Casting the JOKER

I have an extremely talented comedian/actor buddy back in New York. His name is Anthony DeVito. This week, he tweeted "Once again I feel like an alien as white guys of all ages around me are going apeshit over the Joker movie."

Do I want to see JOKER? Yes. I admit it. I want to see it because I've been a fan of Joaquin Phoenix performances for quite a few years now. This goes back to his work in Ron Howard's 1997 film, INVENTING THE ABBOTTS. His range as an actor, his immersion into a character, fascinates me. If you want to get an idea of his range, rent GLADIATOR -- the 2000 film that brought Russell Crowe his Best Actor Oscar -- and follow that with WALK THE LINE. I have watched Joaquin Phoenix play Johnny Cash in that biopic at least a dozen times.   THE MASTER was what you'd call "an arthouse film," not one that could give an action-adventure franchise film a run for its money at the box office. That may be, but I sat through THE MASTER twice, dazzled by Joaquin Phoenix's performance as the emotionally dented WWII veteran who becomes engrossed in the teachings and leader of a new religious movement.

He got Oscar nominations for GLADIATOR, WALK THE LINE and THE MASTER.

Initially, I didn't have a tingling urge to see JOKER solely because I need a break from the steady diet of comic book-based adventures we get now at the movies. The franchises seem to have overtaken half the screens at the cineplex. But the excellent reviews Phoenix has gotten from several film critics whose opinions I respect ignited my interest.

From what I've read, JOKER is a backstory. It shows us the character's evolution from troubled young man to psycho villain. JOKER is a character created for a comic book. He's been played by only one  non-white male. Latino Cesar Romero, one of the most versatile actors of Old Hollywood, played The Joker in the 1960s on the popular BATMAN TV series on ABC and in a movie version of the TV series. In later films, the Joker was played by Jack Nicholson and the late Heath Ledger.

In the trailer, I noticed that Phoenix's psychologically tattered character is verbally pushed back, rejected by two Black women -- one on a bus, the other in an office. Then, he's kissing a third Black woman. I wonder where that relationship goes. Here's a trailer.

Another actor whose work I totally dig is Michael Peña. I wish he got as much attention and promotion as Joaquin Phoenix does. Peña had roles in five films that got Oscar nominations for Best Picture -- MILLION DOLLAR BABY, CRASH, BABEL, AMERICAN HUSTLE and THE MARTIAN. This talented Mexican-American actor also starred in a biopic, playing the lead character, but the entertainment press didn't give CESAR CHAVEZ anywhere near the attention it gave WALK THE LINE with the Joaquin as Johnny Cash. Here's Michael Peña.

Here's my question. If an ethnic actor, like Michael Peña, played JOKER, and played him as the son of an immigrant, a son who, like his father, was mistreated by society because of his race, how would comic book fans and critics respond to that? Think of Joker hearing "Go back where you came from" and seeing immigrant kids in cages on TV news as he continues to be treated like a second class citizen. Think of what being a racial outcast could give to the texture of that comic book character's backstory. Would it be interesting to see? Feel free to leave me a comment.

A Morning with Mitzi Gaynor

This is a programming note about one of my longtime favorite entertainers. I've blogged before that, in our African American Catholic home back in South Central Los Angeles, any and every day that brought us a new Mitzi Gaynor music variety special on CBS was practically a Holy Day of Obligation as far as our mother was concerned. She adored Mitzi Gaynor. Mom introduced me to her work before I ever saw one of her sensational CBS special. The MGM musical, LES GIRLS, starred Gene Kelly as a showman/director who toured Europe with his trio of fabulous female singers and dancer called "Les Girls." Mitzi played a member of the trio. When the 1957 musical aired one Saturday night on NBC, Mom was Commander of the TV that night and LES GIRLS was what we were watching. I am not complaining. I loved LES GIRLS and picked up the love of Mitzi Gaynor from Mom. (There's Mitzi on the left.)

Mitzi had a knock-out dance number when Gene Kelly. The number was a send-up of Marlon Brando as he was leading a motorcycle gang in 1953's THE WILD ONE. George Cukor directed LES GIRLS. The musical had an original score by Cole Porter.

