Page 30 - Aruba Today
P. 30
A30
PEOPLE & ARTSMonday 18 January 2016
Gooding said he didn’t want to meet with O.J. Simpson
DAVID BAUDER stabbed his former wife Ni-
AP Television Writer cole and her friend Ronald
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Goldman to death in June
Actor Cuba Gooding, Jr., 1994,
who portrays O.J. Simpson said the Simpson he need-
in FX’s 10-part miniseries on ed to portray in the televi-
the 1995 murder trial, said sion film was a much differ-
he didn’t want to meet the ent man then, swaggering
former football star as part and confident.
of his research for taking on “I had no desire to visit him
the role. in his present condition,
Gooding, who would not being incarcerated and
reveal at a news confer- being a shell of a man,”
ence Saturday his opin- he said. Gooding said he
ion on whether Simpson gained weight and it took
Actors Malcolm-Jamal Warner, from left, Sterling K. Brown, Sarah Paulson, John Travolta, Cuba
Gooding Jr., Courtney B. Vance and David Schwimmer participate in “The People v. O.J. Simp-
son” panel at the FX Networks Winter TCA on Saturday, Jan. 16, 2016, in Pasadena, Calif.
(Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
him a month to recover wake of the killings unrav- lawyer Robert Kardashian,
from the grueling six-month eled during the trial. at one point in the film
filming. Travolta, who played at- pleads with a gun-toting
The project, with execu- torney Robert Shapiro, said Simpson not to shoot him-
tive producer Ryan Murphy he took four months de- self “in Kimmy’s bedroom.”
and actors like John Travol- ciding whether to take his The scenes were shot in the
ta, David Schwimmer, Mal- first television role in years. house Kardashian and his
colm Jamal-Warner and He’s listed as a producer later-to-be-famous fam-
Gooding, has been get- — he said it was his hedge ily lived in, which “brought
ting strong word-of-mouth against making sure the it home to us in a way
before its Feb. 2 premiere. project wasn’t sensation- that was really chilling,”
Based on a book by CNN’s alistic — but found he did Schwimmer said.
Jeffrey Toobin, writers little in that role. Both Schwimmer, in the
and producers said they Besides the story of a trial, first flush of success with
worked hard to make the “The People v. O.J. Simp- “Friends” at the time of the
docudrama as authentic son: American Crime Story” trial, and Travolta, in the
as possible. needed to reflect many un- midst of his “Pulp Fiction”
Writers said they were in- dercurrents, including race career resurgence, re-
terested in showing viewers relations and the nature of called the trial happening
how the seeming certainty celebrity. at an intense time in their
of Simpson’s guilt in the Schwimmer, who played own lives. q
New CBS chief vows more prime-time diversity
LYNN ELBER “We’re not casting color Chris Tucker movie fran-
AP Television Writer blind, we’re casting color chise, includes Justin Hires
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — conscious.” and Page Kennedy, who
CBS is committed to in- Two upcoming CBS series are black,
creasing the diversity of its will offer “greatly diverse and Jon Foo and Aimee
prime-time series, the net- casts,” he said of “Crimi- Garcia.
work’s new programming nal Minds: Beyond Bor- Geller inherited a schedule
chief said, offering himself ders,” starting March 16, that had lost ground in de-
as evidence. and “Rush Hour,” debuting picting ethnic diversity.
“I’m just a gay guy from March 31. The nation’s most popular
Indiana who doesn’t play The newcomer to the network, which 15 years
basketball, but now I’m “Criminal Minds” franchise, ago had the most diversity,
the entertainment presi- about FBI agents who has the least among the
dent of CBS,” said Glenn aid Americans in trouble major broadcast networks,
Geller, who was promoted abroad, according to an Associat-
to the job last fall. includes African-American ed Press analysis of the fall
He contended that CBS of- actor Tyler James Williams 2014 schedule.
fers diversity in front of and and Daniel Henney, who is Black representation had
behind the camera and in of Korean ancestry. Its top- slipped to just under 7 per-
its corporate offices. listed stars are Gary Sinise cent, less than half what
“And can we do better? I and Alana De La Garza. it was in 1999, according
think we are,” he told a TV The cast of “Rush Hour,” to the AP’s tally from the
critics’ meeting last week. based on the Jackie Chan- network’s own cast lists.q
