Remember this eposide from Martin?

Pam(Home) Vs. Gina(And I'm Telling You):

http://www.youtube.com/wa...QguuPPoGbM

Harlepolis said:

so what do you make of all the oscar hype and all the critics and pundits saying she has stole the movie and made the role her own? is it just hype?

sosgemini said:

Who said anything about her acting or the hype surrounding it? I was talking about the "song"

Harlepolis said:

You can beg to differ all you want. I don't think they sound alike at all.

Harlepolis said:

but that song is a huge part of the phenom of the role (and the film)...and I have yet to read anyone saying she milked Holiday's performance. I'll keep an eye out though and report back.

sosgemini said:

all i know is that i saw the movie last nite... they did a screeninmg at the loews on 68th and BWAY in NY last nite and she really did stole the movie... i never saw the original play and who know's maybe thats the way we are suppose to feel about her character... i just know that after everytime she sang and at the end when credits started rolling and the screen said and Introducing Jennifer Hudson that theatre went crazy

banks said:

from what i've read about Dreamgirls, Effie is more or less the lead role. They've been billing Beyonce as the lead because she is Beyonce but the Dreamgirls is the about the struggle of Effie more than anything so of couse people not familiar with show are going to think Jennifer steals the show.

ehuffnsd said:

That is true, the original play was billed as Deena's story but they(writers) put the focus on Effie later.

true dat^^^

The only reason that Hudson is being touted for Supporting Award consideration is its easier to claim the prize...They did the same thing with Georgle Clooney last year and Zeta Jones w/ Chicago. Both of those performances are technically lead performances.

TommyRoss said:

They don't sound alike to me either. Jennifer Holliday didn't write the song. She was directed by the producers, director, writers, vocal coach, etc. to sing the song the way they wrote it and they way the wanted it to sound. The way it's written is the way it's written. It will always sound "similiar" to Jennifer's because it's a song in a musical. I think Hudson could have copied it if that's what the producers wanted

PurpleCharm said:

WOW, that boy can sing!!!

Out of the picture
Jennifer Holliday, who starred onstage in 'Dreamgirls,' feels swept aside as a film nears.
By Greg Braxton
Times Staff Writer

December 12, 2006

New York — JENNIFER HOLLIDAY stood on a small stage, pouring out a song of hope and battling the odds. Her gut-wrenching voice tore from her throat with volcanic force, and her expression, all closed eyes and open mouth, was of a performer possessed, exorcising the anguish deep inside her.

The overflow crowd in the narrow Ars Nova performance space in Manhattan sat entranced, then exploded into whooping cheers as Holliday — best known as the rotund actress who helped make the original "Dreamgirls" a smash hit — belted her final triumphant note. Opening her eyes to see the standing ovation, Holliday beamed, saying, "Thank you, thank you, thank you" in a humble, almost sheepish voice.

She had agreed to the short, no-frills gig last Tuesday as a favor for Lewis Flinn and Steven Slater, two Broadway songwriters testing out some new material. But the tunesmiths and audience had no clue how much the inspirational lyrics and thunderous response had pulled the singer from despair's edge.

Instead of being swept up in the hoopla over the new film adaptation of "Dreamgirls," Holliday feels as if she is being swept aside.

"The timing of me singing those words came just at the right moment," Holliday said, relaxing after the show in one of her favorite haunts, a French restaurant in Midtown Manhattan. "I needed to be singing a song of encouragement right now, I need those words myself…. I had just felt like they had taken everything away from me, had ripped my legacy from me."

The "they" in this case are Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures and the makers of the highly anticipated $75-million movie musical "Dreamgirls," opening Friday in limited release before going wide on Christmas Day.

The movie, starring Jamie Foxx, Beyoncé Knowles and Eddie Murphy, is the film version of the 1981 Broadway musical inspired by the story of Diana Ross and the Supremes that became a smash hit — as well as a major cultural milestone for African Americans — largely on the then-massive shoulders of Holliday.

To critics, audiences and stars such as Barbra Streisand, Holliday's portrayal of Effie White, who is unceremoniously dumped just as the girl group she has fronted is poised for stardom, was the heart and soul of "Dreamgirls." Her show-stopping rendition of the defiant anthem "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" brought audiences to their feet and became the hit musical's hallmark. Holliday, who was only 21 when the show opened, won a Tony for outstanding actress in a musical.

She says her Tony Award-winning legacy, as well as the commemoration of the musical's 25th anniversary, has been effectively wiped out by the filmmakers, presumably in the relentless drive to keep the spotlight focused on the movie's stars and propel "Dreamgirls" to Oscar gold.

Paramount and DreamWorks declined to address why the most recognizable link to "Dreamgirls' " honored past appears to be passed over. Holliday said she was particularly heartbroken when friends told her that it is her version of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going," the show's trademark song, that plays in one of the film's trailers. In other words, her voice is being used to sell a production that had shut her out.

