“Up In The Air” with George Clooney

December 3rd, 2009

Let me get right to it. If you’re a George Clooney fan, you must see the excellent performance he brings to Up In The Air. Do not be surprised if you hear George Clooney’s name as a Best Actor Academy Award nominee for this mature, relevant comedy. He knocked me out with this role. He not only broke me up laughing but he also brought tears to my eyes with the depth, texture and heart he gives to a character that you’re prepared to hate when the film opens.

The movie is about making connections and about the baggage we carry in our lives. Is it really heavy baggage or not? Are we really getting anyplace better and faster when he travel without any of it? Especially when we’re middle-aged? It’s also a modern-day look at loyalty and loneliness. Don’t worry. There’s also a woman and a little sex to give the story that Preston Sturges or Billy Wilder lemon zest. Clooney’s wise-cracking character, Ryan Bingham, is a sexy corporate Terminator. He frequently flies to companies that are downsizing and he fires people. He talks each person through the severance package. He’s also a motivational speaker. The thing is, you feel that he doesn’t fully believe that whole line of jive he’s slickly giving out at the podium. As for the moments when he tells people they’ve been laid off, you sense that he hates delivering that news and works hard to give each meeting some silver bit of uncorporate humanity.

Did you ever see Cary Grant in Hitchcock’s North by Northwest? Remember when his smooth-talking ad man character, Roger O. Thornhill, pulls out his initialed matchbook on the train and Eve, the cool blonde, asks “What does the ‘O’ stand for?” He saucily answers, “Nothing.” Clooney’s Ryan Bingham is that “Nothing.” If Up In The Air had been a wry comedy made during the economic recession of the early 1950s, it would’ve starred Cary Grant. As the film begins with individual workers expressing disbelief and anger at being let go after years of job loyalty, you are grabbed. This movie’s release is as perfectly timed today as The China Syndrome was in 1979. It’s an odd thing to write, but if you’ve been on unemployment this year, this is the comedy for you.

Be cautious of listening to movie critics review it or National Public Radio show hosts interview actors or writer/director Jason Reitman. He also directed Juno. Be cautious because they reveal way too much nowadays about the films. Especially on NPR. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard a host on NPR begin a new film interview question with “At the end of the movie when…” Drives me crazy. Just go and enjoy George Clooney’s new movie. I attended a preview screening. I saw it for free and I’ll be paying to see it again. This won’t ruin anything: There’s a section in Wisconsin. The night time scene in front of the chalet restaurant to the end of the Wisconsin sequence presents some of the richest, funniest and most touching acting of Clooney’s film career. He’s terrific. Well-acted by everyone, smartly and compassionately written and directed by Jason Reitman, Up In The Air is one of the best American films I’ve seen this year.

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The White House Party Crashers

December 1st, 2009

By now, most of us have seen Mr. and Mrs. Salahi. They’re the man and wife hungry for reality show celebrityhood. So hungry that they sneaked into the recent White House State Dinner, causing a big mess for all involved with White House security. When is America going to put its national foot down about grown people behaving like irresponsible children in order to get on national television? Look at all the wasted network news time and local money because a greedy, self-absorbed, controlling dad claimed that his little boy was carried into the air in a runaway balloon? I was watching Wolf Blitzer lob cottonball questions at that slappable dad in a live interview and my gut told me that the dad was flat out lying. For one thing, he dodged Blitzer’s questions and gave vague answers.

There’s something fishy of The Salahis too. And I wonder if that fishy odor comes from a peacock. The NBC peacock.

As the husband and wife prepared to crash the private White House party, they were filmed by a Bravo TV crew. Mrs. Salahi had dreams of being a member of Bravo’s popular “Real Housewives of…” franchise. Bravo is a cable branch of the NBC family tree. The party crashing couple gave its first interview about its security breach exclusively on NBC’s Today show. Matt Lauer conducted the interview this morning. A clip was posted on the show’s website.

