The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Perry defends casting: ‘People are people!’
Tyler Perry is taking some static for the mostly white cast of his locally filmed new drama “Too Close to Home,” but he isn’t standing for it.
“I’m so sick of folks asking me why do I have a show full of white folks,” Perry said this week during a radio interview on Tom Joyner’s morning show, which airs weekdays from 5:30 to 9 a.m. on Kiss 104.1. “A reporter asked me this. I’m thinking ‘What the hell?’ Stop asking me that damn question. People are people!”
The scripted series, about a small-town girl who ends up ensnared in romantic-political intrigue at the highest levels, launched this week on TLC.
“It’s such a great show. I’m just asking my folks to watch it, to check it out. It’s only eight episodes but it’s really, really a good show,” Perry said. “Listen, if Donald Trump can pitch to black people in an all-white neighborhood, why can’t you just watch my show on TLC? What the hell have you got to lose? It’s gonna be huge!”
Kiss 104.1, like The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is part of the Cox Media Group.
What will Ryan Lochte do next?
U.S. Swim Team member Ryan Lochte has been on an apology tour of sorts lately, following the Loch Mess or Lochtegate, as Twitter came to christen his shenanigans in Rio de Janeiro. Sponsors including Ralph Lauren and Speedo have consciously uncoupled from the swimmer whose tale of having been ambushed and robbed at gunpoint went viral before deflating amid the facts of the case.
So what’s next? A stint on “Dancing With the Stars,” perhaps. USA Today reports and People hints that the 12-time Olympic medalist might seek to show off his moves on the dance floor instead of the pool in the near future. ABC doesn’t comment on future contestants.
Lochte began the week falling on his verbal sword in an interview with Matt Lauer on NBC’s “Today.”
“I’m taking full responsibility,” Lochte said. “I overexaggerated that story. If I hadn’t done that, we wouldn’t be in this mess. None of this would have happened. It was my immature behavior.”
Lochte and teammates Jack Conger, Jimmy Feigen and the University of Georgia’s Gunnar Bentz were returning from a party in Rio when their cab stopped so they could take a bathroom break.
In a lengthy statement released last week, Bentz said the guys made the dumb decision to relieve themselves outside, near some bushes.
For some reason, Lochte banged up a sign, then feuded with security guards who responded with badges displayed and guns drawn, Bentz’s statement said. The swimmers paid about $70 and were on their way.
“Whether you call it a robbery or extortion or us paying just for the damages, we don’t know,” Lochte said. “All we know is there was a gun pointed in our direction and we were demanded to give money. There was a gun pointed in our direction. We were frightened. We gave them money, and we got out.”
Bentz has stayed pretty quiet on social media, posting his statement of apology and retweeting a USA Today story indicating the Rio police may have exaggerated a bit, too. In a news conference there, authorities described a wildly destructive vandalism spree; TMZ later posted photos showing only the cracked sign.