She lit up movie screens in ANYTHING GOES with Bing Crosby and Donald O'Connor, THE JOKER IS WILD with Frank Sinatra, LES GIRLS, THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS with Ethel Merman and Marilyn Monroe, Rodgers & Hammerstein's SOUTH PACIFIC, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY with David Niven and SURPRISE PACKAGE with Noel Coward. And Mitzi Gaynor wearing Bob Mackie originals in her CBS specials -- now THAT'S entertainment. Yes, I've been a fan a long, long time. I even saw her onstage once in her one-woman show. Not only was it great fun, it was a lesson in show biz artistry.

Mitzi Gaynor made a sold-out, packed audience feel as if we were all in her living room watching her perform at a party. Her ability to connect with that quality of intimacy and warmth was amazing to experience. When I lived in New York City in the Chelsea section of town, early in October following the September 11th attacks, I rented SOUTH PACIFIC from my nearby video store. Hearing her sing "A Cockeyed Optimist" helped my spirits to refresh and resurrect. She made me feel as though it was alright to smile again.

If you too are a Mitzi Gaynor fan, make a note on your SmartPhone of whatever. She will be profiled this coming weekend on the CBS SUNDAY MORNING news magazine show. That's Sunday, October 6th, on CBS. The program starts at 9am ET.

A Dental Appointment from Preston Sturges

"It was the night of September 30th. I was in excruciating pain." Every time the character played by William Demarest declares that fact about his life in 1846, it tickles the heck out of me. It's a line from a movie written and directed by Preston Sturges. If you're a classic film fan, you know that Preston Sturges was the golden boy of writer/directors at Paramount Pictures in the 1940s. That's when he directed his own screenplays and hit homeruns with effervescent comedies that were both daft and wise, "but with a little sex" as a character in his 1941 comedy classic SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS says. In the middle of his written and directed by winners for Paramount was a curiosity that was meant as a historical drama. However, it makes me laugh. Just like SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS, it has drama, conflict, greed, physical pain, a shapely blonde -- and Joel McCrea. This 1944 release is THE GREAT MOMENT, the biography of Dr. William T.G. Morton. He was a married Boston dentist who discovered the use of ether for general anesthesia and, in the movie, successfully used it on a patient with a toothache on September 30th, 1846.

Again, let me refer to SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS. On the face of it, the subject matter of THE GREAT MOMENT sounds like it could be the kind of "deep dish" movie drama that The Girl (Veronica Lake) in SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS complains about to the hobo, not knowing he's really a wealthy Hollywood producer traveling incognito. She lights up talking about the silly comedies that made her laugh. It's documented that THE GREAT MOMENT was finished in 1942. By that time, Sturges had entertained audiences with these Paramount releases he wrote and directed: THE GREAT McGINTY (1940), CHRISTMAS IN JULY (1940), THE LADY EVE (1941), SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS (1941) and THE PALM BEACH STORY (1942).

However, there were problems. The studio didn't like the dental biopic. Reportedly, Sturges meant the film to be serious. Preview audiences were confused. A studio exec had it re-edited so it could be pitched as a comedy. THE GREAT MOMENT was released in 1944 after the 1943 classic Sturges comedy, THE MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CREEK.

When you read accounts of Paramount execs being dissatisfied with the dramatic dental story highlighting rivalry between two fields of the health profession -- dental and medical -- it seems as though Preston Sturges himself was like the successful young Hollywood producer in SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS. The studio wants "Sully" (Joel McCrea) to make another comedy. But he wants to make an adaptation of the severe, social issues novel called O, BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU?

I can see how audiences would've been confused. THE GREAT MOMENT features the Preston Sturges stock company supporting players, the recognizable faces you see in his screwball comedies. The movie opens and the first two familiar faces seen are on Joel McCrea and William Demarest. Esther Howard, seen as the wife of The Wienie King in THE PALM BEACH STORY, is all gussied up in 1846 Boston attire and walks into the dental office sad-faced and saying "I'm in terrible pain, dearie." Porter Hall, seen as one of Sullivan's Hollywood studio staff members in SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS, plays U.S. President Franklin Pierce. In the Massachusetts General Hospital scenes, there's fussbudget Franklin Pangborn sporting muttonchops as a hospital executive.