NBC is, shall we say, very GOP friendly. Although he had no television experience whatsoever, local NBC New York hired a local rock morning radio show DJ named Billy Bush out of Washington, DC. He did local morning news lifestyles reports for WNBC. Four months later, he was booted up to network and became a contributor for the “Today” show. Within a year, he was added to “Access: Hollywood,” the show he now hosts. During that time, he was profiled in The New York Times and he talked about his uncle, then-President George W. Bush. Billy has another member of the family in the NBC spotlight. Former President Geo. W. Bush’s daughter, Jenna, is now a “Today” show contributor. During W’s presidency, Tom Brokaw wasn’t the only NBC talent granted admission into the Oval Office for an exclusive chat. So was Matt Lauer. And Al Roker.

Years ago when there was speculation that former action movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger would, like Ronald Reagan, leave movies and throw his hat in the Republican ring of politics, news outlets reported that Schwarzenegger was holding a press conference. At it, the wires reported, he’d probably make the official statement that he wanted to be the Republican Governor of California. At the last minute, came the news report that the press conference had been cancelled. That ended speculation of his political ambitions. Wrong! He was throwing his hat into the political ring. But, instead of holding a press conference, he decided to make the big announcement on a late night entertainment talk show — NBC’s Tonight show with Jay Leno. I’m sure I don’t have to remind you that Mrs. Schwarzenegger is Kennedy clan member Maria Shriver of NBC News.

If I was a TV reporter talking to The Salahis, I would need them to tell me that their crashing of our Democrat President’s White House state dinner was not partly aided by some mischief from a GOPeacock. Feel free to leave some comments.

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Debbie Does Lederhosen

November 23rd, 2009

Early last year, I got on the social networking site called Linked In. That’s specifically for professionals out to network for a possible new job. Nothing has really happened on it for me. I got requests to “friend” folks I may have worked with decades ago but there has not been one bit of employment-related networking or an invite to submit my resumé thanks to my profile presence on Linked In.

Last week, just for grins, I decided to changed my status update on it. I didn’t write “seeking work in broadcast” or “willing to relocate for TV/Radio jobs.” I put this as my status update next to my photo:

“Bobby Rivers is currently starring in Debbie Allen’s new all-black production of The Sound of Music.”

You would not believe how many congratulatory messages and notes of “Where can I see it?” I have received from middle-aged entertainment industry folks. Seriously. Today I got a very enthusiastic message of congratulations from my career counselor at the New York actors organization that helps actors find work. I messaged her back this:

“Can you really see black Nazis chasing the Von Trapp kids up and down the papier-maché hills of Austria in something directed and choreographed by Debbie Allen? Really?” Then I added that, if she wanted, and only for her, I’d drop by the office later and sing her a couple of songs from the all-black score — “You Be Sixteen, Going On Seventeen” followed by “I Gots Confidence.”

I’m not making this up, you know. Have a good week.

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respond, if you please

November 18th, 2009

Often, the folks that you love the most are the very ones who can drive you the craziest. Yes, I’m referring to family. Last weekend, I called my mother. I called my sister, who responds to every single email and phone message as soon as she can. I got a call from my cousin, who also responds to every single email and phone message as soon as he can. I emailed my brother in California on Sunday.

I’ve yet to get a reply. It’s Wednesday. I’m not surprised. In our family history, it’s taken my brother anywhere from two weeks to two months to answer an email and a “snail mail” — the term for the old-fashioned letter or card that was stamped and put in the mailbox. In fact, one day I emailed my brother and a journalist friend of mine who lives in Hong Kong on the same morning. I got a reply from my pal in Hong Kong on the same day. I think my brother in Northern California answered a week later. True, he is a family man. Having a fulltime job and raising a couple of youngsters keeps one busy. But, come on! An email, for Pete’s sake?!?!? It’s gotten to the point now that, when I do hear back from him, I say to myself “Thank goodness he’s not an operator on a suicide prevention hotline. He’d put callers on hold and go to the lunchroom.”

