DID YOU KNOW THAT ARETHA FRANKLIN HAD HER FIRST BABY AT AGE 12?
Jennifer Hudson and Forest Whitaker started filming Respect in New York – she plays Aretha Franklin and he plays her father, the popular Baptist minister Clarence Franklin. We can’t help but wonder HOW detailed this sordid bio will be. Clarence was known to be highly promiscuous and, in fact, had a baby with a 12 year old member of his congregation – with NO apparent repercussions! Aretha went on to have HER first baby at 12 also, (named Clarence!) supposedly with a school friend – she actually had TWO children with different fathers before she was fifteen! THAT’s just the beginning – this is going to be a startling life story!
Photo Credit: BACKGRID-USA
Now that Forest Whitaker has his Oscar for Best Actor, he can look back fondly at the time he spent on The Shield TV series. Last season he played an internal affairs type officer looking for crooked cops on the show. Naturally he clashed with Michael Chiklis’ character who IS a questionable cop. Both actors are former football players and they had a confrontation scene where they had to run and slam into each other. It was carefully choreographed with stuntmen ready to step in, so no one would get hurt. When it was time to film the scene, the two macho guys rushed at each other and instead of veering, they actually COLLIDED at full speed and were both knocked sprawling to the ground. Ouch! (Observers thought the two guys were both too egotistical to duck out of the way- neither would back off) Forest stood up, angry, “We rehearsed this! – what’s wrong with you?” Michael blamed Forest for the pile-up. They took a short break, but there was tension on the set, and the guys just didn’t seem as friendly after that.