sharon leal Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Check it out: Allure magazine asked hundreds of celebrities to pose naked for a random "It'll help your career, we promise!" photo shoot, and the five who actually said yes thankfully happened to be in phenomenal shape, weighing 115 pounds soaking wet. Then they had the nerve to ask them how they felt about their bodies ("well, you know, I'd like to weigh 112 -- but thems the breaks"), whether they sleep naked and a bunch of other meaningless questions -- when all they should've done is posted the images with a headline that read: "The Economy + Smaller Budget = Five Nude Celebrity Photos. Enjoy!

Look, I'm a guy who occasionally likes to look at beautiful women. I can't help it, God apparently thought this would be something I might enjoy as I grew older. But this Allure spread, well ... it just reeks of desperation on the magazine's part. The difference between this and a Playboy spread is that these five women (Padme Lakshmi, Eliza Dushku, Chelsea Handler, Sharon Leal and Lynn Collins) probably made it past the seventh grade. Sure, times are tough -- budget cuts and layoffs are all around us -- but does the answer to all our woes really come in the form of Eliza Dushku's birthday suit? Or should we feel better as a society because we now know that Dusku strips down to her underwear and Ugg boots while eating lunch in her trailer? Is this really the kind of material Jesus would've wanted us to read two days after Easter? Think about that!

Feel free to check out a few of these photos in the gallery below, but keep in mind they might be a little NSFW and they're incredibly tacky. Allure had some nerve posting these ...

So am I the only one who thinks that in the first picture for the musical comedy Soul Men, Samuel L. Jackson looks a lot like good old Ordell Robbie? But I guess there are only so many different hairstyles and beards you can try before you start running into some repeats. The first picture for Malcolm D. Little's film has popped up on the official site of music legend and former 'Chef' Isaac Hayes. Hayes, who will appear in the film as himself, stars alongside Jackson, Bernie Mac, Sean Hayes (Will and Grace), and Sharon Leal.

Soul Men centers on two feuding back-up singers named Louis (Jackson) and Floyd (Mac). When their band splits, Louis and Floyd go there separate ways with varying degrees of success. More precisely, Louis robs banks and becomes a convict and Floyd becomes a laundromat baron and retires in style. When the leader of their former band dies, the two men put aside their bad blood and go on a road trip to the Apollo Theater to hold a tribute concert.

OK, so a musical comedy starring Bernie Mac and Samuel L. Jackson has got to be a step up from a Tyler Perry movie, right? For Sharon Leal's sake, I certainly hope so. The Hollywood Reporter announced that Leal has joined the cast of Malcolm Lee's comedy musical Soul Men. The film centers on, "...bickering backup soul singers who haven't spoken in 20 years but reluctantly travel cross country together for a tribute concert to honor their famous former band leader." Leal will play Jackson's daughter Cleo, and thankfully will not serve as a love interest for either of the men. Leal starred in 2005's Dreamgirls as Michelle Morris, Effie White's replacement in the girl-group. Jackson and Mac will do all of their own singing and dancing for Soul Men, so I can only assume that since Leal has musical experience, she will be doing the same.

Christopher had first brought us news of the film last November. At that time, the only cast that had been announced was King of Comedy, Mac and Jackson. Surprisingly the project managed to escape being hit by the writer's strike that has been delaying productions left and right, and is set to start filming on January 21st (I guess Leal was hired just in time). The script was written by Robert Ramsey and Matthew Stone, whose other credits included the Coen's Intolerable Cruelty and Man of the House -- neither of which is probably the best calling card for a screenwriter. Soul Men is scheduled for release on October 10th, 2008.

Maybe it's because I just sat through the lazy, depressing Fred Claus. Maybe it's because I was expecting Tyler Perry in drag. Maybe it's because my holiday spirit is at an all-time low. Whatever the reason, This Christmas came as a complete surprise. I kinda loved the thing.

Loretta Devine plays Ma Dear, the matriarch of a sprawling Los Angeles-based family with a whole lot of secrets. A whole lot. There's Quentin (Idris Elba, Stringer Bell on The Wire -- the best show on television), a musician who owes big money to some bookies. There's Lisa (Regina King), trapped in an emotionally abusive marriage with the hissable Malcome (Laz Alonso). There's Kelli (Sharon Leal), a sexually frustrated businesswoman. There's Claude (Columbus Short), in love with a woman (Jessica Stroup) he's scared to introduce to his family. Ma Dear has a secret of her own regarding Joe (Delroy Lindo), something of a surrogate father to the Whitfield clan. Oh, and Baby (R&B sensation Chris Brown)? He wants to sing, damn it!

That's a lot of stories to keep afloat, and writer/director Preston A. Whitmore II handles that list and many more mini-dramas with ease. It's quite the balancing act. Whitmore has written and/or directed several smaller projects since 1995's Vietnam drama The Walking Dead, but Christmas will put him on the map in a big way.

And, honestly, that's a question most of us married folk ask ourselves (and our friends, and our family, and that stranger in the bathroom) from time to time -- only to arrive home one night, catch a glimpse of that smile and realize it was the best decision we've ever made. (Erik wipes away a tear.) Except when that son of a bleep cheats with that bleeping bleeper, and you find yourself bleeping pissed. What happens next? Cinematical has just received the final one-sheet for Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married (click on the poster for a larger image), based on Perry's stage play of the same name. Returning to the big screen for the first time in seven years, Janet Jackson stars as one half of a couple who decide to attend a therapeutic help-our-marriage retreat, but find complications when one of the other wives brings along a sexy young temptress.

As with Perry's last film, Daddy's Little Girls, there's no dressing up in drag here -- however, Perry does co-star in the flick, alongside Jackson, Jill Scott, Denise Boutte, Richard T. Jones and Sharon Leal. Part comedy, part drama -- and part Jackson (yum) -- Why Did I Get Married arrives in theaters on October 12.