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?

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.

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.

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.

I'll admit it wasn't easy to think about For Colored Girls - Tyler Perry's evocative, emotionally wrenching film - without cringing first. Madea's Big Happy Family it ain't. Which, come to think of it, isn't a bad thing. Perry's stark meditation on the trials and triumphs of African American women, based on Ntozake Shange's 1975 award-winning play, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf , had no place for gun-packing, foulmouthed, matriarch-in-drag Madea, whom Perry has, for better or worse, parlayed into a bona fide power player in Hollywood.

Ten years ago, Tyler Perry was a playwright without a home. Having pumped all of his savings into producing plays that hardly anyone attended, he was broke and homeless, alternately living in shelters and his car. Today, Perry, 34, is a multimillionaire who lives in a 26-room bachelor pad outside of Atlanta, complete with tennis courts and an amphitheater, and he's built his own business complex on 22 acres in Beverly Hills. By writing, producing and performing in traveling gospel plays before sold-out houses across the country, Perry has created an enthusiastic and loyal African American audience.

Written, directed, and starring Tyler Perry. With Loretta Devine, Cassi Davis, and David Mann. Distributed by Lionsgate. Running time: 1 hour, 44 mins. Parent's guide: PG-13 (drugs, profanity, and mature themes) Showing at: area theaters

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.

"Jumping the Broom" is like a Tyler Perry movie with polish. An ensemble comedy about a wedding that joins a wealthy, Martha's Vineyard family of African-American professionals with the groom's more down-to-earth, working-class Brooklynites, it is well-cast, well-played, passably written and filmed in the warm glow only the top-drawer cinematographers can achieve. And if this T.D. Jakes project (he produced it) lacks the scruffy, hit-or-miss outrageousness of Perry's down-home Atlanta farces, it compensates with heart, smarts and a confident air that Perry's pictures lack.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Tyler Perry has signed a deal with TBS for the dramedy "For Better or Worse," a series based on his "Why Did I Get Married?" film franchise. Pictured above, Michael Jai White ("The Dark Knight") and Tasha Smith ("Couples Retreat") are set to reprise their roles as TV anchor Marcus and salon owner Angela.

ON ONE SIDE, there's legendary film director Spike Lee . On the other side, there's filmmaker Tyler Perry , whose latest movie, "Madea's Big Happy Family," opened at No. 2 at the box office last weekend. At issue is what passes as positive black movie-making. Lee has long criticized Perry for producing lowbrow comedies heavy on racial stereotyping and Amos-and-Andy-style characterizations. But Perry says Madea, the gun-toting, grandmotherly figure at the heart of so many of his films, and other characters in his comedies reflect a segment of black life.

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 over-sized 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.

Written, directed, and starring Tyler Perry. With Loretta Devine, Cassi Davis, and David Mann. Distributed by Lionsgate. Running time: 1 hour, 44 mins. Parent's guide: PG-13 (drugs, profanity, and mature themes) Showing at: area theaters

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.

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?

SEVENTY years after Hattie McDaniel became the first black woman to receive an Oscar (for her role as a maid in "Gone With the Wind"), it's incredible that there is still only a very small pool of juicy movie roles for black actresses. And what's with all of the sad stories that we always seem to portray, when there are also plenty of normal and happy black women to show on the big screen? I was reminded of that sad truth on a "girlfriends night out" to see Tyler Perry's latest - "For Colored Girls.

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.