Tyler Perry

If you haven't considered suicide before you see Tyler Perry's "For Colored Girls," you may by the time it's finished. This is the movie for those who thought "Precious" was too Apatow. Indeed, it borrows Lee Daniels' rape scene - contrasting the assault with a shot of meat frying on a stove - and extends it by a minute or so, just in case you want to stretch that moment. You also have kids dangled out of windows, deranged vets, back-alley abortions, and other horrors. Hamlet complained of the thousand indignities flesh is heir to, and at least 900 are covered here.

RE DAVID TISCHMAN'S Nov. 4 "Poster Child" movie review: Who are you to try to put Tyler Perry and his movie "For Colored Girls" down? I realize that your opinion is just that. . . yours. However, are you upset that Tyler Perry (despite his unpleasant childhood) has been so blessed to "make it," and become super rich? He also "gives back. " If he wants to use Janet Jackson in his movies, what's it to you? Everyone I know loves Tyler Perry's movies and plays. What's your problem - other than being a hater?

DON'T MESS with Tyler Perry or anyone close to Tyler Perry? Mark S. Allen of Sacramento CBS affiliate KOVR-TV learned that the hard way. Perry and Janet Jackson were on "Good Day Sacramento" answering questions about their new movie, "Why Did I Get Married?" when Allen went off topic and peppered Jackson with questions on "Why Did I Flash my Nipple at the Super Bowl?" While Janet sat stone-faced, Perry tried to change the subject. "I had to maintain my composure because we were live on the air," Perry said on tylerperry.

YOU WON'T LIKE Madea when he's/she's angry. Tyler Perry went to court in Texas to answer a lawsuit from Donna West claiming that he had stolen material from her play, "Fantasy of a Black Woman" for his movie, "Diary of a Mad Black Woman. " West is suing Perry for copyright infringement and wants a jury to award her family all profits made from the film. "I can't put my play on because the stories are basically the same and nobody wants to see that again," she said. West testified Tuesday that she had developed her play primarily from her own experiences.

YOU CAN'T drive five blocks in the city without seeing a giant "Alex Cross" billboard with Tyler Perry in Shaft's raincoat, shotgun at the ready. With this new thriller, the erstwhile Medea makes the bold bid to crossover from cross-dressing comedian to movie tough guy. How does he do? Well, you can't tell from "Alex Cross," a shockingly incompetent major studio release that strands Perry in a poorly written and poorly executed police procedural. Perry has the title role here (based on James Patterson's character, but on no particular book)

The quarterly dividend from Tyler Perry Inc. is out, and fans/investors will be happy to see that the company has renewed its focus on its core business - putting Perry in a wig, dress, and oversized glasses. Madea's Big Happy Family is stuffed to the gills with Perry's mix of the sacred and the silly and a serious dose of self-help for the self-absorbed. It's as messy as any of Perry's Madea comedies - assorted characters doing weakly connected one-off scenes that are little more than extended riffs.

I Can Do Bad All By Myself , Tyler Perry's endearing adaptation of the melo-comedic stage play that introduced his alter ego Madea, is a double shot of Saturday-night lowdown chased by a cheery chug of Sunday-morning uplift. Starring that spitfire Taraji P. Henson ( The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ) as a lounge singer who resists assuming guardianship of her late sister's children, the film is a variety show that successfully prompts laughs, tears, and song, culminating in heaps o' hope.

I Can Do Bad All By Myself, Tyler Perry's endearing adaptation of the melo-comedic stage play that introduced his alter ego Madea, is a double shot of Saturday-night lowdown chased by a cheery chug of Sunday-morning uplift. Starring that spitfire Taraji P. Henson (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) as a lounge singer who resists assuming guardianship of her late sister's children, the film is a variety show that successfully prompts laughs, tears, and song, culminating in heaps o' hope.

Oprah and Tyler Perry know friends don't always make good business partners, so they entered their new venture with caution. "The most important thing . . . was making sure we would not lose our friendship because of the business. We had to establish ground rules," Tyler, who is creating two new shows for O's network, OWN, tells Essence mag. O, 59, tells the mag this is a historic event. "Where else in the history of our African American culture have two really, really successful people who can do whatever they want said, 'Let's come together and be even more powerful - let's take it to the 10th power?

IT'S DIFFICULT to see how Tyler Perry could get any busier, but Oprah Winfrey 's OWN network said Monday that Perry will produce, write and direct the network's first two scripted series, to premiere next year. Perry is the creative force behind movies like "Madea's Family Reunion" and the TBS series "Tyler Perry's House of Payne," "Meet the Browns" and "For Better or Worse. " The move to OWN, the Los Angeles Times reported, means Perry is shelving his ambitions to launch his own Tyler TV cable network.

