richard pryor

It's not how you start

Let's play a game. I'll describe a childhood, and you figure out who had it.
Person No. 1 -- Raised in his grandmother's brothel, the son of a prostitute, he was raped by a neighbor at 6 and molested by a Catholic priest during catechism.
Person No. 2 -- Considered useless and distant, teachers wrote of him, as noted in Catherine Hurley's "Could do Better": "Certainly on the road to failure … hopeless … rather a clown in class … wasting other pupils' time."
Person No. 3 -- Raised in the brothel run by his aunt, he was once sent home from school for "insufficient clothes" and was arrested at 15 for breaking into cars.
Give up?

1. 1. Richard Pryor.
2. 2. John Lennon.
3. 3. James Brown.

Arguably the greatest comedian, songwriter and soul singer of the 20th century, respectively.
The question isn't: "Why did Miami Dolphins GM Jeff Ireland ask Oklahoma State wide receiver Dez Bryant if his mom was a prostitute?" The question is: "Why should it matter?"

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AP Photo/Lynne SladkyJeff Ireland issued an apology to Dez Bryant for the question about his mother, but several people are still upset.

You're not drafting the mom, you're drafting the son! Supposing it's true that Angela Bryant was a prostitute at 15 when she had Dez, how does it reflect on his worth? How is it relevant? What was he supposed to do about it?
If the Dolphins were so concerned about how his mother's sexuality will affect him on the football field, did they ask him about her coming out as gay when he was in high school? Are we the people who raised us?
Honestly, the arrogance of the NFL makes me yearn for the open-mindedness of the McCarthy hearings. Hey, Dan Marino and Vince Young, you each scored 16 on the Wonderlic? Can't draft you.
People rise above. Can you name the NBA superstar who was the son of a heroin addict? Whose South Side Chicago mom was constantly strung out? Who, at 5, was being raised by his 9-year-old sister? Dwyane Wade. Would Ireland have passed on him?
Say what you like about Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, but he gets it. He passed on Randy Moss because of rumors in 1998 and vowed he wouldn't let another Moss slip by. The Boys took Bryant with the 24th pick in the draft. Have you seen Dez Bryant's highlight reel? The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex just got very lucky.
Right away, Bryant becomes my favorite player in the NFL. Can you imagine the hell he's going through? His young mother's reputation being dragged around? His first day in a Dallas Cowboys uniform, there are reporters wanting to ask him if his dad was a pimp?
Really, what have people said about Bryant? They've said he's always late. Guilty. He'll learn. And if he doesn't, a few thousand stairs at the new stadium will teach him. Wanna know what Winston Churchill's teacher said about him as a teenager, according to Hurley? "Constantly late for school … he is so regular in his irregularity that I really don't know what to do." Kids learn.
They said Bryant lied to an NCAA investigator about hanging around with former NFL star Deion Sanders his junior year. Also guilty. Stupid thing to do, lying. But Bryant was 20 at the time. Do you know what I was doing at 20? Trying to capture burps in a Mason jar.
Oh, and Bryant's supposed fatal flaw: They said his mom was a prostitute. The rumor was everywhere, and Ireland just had to know if it was true. SI.com reported that Ireland asked it only as a reaction to Bryant's telling him that his mom "worked for" his dad, who was a pimp. But Bryant calls that "a lie."

It's a civil rights violation to ask any question "not related to essential job functions." And that includes "lineage, ancestry, national origin, descent, nationality or parentage."