Demarest plays Dr. W.T.G. Morton's first patient to go under the ether and have a tooth removed without pain. There was previous try on him with the wrong kind of ether. Instead of putting the patient in a sleep-like state, it energized him like he was leading a cavalry charge in battle. This makes for a funny scene with Demarest and McCrea engaging in some broad, fast-paced physical comedy that leaves the entire dental office in a shambles. How could Sturges have thought audiences would've taken that madcap scene seriously?

To me, THE GREAT MOMENT works viewed as a parody of those assembly-line biopics that came out of Warner Bros. in the 1930s. Think of those biographical dramas that took themselves so seriously, like the ones starring Paul Muni as Louis Pasteur, Emile Zola and Benito Juarez. One of the first elements to give me that parody feeling is Betty Field as Dr. Morton's loving and fluttery wife. Field makes Lizzie a funny Preston Sturges supporting character.

THE GREAT MOMENT opens with celebration. Dr. W.T.G. Morton is being hailed with a little parade. People hold and display signs praising his discovery. He called his ether discovery Letheon. Signs read "Letheon Ends Pain" and "Pain Is No More." Dr. Morton waves at his lovely wife during the festivities.

Then we jump ahead 20 years. William Demarest's character sees a prize medal in a pawn shop and buys it. He tells the clerk he knows the man who hocked it … "only he's dead now." He visits and returns the medal to Dr. Morton's widow. 20 years later and the only thing that's changed about her is her hairdo. She has the same small waist and the same attractive bustline. There's not one age wrinkle on her face as she sits in a form-fitting dress and launches into a melancholy monologue about her late husband, a man who was "forgotten before he was remembered."

Morton's wife, Lizzie, tells of when he was a simple farmer with their three little kids. He loved that farm and his animals. Lizzie smiles tenderly as she recalls that he won a prize for "Best Sow." Her grown daughter enters the room to announce that dinner's ready. Lizzie invites Eben (Demarest) to stay for dinner. The daughter made pie. Lizzie says wistfully, "My, how your father loved pie."

Then we flashback to see how Lizzie and William met and started courting.  They married. She doesn't really seem to understand his work but she supports it. He hates that people are always screaming in the dental chair. William remarks, "There ought to be a way to de-sensitive a nerve." He works tirelessly to find a way. His discovery makes his family financially comfortable. Lizzie can afford maids, a butler and a large dining room table so she can host lavish dinner parties.  One night, there were so many complications with William's work that he didn't make it home in time for dinner with guests. Lizzie has a little bit of a snit because the dinner didn't go as smoothly as she'd planned. Says Lizzie "...and then the sherbet came in ahead of the fish!"

I love that line. I don't see how any Sturges fan could've taken this film to be a drama.

The drama, the conflict, comes when Dr. Morton tries to coax the medical field to utilize his anesthesia when performing surgery. He wanted people to be free of pain. The men in the medical field wanted profit, they were jealous of his discovery, and they regarded dentistry as a lower-class profession. That corporate greed, if you will, drained Dr. Morton of the wealth acquired from his discovery and he was overlooked in medical history. That is some high drama. But when you have Franklin Pangborn in muttonchops arguing with Joel McCrea as William Demarest pipes in with "It was the night of September 30th. I was in excruciating pain," you can't help but giggle if you're a fan of the Sturges classics.

THE GREAT MOMENT was a flop when it opened. Nevertheless, it has moments of that distinctive Sturges style, it has Joel McCrea and it runs only about 80 minutes. Even if "the sherbet came in ahead of the fish," it's not all bad.

About Olivia Newton-John

I love Olivia Newton-John. I bet you do too. I have loved her and her optimistic, sunny singing voice for a long time. I worked on an FM rock radio station when the 1978 movie version of GREASE was released. I'd seen it onstage and was eager to see how the Sandy role would be restyled and suited to fit her Australian accent. Our radio station got the soundtrack. Since we played contemporary rock music, GREASE cuts wouldn't be added to our on-air playlist. So I tucked the LP into my bag, took it home and broke out into a broad smile with every Olivia Newton-John vocal I heard on the soundtrack. That was in Milwaukee during my first full-time professional radio job after I graduated from Marquette University. When I was in high school back in Los Angeles, I had my first contact with Olivia Newton-John.

