Tyler Perry's Success Journey and Time Magazine Top 100 People

In March, I had the opportunity to travel to Atlanta to work as an extra on a movie called "The Family That Preys" (Oct 2008) with one of the hottest producers and directors in the country, Tyler Perry. He is a rags to riches story and pure American dream. He is also thankful and appreciative of the abundance he has received. Many of you may not know him or have watch his programs, so I thought I would include his most recent message. It is clearly a message and story of fame, fortune and thankfulness.

" Hi Everybody,

Okay, I know that I haven’t written in a while but I’ve been dealing with
a situation.

I’m trying to be careful how I say this without inciting this person, but
I have a stalker. This person sends several hundred emails a day to my
office and has planned our wedding and bought rings and such. She has
showed up at my house several times. What’s crazy is I’ve never met this
woman nor have I even responded to her emails. I’ve had to increase the
guards at my house as well as travel with body guards and I hate that. I
hate to have big guys following me around. Anyway I’ll try to keep this
positive. Let me breathe....

Okay I’m back, on to the real reason I’m writing. Can I just say thank
all of you for making MEET THE BROWNS such a success? The great thing
about it for me was all of the emails that I got from single mothers who
needed to see it. I know this movie wasn’t for everybody, but for the
people that it spoke to you let me know how it touched you and that lets
me know that I’m still on the right track.

I just finished another movie and for all of MY “Why Did I Get Married?”
fans. This one is going to blow your minds. I’ll tell you more about it
later. Also the ratings for HOUSE OF PAYNE are through the roof again.
Yes, Janine is pregnant and I know that you think you know who the father
is but just wait and see. Hasn’t the show gotten so much better?

I’m trying to make this short, but when I start to think about how much
you guys are with me all I can say is “Thank you God for Favor!” I’ve got
to write a book about this. I’m telling you, you inspire me so much. You
make me want to be a much better human being. Thank you again.

If you can do me a favor, TIME Magazine is having their top 100, people
issue and my name is on the list. Don’t ask me why (smile). And I was just
told that YOU have to vote for the person that you like the most. You can
vote as many times as you want.

I don’t know what this means or why they selected me for this list but
since they did I’d sure like for you to have a voice in this contest. It’s
pretty easy to do. Here’s the link

http://time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1725112_1726934_1726935,00.html

Please read the instructions before submitting your vote.


God bless,


Tyler Perry"

Clooney and Zellweger -- Audio Clip of Press Conference

Well, here is copy of the press conference with George Clooney and Renee Zellweger. I had the opportunity to ask two questions during the press conference and had a fun time with George kidding with me about my role in the movie.

Click here for Audio Clip of entire press conference from Radio Station WBT in Charlotte.

Gospel Hill - First Listing in NY Times

Just got an alert this morning for Gospel Hill's official listing in the NY Times movie list. This link will be great for tracking the film's progress for its anticipated mid-2008 release.

http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/450784/Gospel-Hill/overview

Hopefully, I will be seen for a few seconds in the movie with a scene where Danny Glover is giving an impassioned speech.

Gospel Hill - Picking out my "Costume"

I was told to arrive at 7 pm in Fort Mill, SC, just outside of Charlotte. This was my first night shoot for the film Gospel Hill. I drove about 30 minutes to Fort Mill after I left a business meeting where I was wearing my grey pinstriped business suit.

To prepare for the film, I spent an hour earlier in the day organizing and selecting four or five different "casual outfits" that included jeans, tan khaki pants, blue dress pants and about 5 different combinations of shirts from polo to dress. The suit was definitely too formal, so I expected to change when I arrived.

After driving through a torrential downpour on the Interstate, I arrived at the location in Fort Mill. It was an beautiful old church. The extra's holding was in the main social hall in the church. As I walked into the room, over 200 people were sitting on black plastic folding chairs. I carried my 10 lbs of clothes on hangers into to room and checked in at the desk. They handed me a legal release from that says, they can use my likeness in the movie however they want and I won't sue them. I then met Vince who was the casting director who had called me the day before. Vince is a tall, good looking charismatic executive. He collected my release form and then directed me over to see the costumer to see which "outfit" would fit the part I needed to play.

As I looked over, the costumer, was Ginger, who I had worked on with at Leatherheads. As soon as she saw me get in her line, she exclaimed good naturedly with a big smile - "Here comes trouble". Ginger had been one of the friendliest and most meticulous costmers on Leatherheads.(On leatherheads she was straightening my hat, fixing my tie, tieing my overcoat belt in a square not...an lifting up our trousers to almost wedgie proportions to so we had the 1920's look of showing our socks).

She took one look at me in my pinstripe suit and said "Perfect, you can wear what you have on." I replied somewhat pleadingly "Do you want to see my other ties?", hoping at least my hour of preparation of choosing the outfits was not totally wasted, She smiled and said "No, what you have on is fine. Go put the reat of your clothes back in your car." I walked back out into the light drizzle, put the clothes in the trunk of my car.