Posted on 10/29/2002 7:11:14 PM PST by Dallas
LOS ANGELES --
A group of barbers and beauticians has sued the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, claiming the activists' remarks about the movie "Barbershop" drove away customers.
The suit was filed Monday by the National Association of Cosmetologists. It accuses Jackson and Sharpton of intentional infliction of emotional distress, fraud, and negligence stemming from their demand for apologies from MGM, which produced the comedy.
The activists had called for scenes deriding Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks to be removed from the film starring Ice Cube and Cedric the Entertainer. MGM refused to cut the scenes.
The association, which claims to represent 50,000 barbers and beauticians, said Jackson and Sharpton misrepresented themselves as spokesmen for the group.
James Stern, chief executive of the group, said Sharpton's threat to boycott the film and other remarks created a negative public sentiment about the profession, resulting in a loss of business.
"By threatening to boycott MGM studios, they put a black eye to our subject matter of barbers and cosmetologists in the state of California," Stern said.
Sharpton said he had not received a copy of the lawsuit but called the allegations ridiculous.
"Every movie critic would get sued," he said. "We haven't addressed their business. I addressed the film."
Tracy Rice, a spokeswoman for Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH coalition, said the organization hadn't seen the lawsuit. She called it a nuisance suit and predicted it would be thrown out of court.
"The First Amendment protects artistic expression just as it protects Rev. Jackson's right to express his opinion," she said.
In the scene in question, a barber jokes about King's alleged promiscuity. He also says Parks wasn't the first person to refuse to give up her bus seat but was given credit because she was connected to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
"Barbershop" has grossed $71.2 million at the box office in seven weeks of release.
Maybe they can extort some money from those poverty pimps.
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71.2 million, speaks for itself, lotta folks out there are paying good money to see a movie that sez "fuc&*jessy jackass"
hahahahahahahahah!
This is some of the best news I've had all day.
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Martin Luther King Jr. is seen on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., on April 3, 1968, the day before he was assassinated there. James Earl Ray, the petty criminal who confessed to assassinating King, then recanted and spent decades seeking a trial, died Thursday. Pictured from left are, Hosea Williams, Jesse Jackson, King, and Ralph Abernathy. |
OUTSIDE ROOM 307 -- Moments later on April 3, Rev. Ralph Abernathy led Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rev. James M. Lawson Jr. and others into room 307 at the Lorraine Motel to discuss the restraining order and plans for the second march. King, who was staying in room 306, had met with young people and other groups of strike supporters who wished to be part of future protests. |
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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and one of his aides, Jesse Jackson, at Mason Temple in Memphis on April 3, 1968. On that stormy night, Dr. King delivered his last public address, which became known as the "Mountaintop Speech," to an audience of more than 2,000. |
MOUNTAINTOP SPEECH -- On the stormy night of April 3, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his last public speech. Rev. Ralph Abernathy (right) applauded as King told an audience of more than 2,000 at Mason Temple in Memphis that the April 8 march must be held to refocus attention on the sanitation strike. He said Memphis had "refused to be honest with its public servants who happen to be garbage men." The speech has become known as the "Mountaintop" speech. "Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain, and I've looked over, and I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land." |
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LORRAINE BALCONY -- An assassin's bullet found Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis at 6:01 p.m. April 4, 1968, dropping him to the concrete near his second floor room. Aides and others rushed to his side, then pointed in the direction from which the shot came. Kneeling at King's side is Marrell McCollough, an undercover Memphis police officer. Others on the balcony included Andrew Young (left) and Mary Hunt (right), a teenage clerical assistant. King was hit on the right side of his face, near the jaw; he died in the emergency room of St. Joseph Hospital at 7:05 p.m. |
JACKSON AT THE LORRAINE -- In the courtyard of the Lorraine Motel after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and fatally wounded April 4, 1968, Rev. Jesse Jackson, a King aide, talked with Shelby County Sheriff William N. Morris Jr. (left) and Claude Armour, former Memphis fire and police commissioner who served as law enforcement special assistant to Tennessee Gov. Buford Ellington. "The bullet exploded in his face...It was similar to the Kennedy incident. The police were all around, but there is no military protection against an ambush and he was ambushed," said Jackson. |
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Same here. BTW, someone told me they'd read an interview with Rosa Parks in which she indicated that her refusal to make room for a white person wasn't due to any desire to 'make a statement' beyond the fact that after a hard day's work she was too tired to do so. Not to accuse her of being lazy (since she shouldn't have had to move in the first place), but no reason to put her on a pedestal either.
"NO PIECE (OF JE$$E'S CASH), NO JUSTICE!!"
Hmmm. Hadn't seen the suit, yet confident enough to predict it's dismissal as a nuisance. Apparently they are intimately familiar with nuisance suits . . .
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