But even if it were true, how does it measure Bryant himself? Barry Switzer's father was a bootlegger who was shot by a jealous lover and died in a car crash on the way to the hospital. Switzer's mother was a drug addict who shot herself and died in his arms in the family's backyard. Didn't stop Switzer from winning three national championships and a Super Bowl. Mark Ingram's dad is a money launderer and bail jumper who's doing nearly 10 years in prison. It didn't stop Ingram from winning a Heisman Trophy and a national championship last season.
Bryant has never been arrested and has never had an incident involving violence, drugs or alcohol. But I know somebody who has. You might even call him out of control -- arrested three times for driving violations, including once for suspicion of driving and drinking (later reduced). Bill Gates. Who'd want him on their team?
Bryant could sue and probably win. Because the same rules that apply to Joe CEO interviewing somebody about a job apply to Joe GM interviewing somebody about a place on a team. It's a civil rights violation to ask any question "not related to essential job functions." And that includes "lineage, ancestry, national origin, descent, nationality or parentage."
But hey, people make mistakes. Can you name the 1991 Baylor kicker who missed three field goals, including a 27-yarder, against Rice, helping the eighth-ranked Bears lose by three to a 20.5-point underdog? The kicker who was roundly hated and booed but went on to become a well-respected man in professional football?

mongolian death worm

Mongolian Death Worm Takes On SyFy

 When an American oil company sets up an experimental drilling plant out in the vast deserts of Mongolia, they awaken a nest. The deadly creatures begin to breed and spread, devouring everyone in their path. The only person who can stop them is a treasure hunter and adventure seeker who spent his life searching for a legendary tomb, fabled to be protected by the Death Worms. He knows he must do what he can to kill the creatures, but stopping these monsters may mean destroying his life's work forever!

A SyFy Original Movie on a Saturday night is at best PG. PG for Probably Good. They're low budget productions notorious for their cheeseball nature and are mostly harmless. Some would say it is not even worth the time to critique any of these films because they are so low brow. When a SyFy Saturay night movie is your  Last 'Resort' On Your Left, so to say, there can be no expectations. But that's not going to stop me because while there are intentional cheesefests like Mega Phirannha a film like Mongonlian Death Worm tries to sell it straight faced. 

The problem I have with this movie is these Mongolian Death Worms are such a minor part of the story I'm left wondering why call your film that at all. They aren't threatening anyone or overrunning any village until well late into the film, think Tremors meets HGTV, and only then do we find out it only takes one shot to kill them. If they weren't simply mindless overgrown banana slugs with larger teeth they could just sit back and let the humans try to kill each other off because that is what happens throughout most of the movie. The story puts so much emphasis on the story between its human characters but you know the worms are hanging out on the peripheral for so much of these story lines. You know they're out of the corner of your mind's eye and you wish they would step into the picture. Oh, They show up once and a while, grab a quick bite, and then everyone runs away. 'Oh no. The Mongolian Death Worms are slooo-ooowly inching towards us'! Their sense of timing is bad or impeccable depending on which side of the protruding jawed tongue you're on. But you're left wondering, doesn't anyone use salt in Mongolia? Spread some of that shit around your home, that'll keep those pesky buggers off your prized begonias and children. 

 

Sean Patrick Flannery is really the only bright spot. And that's not because the rest of the film is sub standard. He actually pulls off a convincing anti-hero. With an almost Jack Burton-esque quality. Give him a better written part in a true horror comedy and I think he can do better. What has he done to deserve this fate? Okay, Victoria Pratt is still a fit and attractive woman but she's given a window dressing role. I guess remnants of my Sam Raimi produced Cleopatra 2525 crush still lurk about.

 

But, where the hell are the worms? Why does this script spend so much time with people? There is so much miss opportunity here. Everything that could have made this better, an opportunity to build up excitement for Genghis Khan's treasure, more Death Worms more often. They remove any opportunity for mystique about the creatures. There is no discovery. Our adventurous treasure hunter and the locals know about them already. No sense of WOW THAT'S A GIANT MONGOLIAN DEATH WORM. I'm more scared of the worm at the bottom of a tequila bottle.

