Fishburne has proved to be one of America’s most versatile, reliable actors, appearing in work ranging from Superman to Shakespeare, and lighting up the stage, television and big screen. He has won a Tony (“Two Trains Running”) and an Emmy (“TriBeCa”) and been nominated for a Golden Globe (“The Tuskegee Airmen”) and an Oscar (“What’s Love Got to Do With It”). His extensive resume includes roles in “Apocalypse Now,” “Boyz n the Hood,” and perhaps most famously, as Morpheus in the “Matrix” trilogy. Laurence Fishburne (left) in a flashback as Pops in “Black-ish.” On Thursday, Nov. 8, Fishburne — now a regular and executive producer on the hit TV series “Black-ish” — will be honored with the Charles Krug Legendary Actor Award at the Lincoln Theater in Yountville as part of the Napa Valley Film Festival, which runs Wednesday to Sunday, Nov. 7-11: Q: How does it feel to be receiving the legendary actor award at the Napa V...