It does ruffle my older brother feathers because, when our parents divorced, our father was in the category of “deadbeat dad.” There wasn’t much, if any, child support. As a result, I was in my 20s and working three jobs. I had my first professional broadcast job on a morning radio show and I two part-time jobs that helped me make money to pay my brother’s Catholic high school tuition. That was one less bill for our single working mother to pay. When those tuition bills came in, I didn’t put them aside for a couple of months. I paid them. I don’t think my brother is being mean. I do think his opinion is “He’s always emailing me about family stuff. I’ll get to him when I feel like it. He can wait.”

We’ve all done that at some point to someone we know.

Monday, I woke up to get the news from an actor friend I know that a buddy of ours had died. That buddy was Ken Ober, the comedian who hosted MTV’s “Remote Control” game show in the late 80s. Ken was only 52 and, apparently, died of a sudden heart attack in his Santa Monica apartment. My friend wrote in his email message, “We’re not promised tomorrow.” I had reconnected with Ken earlier this year via Facebook. I was on the VH1 side of the building when he was working on MTV. As employees of MTV Networks we both attended company functions. I met and would see Ken at such functions. In later years, I’d see him at auditions. Ken Ober was one of the kindest, warmest, funniest and most charismatic people I encountered in my three years of working at VH1. I read the many condolences on his Facebook page from others who were shocked and saddened by the news of his unexpected death. Just about each one also mentioned how kind he was. When Ken and I reconnected on the social networking site, I wrote how glad I was to be back in touch with him again.

I’m glad I did that. It took less that a minute to write and send that email.

We’re quickly approaching the holiday season. It’s going to be a tough holiday season. Let’s face it — many folks who had houses last year for Thanksgiving and Christmas lost those houses this year. Millions of us won’t be able to travel and see relatives or be able to shop for Christmas presents to send. That Grinch called “Unemployment” has so many of us in his clutches. But we can, in this age of multiple modes of communication, let the people we care about know that we care. We can take a minute to make them feel like a priority instead of an option. We can call. We can write. We can respond. We can embrace. Remember…we’re not promised tomorrow.

Thanks for your attention. Leave a comment, if you’d like. I wish the best for you today.

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Precious = A Darker Shade of Purple

November 12th, 2009

“I’m poor, black, I might even be ugly, but dear God, I’m here. I’m here.”

When Whoopi Goldberg declared those words in The Color Purple, she was surely on her way to getting the Oscar® nomination for Best Actress of 1985 that she so well deserved. Oprah Winfrey, a former local news reporter-turned-Chicago syndicated talk show host proved that no one can put a performer in a box when she earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her acting debut in the same film. Winfrey went after her role with a passion. Today, along with Tyler Perry, she presents Precious, a gritty film set in the mid 1980s and a story with elements that echo what Oprah attached to emotionally in “The Color Purple” — attached to in such a vigorous way that it’s all become part of our pop culture thanks to the broadcast icon being in our homes five days a week. That opening quote also applies to Precious.

A Black female is abused and regarded as ugly, there’s vile behavior from a Black man, there’s a kind-hearted lesbian, someone’s favorite color is purple, reading is fundamental and a Black female beaten down by life finds spiritual freedom in writing. I’m not writing this as a criticism, just pointing out that it should be no surprise that Oprah’s name is now in the credits. She’s been on this turf before — and with excellent results. She knows how to work it the same way Bette Davis knew how to work a staircase in just about every single one of her classic films. I’m glad she’s behind Precious. It’s one of the best films I’ve seen this year and her influence will get folks to experience the rivetting performances in it from young actress Gabourey Sidibe as the under-educated, physically abused and pregnant high schooler called “Precious” and Mo’Nique as her horrible mother. In fact, that’s how the girl’s home is shot. Like a house of horrors. It’s dark, creepy and claustrophobic. A monster was made in it. Her mom. Sidibe was born to play Precious. Vulgar and lovable, victimized and triumphant, unattractive and fabulous — she brings all the character’s vivid colors to life.