goran dragic

Spurs Watch Former Draft Pick Goran Dragic Help Suns to 3-0 Series Lead

It's a 100-percent what-the-expletive fact that no one expected Slovenian Goran Dragic to torch the Spurs for 23 fourth-quarter points to give the Suns a 110-96 win and a 3-0 series lead.
Spurs fans have to be groaning right now, knowing they gave Dragic away in a draft-day trade in 2008, only to be exorcised by the very same 45th overall pick. That's the kind of stuff that happens to...Phoenix.
In the summer of 2007, Phoenix traded away Kurt Thomas and two number-one picks to Seattle for a "conditional second-round pick" and cash considerations. Seattle released Thomas, who promptly signed with the Spurs.
The following spring, it was Thomas taking an overtime charge on Amare Stoudemire in Game 1 of the first round, a foul that would disqualify Stoudemire and help give the Suns another devastating defeat at the hands of San Antonio.
That was a year after Suns' draftee and stud Michael Finley had a decision to make following the 2005-06 campaign -- Phoenix or San Antonio. He chose the Spurs and helped them beat Phoenix in the second round of the 2007 playoffs.
In other words, it had to feel really good for the Suns brass and fans, and really nauseating to their San Antonio counterparts, every time Dragic executed a mini Dream Shake, a Nash-like step-back three, and a heat-check four-point play.
Unbelievable.
What was also unbelievable was Spurs' coach Greg Popovich's lack of involvement. He basically watched helplessly as Dragic, whose jump shot Popovich once ridiculed, shredded the vaunted Spurs defense again and again.
By the time Pop finally called a timeout, the damage had been done. The Suns held an 11-point lead, the momentum, and the game in their hands.
It can't be overstated how unusual that is. Usually Popovich calls micro-managing, momentum-stopping timeouts after four or six-point Suns runs. Instead, no timeouts, no solutions, not for the Suns in general or Dragic in particular.
Barbosa (another former Spurs pick) also got in on the fourth-quarter fun, getting a couple diving layups and probably the momentum-swinging three-pointer that put the Suns up four. After the shot, Barbosa was, by all visual proof, visibly angry and competitive for the first time in his life.
Of course, it's only him, Nash and Stoudemire who really carry the brunt of the burden the Spurs have put on them this decade. It had to feel good for him to stick it in crunch-time, especially after being thoroughly flummoxed by the Spurs' defense in playoffs past.
Now, it's the Spurs who are flummoxed. Game 3 couldn't have started any more perfectly for San Antonio. The Suns had 19 points at the end of the first quarter. Stoudemire was ineffective. Ginobili was on fire.
And still, Phoenix crawled back from an 18-point deficit . That's unheard of in the history between these two teams.
Then again, that history never featured a capable Nash backup who, for one night, played well enough to keep Nash on the bench.

 

live oak high school morgan hill

Wrong Live Oak High receives threats

Five student-athletes exposed raw feelings about race and immigration in a Northern California high school this week when they made the provocative choice to wear shirts and shorts bearing the stars and stripes of the American flag to school on Cinco de Mayo.

Now their actions — which an assistant principal at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill labeled "incendiary" — are spilling across the small town's borders, igniting a polarizing national debate on cable television's 24-hour talkfest.

Wednesday, as the school's Latino pupils — nearly 40 percent of the Live Oak student body — were celebrating the Mexican army's victory against France in 1862, many wearing Mexico's colors of red, white and green, the five boys showed up dressed in the American flag.

Assistant Principal Miguel Rodriguez told the boys to reverse their colors, or go home. Three boys left campus because they found the other option to be "disrespectful" to the flag, and two remained in school anyway, without changing, their parents said.

Rodriguez could not be reached for comment — the school was referring all calls to the district office — but parents said he indicated to them he was concerned about the boys' safety.

The Morgan Hill Unified School District later said what happened was "extremely unfortunate" and that there is no ban on "patriotic" clothing. The new anti-immigration law in Arizona, giving police broad power to detain anyone suspected of being in the U.S. illegally, formed the backdrop for the school drama.

"We're happy about Arizona's law, and you bet we're fired up," said Julie Fagerstrom, whose son, Dominic Maciel, wore one of the offending shirts. Dominic's father, Fagerstrom said, is a first-generation Mexican-American.

But the boys' action also riled a number of the those who had celebrated Cinco de Mayo.

