By Bill Vaughan
Entertainment Writer
A look back at Tasty Clips’ numerous celebrity interviews conducted during 2020 has reaped several exclusive quotes never before presented. And so, submitted for your enlightenment are these fascinating expressions in advance of next week’s annual Faves edition!
BILL DUKE (Actor/Director/Author) on police reform: “There were some bad apples, and they should be treated that way. In terms of infrastructure, there should be in place that if you do something that’s harmful or you exceed your power, and it can be seen and proven, there should be consequences. One of them should be not that you are just moved to another department but fired. [Also], that your pension is impacted so that you understand that there are consequences to your behavior. But to suggest that all cops are bad people is ridiculous because they are not. I have friends that are policemen and what they go out there and face every day most of us couldn’t even deal with.”
MACY GRAY – Singer/Composer/Actress (“Training Day” “For Colored Girls“) on the police: “I don’t know how many bad apples there are because there’s enough to cause a lot of unrest and a lot of murders and just chaos and riots. So even if there’s one or two, it’s enough.”
CARL LUMBLY – Actor (“Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool” “To Sleep With Anger”) on the legacy of his late wife, actress Vonetta McGee: “She was definitely my hero. She was the brightest star in the heavens. She was encyclopedic. She had an intelligence that was not fully appreciated because her physical beauty was so astounding. It’s kind of like, I suppose, you can’t really stare into the sun. But I did. And I was not alone. It’s not always easy to talk about Vonetta, but I do think in her career and certainly after her career there has not been enough done about her. We stand on the shoulders of others and I’m not certain some of my sisters realize that she had broad shoulders.”
CHI McBRIDE – Actor/Director (“Hawaii Five-O”) on fame: “There’s a thing that comes with being really famous that I’m not built for. It’s for a lot of people and I know a few people that are really, really, really famous and it suits them. It just wouldn’t suit me. I don’t crave it. Being a guy that people recognize and always working is plenty for me.”
OMAR BENSON MILLER – Actor (“The Unicorn” “8 Mile”) on whether Eminem is the greatest rapper of all time: “At the end of the day, if you’re talking about rhyming words, you’re going to be hard pressed to find somebody to beat him. But once again we have to address who we are as a people, because in the U.S., you can’t ever separate race from any other factor in someone’s life. That he is a white man in a primarily black medium in this sense works against him. It worked for him as far as wealth and finance, but it works against him as far as this all-time conversation. Obviously, he has a place somewhere in the lexicon of great rappers. That’s without question. The body of work shows that. So again, it is art. It’s subjective to what you’re looking for in a rapper.”
TIM REID – Comic/Actor/Director/Producer (“Sister, Sister” LGCY of a People Network): “Baby boomers have pretty much destroyed this country in any way, shape, or form. I’m not a fan. I’m a fan of the young people and the elders who tried their best to teach the baby boomers. They were given time outs. If I could find Dr. Spock’s grave, I probably would throw a stone at it. That guy said put them in the corner, and don’t strike a child. Why didn’t you tell my grandmother before she raised me, cause according to the rules, she would be in jail for life. Nonetheless we all survived.”
JASON MORAN – Jazz Pianist/Composer (“Selma”): “Art doesn’t look for validation. Art looks for itself. It looks for people. All of the people who have taught me over the years function for a system that depends on community first. From Jaki Byard to my first Russian teacher in Houston, Texas. Andrew Hill to Muhal Richard Abrams. He started the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. Those are the models that I live and work by and the relationships I have with people outside of the music fields also work in that very same way. It ends up that after you continue to do that head down approach and making sure you get your work done, then you look up and you’re with a community. That’s how you push stuff forward.”
CLIPPETTES: RSVP at GeorgiaComesAlive.com for this Dec. 26 virtual music festival presenting 45 artists including Big Freedia, Musiq Soulchild, Blind Boys of Alabama, Tank and The Bangas, Bobby Rush, Galactic, Judith Hill, Jackie Venson, Los Lobos, The Soul Rebels and The Suffers. …
While Chadwick Boseman’s stunning turn in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” is being billed as his final performance, Marvel Studios announced that the late actor lent his voice as T’Challa – The Black Panther for their upcoming animated Disney+ series “What If” …
Grammy winning recording artist and producer Robert Glasper begins a five-day engagement in New York Dec. 30 with livestream access available at BlueNoteJazz.com …
Blair Underwood is planning to return to his role of attorney Jonathan Rollins in an ABC spinoff of “L.A. Law,” which was a hit for NBC from 1986 to 1994 …
Fans can RSVP at SnoopNYE.com to join “Snoop Dogg’s Virtual New Year’s Eve Special” from his Compound featuring Rosario Dawson, DJs Cassidy, Battlecat and Fredwreck and some illustrious peers as it airs Dec. 31 on TBS …
Meanwhile, “T-Mobile Presents NYE Live With Justin Bieber,” his first live show since he canceled his 2017 Purpose World Tour, with ticketed livestream access available at momenthouse.com/justinbieber.