Today on WNBC, Andy Cohen, the hip gay lord and master executive of Bravo, was promoting his Bravo shows in his segment on the 5:00 light newscast. He also gave his short review of Precious. He loved it. I found this fascinating because Precious is exactly the kind of New Yorker who would be invisible to an upscale, privileged, handsome Manhattanite like Andy Cohen. If a real-life Precious, male or female, showed up at the Bravo studios with hopes of being a regular on one of its real estate or fashion shows, those hopes would be dashed. Trust me. I know. Andy Cohen is not going to send a Cosmopolitan to a male or female Precious in a club — unless that person is someone who knows Anna Wintour or Oprah. When I saw the film at a screening before it opened here in New York, I was one of the few Black folks in the audience. I sat directly behind three Caucasian couples who were all friends and all talking about whom they met and entertained at their summer homes a few months ago. All the Black folks onscreen and, I bet, just about all of us in that audience do not use “summer” as a verb. We have only one home and it’s a struggle to afford that one. There’s a scene in the movie involving a bucket of fried chicken that made me howl with laughter because it was so recognizably ghetto fabulous. The folks in front of me gasped at it. Director Lee Daniels had taken them to a world unfamiliar to them — and that’s good.

In my earlier review of “Precious,” a blog I called “Mariah Carey Beats Madonna,” I wrote that Daniels also directed Monster’s Ball. Wrong. My buddy, future hit indie filmmaker Hunter Altman, caught my mistake. Daniels produced it. Marc Forster directed it. As far as Oprah’s involvement with the promotion of Daniels’ new independent film, “Brava, Oprah.” However, I would like to see her give us other views of the African-American experience. Something not so “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.” Winfrey’s other acting credits include Native Son — about racism, ignorance and a chauffeur working for Chicago white folks in the 1930s/40s…The Women of Brewster Place put her in the projects….she was a slave in Beloved. I’d like to see her switch it up as an actress/producer. Give us Black families in something like Robert Redford’s Ordinary People or Woody Allen’s Hannah and Her Sisters. Or even slap some new drag on Tyler Perry and give us a Black divorced dad so desperate to see his kids that he becomes a Mrs. Doubtfire.

Personally, I think Oprah will be squealing with glee in a few months. Next year, the nominees for the Best Picture Academy Award increases for five to ten. Precious is good enough to be one of the ten. Now scroll down and read how Mariah Carey did in it.

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hump day holiday

November 10th, 2009

When I was a kid, I loved seeing that a number or two numbers in red fell on a Wednesday. On the family calendars we always seemed to have hanging in the kitchen, holidays got red numbers. A national holiday on a Wednesday was a major thrill to me because Monday would feel like Thursday and Tuesday would feel like a Friday. We have the day off and then just have two days before the weekend. Cool!

Tomorrow is Veterans Day, a national holiday. Remember how much red, white and blue we saw in our neighborhoods in the wake of and immediate years following the attacks of September 11th? We don’t see those colors displayed so much anymore where I live. I noticed that last year on the 4th of July. All the flags that were unfurled in front of apartment buildings and stores and local businesses were, I guess, once again furled.

We’re in two wars that are as emotionally and financially draining as having a child with a disease that needs requires it to need much therapy and medication. We have women and men serving overseas. Mothers and fathers. Not all young either. Many men are over 50. Many of those men and women have been re-deployed. Their tours of duty have been completed and they’ve been called back into service again. To honor them, to honor the veterans of the past, and to remember those victims of the recent tragedy at Fort Hood, it would be a great gesture to hang those flags again for Veterans Day, if you have own any. Show our veterans that we care. Enjoy your holiday.

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A St. Patrick’s Day Ball

November 5th, 2009

In that latter day, applejack brandy voice of hers, she said over the phone “Why don’t you come over for drinks around 6:00. Can you do that?”

Could I?!?!? When TV legend Lucille Ball asked if I could come over to her home for drinks, the answer would be “yes” even if I had to walk barefooted through the streets of Beverly Hills to get there.

Lucille Ball invited me to her home on St. Patrick’s Day in 1989. I was working on VH1 then. She’d seen some of my work, liked it and sent word to me that she liked it via a relative who worked here in New York City for an advertising firm. He and I had met at a party. That St. Patrick’s Day he and I were both in L.A. doing work for our respective companies. He was staying with Lucy. I was at a small hotel in West Hollywood.

