Video Girl

When I came across this trailer on Shadow and Act my first reaction was whoopee, the lovely Meagan Good has found some work. Meagan has been in front of the camera since she was a young girl but made her calling in Biker Boyz and Stomping the Yard. Her actual breakthrough was in Eve's Bayou where she played Cisely Batiste, Eve's older sister. in the much acclaimed film. Since then Meagan's career more ore less went off the boil, a few months ago I came across an insightful comment on Twitter stating that all the leading roles seem to be going to Halle Berry, Beyonce and Jennifer Hudson and that Meagan was finding it hard to live with this company. Well it looks like Ms Good has taken her career into her own hands and has started her own production company called Freedom Bridge Entertainment with fellow acting friends. Their second project Video Girl is about the contentious world of music videos. Meagan plays Lori Walker, a small town girl with big dreams who heads for the bright lights of LA to make it as a video star. Her rise to the top is rapid and soon she is the IT girl in hip hop videos and earning an insane amount of money. Fame calls and she finds herself in demand by producers and the media, however the trappings of fame are only round the corner and Lori finds her life spiralling out of control.

As soon as I saw the trailer I immediately thought of Confessions of a Video Vixen by Karrine Steffans, an explosive expose that documents her life as a leading video girl. Between 2000 to 2002 Karrine was the go to girl for music videos and at her helm she made $2,500 a day. She starred in videos by Jay Z, R Kelly and LL Cool J and also had a bit part in the film, A Man Apart starring Vin Diesel. I remember when the book was released in 2005 because it caused a huge sensation and was covered in the entertainment press such as Vibe and Touch magazine. I only got round to ordering it late last year and it really lived up to my expectations, in fact it exceeded them. Karrine's stories about her experiences as a video girl are salacious, gossipy, scandalous and absolutely hilarious. The tales that stood out to me were:

• Damon Dash falling over drunk by the pool on the morning of a video shoot. LOL. No wonder Jay Z distanced himself.
• Her relationship with Shaquille O'Neal that was fueled by sex and cash.
• Her one night stand with P Diddy that resulted in him dogging her and bad mouthing her to Xzibit (shameless man).
• Her love affair with Ray J.
• Her destructive relationship with Bobby Brown.
• Also the hardcore rapper who whimpered like a baby every time they had sex. LOL

I am not sure whether Meagan and co have used the book as a source but judging by the trailer there are certainly huge similarities. A lot of stories have been told about video dancers hence the documentary, Hip Hop Honeys that was on BBC and the reality series of the same name that aired on BET. It seems that Hip Hop honeys are still big news.

Video Girl will be released on 29th April at selected cinemas in the US.

Meet the Blythewoods

On Saturday, I played host to the lovely Ola from Diverse Traveller where I showed her the sights of my little town. After my great day was over I decided to chill out and treat myself to one of my favourite films, Biker Boyz. With a stellar cast of Laurence Fishburne, Derek Luke, Larenz Tate, Tyson Beckford, Orlando Jones, Djimon Hounsou, Terrence Howard, Meagan Good and Lisa Bonet; you pretty much had the creme a la creme of Black Hollywood. Biker Boyz is the baby of Reggie Rock Blythwood who wrote and directed the exciting action film while his wife, Gina Prince Blythewood served as a producer. With several quality films under their belts, the Blythewoods are pretty much the doyennes in African American film making.

Born and raised in the Bronx, Reggie Rock Bythewood studied acting at Marymount Manhattan College. In 1990 he landed a job as a writer on A Different World where he met wife to be Gina who was also on the writing team. He went on to write for Fox's drama series New York Undercover, where he was the show's supervising producer. He penned the script for Get On the Bus which was directed by Spike Lee and went on to write Dancing in September, a drama which stared Tichina Arnold who now stars in Everybody Hates Chris. Blythewood's directorial debut came in 2003 when he pitched Biker Boyz to the Hollywood bosses. His most recent works has been writing the script for the biopic of Biggie Smalls in Notorious which was released earlier this year.

Gina Prince Blythewood holds her own alongside her husband; her body of work includes Disappearing Acts which is based on the book by Terry McMillan and the romance, Love and Basketball which starred Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps. Love and Basketball won an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature. However her most remarkable work to date has been The Secret Lives of the Bees in which was produced by Will Smith and his wife Jada. The Secret Life of the Bees was a hit at the box office which is not surprising considering the talent in the cast which included Queen Latifah, Alicia Keyes, Jennifer Hudson, Sophie Okinedo and Paul Bettany. On top of the she has also directed episodes of Girlfriends and Everybody Hates Chris.

Black film making has come an awful long way since the 80s and if someone had told that an predominately Black cast would star in a Hollywood film about bikers I would have told you to shut up right now! However it looks like the Blythewoods are about to take Black film making to a completely different level.

Reggie and Gina reside in California with their two sons.