In a Hollywood-style twist of fate, Holliday, 46, has unwittingly become a reflection of her most famous role.

She has worked steadily over the years but has never come close to matching her glory days as Effie. Now, armed with her most powerful weapon — her gospel-flavored roar — she is striving to overcome the "Dreamgirls" noise and declare the value of her artistry to herself, those around her and the world.

"Why is it necessary for them to wipe out my existence in order for them to have their success?" Holliday said. "It's scary that they can be so cruel. I know it's business, but why do they have to go to this extreme? I'm a human being. I need to work too. Why do I have to die to make them a winner?"

Her eyes welled up as she looked off into the distance. She is a slimmer, softer and prettier version of her 340-pound self — she had gastric bypass surgery several years ago.

Post-"Dreamgirls," Holliday's professional career and personal life could produce enough material for several Broadway shows: A suicide attempt at 30. Bankruptcy. Two failed marriages. Bouts with clinical depression.

She dropped out of the public eye for years, drawing a startled reaction when she showed up in 1997 — 200 pounds lighter and more glamorous — on "Ally McBeal" in a recurring role as a choir director. Many wondered if the weight loss affected the power of her instrument: "It didn't. The voice has never failed me. It's always been there."

And although "Dreamgirls" has not had a major stage production for more than 20 years, Holliday said she had been the only one keeping the torch burning, performing "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" at the private parties, corporate dates and engagements at gay nightclubs that have been her key source of income.

Some speculate that the filmmakers fear that comparisons to Holliday may dull the glow surrounding the performance of Jennifer Hudson, the former "American Idol" contestant who plays Effie in the film. Hudson has been considered an early favorite for an Oscar nomination.

Wrote New York Post columnist Liz Smith: "Life is imitating art now. Jennifer Holliday, who was so incredible onstage in 'Dreamgirls' as the original Effie, has incurred the wrath of Paramount for being uncooperative and not helpful in publicizing the movie. Word came down to omit any photo of her from the publicity for the movie version. 'Effie' — being pushed aside again and privately singing 'And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going.' "

Cooperation has nothing to do with it, Holliday says.

She maintains she was never approached about the movie or doing publicity ("The only thing they asked for was permission to use five photos of me for the program and the coffee-table book," which she agreed to.)

She also says she was "uninvited" to the film's premiere here last week at the Ziegfeld Theatre. The picture-filled program for the roadshow engagement at the ArcLight Theatre starting Friday has no photos of her, and she merits only one sentence.

Representatives for the studios said they offered to host a private screening for her, which she declined.

After weeks of suffering privately with the constant "Dreamgirls" onslaught — particularly the raves surrounding the other Jennifer — she said the final crushing blow came the night before her Ars Nova stint when she watched Hudson on "Entertainment Tonight" as Holliday's version of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" from the original cast recording played during the segment.

"When I saw that, I just gave up," she said. "I thought, 'This is a hopeless situation. I am being canceled out as an artist.' "

Sheryl Lee Ralph, who originated the role of Deena Jones, the lead singer of the Dreams who replaces Effie, says she has also been shut out of the "Dreamgirls" blitz (Knowles plays Deena in the film). Of the original "Dreamgirls" cast, only Loretta Devine has a cameo in the movie.

"For us to be so much a part of theatrical history and then to be treated like we did nothing is heartbreaking," said Ralph, who has appeared in several TV series and is now touring the country in her one-woman show, "Sometimes I Cry," about women suffering with HIV/AIDS. "I don't take offense. It's just show business, baby. I wish them every success."

The reasons behind the snubs remain unclear. The studio has taken a "no comment" position on Holliday. The only clues lie in the past.

"Dreamgirls" was a phenomenon when it premiered Dec. 20, 1981, on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre. Michael Bennett, its director and choreographer, was already a sensation with "A Chorus Line."

The show eventually won six Tonys and ran for nearly four years. With its predominantly black cast and mix of rhythm and blues, Motown nostalgia, distinctive characters and showbiz glitter, "Dreamgirls" was also a groundbreaking touchstone for African Americans.

Holliday's performance made her the toast of the town. But behind the curtain, the young gospel singer from Houston was reportedly difficult, deeply unhappy and troubled. The demanding schedule left little time for a social life, and she drowned her loneliness in food, which "was my friend, my companion, my lover."

Her diet consisted mainly of fried chicken and liters of Coke. Her size ballooned. She fought with the late Bennett.

Even now, Holliday finds it difficult to look back on her "big girl" days, refusing to view videos of her performances that have drawn renewed attention on YouTube.com. She lives in Harlem and admits she is a bit of a recluse — she doesn't go out much, doesn't have a cellphone, doesn't do e-mail.

