All in a Lather
"I probably wouldn't say this in front of white folks," says CEDRIC THE ENTERTAINER, as the codgerly Eddie in Barbershop, "but Rosa Parks didn't do nothing but sit her a__ down." Turns out he probably shouldn't have said it in front of certain black folks either. Al Sharpton and associates of Parks' have taken offense. The movie, which has been selling more tickets in America than any other film, also has Eddie slagging black activists like Jesse Jackson. Every other character in the room either objects or laughs it off--the remarks are just the cranky opinions of a grumpy old man. But Sharpton sent a letter to MGM, asking the film's distributor to cut the scene. Jackson wasn't amused either; he said that while he could ignore getting personally knocked by Eddie, "there are some heroes who are sacred to a people, and these comments poisoned an otherwise funny movie. Why put cyanide in the Kool-Aid?" So far, the movie's fans have exhibited no ill effects.
15 MINUTES KELLY CLARKSON, AMERICAN IDOL
As the Monkees demonstrated long ago, there's no better medium than television for putting chipper, derivative pop singers on top of the singles charts. KELLY CLARKSON, 20, the former cocktail waitress from Burleston, Texas, who won Fox's American Idol talent contest along with a record deal with RCA, hit the royalties jackpot with A Moment Like This, the song she performed on the show's finale. The tune rose from its early slot of 52 on Billboard's Hot 100 to No. 1. Next month she starts a U.S. tour with nine former rivals, including runner-up Justin Guarini. By the time that's wrapped up and Clarkson has finished her first full-length album, contestants for Idol rip-off shows should be just about ready to try to bump her back into obscurity.
POP QUIZ WILL THE REAL ARTIST PLEASE STAND UP?
So you think you really understand the minds and souls of Marilyn Manson and Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood. Then take TIME's Name That Rocker-Painter Quiz! If you can figure out which rock star did which painting on the basis of subject, mood and overall aesthetic, then, dude, you are really feeling the music. One of these is a Wood canvas, on sale for $95,000 at New York City's Pop International Gallery, which opened a showing of Wood's work last week. The other is a Manson original, on display at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions. Wood considers himself primarily a portraitist: "I've drawn people when I'm sitting talking to them--God knows how many I've given away. I studied people like Durer, and I was heavily influenced by the Impressionists as well as Rembrandt," he says. Manson's show is titled "The Golden Age of Grotesque." "People are actually buying my paintings," he marveled at the opening. (For the answer, see bottom right.)
ANSWER: LEFT, WOOD; RIGHT, MANSON
Top This One, Survivor