BET AWARDS 2007. 8 tonight, BET.
DON CHEADLE AS the late great Petey Greene? I couldn't quite see it.
Being from the nonofficial side of Washington, D.C. - or Chocolate City, as Petey used to refer to it - I've never forgotten this folk hero and the profound impact he made on the city of Washington during the turbulent late 1960s and '70s.
Petey Greene was a street cat, as they used to say. He wore platform shoes, bell-bottoms, wide lapels and other flamboyant styles of the era.
He couldn't conjugate a verb correctly if his life depended on it. But you know what, he didn't care. As he told one embarrassed listener who called to complain about his grammar, "Would you rather I say, 'I is rich' or 'I am poor'?"
Growing up, I had no choice but to listen to Greene's radio show. It seemed to always be on whenever we all piled into our gold 1968 station wagon. My dad was a huge fan. So despite my four siblings' loud protests to tune the station to something else - anything else - "Petey Greene, Washington" was a mainstay in our lives.
That harsh, raspy voice of his was the soundtrack of our lives as we rolled through the streets of D.C., still scarred from the 1968 riots. When we weren't whining in unison we'd quiet down and listen to the call-in talk show because it was a window into the forbidden world of grown folk. We'd listen wide-eyed to talk about pimps, criminal exploits, corrupt government officials and Black Pride - all in the same conversation.
But back to Don Cheadle. As I said, I just couldn't see him playing Petey Greene. For starters, he looks nothing like him. Greene was short, stocky and light-skinned. Cheadle is dark and has a sleek form, like a panther. Philly's own Terrence Howard, who was originally slated to play the role, was a more likely fit. Who does toughies with a heart better than he does?
But then, I got a chance to see "Talk to Me," the new Focus Film project starring Cheadle as Greene, and I have to tell you: He made a believer out of me. From the very second he struts on screen in his prison blues and teeny-weeny Afro, the physical dissimilarities between him and the late Petey Greene evaporate.
I gave up the fight between reality and re-enactment.
Cheadle becomes Petey Greene, reincarnated and in the flesh. I don't know how he pulled it off, but the Academy Award-nominated Cheadle becomes Greene the same way he became Paul Rusesabagina in "Hotel Rwanda."
