DEL HARRISON IS ON THE MOVE!!!!

It’s rare you get to meet greatness, a person that you share a moment in time together or work with in life or even if lucky get to know them before they become famous. When I started my career in the entertainment business, I met a number of people who I knew instantly, this person is going places, Tyra Banks, Boris Kodjoe and Cameron Diaz. Last week, I add comedian Del Harrison to that list. She is a very talented, funny and beautiful person. I am the Vice President of her new fan club, Cute Chicks Unite. To prove my point, Mo’Nique asked Del on to her BET talk show as a special guest this season.

Check out Del Harrison…

And she also a talking head on GLO TV Network.

Remember that name! I told you FIRST PEOPLE!!!

Lil Mogul

It was a Precious Night For Mo’Nique 5th African American Woman to Win an OSCAR

I was so happy that Mo’Nique WON an Academy Award an “Oscar” for her role in Precious. She was truly amazing portraying the role as Mary Lee Johnston. Dreams can come true! So, I was wondering if I can win an Oscar too.

I am Black, talented; however, realized I am not a comedian or a singer. Would this hurt my chances of being an Academy Award winner? CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE WINNERS!!!

Whoopie Goldberg: Oscar winner for Best Supporting Actress in 1991 for Ghost

Jaime Fox: Oscar winner for Best Actor in 2004 for Ray

Cuba Gooding Jr: (Best Supporting Actor in 1996 for Jerry Maguire) - He was a popular winner at the time for a ferocious performance as egomaniacal but insecure Rod Tidwell ("Show me the money!"). Unfortunately, his CV since then is littered with material of dubious quality; he's either a poor judge of scripts, or he should get rid of his agent.

Jennifer Hudson: Oscar winner for Best Supporting Actress in 2006 for Dreamgirls

Halle Berry: Oscar winner for Best Actress in 2001 for Monster Ball

Morgan Freeman: After nominations for Driving Miss Daisy and the Shawshank Redemption, won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 2004 for Million Dollar Baby

Louis Gossett, Jr: (Best Supporting Actor in 1982 for An Officer and a Gentleman) - A charismatic and extremely talented actor with a flair for projecting authority. Louis Gossett was a popular Oscar winner, but he was unable to build on his success and carve out the kind of movie career that he deserved. Today, he is bigger on TV than in the movies.

Sidney Poitier: Oscar winner for Best Actor in 1963 for Lilies of the Field

Denzel Washington: Oscar winner for Best Actor in 2001 for Training Day and Best Supporting Actor in 1989 for Glory

Forest Whitaker: Oscar winner for Best Actor in 2006 for The Last King of Scotland

Hattie McDaniel: Oscar winner for Best Supporting Actress in 1939 for Gone with the Wind

Best Original Score
1984 Prince Purple Rain Winner
1986 Herbie Hancock Round Midnight Winner

Best Original Song
1971 Isaac Hayes Shaft "Theme from Shaft" Winner
1983 Irene Cara Flashdance "Flashdance (What a Feeling)" Winner
1984 Stevie Wonder The Woman in Red "I Just Called to Say I Love You" Winner
1985 Lionel Richie White Nights "Say You, Say Me" Winner
1989 Carly Simon Working Girl "Let the River Run" Winner
2005 Jordan Houston, Cedric Coleman, Paul Beauregard (Houston and Beauregard are the music group Three 6 Mafia) Hustle & Flow "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" Winner

It will be so PRECIOUS

It was a PRECIOUS week!!! On Tuesday, the Oscar nominations were announced and we were focused almost entirely on director Lee Daniels' moving picture Precious, which is up for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Gabourey Sidibe), Best Supporting Actress (Mo'Nique), Best Adapted Screenplay (Geoffrey Fletcher), and Best Film Editing (Joe Klotz). That's six nominations. And come March 7, the film could very well win them all.

Best Picture. It's up against The Hurt Locker and Up In The Air, sure, but we expect Academy voters to shun the blockbuster fare of Avatar in favor of 2009's most buzzworthy film. A vote for Precious is a vote against domestic violence, or so its producers are hoping everyone believes. The film stars blockbuster names (Mariah Carey, Mo'Nique), but not blockbuster attitudes. It didn't just move theatergoers to discuss the film, it created a dialogue. And because of its commercial success, a vote for Precious doesn't just reward a picture that moved people, but rewards a picture that did so while propping up the industry.

Best Director. Besides an endorsement from Oprah, director Lee Daniels is not on an uphill battle. He's the odds-on favorite. His competition is not Inglourious Basterds' Quentin Tarantino, but The Hurt Locker's Kathryn Bigelow. Daniels' telling of a sexually abused and forgotten teenage girl, who achieves small triumphs along the way, is a story more human than other of the other contenders. That doesn't make it Oscar bait, but Daniels' so-far humble acceptance of the industry's lauding will go a long way.