WE CAN DENY IT if we want, but we love to be entertained watching shows about people derailing their lives. Throw in an underlying theme of rich versus poor and the ratings soar. So I was curious how Tyler Perry's two new shows for Oprah Winfrey's OWN network would play. Pretty good. "The Haves and the Have Nots" and "Love Thy Neighbor" delivered the network its largest and second-largest series debuts. "The Haves and the Have Nots," which airs on Tuesdays, is a drama about the Cryers, a rich, white Savannah, Ga., family (philandering powerful judge husband, old-money stay-at-home wife, drug-addicted son and psychologically frail law-student daughter)

ABOUT the only good news arising from the "Meet the Parents" clone "Peeples" is that there are no Fockers about. Otherwise it's a virtual duplication. Craig Robinson is the guy (named Wade) with the un-masculine job (he sings hold-your-bladder songs at preschools) and an upper-class girlfriend (Kerry Washington). He crashes one of her family get-togethers at the posh home of her parents (David Alan Grier, S. Epatha Merkerson), who are also also hosting their TV-star daughter and gangsta wannabe son. Dad is a judge, domineering in life as well as in court, and most of the jokes involve the prospective son-in-law trying desperately to make a good impression.

Craig Robinson is on one of those if-this-is-Wednesday-it-must-be-Philadelphia tours. On Thursday and Friday, it was D.C. He threw out the first ball at a Nationals game. ("Right down the pike, and it made it to the plate," he says, beaming.) Then New Orleans over the weekend, where he took in Earth, Wind and Fire at the Jazz Fest. ("In the rain. For an hour. It was awesome. ") Atlanta on Monday. Chicago on Tuesday. And now: "Here we are" - Philly. But Robinson, the 41-year-old cast member of The Office and costar of a bunch of big-screen comedies (including the Judd Apatow hits Knocked Up and Pineapple Express , and that sci-fi masterpiece, Hot Tub Time Machine )

Oprah and Tyler Perry know friends don't always make good business partners, so they entered their new venture with caution. "The most important thing . . . was making sure we would not lose our friendship because of the business. We had to establish ground rules," Tyler, who is creating two new shows for O's network, OWN, tells Essence mag. O, 59, tells the mag this is a historic event. "Where else in the history of our African American culture have two really, really successful people who can do whatever they want said, 'Let's come together and be even more powerful - let's take it to the 10th power?

The thing that made Tyler Perry rich is much in evidence in Tyler Perry's Temptation . It was called Confessions of a Marriage Counselo r when he toured with it on stage. There's no Madea here. But the women are beautiful, serious about clothes, makeup, hair, and church. Older women are "Wise Counsels," the name of a female-centric church in the movie. And they typically get the funny, sometimes profane, "you-listen-to-me-child" lines. The men are shirtless, rapacious heels, or sensitive pretty-boy disappointments.

T ATTLE'S FAVORITE AWARDS SHOW has announced its nominations, and we'd like to congratulate "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2" for dominating the 33rd annual Golden Raspberry Awards (a/k/a the "Razzies"), celebrating "the worst accomplishments in film. " "TS: BD2" received 11 nominations - not bad, considering there are only 10 categories - including worst picture, worst actor ( Robert Pattinson ), worst actress ( Kristen Stewart - also feted for "Snow White and the Huntsman")

YOU CAN'T drive five blocks in the city without seeing a giant "Alex Cross" billboard with Tyler Perry in Shaft's raincoat, shotgun at the ready. With this new thriller, the erstwhile Medea makes the bold bid to crossover from cross-dressing comedian to movie tough guy. How does he do? Well, you can't tell from "Alex Cross," a shockingly incompetent major studio release that strands Perry in a poorly written and poorly executed police procedural. Perry has the title role here (based on James Patterson's character, but on no particular book)

IT'S DIFFICULT to see how Tyler Perry could get any busier, but Oprah Winfrey 's OWN network said Monday that Perry will produce, write and direct the network's first two scripted series, to premiere next year. Perry is the creative force behind movies like "Madea's Family Reunion" and the TBS series "Tyler Perry's House of Payne," "Meet the Browns" and "For Better or Worse. " The move to OWN, the Los Angeles Times reported, means Perry is shelving his ambitions to launch his own Tyler TV cable network.

The K-Stew follies are on. On. On! Kristen Stewart is pulling out all the stops on an aggressive publicity blitzkrieg for her Brothers Grimm adaptation, Snow White and the Huntsman, which features America's favorite vampire bride as a sword-wielding Snow White. So derriere-kicking is our Snow, in one scene she broke costar Chris Hemsworth's nose with one punch. That's Thor we're talking about. "I swear I didn't mean to," a penitent K-Stew told Today on Thursday. "He got too close.

WHITNEY HOUSTON is coming home to New Jersey. The L.A. coroner's office returned her body to her family yesterday morning, and the body was set to be flown to the Garden State late yesterday, according to two anonymous family sources and the Associated Press. Whitney's body was to be flown on Tyler Perry 's private jet, TMZ.com reported. Whitney's family said a wake could be held Thursday and a funeral Friday at Newark's Prudential Center, a sports and events arena that seats about 18,000 people.