April 3, 2006

If you can't afford it as a child, make your own when you grow up. That's what actor Marlon Wayans has done with his new comic book series 'Super Bad James Dynomite' (5-D Comics). Growing up the youngest of 10 children, Wayans said buying comic books was totally out of the question.

"I grew up loving comic books, but I couldn't afford them," said Wayans, during an interview at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf on Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood. "Anything that was paper in my house we used to wipe our ass. We didn't have no toilet paper. I didn't collect comic books, and I didn't collect no kind of paper. If we had paper in our house, we wiped our ass with it -- believe that! Every paper was toilet paper."

As a fan of black exploitation movies-"I watched 'The Mack,' I grew up with 'Dolemite,' 'Willie Dynamite,' that's my world, I love that world and I studied black exploitation"-it was inevitable that Wayans' comic strip would be set in that era. "I was doing 'Dungeons and Dragons' in Europe, and I was on the plane coming home. I saw this 'Austin Powers' poster on Virgin Airlines and I was like I want to do a black one of him, but from the 1970s. So I started working on it and writing it and putting it together, and that was like five years ago," Wayans recalled.

The comic book is now a quarterly release sold in retail outlets and on www.SuperBadJamesDynomite.com. The lead character, Super Bad James Dynomite, has Wayans' face and an oversized penis down to his knees. "It's basically based on me, and I do all of the faces and the artist draws to my faces. I gave him a little endowment-well, that was very me. 'Cause he looks like me so I thought it was only fair that he represent me to the fullest. So I gave him a little endowment, because that's part of the character of who he and I am," said Wayans laughing.

There's a questionable scene in the comic strip where Super Bad James Dynomite checks out the bootylicious backside of both a woman and a man. "He ain't down low! It's the 70s. They partied in the 70s, so it was a little bit of this and a little bit of that. He ain't gay, but he's experimental. Like he said, 'Hey, it's the 70s! It's free love!' It's Woodstock. You pop a tab of acid and you got a bunch of girls next to you and your buddy is behind you. S-t, what happened? It's a party, I don't know. So he ain't down low or in the closet, and if you call him gay he'll probably beat the hell out of you, 'cause he don't play that. It's the 70s, it's all love," Wayans said.

Play Time

I went to heaven-or at least got close-when I attended the First Annual Celebrity Poker Tournament and Casino Night at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles. The event, coordinated by Yvette McNally, was for The Urban Health Institute. Hollywood wild child Tara Reid and comedic actress Kym Whitley were two of the people in my limousine ride up to the mansion. The two actresses seemed to hit it off well and exchanged contact information so that they could meet about doing a reality show together. Oh, in case anyone cares, Reid also shared that she maintains her petite figure by having sex with her boyfriend sometimes five times daily. (You can't make this stuff up people!)

Before taking pictures with a few playmates and feeding grapes to the squirrel monkeys in the mini zoo, I spotted trash-talking actor Anthony Anderson, Don Cheadle, Mekhi Phifer ('E.R.'), Steve Harris ('Heist'), Morris Chestnut, comic Chris Spencer, James Lesure ('Las Vegas'), Shannon Elizabeth ('Cuts'), Muhammad Ali's daughter/actress May May Ali, Kevin Hart ('Soul Plane'), Wood Harris ('The Wire'), comic Joe Torry, Mighty Rasta ('My Wife and Kids'), Omar Gooding ('Barbershop'), actress Temple Poteat and a still-slender Kim Coles, who will be on the next season of 'Celebrity Poker Showdown' on the Bravo network.

The room froze, however, when former Miss Ohio Jayne Kennedy, the first black woman to grace the cover of Playboy, and ex-husband Leon Isaacs Kennedy were spotted talking in the poker tent. For those who don't recall-and I barely do because I was a kid at the time-they were among the first celebrities to endure a home sex video scandal and the speculation was that he leaked the tape. They divorced in 1982, and folks at the Playboy mansion were stunned to see them talking to each other.

As I was leaving, I saw quirky actress Maia Campbell ('In the House') arriving with a few friends. Roger Cross ('24') and Rohan Marley -- Lauryn Hill's baby's daddy-were among those shuttled back with me.