Best Actress. A twentysomething newcomer in the industry, Gabourey Sidibe's skyrocketed to muted fame, thanks to her daring portrayal of Precious's title character. She is not a Hollywood player — but she faces stiff competition from the very well-received efforts of Sandra Bullock and Meryl Streep, a critic darling. A win for Sidibe would be the Academy's way of solidifying Precious as 2009's ultimate movie of the year. A snub, however, would mean only that voters were absolutely wowed with Bullock's ability to go from Miss Congeniality to, well, awesome.

Best Supporting Actress. There's been no formal Oscar campaign for Mo'Nique, a decision about as purposeful as campaigning for an Oscar. She has not vocalized any desire to win trophies, although she's been handsomely rewarded at the Golden Globes and SAG Awards. Utterly transformed in her role as an abusive, love-starved mother, Mo'Nique helped carry Precious as much as its star. And she "gives good speech," a remarkably powerful criteria for choosing winners.

Best Adapted Screenplay. Whether or not Academy voters read the book — 1996's Push — that inspired the film, awarding screenwriter Fletcher the Oscar for transforming Sapphire's novel into a big screen production will have only one downside: snubbing In The Loop's amazingly talented writers. But if Precious is destined to win Best Picture and turn Daniels into a Best Director winner, we find it hard to believe the Academy would not also reward the man responsible for Precious' inner dialogue.

Best Film Editing. If you enjoyed the mindfuck animated montages on Precious (we didn't), then you'll understand why the Oscar could go to editor Joe Klotz. But he faces a huge battle against Avatar's Team Cameron, and this is the one award Precious stands a good chance of losing.

If you think the film is to heavy to go see... Check out this trailer:

Miki Howard talks about Gays and The Church

By Clay Cane

On Monday, legendary R&B singer Miki Howard appeared on BET's The Monique Show. Howard sang (she still has that voice!) and discussed her autobiography, Always Had Shoes. During the interview Howard chatted about coming up in the gospel church.

Then, the "Love Under New Managment" hit maker brought up the gay community as it relates to the church -- and bringing up the late Rev. James Cleveland who was closeted but known to be gay, which is the story for many in the black church. Howard said, "One good thing that I really wanted to talk about in the book is the gay aspect of church that we don't talk about in our community. I grew up in the James Cleveland church and it was really gay." Howard continued, "We didn’t know that people thought that was bad. We didn’t know that outsiders thought that was bad."

Mo'Nique, who has been consistently supportive of the gay community added, "I applaud you for addressing because most times we run from it because, like you said, 'For all our gay brothers and sisters watching please know that you are always welcomed baby. We love you -- the no judgment zone!'"

Big kudos to Miki Howard for bringing up the other side of the black church. These insecure power bottoms who laughingly fail at being hetero are extremely self-destructive to the black community, especially when they are getting their colon reconstructed at gospel conventions but have magic potions for "conversion." These "preachers" are claiming to be historians and psychotherapists on sexuality and gender when they have no training or education (some haven't even graduated from high school!). It's refreshing to see someone like Miki Howard, born and raised in the church, explain a different side. I will have to purchase her autobiography!

Precious the movie

The Winner goes to:

I think this Oscar season should be EXCITING!!! Mo'Nique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey, Lenny Kravitz and my girl Erica Watson were excellent in the movie “Precious”; however, the breakout star was newcomer Gabourey Sidibe.

Gabourey had no acting experience when she auditioned for the lead role in "Precious," director Lee Daniels' drama about a sexually abused Harlem teenager. The film is based on the Sapphire novel, "Push," (Vintage). It was by chance that Sidibe, a New York psychology student, found herself in the Bronx that fateful day. "I didn't decide to go to the audition," she recalls. "I just ended up on that side of the street. Isn't that weird?" So, when Daniels offered her the career-making part within hours of her audition, it's no surprise that tears shot from Sidibe's eyes. "Like water pistols," she says. "It just didn't make sense to my life that I would be starring in some movie."



It makes sense when you hear Daniels tell the story. Daniels, who produced 2001's Oscar-winning "Monster's Ball," interviewed hundreds of women when casting for Claireece "Precious" Jones, an illiterate, overweight black teen mother of two whose horrific circumstances take a turn when she is given a second chance at an alternative school. Daniels' error, he says, was in seeking an actress similar to Precious, a young lady so abused in every way by her mother and father that she rarely speaks and is almost inaudible when she does. Sidibe couldn't be more different. "I realized I needed someone to act that, not be that," he says. "I knew she (Sidibe) was the girl. She brought a sense of confidence and smarts (to the role). She got it."

Sidibe, who was raised by her mother, R&B singer Alice Tan Ridley, in Brooklyn, is the opposite of the Precious we meet early on in the film. Sidibe is articulate, assertive and vivacious. "For the first week on set, she was just 'Precious' to me," says co-star Paula Patton, who plays Precious' teacher, Ms. Rain. "Then we're in the makeup trailer and she's all, 'Do you watch 'The Hills?' She talks like a girl from the (San Fernando) Valley." Patton, who starred opposite Denzel Washington in 2006's "DEJÃ Vu," calls working with Sidibe a humbling experience. "She's a superstar," she says. "She's so magnetic. I was blown away by her performance. I think actors can work their whole lives and not turn out a performance like she has done."

This film is A MUST SEE. In Theaters NOW