DREAM TEAM PRODUCES BIG 'RING'

An all-star team of top women in entertainment have teamed to make “With This Ring,” a Lifetime Original Movie premiering Saturday, Jan. 24.  Jill Scott, Regina Hall and Eve Jeffers Cooper star as three single friends who make a pact to get married within a year after attending their best friend’s wedding. The romantic comedy is based on the best seller “The Vow” by Denene Millner, Angela Burt-Murray and Mitzi Miller.

This Sony Pictures Television production, written and directed by Nzingha Stewart (“Pretty Little Liars,” “The Fosters”),  boasts a supporting cast of Brooklyn Sudano (“My Wife and Kids”), NFL Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, Stephen Bishop (“Being Mary Jane”), Jason George (“Grey’s Anatomy”) and Brian White.

Executive producers Tracey Edmonds (“Jumping the Broom”), Gabrielle Union (“Top Five”) in her first producing role and Sheila Ducksworth (“Soul Food”) can deservedly take their bows.  

OUT THE BOX: D’Angelo, riding the wave of his surprise critically acclaimed album “Black Messiah,” will  continue  to go against the grain by heading overseas with his first concert tour to support the release.  However, it’s been learned that before he hits the road, he’ll do an appearance on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” on Jan. 31 and one U.S. show at the Apollo Theatre on Feb. 7.  That date will be notable as he was first discovered during Amateur Night at the famed Harlem venue.   

TASTY QUIP: "They still trying to get that script right. I'm not doing a 'Beverly Hills Cop' unless they have a really incredible script. I've read a couple things that look like they can make some paper. But I'm not doing a shitty movie just to make some paper. The shit got to be right." - EDDIE MURPHY to Rolling Stone

BE THERE: The Black Association of Documentary Filmmakers West (BAD West) will present Michael Phillip Edwards’ “Haunted Jamaica” as part of their monthly St. Clair Bourn free screening program on Mon, Jan. 26. It kicks off at 7 p.m. at the Mayme Clayton Library & Museum in Culver City.  Edwards will do a Q&A after the screening. Refreshments, jerk chicken wings and salad will be served.

CLIPPETTES: With WGN’s Underground Railroad series already in development, comes news that NBC plans to do a mini-series on the subject with Stevie Wonder on board as an Executive Producer and hopefully composer of a Broadway bound spin-off of the material…

Disney’s “Queen Of Katwe,” a film about young African chess star Phiona Mutesi, is hoping to get Lupita Nyong’o and David Oyelowo on board… 

Keke Palmer is segueing from Broadway’s “Cinderella” to Fox’s “Scream Queens,” a creep fest show coming this fall from Ryan Murphy (“American Horror Story”). Lea Michele (“Glee”), Jamie Lee Curtis (“Halloween”), Joe Manganiello (“True Blood”) and Ariana Grande will be joining her… 

Meanwhile, almost everything old is new again at Fox as the network is considering bringing back “The X Files,” “Prison Break,” and a Jack Bauer lite “24”…

TLC (Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas & Tionne “T-Boz Watkins) are turning to Kickstarter for funding of their next and “final” album, their first without the late Lisa “Left-Eye” Lopes…

Mariah Carey announced on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” that she’ll be the latest superstar to do a residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas…

AOL has announced adding “That's Racist With Mike Epps,“  a 10-episode series, to their 2015 slate beginning Jan. 26 for the first five installments and March 2 for the rest... 

Miki Howard returns to the Catalina Bar & Grill (6725 W. Sunset Blvd) on Jan. 23 & 24 to perform her hits and selections from her new EP “Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blues,” some of which was recorded live during her last visit to the venue…

B.J. Britt, whose Agent Triplett character was killed in the mid-season finale of "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," still has BET's "Being Mary Jane" returning Feb. 3rd…

TASTY QUIP: “If I were accused of something I didn’t do, you couldn’t shut me up about proclaiming my innocence.  I’d be all over the place, lawyered up, trying to sue people for slander. That’s defamation of character.  I think his silence is speaking volumes.  I also think we don’t know Bill Cosby. We know Heathcliff Huxtable.  I never thought he would’ve cheated on Camille ever, yet he made a child and I was shocked about that! It’s a trip because Bill Cosby is a good looking man. He didn’t have to drug anybody. Like I’d have gave him some.  It’s not about the sex, it’s about the control. Unfortunately predators come in all packages.” – LUENELL to TASTY CLIPS

TC ON TV: JAN 27 – “Real Husbands of Hollywood” (BET): Season Finale!

JAN 28 – “Empire” (FOX): It’s already been renewed for a second season.  Look for both Snoop Dogg and Foxy Brown to appear soon. 

JAN 29 – “Scandal” (ABC): Exactly what happened when Jake went to the bedroom? Who took Olivia and where did she go? The series returns to show all from Olivia's point of view.  "How to Get Away with Murder" (ABC): The wait is over!

JAN 30 – “Wendy Williams Show (SYN): Congrats for reaching her 1000^th episode!     

TASTY QUIP: “Will Smith plays globally. Denzel plays globally. When studios do their formula for budgets a big part of that is what it’s going to make internationally, so automatically when people believe in this mantra that “black doesn’t sell overseas,” you’re going to get less money for your budget. But if you go through the numbers, you’ll see plenty of Caucasian-American actors that don’t travel well overseas, too. A lot of white actors don’t pass Denzel, Will Smith, or Samuel L. Jackson overseas, so this myth that we don’t travel? I don’t believe it.” - SPIKE LEE to The Daily Beast