A few friends who attended a different high school, located in Long Beach, were headed to Disneyland one night for its graduating high school seniors' night of festivities. I wasn't yet a senior like they were. I was an undergraduate. But I got in anyway. We were seated at a table outdoors, just grabbing a bite and chatting. A lively blonde singer was performing onstage near us. An unknown singer. As you could expect, most of the kids were just milling around and she was not a star attraction. However, I could not take my eyes off her. She was pretty, perky and even though a large crowd had not assembled at the foot of the stage where she was performing, she gave each number her all like she was doing a big number in a Broadway show.

I figured she was another Southern California aspiring singer who booked a good gig at Disneyland. When she thanked the crowd, I could tell her accent that she was not from Southern California. That other thing that stood out, besides her terrific pop voice and personality, was the fact that she had three names.

Later, our little high school group was walking through Disneyland and I spotted the singer walking near us. I dashed over and had to tell how much I loved her set on that stage. Her face lit up, she shook my hand and her heartfelt, enthusiastic gratitude is one of my best memories of that night.

As the years went on, and she became tops on the pop charts, I'd always wonder if Olivia Newton-John was the same girl I'd heard sing at Disneyland when I was in high school in 1970.

Press the fast forward button to the late 1980s. Olivia Newton-John is booked to come into our VH1 studios in New York City for an interview. I have my own talk show. She and I meet and I ask, "When you were just starting out, did you sing at Disneyland for a high school seniors' night?"

Her eyes got the size of dinner plates and she beamed, "Were you there?"

What a lovely person she is. Onstage, onscreen, and off. She had that same enthusiastic gratitude at VH1, when she was a recording and film star, that she had that night as an unknown singer when I went out of my way to compliment her at Disneyland.

There are people in this life who radiate being in a state of grace. When they leave the room, you find yourself smiling and wishing they could've stayed longer because of the light they put in your heart. Olivia Newton-John is such a person. I just thought I'd share that with you.

Gayle King visited the singer/actress at her California ranch where she lives with her husband. King conducted a very warm and smart interview that aired on CBS SUNDAY MORNING.

To see the Sept. 29th "Olivia Newton-John on finding joy in a life with cancer" segment from Gayle King on CBS SUNDAY MORNING, log onto this link:

cbsnews.com/sunday-morning/.

To see Olivia Newton-John dance with screen legend Gene Kelly in the 1980 musical, XANADU, watch this clip:

Like Rita Hayworth in 1944's COVER GIRL, Olivia Newton-John danced with Gene Kelly as he played a character named Danny McGuire.

We Need a Muriel Box Set

I have written about British film director Muriel Box before in my blog posts. I'm writing about her again because her name does not get mentioned in the conversation about trailblazing female filmmakers. It should be. In the 1950s when Hollywood star Ida Lupino, an actress who combined glamour with some serious acting chops, had made the groundbreaking transition to actress and director, Muriel Box was an Oscar-winning screenwriter who made the transition to director overseas in England. In her films, Box directed such respected talents as Shelley Winters, Glynis Johns, Sir Ralph Richardson, Julie Harris, Laurence Harvey, Peggy Cummins, Thomas Mitchell, Van Johnson, Peter Finch and Kay Kendall. Muriel Box directed about 10 films released in the 1950s.

Muriel Box and her husband, Sydney Box, wrote the screenplay to the psychological British melodrama, 1945's THE SEVENTH VEIL. Today, that film can be viewed as female independence building in strength to rip and shred the veil of sexist male dominance wrapped around her. James Mason starred as the debonair yet brutal guardian and music teacher to an aspiring pianist. She's played by Ann Todd. The guardian is jealous of her talent. Their co-dependent relationship is at the root of her breakdown. THE SEVENTH VEIL is one of those British dramas that positioned James Mason for 1950s Hollywood stardom. It opened in the U.S. in 1946 and got an Oscar nomination. In 1947, Muriel Box and Sydney Box were the Oscar winners for Best Original Screenplay.

From what I've read, director Muriel Box loved highlighting the female experience. She directed the 1953 British drama, STREET CORNER. Here in the U.S., it was titled BOTH SIDES OF THE LAW. The film took on a documentary style and showed three different angles of the daily routine in the lives of police women. It starred Peggy Cummins, loved by American classic film fans for her work as the trigger happy blonde bad girl in 1950's GUN CRAZY.