It seemed surreal to be walking up to her door to ring the bell. I felt like I was outside of my body watching me do that. Inside, her home was so comfortable. She was extremely gracious — aware that she was a TV icon yet still with a working class sensibility and a working class appreciation for the fans that made her a star. I had an encounter earlier that day with Bruce Springsteen, then called the Balladeer of Blue Collar America or something like that. He was disappointingly high tone. Here was a woman who was a movie star before Bruce and I were both born and she was treating me like an old acquaintance. We chatted, laughed and had cocktails for about one hour. During that time, her second husband, Gary Morton came downstairs to meet me.

She had publicity photos out. She’d been autographing them for fans who continued to write to her. As I was about to leave, places for dinner were being set at the table and the TV was playing. Gary, in a royal blue jogging suit, was watching. Lucy said, “I’d invite you to stay, Bob, but we’ve only got two pork chops.” The old married couple was about to eat and watch “Wheel of Fortune.”

“I just love Pat Sajak,” Lucy said.

I get a big thrill entertaining on television. As probably happens with most kids when they’re growing up, convincing a parent for both parents that you are serious about a certain career — a career not of their choosing — can cause conflict. My mother intended for me to be a serious writer like F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Baldwin or Toni Morrison. I wanted to be on television and entertain like Steve Allen or Jack Paar. Through the years, I’ve been asked frequently what I want to do on television. I want to entertain and, in that entertainment, also inform. Paar did. David Frost did. Johnny Carson did. Oprah does. For a long time I didn’t think wanting to be an entertainer was a lofty ambition. Did that add anything to the world?

When Lucille Ball, an international superstar, raved about Pat Sajak and had his game show as part of his must-see TV viewing list, I thought differently. Weeks after the attacks of Sept. 11th, I formed a new appreciation for “Wheel of Fortune.” It helped me mentally recover from the non-stop devastating daily news updates. That entertainment provided my heart a little relief. Back in late 2001, regaining the ability to chuckle again thanks to his game show host skills, I recalled Lucy watching him the same way I watched her as Lucy Ricardo when I was a kid home from school.

If I got the chance to host something like “Wheel of Fortune,” I’d take it in a heartbeat and consider myself the luckiest guy in the country. In these hard times, I think there’s something to be said for the ability to put a few smiles on a few faces. What do you think?

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true story: when news doesn’t get it

October 30th, 2009

In my long broadcast career, I have found that the entertainment side of the industry is far more sharper, open-minded, informed and liberal than the news side of it was. Odd, isn’t it? I went into this business thinking just the opposite would be true, that the folks involved with news, the facts, would be the smart ones. The ones who didn’t have blinders on when reporting about the world around them. In my personal case, the folks who really didn’t get it were usually in the news division. Not all, mind you. Just a few. Case in point: I am not nor have I ever been a chef. Go into my bio section and read it. I was never a Bobby Flay, Paula Deen, Chef Boyardee, Martha Stewart, Emeril or Betty Crocker. When I hosted Top 5 on Food Network, I never did that show from a kitchen or near a stove. I was usually in a fancy cocktail lounge in Manhattan that we used as a set. I just introduced the video packages and did the voiceovers for them. In 100 episodes, I never so much as toasted a piece of bread. However, by the second month after the premiere of the once-a-week show, most newspeople — local and network — assumed I’d become the next Uncle Ben. As an on-air host for Food Network, I had to do publicity for the show. The press kit never stated that I was a cook. It did mention my years as a national talk show host on VH1 plus years of covering entertainment news. Few reporters read the presskit. I did a live appearance on a local ABC weekend morning news program. The anchor kicked off the segment by asking me about the nutrients in seafood. An anchor on a live CNN news show asked me about Asian cheese and then asked me for a cooking tip on a particular dish she wanted to make. I just made shit up.

Then I had to call-in as the guest on a weekday FM rock radio show with a funny morning team. The show was in the Midwest and the couple, who’d watched me on VH1, opened with “Your bio has you doing years of national celebrity interviews, reviews and talk shows. So how did you wind up on Food Network?” Yes! That’s exactly what the news people should’ve asked but didn’t. The entertainment couple in the non-cosmopolitan city got it.

