Vol. 7 Issue 11 the urban news | Gateway to the Multicultural community January 2013 • 2120 • JANUARY 2013 the urban news | www.theurbannews.com Vol. 7 Issue 11

SONGS, MOVIES & MOMENTSA Look at Entertainment by T.J. Moore

If the criticism from Spike Lee, Tavis Smiley, and others was not enough of contro-versy for Quentin Tarrantino and his slav-ery-based spaghetti western Django Unchained, now, thanks to the National Entertainment Collectibles Association and its partnership with the Weinstein Company, the controversy has become more intense as the film produced a series of action figures

available for purchase online.

Slaves Django and his wife, Boomhilda, along with slave owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), Dr. Shultz (Christopher Waltz), Butch (James Remar), and Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson) have figures on sale at Amazon.com.

According to Eurweb.com, a boycott is looming in the near future, led by Project Islamic Hope and “a coalition of African-American community leaders.”

The dolls didn’t only earn the ire of community leaders. Daily Beast film critic Tim Gordon shared the same disapproval, as well as concern over lack of reac-tion.

“People don’t speak up. People have gotten so – I don’t know if the word is ‘comfortable or ‘naive’; we just want to go along to get along and it’s very frustrating,” he said.

The NECA dolls are not made

for younger children. On Amazon, they are listed for ages 15 and older. Other toys from the company include characters from Rambo, ET, Friday the 13th, and The Hunger Games.

It’s official: reality shows have officially dived headfirst into the cesspool of depravity. Oxygen Network is slated to feature one-hit-wonder, the Atlanta-based rapper Shawty Lo, his ten baby mamas, and eleven children. His upcoming All

My Babies’ Mamas reality show is being bombarded with petitions and outrage.

Details of this projected spring, 2013 program bubbled online two weeks ago in an indie wire press release.

“Oxygen media has ordered what they’re describing as a “daring,” new one-hour special titled All My Babies’ Mamas, which will premiere next spring. The project will center on the complicated lives of one man, his many women and their many children. The series will capture the highs and lows of this extreme blended family that is anything but ordinary.

To add more insult, Oxygen Media Sr. Vice President of Development Cori Abraham touted this series as being “filled with outrageous and authentic over the top moments that our young, diverse, female audience tweet and gossip about.” Instead, the outrageous and sadly authentic over-the-top concept has professionals throwing up in their mouths, bashing the show, and setting up protests.

Activist Sabrina Lamb began the publicized movement late last month, in hopes of forcing Oxygen to scrap the show, and she has no plans of slowing down her cause.

“Rapper Carlos ‘Shawty Lo’

Walker needs condoms and therapy, not a reality show,” Walker said. Her Change.org petition, which is gain-ing significant momentum, begins: “ENOUGH is ENOUGH! As dysfunc-tional and violent as so-called reality shows are, could you even imagine a one hour spectacle where 11 chil-dren are forced to witness their 10 unwed mothers clamor for financial support, emotional attention, and sexual reward from Shawty-Lo the apathetic ‘father? Could you imagine that Oxygen Media, known for vio-lent programming targeting young women with stereotypical images, would consider the embarrassment that these children will experience, being used as entertainment?” Those strong words have resonated to the tune of the show’s 13-minute trailer on YouTube being pulled, and no mention of the show on the Internet Movie Database (IMDB). At press time the petition had close to 37,500 signatures.

Radio Host and Eurweb.com col-umnist Morris “Mo’Kelly” O Kelly issued an open statement slamming the show last month.

“A reality TV show featuring a rapper, his TEN baby mamas and Eleven children? And you thought this was going to be good for your business and profile within the African-American community, on a network co-founded by Oprah Winfrey? I will save the pith of my commentary for my columns and programs, but in short...this show cannot happen. As a respected African American media professional, I cannot in good conscience allow this program to move forward. There must be accountability as to the programming decisions at your net-work.” he wrote.

Oxygen Media denies the depic-tion of stereotypes in a statement and refuses to back down on their idea.

“Oxygen’s one hour special in development is not meant to be a ste-reotypical representation of everyday life for any one demographic or cross section of society. It is a look at one unique family and their complicat-ed, intertwined life,” says Oxygen’s Director of Communications, Voncella McIntosh.

NBC won the first Monday prime-time ratings war of 2013 thanks to The Biggest Loser and the series pre-miere of Megan Good’s new drama Deception. The popular weight-loss

show averaged 6.3 million viewers and a 2.4 in the 18-49 demographic. Deception followed with a 5.6 million and a 2.0 in the same demographic, topping ABC’s Castle 10 p.m. demo offering of 1.9.

Deception follows the bold foot-steps of Scandal by featuring a black actress (Good) in the lead role. The series follows Good’s character, LAPD officer Joanna Locasto, who goes undercover inside of the wealthy family home of her childhood friend in order to solve her murder. The show also stars Laz Alonzo, who plays FBI agent Will Moreno and enlists Locasto – also his one-time lover – to help solve the murder.

As bold as this step is for prime time television, race isn’t a factor in production, which attracted Good to the role in the first place.

“One think that I thought was really cool is when I read the script, the characters were not specified by race,” Good told reporters at the

Television Critics Association winter press tour a week ago.

Executive producer Liz Heldens reiterated the same sentiments. “[The lead characters’] skin color is a way to sort of deal with race without actu-ally having to talk about it. But it’s not really something we talk about too much in the writers’ room.”

You can catch Deception Mondays at 10 pm on NBC.

Django Unchained a Western/Drama

Django collectibles

All My Babies Mamas cast

NBC cast of Deception

prints color