Box's 1954 comedy, TO DOROTHY a SON, followed an American woman who heads to Britain. In order to acquire a large inheritance, she has to prevent her ex-husband from having any more children. It starred Shelley Winters, John Gregson and Peggy Cummins. The U.S. title for the film was CASH ON DELIVERY. Here's writer/director Muriel Box (left) with Shelley Winters.

Thomas Mitchell played a judge in Box's 1960 drama, TOO YOUNG TO LOVE. A 15-year old female winds up in juvenile court. She tells her story to the judge. We see in flashbacks that her young life was one of parental neglect and a lack of direction. She becomes a wayward teen who seeks an abortion and later gets busted for prostitution.

Muriel Box directed 1955's SIMON AND LAURA, a British comedy that makes for fun Christmas season viewing. Not only is it a comedy, it's also a rare Peter Finch moustache movie. He has a moustache and the chance to play for laughs in this feature. His most famous performance is as the delusional news anchor, Howard Beale, in the satire on the TV news corporate jungle, 1976's NETWORK. Muriel Box's 1955 comedy focuses on a live TV reality show during the holiday season. Two celebrities, a bickering married couple, are offered a project. They go on TV as themselves, an onscreen happily married couple bringing viewers into their real lives. The two celebrities don't like the idea but they need the money. Hilarity ensues. Keep in mind, this is 1955 when BBC TV was new. SIMON AND LAURA gives us the sublime Kay Kendall in a starring role. She died way too soon, stricken with leukemia. Watch this trailer for SIMON AND LAURA.

The last film Muriel Box directed was the screen adaptation of a hit comedy play theater-goers saw in London and on Broadway. Her 1964 film, RATTLE OF A SIMPLE MAN, is the sweet story of a 39-year-old sports fan who travels with buddies to see a game. The shy guy is a 39-year-old virgin. The buddies have a night out on the town and he winds up with a prostitute named Cyrenne. Diane Cilento starred as Cyrenne. That night, the two talk. He falls in love. Her heart is touched. The sports fan was played by Harry H. Corbett. He was not a big star here in the U.S but he was in the U.K. From 1962 to 1974, Corbett starred as the son on the British sitcom STEPTOE AND SON. It's the British sitcom that inspired our classic American sitcom, SANFORD AND SON.

Before director Judd Apatow gave us Steve Carell as THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN in 2005, director Muriel Box gave us a 39-year-old male virgin in 1964's RATTLE OF A SIMPLE MAN.

Actress/director Ida Lupino has finally received the recognition she deserved as a breakthrough female filmmaker. Four films Lupino directed are in a boxed set available on  klstudioclassics.com.

I think it's high time filmmaker Muriel Box got some recognition too here in the U.S.

Kim Cattrall's Best Work

A couple of years passed quickly. I'd watched the first three episodes of this show's first season so I could write about it. The show is called SENSITIVE SKIN and stars Kim Cattrall, formerly of the ultra-fabulous SEX AND THE CITY on HBO.  At the time I watched those episodes, Cattrall was in the entertainment news because, reportedly, she was not longing to do another SEX AND THE CITY movie. I think a lot of her gay male fans were miffed at that news. As I eagerly made it through all of Season 1 of SENSITIVE SKIN, I could understand Cattrall's position.

This week, I re-watched Season 1 and started Season 2. I loved it even more. This show aired on HBO Canada. Not here in the U.S. That's a shame, especially for Cattrall fans. Kim Cattrall does some of the best acting of her long career with some of the best material she's ever been given to play. SENSITIVE SKIN is currently on Netflix. I am positive that, had it aired on American TV, she would have been in the Emmy and Golden Globes running for Best Actress in a TV Drama Series.

Before I describe the show, let me write this about the reported Kim Cattrall reluctance to return to SEX AND THE CITY adventures. This may be a stretch, but here goes: Asking Kim Cattrall to do her sexually adventurous SEX AND THE CITY character again would be like asking Sally Field if she's be interested in a reboot of GIDGET … with Gidget now as an adult.

