By Bill Vaughan
Entertainment Writer
“Stephanie is back,” announced VIVICA A. FOX about returning after 30 years this week to her role as Stephanie Simmons on CBS’ long-running daytime drama, “The Young and the Restless.” “And [she] has a lot of secrets that will be revealed,” she adds of a story arc that will also see Shemar Moore of “S.W.A.T.” fame coming back as her love interest Malcolm Winters.
Ironically, it was when she was first in the part that your Tasty Clips writer first met the young actress at the Daytime Emmys after an interview with the series co-star Kristoff St. John.
When we last spoke several years ago, the producer, director and actress best known for movies “Kill Bill” and “Independence Day” was promoting her new Lifetime male dancer competition series, “Vivica’s Black Magic.”
“There’s no reality show like it,” she proclaimed. “We’re a breath of fresh air. Most of these reality shows are girls getting drunk and fighting. This is totally different. Our goal is every Wednesday to have the ultimate girl’s night out and for people to see me as a businesswoman taking this serious.”
The show was born partly out of her role as the mom in director Jean-Claude La Marre’s hit 2015 strip club drama “Chocolate City,” as well as a visit to Chippendales as a guest of her “Sharknado” and “Celebrity Apprentice” castmate Ian Ziering. “I was like, there ain’t no brothers up in here,” said the actress. “Whoever comes up with this for people of color is like a goldmine.”
So, she and La Marre pitched it to the network that was looking for edgier programming and a year and eight episodes later a series and tour was on the way.
“I was so hands on I damn near had a nervous breakdown,” Fox admitted. “It was a labor of love for me, because it was my brainchild, but reality to me is difficult because I’m so used to doing movies and shows where they write the drama and everyone acts it out and cut.”
What she learned was that if you put people with big personalities together not everyone has the same work ethic.
“Some drama is going to jump off and organically it did,” she revealed.
As for the criteria?
“Oh well let’s just keep it real,” Fox joked before admitting “the it factor” was important. “You got to have a six pack and a smile if you’re going to take off the clothes, now. But when you walk in the room or on the stage, do you have something that the girls want to peel like a banana, see more of and see what it tastes like? Can you dance? Do you have good moves? You can have a nice body and be stiff as a board.”
That year, she was launching her still running “The Wrong … ” Lifetime franchise; and had five movies on the way including “Chocolate City: Vegas,” “Bring It On 6,” an animated South African film “The Sky Princess,” and the sci-fi film “Crossbreed, where she played the U.S. president.
When asked about her ex-TV boss on “The Celebrity Apprentice” Donald Trump and adversary Omarosa, Fox abruptly said, “Don’t start. We’re going to keep it positive. We’re going to give them all a chance, but I don’t really think of them to be honest. I’m still suffering from election hangover.”
For 12 years, Bill Vaughan has kept Wave readers up to date with the latest news in entertainment. Now, we are collecting some of those past columns into what we call the Best of Tasty Clips. To contact Vaughan, visit his social media pages on Facebook and Instagram or @tasty_clips, on X @tastyclips, and on LinkedIn to William Vaughan.
