Voices In Color

Will Smith As A Superhero

Superheroes are as American as Hollywood itself. Take the box-office success of such franchises as Superman, Batman, X-Men, and The Fantastic Four. America has long had an infatuation with the men and women who can right society’s ills, keeping the world safe for the upstanding good guys.

But black superheroes in Hollywood are a definite rarity. Robert Townsend made an earnest, yet ill-fated attempt at being a superhero in his 1993 film, The Meteor Man. That film, in which Townsend was the star, director, producer, and writer, made a paltry $8.3 million. Wesley Snipes scored favorably with the Blade trilogy, based on the comic book series. That franchise, beginning in 1998, has grossed $417.9 million worldwide. Then there is Halle Berry, who continues to reprise her role as Ororo in the superhero ensemble of the X-Men franchise. Berry also landed the title role as the bad girl and heroine in Catwoman, which was a 2004 box-office disappointment. And let’s not forget Michael Jai White as Spawn back in 1997.

Now it’s Will Smith’s time to show off his super fetes. It’s no accident that Smith has been dubbed Mr. July. It’s a title he’s earned to the tune of a combined $2.5 billion at the box office thanks to such summer spectacles as Independence Day, Men in Black, Men in Black 2, Bad Boys I and II, and I, Robot. This summer, Smith gets a chance to dazzle audiences in Hancock, which is described as an action-comedy.

Read more:  BlackEnterprise.com

Star Jones Blasts Walters For Contents Of Memoir

In Walters' new memoir, "Audition," she discusses how Jones wouldn't acknowledge her gastric bypass surgery on the air. She also writes about Jones' lavish wedding, which wound up alienating viewers as Jones accepted gifts in return for promotion.

"It is a sad day when an icon like Barbara Walters, in the sunset of her life, is reduced to publicly branding herself as an adulterer, humiliating an innocent family with accounts of her illicit affair and speaking negatively against me all for the sake of selling a book. It speaks to her true character," Jones told Us Weekly magazine.

Read more: CNN.com

Mariah Is 'Over the Moon' About Marriage

Yep, they did it! If there was any doubt Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon's wedding was the real deal, they answer the question once and for all in this week's issue of PEOPLE, speaking for the first time about their surprise nuptials – and showing off exclusive photos from their April 30 ceremony.

Read more: People.com

Russell Simmons Responds To Kimora's Divorce Filing

The hip-hop mogul, whose legal papers cite irreconcilable differences, is seeking joint physical and legal custody of his and Lee's daughters, Ming, 8, and Aoki, 5. The couple married in 1998.

In her divorce filing in March, Lee, 33, requested that Simmons, 50, get "reasonable child visitation ... to be accompanied at all times by the children's nanny and security personnel."

Both parties are asking the court to deny spousal support for the other.

Read more: People.com

Raven-Symoné Goes Against The Grain

Raven-Symoné is widely known as a good girl—the girl who grew up next door, gained fame on The Cosby Show and who’s grown up to be a television, movie, and recording star with a carefully crafted and well-maintained wholesome image. This week her self-titled album hit the shelves. As with her previous discs, the 22 year-old wants to unequivocally honor her past commitment to nice-girl fare. "I am not going to sing about sex, drugs, and violence. That’s just not who I am," she recently told Jet in a cover story.

Read more: Black Enterprise

Tyler Perry Is On Time’s List Of World’s 100 Most Influential

What does Tyler Perry have in common with President Bush, the Dalai Lama, Rupert Murdoch, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, China’s Hu Jintao and presidential candidates Barak Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain?

In Time magazine’s estimation: world influence.

Read more: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Jay-Z Establishes Trust For Sean Bell's Children

Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter has established an educational trust for the for the children of Sean Bell, the unarmed African-American man who was shot and killed by police on the day he was to be married.

Sources have confirmed with AllHipHop.com that Jay-Z is working closely with Nicole Paultre Bell, Sean Bell's widow, to institute the trust funds for both of their children.

Nicole Bell appeared prominently in Jay-Z’s Rocawear "I Will Not Lose" advertising campaign with images that caused indignation within the NYPD's Benevolent Association.

The process began prior to the not guilty verdict for three police officers accused of slaying Sean Bell.

A well-informed source close to the matter told AllHipHop.com that Nicole Bell’s lawyers didn’t want to initiate any activity during the trial.

Read more: AllHipHop.com

Tina Turner Plans First Tour In Eight Years

At the Grammys in February, Beyonce introduced her as "the Queen." In the fall, Tina Turner will take it to her loyal subjects.

The Rock Hall of Famer plans to embark on her first tour in eight years beginning October1 at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo.

Read more: Yahoo! News

Barbara Walters Reveals Past Affair With Black Senator

Former U.S. Sen. Edward Brooke declined to comment Friday about whether he had an affair with Barbara Walters in the 1970s.

"I have had a lifetime policy and practice of not discussing my personal and private life, or the personal and private lives of others, with the notable exception of what I wrote in my recently published autobiography, `Bridging the Divide: My Life,'" he told The Associated Press in a phone interview from Miami.

A relationship with Walters wasn't mentioned in his book, the 88-year-old former senator from Massachusetts told the AP.

His memoir was published in 2006.

In an appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" scheduled to air Tuesday, Walters shares details of her relationship with the married Brooke that lasted several years in the 1970s, according to excerpts of the show provided to the AP.

A moderate Republican who took office in 1967, Brooke was the first African-American to be popularly elected to the Senate. Walters said he and she knew that public knowledge of their affair could have ruined their careers.

Read more: The Associated Press

Is Broadway Fading To Black?

At the Broadhurst Theater on Broadway, an all-black cast, lead by the inimitable James Earl Jones, is re-interpreting Tennessee Williams in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." Around the corner, at the Belasco Theater, another all-black cast is playing African-American, Dutch and German characters in the autobiographical rock musical "Passing Strange."

Meanwhile, down the block, at the Booth Theater, Laurence Fishburne is bringing civil rights stalwart and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall to life in the recently opened one-man show "Thurgood." One street over, at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theater, Morgan Freeman is playing a washed-up actor opposite Frances McDormand in the revival of "The Country Girl."

This unusual confluence of shows with all-black or mixed-race casts, with black actors in roles that have typically been cast white, has some in the Broadway community wondering if blacks have finally "arrived" on Broadway.

Read more:  ABC news