No disrespect to the TV character, but the actress has moved on and shown greater range with excellent work in more mature, more challenging material. The actresses on SEX AND THE CITY were good. I, however, was not one of those gay men in Manhattan who squealed with delight at every episode. Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) was a columnist. Did she ever wrote a second draft? Did she ever do research interviews and take notes? Was she ever pressed to meet a deadline? I had women friends in New York City who were columnists. There were times when we had plans to grab a bite until I got call and heard, "Can we reschedule? I'm doing a rewrite and trying to meet a deadline." That was just one thing. The other thing? The four women were not very dimensional to me. Did they have parents? Aunts and uncles? Siblings? When I watched, I knew nothing about their family backgrounds. Those family ties give texture to the fabric of your life, shape why you are the way you are and they often fuel the drive many of us had to leave home, head for the big city called New York and recreate ourselves. That certainly was the case with me.

On SENSITIVE SKIN, Kim Cattrall plays Davina Jackson, a wife and mother in her 50s. When first we see her, she's in a drugstore and looks like a dwarf in a land of pharmaceuticals. Davina wants something for her hormones. She has a rather bookish and loving husband. They live in Toronto and they've been married for 30 years. The husband is a columnist. She's a former model who acted occasionally. Cattrall shines in this role of a woman determined to find a new meaningful path in her life as she navigates through menopause. The humor is smart and insightful. Fran Lebowitz, Anna Quindlen and Oscar Levant would love the writing on this series. That gives you idea of its quality. There's also a touch of James Thurber in the scripts. Davina has a conversation with herself in the first episode. She's at a function and...sees her self. The two Davinas engage in a conversation that no one else can hear. Or see. This Canadian TV adaptation is based on a British TV series.

At first sight, Davina and her husband seem like an odd couple. An owl and a pussycat. But as the episodes progress, we see how they do complement and love each other. We see how they deal when approached by outside sexual temptation. Marriage, parenthood, love, infidelity, fear, loneliness, loss and ageing are topics touched on in this show. SENSITIVE SKIN is a blessing for middle-aged and senior-aged actresses. It gives them employment and meaty material to play. Joanna Gleason plays Davina's jealous married sister. On Broadway, actress/singer Gleason won a Tony Award for playing The Baker's Wife in the original Broadway cast of Sondheim's INTO THE WOODS. On screen, you saw her in Woody Allen's HANNAH AND HER SISTERS and CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS. Also, she played Dirk Digger's angry and bitter mother in BOOGIE NIGHTS. Each SENSITIVE SKIN scene with Joanna Gleason and Kim Cattrall together is pure gold. Click onto this link to see a trailer:

https://youtu.be/1sPW1JD03yU.

In between the time I watched episode of SENSITIVE SKIN for the first time and now, I've experienced some loss, disappointment, sibling friction and occasional feelings of fear as I try to walk that tightrope called "ageing." The episodes have more resonance to me now. I have nothing but high praise and appreciation for Kim Cattrall's performance of depth, grace and wit. She was good in SEX AND THE CITY. She's even better here.

If you can, see SENSITIVE SKIN on Netflix.

They Saw Us! THE EMMYS

There were moments of the Emmy Awards show that gave me that wonderful Easter feeling. That feeling of a restored and refreshed spirit. A feeling of new hope. Tears welled up in eyes when Billy Porter won the Emmy for his dynamic performance on POSE. To see him on that stage accept his award, an openly gay Black man, and then to quote James Baldwin in his acceptance speech, well...my heart took wing. Back in New York City, Billy and I are acquaintances. We've stopped on the street and chatted a few times. There is a grace and humor about him that this world needs. His victory kicked a door wide open. Especially for us gay men of color. The playing field was not level for us. The entertainment industry had one certain way it wanted to present us in images. That one way was never in the lead role, always in a supporting role, and often as the big queen sidekick cheering on the white male or white female lead character. Our stories were not told. Off-camera, our truth could keep us from being employed. When I was approached to work on a top local New York City news program in the early 1990s, gay employees pulled me aside with this warning: "Do not tell management that you're gay. Do not tell management your partner has AIDS. If you tell them, they may find a way to not need you on the show anymore."  I won't go into details now, but there was wisdom in their warning.

I know I'm older than Billy Porter. Hell, sometimes nowadays I feel older than the Sphinx. But his Emmy win recharged my spirit. I do want to work again and if an agent, producer, manager or whatever cannot deal with me as I am, I don't need them.

