Photo Credit: Asterix611
It’s been over a decade since Whitney Houston has died and since she was arguably the largest black female pop star on the planet, it’s hard to imagine there’s anything else we haven’t learned about her, but a new tidbit just came to light on Jada Pinkett Smith’s Red Table Talk. A Different World star Darryl M. Bell sat down telling Jada that Nippy almost had the role of Denise Huxtable but backed out because she knew she was going to be a major recording artist.
“Now I’m sure everyone knows there’s a Cosby, A Different World connection. And what most people don’t know is that there were two actresses who would be considered for that role of Denise. When The Cosby Show was originally being cast, the role of Denise came down to Lisa Bonet and this other actress. And when they gave this other actress the contract, she said, ‘Oh I can’t do this.’ And they said, ‘Why not?’ She said, ‘Because it’s a five-year contract.’”
And they’re like, ‘Yeah, but this is Bill Cosby. You know who he is?’ She said, ‘Oh I do, I’m a big fan, but can’t do it.’ They said, ‘Well, why not?’ She said, ‘Because I’m gonna be a singer.’ They said, ‘Well, do you have a record deal?’ She said, ‘No.’ [They asked], ‘Well, why do you think you can sing?’ She said, ‘Because my mother thinks so.’” And in the end, regarding whether Whitney made the correct choice, Bell said, “I think she was right.” And well, who could argue with that?
Whitney has also been immortalized in the 4th film about her life since her passing but this time, the first big budget biopic, this time by Anthony McCarten who has said all the priors were “sensationalist” and “obsessed with her mistakes.” He did however say they were in line with general perception that many in the public have had of her because that’s the image they were presented with. “When people hear the name ‘Whitney Houston’, they inevitably say the word ‘tragic’,” McCarten said. “It’s a universal perception. In some respects, this film is a corrective to that.” If you’d like to see for yourself, I Wanna Dance with Somebody will be out in theaters in the US December 23rd.
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