By Thursday morning, Mexican-American students began texting each other in class, and soon as many as 100 of them were standing in front of the school. Soon they were marching down the road to Morgan Hill City Hall. "When we were marching, they would pass in their trucks and were flipping us off," said Gerardo Cabralas, a junior, referring some non-Latino classmates. "And to be honest, sometimes we flipped them back."

A group of about a dozen Latino students expressed their dismay Thursday directly to the school's white students — particularly the boys who wore the flag clothing. "We respect them on Fourth of July," said sophomore Biana Coreas. "We don't go with our Mexican flags waving it up that day, so why can't they respect us too?"

The struggle for respect went on most of the day Thursday, and no one was certain when it would end.

"School was pretty crazy today," Dominic told the Mercury News. "I don't think I'm a villain, I was just representing my country. But I don't know if I would do this again. People took our message the wrong way. We weren't trying to start anything at all."

Some of the outrage was misdirected to Sutter County, where authorities said at least one person called Live Oak High School threatening violence.

Among several hate calls the school received was one promising to detonate a bomb or shoot at the school, according to sheriff's Lt. James Casner, who said the threat probably stemmed from news viewers confusing the Mid-Valley town with the Morgan Hill school.

"We will be actively investigating this," he said Thursday, adding the Sheriff's Department plans to step up its presence around Live Oak High. "Just because it's the wrong school doesn't mean someone won't try to do it."

courtyard hounds

Sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Robison, two-thirds of the Dixie Chicks, are spreading their chicken wings and dipping their pouty little beaks into a new feed trough of their own. Today, the pair released an album on the Columbia label called Court Yard Hounds.
According to Billboard.com, Robison and Maguire first decided to record as Court Yard Hounds when Dixie Chicks lead vocalist Natalie Maines wanted to take time off and they were “itching to create some new music.” “She was happy for us that we were able to find an outlet for the stuff that I'd been writing,” Robison said.
The album includes acoustic, rock, country and folk influences. The Court Yard Hounds are even touring the U.S., doing the Lilith Fair, the Telluride Bluegrass Festival and other shows. They will also be doing the talk show circuit, appearing on Good Morning America, Late Night With Jimmy FallonJimmy Fallon, Late Show With David Letterman, The View, The Ellen DeGeneresEllen DeGeneres Show and the Late Late Show With Craig FergusonCraig Ferguson.
To help sell the new concept and get the music out into the hands of the fans faster, anyone who preordered the CD from the band’s website was given four songs as downloadable files.
To help fit their mom lifestyle, they’ve been blogging on MomsLife.com and doing weekly webisodes on a variety of sites. Also, their outfits from each TV publicity event will be available for sale at iDeeli.com. There will also be a special day when the outfits will be bundled with the record.
The trio are continuing to work together even as the CYH’s album is released. The Chicks are heading out soon for a North American outdoor stadium tour with the Eagles and Keith UrbanKeith Urban throughout the month of June. This will be the girls’ first tour in four years and they will be promoting their newest album, Taking the Long Way. Meanwhile, Sony Legacy will reportedly release a Dixie Chicks compilation June 1. To date, the Dixie Chicks have sold 25 million albums.

victoria rowell daughter

oday, Good Morning America hosted Queen Latifah, whose Put on Your Crown: Life-Changing Moments on the Path to Queendom (Grand Central Publishing, 978-0446555890, $20; Hachette Audio unabridged CD, $22.98) pubs tomorrow.

 

On The Steve Harvey Morning Show, soap opera diva Victoria Rowell revealed her debut novel Secrets of a Soap Opera Diva (Atria, 978-1439164426, $16), which pubbed yesterday.

 

On Live with Regis and Kelly, Joanna Philbin (daughter of Regis) introduced her YA novel The Daughters (Poppy, 978-0316049009, $16.99; Hachette Audio unabridged CD, $22.98), her first in a series about growing up with celebrity parents. PW found it a “predictably glam but thoroughly enjoyable debut.”

 

Authors on this morning’s Today show:

 

Singer/songwriter Chely Wright, whose Like Me: Confessions of a Heartland Country Singer (Pantheon, 978-0307378866, $25.95) pubbed yesterday.