I talked my way into a New York City job in 1985. I was hired by WPIX/Channel 11 news. There was a weekday morning show. I got to do celebrity interviews on it. One of my guests was famed Revlon model-turned-actress Lauren Hutton. She was promoting a goofy vampire comedy she’d made. While chatting in the make-up room before we went on the set, she asked me if she could bring her unknown leading man from the film on with her. “He’s really funny and I think he should be seen,” said Hutton, the star of the film. He was tagging along with her for her round of interviews. He was a young fellow, polite, slim and sharp as a jackknife. Very charismatic. I said to myself, “Why not?”

The rather aggravating producer of the show balked but I talked her into it. Lauren Hutton came on, accompanied by her new buddy. During our on-camera conversation, his face seemed to be made of elastic, his eyes were shining and his wisecracks broke up the cameramen. He was more cartoon character than human. I was so glad Hutton brought him along. He was delightful and he scored with the folks on the floor crew, including the host. Even those in the control room were still laughing and talking about him after the show. We all dug him. Except for the producer who said to me with a slight sneer, “He’ll never get anyplace. He’s silly.”

ONCE BITTEN, Hutton’s movie, didn’t do well at the box office. But I saw her co-star from it today on “Good Morning America” promoting his upcoming Disney film. He’ll play Ebenezer Scrooge. I never saw that producer again when I left the show in 1987 to go over to VH1. But I did see a lot more of Jim Carrey on the entertainment scene. We all did. We made him a star. I guess we all just needed a little silliness in our lives. The news producer just didn’t get it.

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Michael Jackson: The King Is Risen

October 28th, 2009

Last night, a friend and I attended a special screening of the Michael Jackson concert documentary, This Is It.

Because of some national TV reports at the time of his untimely death, I entered the theater expecting to see a feeble, insecure, mentally diminished star in a sad attempt to rise from the ashes of a scandal for one final phoenix-like performance — a modern-day male equivalent to Norma Desmond in “Sunset Boulevard,” if you will. After all, he was 50. He didn’t exactly act his age. He hadn’t starred in anything in quite a while. And he had a chimp. Very Norma.

My friend and I were practically speechless with surprise. The sadness came from the fact that he died way too soon. The Michael Jackson in rehearsals for a concert spectacular is fit, focused and in peak performance mode. The voice is good. The moves are fluid. You see a show biz legend, someone who’d won pop music stardom by the time he was a teen-ager, knowing what he wanted in the concert and getting it with confidence and courtesy. He understood his catalogue of hits. He knew what the music did for him and he knew what he did for the music. We also see that he fully knew the machinery of himself, as a performer, and knew how to click into it, make it work, conserve it and challenge it.

When Michael Jackson died, many called him “the greatest entertainer of our time.” Because I’m older, probably, and such a classic film geek, I didn’t quite agree with that. To me, Jackson — despite his pop music greatness — was not in the same category as Judy Garland and Fred Astaire. Those two show biz legends also were stars by the time they were teens — Garland in movies and Astaire on Broadway nearly two decades before becoming a film star himself. Garland and Astaire could sing, dance…and act. They have classic films and Academy Award acting nominations to their legacies. Jackson’s acting as Scarecrow in “The Wiz” was sweetly lame in that bloated turkey of a musical.

In This Is It, director Kenny Ortega does for Michael Jackson what director Vincente Minnelli did for Fred Astaire in The Band Wagon. He gets the best film performance from the superstar in a musical vehicle made after the performer has turned 50. In “The Band Wagon,” Astaire plays a famed movie musical star who’s attempting a comeback after a few years offstage. If Astaire ever got an Oscar nomination for one of his musicals, it should have been for this one. The whole movie is a gem. Gene Kelly was always called “athletic.” Astaire wasn’t — and that’s wrong. He, as does the character he plays, reinvents himself with a jazz beat in the film’s fabulous final number with Cyd Charisse, “The Girl Hunt Ballet.” He was in his early 50s when he made this film. Although he’s surrounded by younger male dancers in the number, you cannot take your eyes of Astaire as he nails Michael Kidd’s complicated and extremely athletic choreography. The same thing happens in “This Is It.” Astaire played a private eye in “The Girl Hunt Ballet” number. Jackson is dressed somewhat like Astaire’s sleuth in his sensational film noir approach to the “Smooth Criminal” number. A music video within the concert, Jackson interacts with Rita Hayworth vamping as Gilda plus other classic Hollywood stars from the 1940s and 50s.

