If it ain’t broke don’t fix it may be a mantra that makes perfect sense with plenty of things. But when it comes to movie franchises, don’t be so sure that’s the way to go. As summer movie season looms and we ready for months of fun at the theater, we’re also bracing ourselves for some truly horrible movie franchises rearing their ugly head.

Joseph Marzullo/WENN

Who knew that returning to Broadway after a 30 year hiatus would result in a Tony Award nomination?

Such is the case for the legendary Cicely Tyson.  The actress has not graced the “Great White Way” since her role as “Miss Moffat” in The Corn is Green but she is now being recognized for her work in A Trip To Bountiful, which is produced by New York Knicks’ star Tyson Chandler. Miss Tyson has been nominated for “Best Actress In A Leading Role In A Play.”

Although, she’s worked on Broadway since the 1950s, this is her first nomination in any capacity according to Black Voices.  The Emmy Award winner and Academy Award nominee rounds out the nominations for The Trip to Bountiful, as it has also been nominated for “Best Revival of a Play,” “Best Set Design,” and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play,” where Condola Rashad is nominated.

It is amazing that at age 88 (allegedly), Cicely Tyson still takes command of all her roles. As most of us know, she appears to be a permanent fixture in most of Tyler Perry’s “Madea” movies. It is also good to see a few people of color being recognized at the Tony Awards when we know it is often a “whitewash.”

Congrats to Cicely Tyson and to all the nominees!

Yesterday, we showed you this photo of Oprah dressed as her epic character “Sophia” from The Color Purple and Tyler Perry dressed as his most famous character Madea. Who ever thought that’d we see these two together?! Anyway once we got past the shock of the picture, we wondered what those two were up to. Well, today friends you’re going to find out. Sophia and Madea met up to promote Oprah’s network OWN. And let me tell you, it’s quite funny. I love when Oprah lets loose and has fun (like she did with surprising Jimmy Kimmel Book Club Fight Club skit).

Now Oprah’s back to the comedy with her good friend, Tyler Perry. Check out the skit and let us know if you chuckled a bit like I did.

What do you think? Funny, right?

Well this is a pair we NEVER would have thought we’d see all buddy buddy. Not Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry, but their characters of Miss Sophia from The Color Purple and Mabel “Madea” Simmons, of course. But it kind of makes sense. they’re both feisty “women,” they speak out about whatever is on their mind, and if a fool steps up, they can prepare to get BEAT DOWN.

Through his Twitter page, Perry tweeted this surprising photo/blast from the past with the caption, “Madea meets Sophia tomorrow. You don’t want to miss this.” Not 100 percent sure what these two have up their sleeves, but with Winfrey allowing Perry to bring new sitcoms to her OWN network this year, this could be anything from a guest appearance on one of them, to a promotional video, to just two rich people with time on their hands having some fun. Either way, it’s creepy and interesting all at the same time. So how would you caption this colorful photo of these two?

While I didn’t get to check out this past week’s episode of “Saturday Night Live” in its entirety (I was out painting the town red), I did check out some of the most talked about clips from the show, which was hosted by Jamie Foxx and had Ne-Yo as the music guest. One that really stuck out to me was video of Foxx getting back into woman’s clothing, but not as Wanda the Ugly Woman from his “In Living Color” days, but when he threw on the floral dress, the large specs and the gray wig to be Tyler Perry playing Madea. Or make that Jamie Foxx playing Tyler Perry doing Madea AND Alex Cross in a fictional movie called, Tyler Perry’s Alex Cross 2 – Madea: Special Ops. If it sounds a mess, it looked a mess too, but it was definitely funny. Foxx played a two-face version of Perry as his most notable characters so far, as the sensible Cross character tried to fight crime–and his erratic gun-toting other side, Madea. The two fought over guns as Madea instructed Cross to buss a cap in a villain’s a**. The hilarious bickering that Foxx had them doing back and forth led to said villain being able to slip away many times. Big LOL at the fake gospel music they played at the end in the signature, “helluuuuuur.”

It’s definitely nice to see Foxx get back into his sketch comedy brilliance from way back when, as being a huge Academy Award winning actor has pretty much left him doing serious roles only. But I’m also wondering if Perry thought the skit was funny, considering he and Foxx are presumably cool with one another (Foxx said he talked with Perry when considering whether or not to do Django Unchained). Either way, Perry can’t deny that homeboy had the Madea voice down pat! Check out the clip from Saturday’s episode and let us know if you agree!