 

Actor, stand-up comedian, writer, and producer Damon Wayans, whose debut novel is Red Hats (Atria, 978-1439164617, $19.99).

 

Former First Lady Laura Bush talked about her memoir Spoken from the Heart (Scribner, 978-1439155202, $30; S&S Audio abridged CD, $29.99).

 

Beth Ostrosky Stern, author of Oh My Dog: How to Choose, Train, Groom, Nurture, Feed, and Care for Your New Best Friend (Gallery, 978-1439160299, $25.99).

 

Mario Batali, whose latest is Molto Gusto: Easy Italian Cooking (Ecco, 978-0061924323, $29.99).

 

Authors on The Diane Rehm Show: 

 

Isabel Allende talked about her latest novel, Island Beneath the Sea (Harper, 978-0061988240, $26.99). In a PW Signature Review, Marlon James wrote “Slavery as a subject in fiction is still a high-wire act, but one expects more from Allende.

 

Alec MacGillis, contributor to the Washington Post’s guide Landmark: The Inside Story of America's New Health Care Law and What It Means for Us All (PublicAffairs, 978-1586489342, $12.95; Blackstone unabridged CD, $24.95).

 

Authors on today’s Leonard Lopate Show:

 

Scott Turow discussed Innocent (Grand Central Publishing, 978-0446562423, $27.99; Hachette Audio unabridged CD, $39.98) just out yesterday. PW’s starred review declared “Mesmerizing prose and intricate plotting lift Turow's superlative legal thriller, his best novel since his bestselling debut, Presumed Innocent, to which this is a sequel.”

 

Investment banker, Rhodes scholar, and former aide to Condoleezza Rice Wes Moore discussed The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates (Spiegel & Grau, 978-0385528191, $25; RH Audio unabridged CD, $35). PW starred its review: “Moore writes with subtlety and insight about the plight of ghetto youth, viewing it from inside and out; he probes beneath the pathologies to reveal the pressures—poverty, a lack of prospects, the need to respond to violence with greater violence—that propelled the other Wes to his doom. The result is a moving exploration of roads not taken.”

 

The Bob Edwards Show grilled Jennifer Mascia on her memoir Never Tell Our Business to Strangers (Villard, 978-0345505354, $26; Blackstone Audio unabridged CD, $32.95).

 

Sirius XM’s Doctor Radio featured two-time breast cancer survivor Gina Maisano, whose book is Intimacy After Breast Cancer: Dealing with Your Body, Relationships and Sex (Square One Publishers, 978-0757003240, $16.95).

 

This evening on The Colbert Report: Dave Isay, author of Mom: A Celebration of Mothers from StoryCorps (Penguin, 978-1594202612, $21.95), which PW called “a satisfying second collection of StoryCorps selections after the bestselling Listening Is an Act of Love. Readers will encounter an emotional range from heart-wrenching to inspirational in these compelling maternal accounts.”

 

The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson hosts Seth MacFarlane, voice of TV’s The Family Guy, whose latest is Family Guy: Stewie's World Domination Kit (Running Press, 978-0762439300, $8.95).

 

Tonight, Tavis Smiley talks with Ceci Connolly, contributor to the Washington Post’s guide Landmark: The Inside Story of America's New Health Care Law and What It Means for Us All (PublicAffairs, 978-1586489342, $12.95; Blackstone unabridged CD, $24.95).

 

ellen barkin

Tom Murro's Movie Date With Ellen Barkin

It’s a blast here at the 2010 Tribeca  Film Festival!

 Looks like my celebrity magnet powers are running at full power, as I am meeting more celebrities, actors, writers, directors than I thought possible.
Ellen Barkin was kind enough to share some popcorn while I sat with her and watched her latest film,  ’The Chameleon.’
She had never posed while sitting in a theater before, while eating pop corn, and oddly enough I had never taken pictures of anyone, let alone an Emmy-winning actress in a theater, eating popcorn.
A first for both of us!