She is a ferocious reader of newspapers and magazines, loves courtroom shows on TV and watching movies — primarily musicals — until the sun comes up ("I am definitely not a morning person"). Holliday handles her own career — no agent, no publicist, no manager.

She knows that the "Dreamgirls" avalanche is just starting, and she will not be able to ignore it. She was horrified when "Access Hollywood" offered to take her to the New York premiere: "What did they expect me to do there?"

She has turned down most interviews, saying she wants to see the movie first before discussing it further. Still, she hopes to take advantage of the attention around "Dreamgirls." So far it hasn't been easy.

Two days after the "Dreamgirls" premiere, she placed an ad in Billboard and other trade publications saying she was available for bookings as the original "Dreamgirl." She said that she wished she were singing somewhere on New Year's Eve.

"Usually I'm somewhere, but now it looks like I'm going to be home," she said.

But she is confident that when people realize that she still has "it," things will work out.

"Just give me the microphone," she said with a lift in her voice.

Or, as she proclaims in the song that has come to define her life: "I'm staying. I'm staying. And you — and you — and you — you're going to love me."

she comes off as a major drama case.


ya didn't see the two castmembers of rent b*tchin and moaning when they got passed over. you didn't see the castmembers of chicago b*tching and moanin like this...i love me some miss holiday but she needs to take a clue from Sheryl and realize, "its just hollywood baby".

sosgemini said:

Agreed! I feel sorry for her,but dayum....she needs to realize that this is how show business works.She needs to calm down and relax.I'm sure the hype over the new film will lead to more gigs/press/attention for her,if she would just be patient.

look who got their invites to the LA premiere.... Sheryl snd Loretta

"Dreamgirls" Recalls Rise of Girl Groups

DETROIT (AP) - Set in the 1960s and '70s, "Dreamgirls" doesn't profess to be a literal history of Motown or any other music scene from the past.

But the film, which is loosely based on Detroit chart-toppers the Supremes, does examine the issues that confronted many girl groups over the years. In this case: a calculating manager, relentless ambitions and ego-driven clashes among the artists.

Motown Hall of Famer Martha Reeves says she's glad that the film, which opens Friday in New York and Los Angeles and Dec. 25 across the country, is shining a spotlight on the sound, glamour and elegance of girl groups.

"Being a performer, I could identify with the development of the talent, our personalities and opinions and how judgments are decreed," said the 65-year-old former leader of Martha and the Vandellas, whose hits included "Dancing in the Street" and "Heat Wave". "But I couldn't say there was anything (in the film) like my experience in Motown."



The film, adapted from the 1981 Tony Award-winning Broadway musical of the same name, chronicles a fictional three-piece girl group known as the Dreamettes. Its two main members - Deena Jones (Beyonce Knowles) and Effie White (Jennifer Hudson) - were inspired by the Supremes' Diana Ross and Florence Ballard, respectively.

The three, who are rounded out by Lorrell Robinson (Anika Noni Rose), are discovered by manager Curtis Taylor Jr. (Jamie Foxx) and offered a job as backup singers for hit-maker James "Thunder" Early, played by Eddie Murphy.

Taylor eventually establishes the trio as the stand-alone act The Dreams and begins shaping the women's look and sound, a la Motown. As Berry Gordy did for Ross, Taylor grooms Jones for the spotlight, while the less photogenic Effie is pushed out. (Ballard left the group in 1967, ended up on welfare and died in 1976.)

In reality, the soundtrack to the film has more in common with show tunes than the signature Motown or Phil Spector-produced "wall of sound" style that characterized so many girl-group artists.

Charles Sykes, an Indiana University professor who teaches a class on the history of the Motown music movement, said girl groups rode a wave of popular music that targeted an emerging market of music-hungry teenagers. He said most of Motown's girl groups didn't necessarily stand apart from the label's overall talent roster until the Supremes began to emerge as superstars in 1964-65 with hits such as "Baby Love" and "Stop! In the Name of Love."

"The girl-group tradition kind of started around the mid-'50s, part of the rock 'n' roll era, and then the girl groups really started to wane in the '60s," he said. "Motown was an exception in that sense."

Lyrically, female performers of the era presented certain contradictions, said music journalist Donna Gaines, who contributed the chapter "Girl Groups: A Ballad of Codependency" for the "Rolling Stone Book of Women in Rock."

On the one hand, she said, many of the era's girl groups performed songs written by men on topics that largely reinforced societal gender roles. But groups like the Shangri-Las ("Leader of the Pack") and the Ronettes ("Be My Baby") presented more defiant music.

"It was music made by teenagers for teenagers, and on the surface it was a lot about your role assignment as a wife and a good woman, and you're supposed to be there for the guy," Gaines said. "But it also allowed you to pull away from the family and the community and make your own choices for yourself."

