Madea Battle Won’t Go Away

Sounding Off

“I’m so sick of hearing about damn Spike Lee,” Perry said when asked about Lee’s past criticisms of his work, Box Office Magazine reported. “Spike can go straight to hell! …. I am sick of him talking about me, I am sick of him saying, “This is a coon, and this is a buffoon.”(Forgive yourself if you read that quote in a Madea voice. I did the same.) Though I too have criticized

Perry’s works in the past, I understand his frustration; especially since it’s abundantly clear the box office gods typically do not smile as brightly upon his more serious works. For example, “Madea Goes to Jail,” raked in $41.1 million and set records during its opening weekend. Meanwhile, Perry’s Madea-less “Daddy’s Little Girls,” about doting black father, is among his lowest-ranking films to date.

Perry also makes tremendous effort to put talented black actors in lead roles, a rarity in a still homogenous industry. Who else but Perry has granted generous screen time to the iconic Maya Angelou and Cicely Tyson? And who could downplay his casting of Phylicia Rashad, Thandie Newton, Whoopi Goldberg and a surprisingly skilled Macy Gray in “For Colored Girls?”The last time the pop world saw such a colorful, quality list of leading ladies, it was in “The Color Purple” in 1985.

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