TC ON TV: Dec. 25 – “Sylvie’s Love” (Amazon): Tessa Thompson, Nnamdi Asomugha, Eva Longoria, Aja Naomi King, Alano Miller, Lance Reddick, Erica Gimpel and MC Lyte star in a love story set in 1950’s Harlem. “Bridgerton” (Netflix): A seductive period drama from producer Shonda Rhimes featuring Regé-Jean Page (from 2016’s “Roots”) and the voice of Julie Andrews. “Soul” (Disney+): Pixar Animation Studios’ feature film deploys the voices of Jamie Foxx and Tina Fey. “Wonder Woman 1984” (HBO Max): The planned summer blockbuster sequel instead premieres on home screens and select theatres. “We Can Be Heroes” (Netflix): Pedro Pascal (“The Mandalorian”), Priyanka Chopra and Christian Slater lead a youth cast in an out-of-this-world adventure from writer-director Robert Rodriguez (“Alita: Battle Angel”).
Dec. 27 – “Death To 2020” (Netflix): From the creators of “Black Mirror” comes a comedic look at the year we all want to end through the eyes of the worst-informed commentators you’ll ever meet essayed by Samuel L. Jackson, Leslie Jones, Hugh Grant, Tracey Ullman, Kumail Nanjiani and others. “The Masked Dancer” (Fox): Hosted by comedian/actor Craig Robinson and featuring panelists Ken Jeong, Paula Abdul, Brian Austin Green and Ashley Tisdale guessing the identities of the celebrity dancers. “Restaurant Hustle 2020: All On The Line” (Food): In this two-hour documentary from Executive Producer Guy Fieri, four of America’s favorite chefs (Maneet Chauhan, Antonia Lofaso, Christian Petroni and Marcus Samuelsson) document what happened to their restaurant empires as the outbreak of COVID-19 swept across the U.S.
Dec. 28 – “Cops and Robbers” (Netflix): Timothy Ware-Hill writes, performs, and co-directs this short where animation and activism unite in a multimedia spoken-word response to police brutality and racial injustice. “Vernon Jordan: Make It Plain” (PBS): The film chronicles his modest origins and rise to attorney, civil rights leader, and powerbroker.
Dec. 29 – “Belle Collective” (OWN): The new series from the producers behind the hit “Love & Marriage: Huntsville” centers on the personal and professional lives of five successful, glamourous boss women who represent Mississippi’s finest Black female entrepreneurs.
Dec. 30 – “Yearly Departed” (Amazon): Phoebe Robinson (“2 Dope Queens’) hosts a lineup of comediennes including Tiffany Haddish, Natasha Rothwell (“Insecure”), Sarah Silverman and Ziwe, who eulogize all we have lost in 2020. “The Crimes That Changed Us” (ID): “Rodney King”
Dec. 31 – “Carl Weber’s The Family Business” (BET+): Season two of the crime family drama brings the all-star cast of Clifton Powell, Ernie Hudson, Gary Dourdan, Malik Yoba, Miguel A. Nunez Jr. and Armand Assante to a new network home. “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” (ABC): Megan Thee Stallion, Jennifer Lopez, Billy Porter, Cyndi Lauper, Ciara, Jimmie Allen “United In Song: Celebrating The Resilience Of America” (PBS): Patti LaBelle, Denyce Graves, Anna Deavere Smith, Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Yo-Yo Ma, Juanes and many more. “NBC’s New Year’s Eve 2021” (NBC): Chloe x Halle, Jason Derulo, Busta Rhymes with Anderson .Paak, Bebe Rexha with Doja Cat, Sting with Shirazee, CNCO, Pentatonix and others with co-hosts Carson Daly, Amber Ruffin and Stephen “tWitch” Boss. “Hello 2021: Americas” (YouTube): With Matthew McConaughey, RuPaul, Demi Lovato, Dua Lipa, J Balvin, YG, Karol G and Kane Brown, Storm Reid and social media stars. “New Year’s Eve Toast & Roast 2021” (Fox): With performances by John Legend, Gloria Estefan, Randy Jackson for starters.
As featured in the Los Angeles Wave and Independent, Tasty Clips is one of the leading entertainment columns in the nation, serving nearly one million weekly readers. Bill Vaughan may be reached at tastyclips@yahoo.com, via Twitter @tastyclips, or Instagram @tasty_clips.