Many girl groups saw their declines come as quickly as their ascents, Gaines said.

"They were horribly underpaid and exploited. They had very few legal protections. They were just easy prey for exploitation and some of them met with very tragic circumstances."

Reeves, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame who now serves on the Detroit City Council, cited examples such as the Shirelles'"Soldier Boy" and Freda Payne's "Bring the Boys Home" to argue that Motown acts and others rose to popularity by singing about love during a turbulent period in history.

"The girls had their way in the '60s, I guess, because we sung through wars," Reeves said. "I remember the Korean War and the Vietnam War, and people would come to me and say: 'Your music took us through it.'"

She added: "They were songs that took us through a crisis and people could identify with it."

Sykes, the Indiana professor, said he often compares lyrics of Motown hits such as the Marvelettes'"Please Mr. Postman," in which a woman eagerly awaits notice from her faraway boyfriend, to modern-day female lyricists and finds stark differences in what he called "the empowerment of the female image." But, he noted, girl groups capitalized on certain timeless elements of longing.

"There's a lyric in a Mary Wells song, 'The One Who Really Loves You,' and she's talking about 'little me,'" Sykes said. "And you'd be hard-pressed to find that in a 2006 song. But the idea of being a woman being the one who really loves you, that doesn't go away."

Harlepolis said:

Along with Gladys Knight, she was one of the best VOICES of Motown. Too bad her solo career wasn`t so successful, her first solo album was brilliant!!

Harlepolis said:

Good article, Harle! The above is something for those who aren't entirely familiar with the music from the show to keep in mind. It's about a Motown-esque female vocaltrio but the music in it sounds only barely similar to that era. Given that, I don't know why it works for me, but it does.

SoulAlive said:

Yeah, but y'all, those New York theatre types are reall LIKE that. They're very emotional, over the top. The other ladies also have had an extensive, lucrative run in Hollywood via film and tv series, so its easier for them to take the brundt of a studio's snub, if and when it comes down to it. I understand a little where she's coming from because she has been based almost soley in the theatre/club/cabaret scene since that time, and when people think "Dreamgirls", often the other two women hardly register on the pop culture themometer; its EFFIE/Jennifer that you remember, and even though her moaning about it is typical theatre drama queen-I-clearly-need-a Paxil-Wellbutrin-cocktail prescription...I do feel bad for the way the Hollywood bigs have treated her. However, I do agree with Soul Alive that the film should lead to more gigs and press for her if she's patient (yet diligent ). I'm just praying that the film gets Oscar nods so that it will be shown in Europe (the Oscars are a major barometer for what films to release here outside of ommercial blockbuster or art house fare). If it flies here, and she's smart enough about it, she can milk that Tony for every dime its worth on foreign shores...I really hope it works out for her.

Check this special about the original dreamgirls from Tom Joyner Morning Show

http://www.blackamericawe...dreamgirls

Harlepolis said:

thanx, sweetie, i was looking for this page !!!!!

fantastic radio bits. and i'm sorry, but the daily running commentary by the joyner people after they would see the movie was hilarious: did u hear the part where the old man j. was like 'the only thing beyonce 'gon get is 'Best Light Skinned-ed' ?

i'm so happy i found this page, u made my sunday mornin', chile

I aim to please and I'm pleased to aim

Oh Lord, I just heard "And I'm Telling You, I'm Not Going" sung by whoever the hell that bitch is. She ruined that damn song.

vainandy said:

Now Vaindaddy, you KNOW you need to stop. That chile did a good job and you know it

She sounded like she was singing in a white church. She needs to sit her average sounding ass down because only a big bitch could do those screams like Jennifer Holiday used to do. They should have given it to Martha Wash. She would have turned it out.

vainandy said:

You like the word "bitch", don`t you?



No, seriously, Martha Wash could have done a brilliant job! Couldn`t agree more...

vainandy said:

Get the fuck outta here. Ain't you got some Whitney hatin' to tend to somewhere?

Thanks for those Tom Joyner links, Harle. I'm gonna listen later!

Glad to know I ain't the ONLY one who could care 2 less about the cover she could sing thats for damn sure, but the girl got NO personality or character in her singing. She did a good job copying the original, I'll give her that much.

*TommyRoss will shoot me dead for saying this*

Harlepolis said:

I agree, Harle. She sounded like she set out to copy Ms. Holliday's version. She didn't bring anything to the table. I like the chick and all, but...

Harlepolis said:

Uh, I know I am late here but this performance just BLEW MY MIND!!!!! The show and the song are both going down in History because of Jennifer Holiday and she deserves major respect for it. I love Jennifer Hudson and all but this song will ALWAYS belong to Diva Holiday.

Note- Why don't people sing like that anymore?