Rehearsing his Jackson Five portion of the show, with backup dancers as his brothers, he seemed a bit bored with those hits. However, he ends it with a touching thank-you at the end of “I’ll Be There.” His new video for “Thriller” and the “Beat It” number would’ve been sure-fire hits with the audiences. Again, that’s the sadness. That multi-media concert, judging from his focus, fitness and form, would have kicked ass. Michael Jackson, the late King of Pop, left us wanting more and left us with a good movie. Just being Michael Jackson was Jackson’s best piece of acting which Kenny Ortega lovingly captured on camera. As my friend, Mario, said to me during the closing credits, “That wouldn’t have been a comeback. That showed he was always here.”

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Mariah Carey beats Madonna

October 24th, 2009

Thursday night, I saw Mariah Carey do something that Madonna has not been able to do for decades. Act.

I attended a screening of PRECIOUS. This gritty drama will get lots of promotion from Oprah Winfrey on her show because she and Tyler Perry are now in the closing credits as executive producers. Not that they were involved with the making of the movie from the git-go, mind you. When PRECIOUS, skillfully directed by Lee Daniels, started gaining heat and getting awards in major film festivals, it caught Oprah’s attention.

But back to pop music diva Mariah. She has totally, fully, completely redeemed herself for GLITTER. She plays a no-nonsense counselor in the 1980s dealing with a girl called “Precious.” That poor high school girl’s homelife is brutal. She is struck regularly. Like a gong. Precious is pregnant and lives with her hateful welfare mom. Carey appears without make-up. Without fancy clothing. Without a wind machine blowing her hair around. Without singing any of those high notes that often make her sound like Flipper. One thing is evident in Mariah Carey’s supporting role. She can act. Well…two things are evident. She can act — and she’s able to grow more of a moustache than her husband can. (How old is Nick Cannon? 14?)

There’s been a lot of buzz that Mo’Nique could be a Best Supporting Actress contender for her performance as the monstrous mother in PRECIOUS. I agree with the buzz. Her vulgar, abusive character is a true horror yet occasionally funny — like a Disney cartoon villainess. The Academy loves giving Oscar® nominations to comedians or funny actors who gained fame in sitcoms and then went dramatic — Cloris Leachman was on THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW when she won Best Supporting Actress for 1971’s THE LAST PICTURE SHOW. Sally Field, Tom Hanks, Robin Williams, Jamie Foxx and Ron Howard are all sitcom veterans who also won their Oscars for dramatic work. Howard was awarded Best Director for A BEAUTIFUL MIND.

Oprah was surprised at Mo’Nique’s scorching dramatic performance. I was not. To me, it was more of a promise fulfilled than a revelation after having seen her play a drug addict in another film helmed by Lee Daniels. SHADOWBOXER starred Helen Mirren (again, brilliant) as a terminally ill hired assassin having a steamy love affair with a younger hired killer, played sharply by Cuba Gooding, Jr. Mo’Nique scored high acting marks as a drug addict who’s attracted to her doctor. Another comedienne who gets a dramatic outing in PRECIOUS is Sherri Shepherd. Her role is small but it’s some of the best work she’s ever done. The movie starts opening early next month. It’s not an easy film to sit through but it’s worth it. I’ll have more to write about it later. By the way, Lee Daniels also directed MONSTER’S BALL. That’s the film that made Halle Berry a history-making Oscar winner and got the late Heath Ledger cast in his now-iconic BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN role.

When a 16 year old Caucasian high schooler gets pregnant and has the baby, it’s a suburban comedy called JUNO. When a 16 year old African-American high schooler gets pregnant and has the baby, it’s an urban drama called PRECIOUS. I wonder if any network entertainment reporters will pick up on that too.

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