Source: Essence

“When Black women are down with you and in your corner, you have an ally that will move heaven and earth…”

That’s how brother Perry feels about the support he’s received from sistas, stemming all the way back to the days he was homeless after migrating from New Orleans to Atlanta, to his present day box office success and exclusive deal with Oprah. There may be a lot of black women who find Tyler Perry’s cinematic portrayals coonish, but there are millions more who will break their necks to hit the theaters and support him. And for those ladies he is nothing but grateful.

Covering the November issue of Essence, Tyler talked about that love and much more in an exclusive interview. Teasing the one-on-one with the man of many talents, Essence writes:

Rising past the haters — and the sheer desolation of losing his beloved mother — Tyler Perry has only just begun to soar. Respected as a writer, director and mogul, the man behind the $1 billion-plus Madea franchise is now moving into unchartered territory: Action hero. Essence goes along for the ride as the tireless entrepreneur and philanthropist talks about his love for Black women, one of his last conversations with Whitney Houston the night Michael Jackson died and what intimidated him the most about taking on the role of detective Alex Cross.

The issue will hit newsstands soon. Are you one of the Black women in Tyler’s corner?

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While surfing the web today, I came across the news that Tyler Perry was canceling a leg of his upcoming “Madea Gets A Job” tour because of the powerful impact of pesky bootleggers. In a long letter on his website, Perry broke down specific reasons, saying that while he had set ticket prices for the stage play at as low as $25 so that most people could afford to come, bootleggers were selling tickets for his show to unsuspecting fans for double the price, and even pretending they were Perry, scheduling alleged “meet-and-greet” opportunities after the shows for about $125. (“DON’T FALL FOR THIS!! That’s not me.”) He went on to vent his frustration with the leeches of the world to his fans:

“This is so frustrating! Why are people so evil? Why can’t people just get legitimate jobs and stop trying to do the wrong thing all the time? If they put the same amount of energy into doing the right thing as they do in doing the wrong thing they could make it. It’s so sad.”

“To all of you who have bought tickets and made plans to be there I am so sorry. I really am but my hands are tied.”

“This was the last live Madea tour and I’m super sorry that you won’t get to see it live. All refunds should be given back to you.”

As frustrated as Perry seemed to be, his fans were just as heated, if not more. Many got on the website and told stories about their children missing out on their first Madea stage play, and the struggles they had to go through to get tickets. Because this stage tour was set to be Perry’s last for a while, as he continues to balance a career that involves acting, directing, producing and screenwriting, people were understandably upset:

“OH NO……This was going to be my 10 year old’s first Madea play. She LOVES Madea, I will have to wait until the last minute to break this news. I just hate that greed messes things up for everyone else. Stay true to yourself Tyler. Hopefully Madea can do a one hour special on tv oneday.”

“Although I am crushed I think I can manage to still support him and his projects in the future.”

“I really was so excited to see the play.Madea always uplifts my spirits. My family is going through some trying situations.I needed to laugh from crying,…”

Reading the responses, and hearing about the number of people who were going to travel to see Perry dress up and act a fool as Madea one last time live, at first, I thought they were being a little over the top. But then, I remembered the last time I saw a Tyler Perry stage play (on DVD of course, not live), and the first time, and in a way, I could understand–those plays are hilarious!

It was maybe 2001 when I saw my first Tyler Perry stage play, and I was watching “I Can Do Bad All By Myself” at the recommendation of my hairdresser. Always the skeptic/hater (you should know this by now), I went into it expecting the corniest thing to ever appear on a television, but was pleasantly surprised when I was rolling with laughter at the rachetness of gun toting, weed smoking Madea, and adding my own extra dialogue to the play when the female characters would fall for the okie-doke from their men. From the minute Madea stepped out with her random attempts at praying, with her gray wig, horrid house dress and penchant for pronouncing things like diabetic as diabetical, I thought she (aka, he) was hilarious. The character also seemed to be very deep, dropping knowledge when folks needed it most, even if she (once again, he) was a mess 90 percent of the time. The singing in the plays, depending on who was crooning the gospel tracks, and what they were singing about, was a nice addition, and they were actually all-around fun and positive plays.