When the five Black/Latino youths were called "The Central Park Five" in the press and wrongfully convicted of a brutal crime back in the 80s, Donald Trump spent big money taking out full page newspaper ad calling for their execution. He has never apologized. Today, those men are The Exonerated Five. Young Afro-Latino actor Jharrel Jerome was stunning as unjustly imprisoned Korey Wise in WHEN THEY SEE US, the story of the five and the disgusting miscarriage of justice. It was directed and co-written by Ava DuVernay. It's a moving, blistering work that I watched on Netflix. Jerome won for Lead Actor. Before WHEN THEY SEE US, he played a key character in the Oscar winner for Best Picture of 2016 ... LA LA LAND MOONLIGHT.

Director Ava DuVernay said this about Jharrel Jerome"  "The world is his oyster. But he lives in a world that doesn't see him in the same way it see Ansel Elgort or Timothee Chalamet. My highest hope is that the industry rushes to his talent."

Bravo, Jharrel Jerome! They saw us! We are so very, very proud of you.

As for Michelle Williams, winner for her extraordinary work as Gwen Verdon in FOSSE/VERDON, she should be nominated next year for her acceptance speech. She not only politely called out the industry for its inequality in pay for women, she went one step further and called them out on the extra inequality when paying women of color. She said, "So the next time a woman, especially a woman of color, because she stands to make 52 cents on the dollar compared to her white male counterpart, tells you what she needs in order to do her job, listen to her, believe her."

Preach it, Michelle Williams!

Do you mind if I add a personal story to give more perspective to the pay inequality that women of color endure?

Los Angeles is my hometown. I graduated from college in Milwaukee. I started my professional TV career in Milwaukee on the ABC affiliate. I was the city 's first African American film critic seen on weekly Milwaukee TV. This was in the 80s. On an independent TV station in Milwaukee, I also had a weekend half-hour film review show. I was half of a couple and we were a mighty fine pair.

When Siskel & Ebert departed Chicago PBS to do their film review show for Disney syndication, Chicago PBS contacted me to audition to be half of its new film review team.  I auditioned and I was extremely grateful for the opportunity. I was especially grateful that they considered a Black person to be its new film critic.

In 1985, I landed my first New York City job and eventually get my own celebrity talk show on VH1. I had national credits. I got excellent write-ups in TV Guide, US Magazine, People and The New York Times. Fast forward to 2000. A noted TV columnist, and a friend of mine, hears from an ABC News producer that it's launching a live weekday magazine show and wants a weekly film reviewer. She mentioned me. The producer said, "Does he know anything about movies?" This was a middle-aged producer who'd been around for a while. The columnist told me that she replied, "Are you kidding?"

I pushed to get the audition. I got the job. Later, the producer admitted to me that she'd never looked at my resume or bio and was not aware of my history. The job utilized my new and classic film knowledge. I wrote the reviews, reviewed new DVDs, gave Women's History in Films every week, wrote for the show's website and did my weekly 8-minute segment without use of a TelePrompTer. I didn't need it. All the info was in my head. I produced my segments and I was given a title: Entertainment Editor.  I was represented by a Broadcast/TV agent that year and notified him I got myself the job. I gave him all those details and added that it paid $500 a week. He said, "A spot like that on a national live show should pay $1500 a week."  I told him who to call and negotiate.

The ABC News answer to him was "$500 -- and not a penny more."

My wonderful, longtime TV/Radio commercial agent got me auditions on a regular basis to do commercials and voiceover work, much of which aired in other parts of the country. If I ever booked something and the pay was $600 or less, Linda would never take a 10%. I would've gladly given it to her because she was terrific. But she wouldn't. She'd reply, "I"ll take my 10% when you make more money."

That Broadcast/TV agent was not my then-retired commercial agent. He could not get me a penny more. But because he'd done the work of trying to get me more money, he was contractually subject to a 10% of my $500 a week salary. He took that 10%.

There I was every Friday on live national TV in an ABC News production, doing the kind of work that was denied Black people when I watched network and local TV as a kid in South Central Los Angeles -- and my weekly take home pay after deductions that included an ex-agent's 10% came to $330. If I'd worked behind the counter at a Burger King, I would've made more money.

But I loved the job. Yet, I did think "It wouldn't be like this if I was a white guy on national TV."

So, if that's what I experienced as a Black man with network credits on my resume, think of how women of color are treated in the pay department.