Idol Notes

'American Idol' winner Ruben Studdard will sing on the live recording of his mentor, gospel star Fred Hammond. The former Commissioned singer was featured on Studdard's multi-platinum debut CD 'Soulful' on a track called "We Have Not Forgotten." Hammond's live session will take place on April 14 at Bishop T.D. Jakes' The Potter's House church in Dallas. Israel Houghton, Martha Munizzi, David and Tamela Mann, Joann Rosario and The Singletons will also be special guests.

'American Idol' finalist Trenyce, who appeared on the second season with Studdard, will star in a six-week run of 'Dreamgirls' in Indianapolis, Indiana, beginning in mid-June. The Memphis, Tenn.-bred talent is currently in Russia opening up for dance diva Wanda Dee. We also hear that veteran songstress Dionne Warwick has taken a vested interest in Trenyce, even placing a personal phone call to Clive Davis requesting that he meet her.

Is Matthew Knowles eyeing 'American Idol' contestant Paris Bennett? That's the speculation since Black Voices' sister portal TMZ.com spotted the father of Beyonce Knowles backstage at the show's live performance show last Tuesday. Sources say that Knowles, who recently parted ways with British-based Sanctuary Records, looked on attentively as Ann Nesby's granddaughter, Bennett, performed Beyonce's 'Austin Powers' single 'Work It Out.'

Buzzworthy

'One Life to Live' star Rene Elise Goldsberry recently underwent surgery to have her fibroids removed so that she and her husband can attempt to have a child. Goldsberry, who also stars in Oprah Winfrey's Broadway musical 'The Color Purple,' was pregnant twice in 2005, but the fibroids caused her to have two miscarriages. "I think the good thing about having that happen in the public is that you have the opportunity to talk about it. I think the reason why these things happen to you is so that you can let other people know, so you don't feel so alone when these things happen," she shared, while co-hosting 'The View' last week. Goldsberry is eager to get pregnant again now that her surgery was successful. "We'll be trying again shortly! Trying is fun," she added.

Track and field great Carl Lewis held a fundraiser for his Carl Lewis Foundation at his mountain-top home in Pacific Palisades, Calif. over the weekend. Vivica A. Fox hosted the affair that was attended by the likes of Vanessa Bell Calloway ('Biker Boyz'), Kym Whitley, playwright David Talbert and wife Lin, and singer Norwood Young. Lewis will sponsor his next Carl Lewis International Track & Field Camp and Festival on Oct. 21, 2006. For details visit www.CarlLewis.com.

On the heels of last week's column about R&B stars recording gospel, Malaco Records announced the signing of Public Announcement member Euclid Gray. Since leaving R. Kelly's platinum-selling group, Gray toured in Tyler Perry's stage play 'Meet The Browns.'

Can't Say Names ...

Is a reality show vixen planning to go under the knife for a cable series? That's what I hear! A source said that a ubiquitous reality TV talent is planning to get her breasts enlarged for the Discovery Channel. I'm assured that the boob job will be tasteful -- no Pamela Anderson-sized insertions for this star -- and that she'll show off her bigger bust in a forthcoming magazine spread.

BV Scene

Bobby Brown waving from his tan SUV to an outdoor table full of female entertainment executives -- among them, Chianti Phillips (Los Angeles Lakers), Monica Moore ('Good Morning America'), Caroline Yim (Creative Artists Agency) and K'ia Stone (NFL Network) -- dining at Le Petit Four on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood. Moments later, Meg Ryan strolls past...Rochelle Aytes ('Madea's Family Reunion') and Hollywood media couple Tanya and Phillip Hart taking in a screening of Lee Daniels' 'Shadowboxer' at the Sunset Screening Room in Hollywood...Ananda Lewis ('The Insider') walking through The Grove in Los Angeles while hugged-up with an unidentified dreadlocked man. Tempestt Bledsoe ('The Cosby Show') passes through minutes later wearing a blue sweatshirt, jeans and black wedge shoes...Kandi Burruss, formerly of Xscape, standing with an unidentified male outside The Grafton on Sunset hotel in West Hollywood...Al Shearer ('Glory Road'), Dalvin DeGrate of Jodeci, Los Angeles Clippers Cuttino Mobley and Sam Cassell on hand for the screening of comic Kwame Koomson's sitcom pilot 'KwameWorld' at Hollywood's Club Mood.