Before Tyler Perry went mainstream, becoming the first black man to own his own studio, he was a very popular playwright in the black community. People came in droves to see his plays, you couldn’t pass a bootlegger who didn’t have one of his DVDs and slowly but surely black folk were starting to adopt Madea’s vernacular. (Hell-er!) Then he hit the big screen with his first feature film, Diary of a Mad Black Woman. Coming out the mixed reviews, the film featured some decent actors, including Kimberly Elise, Steve Harris and the legendary Cicely Tyson. Maybe you’re more familiar than a little bit with this film, but we bet you don’t know the secrets behind this film. Check them out.

Source: boxofficemojo.com

If you’re wanting to see Madea live then you better catch her on her last tour because Tyler Perry says that he is taking a hiatus from Madea to focus on other aspects of his career.

Earlier this week, Tyler posted a message to his fans on his website:

I don’t know if you remember this or not, but around 2005 I took off from touring my Madea plays for about 5 years. During that time, I was working mostly on movies and TV shows. Well, as much as I love to be out on stage and doing a live Madea show, the time has come again for me to take a long break from the stage. I have some major projects that I’m working on that will require a lot of my time and effort. Just know that I did not want to stop this tour until I had hit as many cities as possible. So I’m going to finish out this Fall leg of the tour and then take a long break.

The “Fall leg” he is talking about is his newest stage play “Madea Gets A Job [at a retirement home]” which begins on September 20th.

He says ” I have some major projects that I’m working on that will require a lot of my time and effort.” Movies, television shows and stage plays are all major projects by themselves, so how he balances all of that at once is mystifying. However, he must be working on something pretty big if he is quitting the plays.

Tyler didn’t elaborate, but IndieWire.com speculates:

So… what could these “major projects” he mentions be?…He was launching his own TV network, although no word on when exactly it’ll make its debut.

What else? He did say in an interview at the end of June that he was working on a sci-fi movie at the time, after expressing disappointment with Prometheus. Although he didn’t say what we can expect from his planned adventure into sci-fi. But that could also certainly be a major project, as sci-fi films tend to be.

What else? Dancing With The Stars alum William Levy revealed about a month ago that he’ll be starring in an upcoming Tyler Perry movie – a romantic comedy, that he said would begin shooting in September. However, less than a month from September, there has been no official announcement of a project.

And looking over his IMDBPro page, the only definite project listed that Perry has yet to shoot is Take My Wife, which was announced last year, and which he’s supposed to star alongside Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. The story centers on a recently-divorced man who tries to avoid paying alimony, by grooming another dude to become his ex’s new husband. Tyler Perry is listed as writer and director as well; although it’s not known which of the 2 men he’ll play.

He’s also supposed to be on America’s Next Top Model providing the “acting challenge” to the contestants.

Mable “Madea” Simmons has been good to Tyler Perry financially over the years, but she’s also been a major source of criticism. Now that he is getting other opportunities, we wouldn’t be surprised if he hung up the dress and fake boobs for good.

What do you think? Are you disappointed that he’s taking a break from Madea stage plays?

Follow Alissa on Twitter @AlissaInPink

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thelavalizard.com

Remember Tiffany Evans, the “little” girl with the big voice from Star Search and a couple of the “Madea” movies (she was Tyler Perry’s choir-singing daughter in Diary of a Mad Black Woman)? Well, she’s not so little anymore and she’s been up to a lot over the last couple of years – some of which may surprise you.

In an interview with Essence.com, Tiffany talked about her new music – an EP titled Take 1 – which she says finally shows off her talents as not only a singer but a songwriter.  As she says:

“My fans have never heard any music written by me. I thought it was important to do so this time around. I also thought it was important for me to experience life and go through things to write about them from a true place. I wanted this project to be organic. I had to take myself down a notch and go through love and write about it.“

And experiencing life is exactly what Tiffany has been doing. In a pretty shocking announcement, she revealed that at 19, she’s also expecting her first child with her husband of TWO YEARS!  This came as a bit of a surprise because although there had been rumors that Tiffany might have been married over the last six months, she never said a word confirming or denying it.  Tiffany is married to a man named Lorenzo, one of Ciara’s backup dancers, and apparently they’ve been going strong for a few years now.  Tiffany said she’s just been waiting on the right time to announce it.

She certainly has a lot going on for such a young woman, but that might not be a bad thing. We wish her the best!

What were you doing at 17 years old? Could you imagine getting married that young? 

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