God's Entourage
From LA Times
How private faith is going public among the African American elite of HollywoodLast January, in the parking lot of the West Angeles Church of God in Christ, Robi Reed had a moment that propelled her career toward evangelism.
After the Sunday service, Reed, a veteran casting director whose credits include "Antwone Fisher" and "Malcolm X," walked up to fellow churchgoer Denzel Washington and asked after his family. The longtime friends exchanged pleasantries until Reed casually mentioned her latest project. "I'm producing and casting an audio Bible with an African American cast. It's the Old and New Testaments."
Reed remembers that Washington interrupted her, saying, "I have to do it." The Oscar-winning actor didn't talk about lawyers, money, agents or publicists.
"I was trying to be very cool as he said to call his assistant with all the particulars," recalls Reed, a slender woman with waist-length twists. Then she got into her blue BMW, exhaled, screamed a couple of times and began praising the Lord again and again. "I just knew it was the start of something big."
Washington was the first A-list star of more than 200 celebrities--including Samuel L. Jackson as God, Angela Bassett as Esther, Blair Underwood as Jesus and Cuba Gooding Jr. as Judas—--who have lent their voices and acting talents to "Inspired By . . . The Bible Experience," a fully dramatized and scored, 70-hour, audio recording of the Holy Scriptures. The New Testament edition hit stores earlier this month. Washington reads the Songs of Solomon with his wife, Pauletta, for the Old Testament edition, which will be available digitally as early as next year. Why would megastars publicly associate themselves with religion, I wondered? What could they get out of it? The answers revealed something surprising and refreshing about that godless den of iniquity known as Hollywood. READ IT ALL
Bill McCartney
