Entertainment
Taraji P. Henson as Cookie at Heart of TV’s ‘Empire’
Sandy Cohen, ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES (AP) — ‘Taraji P. Henson is driving down an LA street, chatting on her cellphone, when a billboard catches her eye.
“Hi, me! Hiiii!” she says, smiling at her latest on-screen incarnation: glamorous ex-con Cookie in “Empire,” which premieres on Fox at 9 p.m. EST Wednesday.
Draped in fabulous furs and drenched in attitude, Henson’s Cookie is the heart of the Fox drama, a fiercely devoted mother and astute businesswoman who’s fearless when it comes to getting what she wants. Her sometimes-reluctant partner is Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard), a music mogul deciding which of their three sons should run the family’s entertainment empire.
Henson has seen her face on billboards before, with dozens of film credits (including 2008’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” for which she earned a supporting actress Oscar nod) and popular TV series such as “Person of Interest” to her name.
“Sometimes I forget, you know what I mean?” she says. “I just go on about my day, and look up and go, ‘That’s right, I do have a TV show coming out!”
The 44-year-old actress pulled over to talk with The Associated Press about the new show and the empire that is Taraji P. Henson.
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AP: Who is Cookie?
Henson: She is a hero. I mean, she is the truth. She is strong. She’s family first. She’s a lot of things. She doesn’t compromise at all — never herself, and never her truth. That’s what I love about her… She says things that I might not have the guts to say. I love the way she dresses. I love how much she cares about her sons.
AP: How is it working with Terrence Howard again, your old pal from “Hustle & Flow”?
Henson: I just know that I really like working with Terrence. I trust him. And for me as an artist — acting, you really have to be uninhibited. You cannot have any hang-ups. Or if you do, they can’t breathe and live through these characters, because their hang-ups aren’t your hang-ups. So for me in order to fully explore characters without throwing Taraji in the mix, I have to feel safe… And with Terrence, I’m so safe with him, I can try anything… We’re friends. We’ve known each other, so it really works for Cookie and Lucious. When they came to me with the project, I said it has to be Terrence. When I cracked open the script, I saw no one but Terrence.
AP: What’s most challenging to you as an actress right now?
Henson: Challenging is getting what I think I deserve to be paid. (It’s) challenging to get the projects I want done or greenlit. I’m still having to prove I’m bankable. But I think it’s getting better! I’m not one to wallow in the muck and say how bad. I don’t harp on how bad things are… My thing is to prove each and every time I’m on the screen — whether it’s TV, whether it’s film, whether it’s the stage — Taraji is going to deliver. So when I do get that moment — ’cause it’s coming, I work too hard — when I do get that moment, that perfect movie comes along and some studio is going to say, ‘I believe in her.’ Not me and a man. Not me and another guy, no. Taraji P. Henson is going to open this film. Then I know that I’m doing my job.
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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen on Twitter: www.twitter.com/APSandy.
Online: http://www.fox.com/empire.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Entertainment
O.J. Simpson, 76, Dies of Prostate Cancer
Orenthal James (O.J.) Simpson, who rose to fame as a college football player who went on to the NFL and parlayed his talents in acting and sportscasting, succumbed to prostate cancer on April 10, his family announced.
By Post Staff
Orenthal James (O.J.) Simpson, who rose to fame as a college football player who went on to the NFL and parlayed his talents in acting and sportscasting, succumbed to prostate cancer on April 10, his family announced.
Born and raised in San Francisco, the Galileo High School graduate was recruited by the University of Southern California after he was on a winning Junior College All-American team.
At USC, he gained wide acclaim as a running back leading to him becoming the No. 1 pick in the AFL-NFL draft in 1969 and joining the Buffalo Bills, where he had demanded – and received — the largest contract in professional sports history: $650,000 over five years. In 1978, the Bills traded Simpson to his hometown team, the San Francisco 49ers, retiring from the game in 1979.
Simpson’s acting career had begun before his pro football career with small parts in 1960s TV (“Dragnet”) before “Roots” and film (“The Klansman,” “The Towering Inferno,” Capricorn One”).
He was also a commentator for “Monday Night Football,” and “The NFL on NBC,” and in the mid-1970s Simpson’s good looks and amiability made him, according to People magazine, “the first b\Black athlete to become a bona fide lovable media superstar.”
The Hertz rent-a-car commercials raised his recognition factor while raising Hertz’s profit by than 50%, making him critical to the company’s bottom line.
It could be said that even more than his success as a football star, the commercials of his running through airports endeared him to the Black community at a time when it was still unusual for a Black person to represent a national, mainstream company.
He remained on Hertz team into the 1990s while also getting income endorsing Pioneer Chicken, Honey Baked Ham and Calistoga water company products and running O.J. Simpson Enterprises, which owned hotels and restaurants.
He married childhood sweetheart Marguerite Whitley when he was 19 and became the father of three children. Before he divorced in 1979, he met waitress and beauty queen Nicole Brown, who he would marry in 1985. A stormy relationship before, during and after their marriage ended, it would lead to a highway car chase as police sought to arrest Simpson for the murder by stabbing of Brown and her friend Ron Goldman in 1994.
The pursuit, arrest, and trial of Simpson were among the most widely publicized events in American history, Wikipedia reported.
Characterized as the “Trial of the Century,” he was acquitted by a jury in 1995 but found liable in the amount of $33 million in a civil action filed by the victims’ families three years later.
Simpson would be ensnared in the criminal justice system 12 years later when he was arrested after forcing his way into a Las Vegas hotel room to recover sports memorabilia he believed belonged to him.
In 2008, he received a sentence of 33 years and was paroled nine years later in 2017.
When his death was announced, Simpson’s accomplishments and downfalls were acknowledged.
Sports analyst Christine Brennan said: “… Even if you didn’t love football, you knew O.J. because of his ability to transcend sports and of course become the businessman and the pitchman that he was.
“And then the trial, and the civil trial, the civil case he lost, and the fall from grace that was extraordinary and well-deserved, absolutely self-induced, and a man that would never be seen the same again,” she added.
“OJ Simpson played an important role in exposing the racial divisions in America,” attorney Alan Dershowitz, an adviser on Simpson’s legal “dream team” told the Associated Press by telephone. “His trial also exposed police corruption among some officials in the Los Angeles Police Department. He will leave a mixed legacy. Great athlete. Many people think he was guilty. Some think he was innocent.”
“Cookie and I are praying for O.J. Simpson’s children … and his grandchildren following his passing. I know this is a difficult time,” Magic Johnson said on X.
“I feel that the system failed Nicole Brown Simpson and failed battered women everywhere,” attorney Gloria Allred, who once represented Nicole’s family, told ABC News. “I don’t mourn for O.J. Simpson. I do mourn for Nicole Brown Simpson and her family, and they should be remembered.”
Simpson was diagnosed with prostate cancer about a year ago and was undergoing chemotherapy treatment, according to Pro Football Hall of Fame President Jim Porter. He died in his Las Vegas, Nevada, home with his family at his side.
He is survived by four children: Arnelle and Jason from his first marriage and Sydney and Justin from his second marriage. He was predeceased son, Aaren, who drowned in a family swimming pool in 1979.
Sources for this report include Wikipedia, ABC News, Associated Press, and X.
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