Barbershop Brouhaha

I can't wait to see Barbershop, the movie that everyone in America seems to have enjoyed—except for the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. They're infuriated, they announced earlier this week, because a character in the Film—Eddie, played by Cedric the Entertainer—utters a few irreverent one-liners about Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King. Eddie's not sorry, even when others in the shop admonish him. "If we can't talk straight in the barbershop, then where can we talk straight?" he asks.

Not in the movies, apparently, if the reverends were in charge: Sharpton has threatened a boycott, and Jackson wants the sacrilegious scene cut from the DVD and video releases of the film. Yesterday, MGM not only rejected the idea, but announced its intention to bankroll a sequel. Three points to the roaring lion!

Though Jackson says he's complaining on behalf of the King family, he might be even more P.O.'d because of another of Eddie's lines, now reproduced in newspapers across America: "Fuck Jesse Jackson." A personal vendetta would certainly explain why he's been so vocal about Barbershop, but mum about Serving Sara, another movie now out featuring Cedric the Entertainer, this time in a role (indeed, an entire movie) defined by trashy racial humor. (To be fair, it may also be that Jackson just enjoys a good fight; Serving Sara, a movie so bad hardly anyone bothered to review it, is already down for the count.)

The film's black producers have apologized to Jackson. Instead, they should probably be thanking him. Buoyed by Jackson's hissy fit, Barbershop is sure to continue playing to full houses for some time.