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The Ru Report #172

Large & In Charge
Could Toccara Jones be the next “big” thing?

The “America’s Next Top Model Cycle 3″ finalist is now one of the stars of VH1’s hit reality series “Celebrity Fit Club,” where eight distinct celebrity personalities embark on their own grueling fitness journey that promises a mixed bag of physical challenges. Hosted by actor/comedian Ant, the show has become an instant hit for the network’s wildly popular “Celebreality” Sunday night line-up.

While Toccara, the one-named moniker that she is affectionately referred to as, was most likely in kindergarten when her fellow cast members (”227″’s vixen Jackee Harry, rock singer Jani Lane and “Eight Is Enough”’s Willie Aames) were enjoying the height of their celebrity success, she still shines bright as someone who’s relevant and current in today’s celebrity-driven media landscape.

And since she’s just beautiful and has a personality that pops, that’s even better.

It was just ten months ago that she became a darling of the Tyra Banks-helmed UPN hit series. And since then, she’s made appearances on sitcoms such as “All of Us,” and was an “it girl” for the Ashley Stewart clothing line.

“Doing the show is so much fun,” the 23-year-old Dayton, OH native said, during an interview with “The RU Report” earlier this week. “We had so many twists and turns and so many ups and downs, I really enjoyed it.”

Throughout the season, the fitness-challenged celebs, who reportedly were paid upwards to $100,000 to bare their all for the cameras, come together for 14 back-breaking weeks of tough fitness training–mostly administered by the hard-driving drill sergeant, Harvey Walden, IV (who is a character in his own right).

“When they told me that they wanted me to lose fifty pounds, I cracked up so much. I was like ‘Are you serious?’ I was rolling so much that my stomach was hurting and I had to yell ‘Cut Tape! Stop! Let’s start over.’ I said, ‘Y’all must be kidding me. There is no freaking way that I would lose that weight,” she revealed. “But it was more for like health issues, health reasons. Just because you’re big doesn’t mean that you cant be healthy. It was more like redefining my shape because I want to be on the cover of “Elle” and “Vogue” and “Sports Illustrated” and “Glamour” and I want to give them one less reason to deny me.”

Toccara admittedly revealed that she gained over 25 pounds and ballooned to a whopping 205 pounds while enjoying the trappings of overnight celebrity (people of interests wining and dining her in hopes of getting her to do this, that or the other). “I was living it up when I first moved to New York,” she recollected with her charming southern/Midwest twang, then also adding that she experienced a bout of depression during the airing of the former reality show, while being forced to toil as a waitress at a Caribbean-inspired Harlem watering hole. It was due to the constrictive contractual terms for “America’s Next Top Model” that she couldn’t even procure work as a model through other avenues. Once contestants sign on for the show, they’re bound to the agreement for an entire year. Everything has to be cleared through producers, who don’t pay the contestants.

Now she is as free as she wants to be. When “The RU Report” caught up to the buxomly beauty, she was in the epicenter of her Harlem neighborhood searching around for a quick fix–pizza. Family members are in town visiting and she’s playing the role of host. She and a neighborhood pal wind up holed up in a local Mama’s Fried Chicken eatery seeking out vittles for an afternoon treat–before heading over to BET’s “106 & Park” countdown show to “hang out.”

“I’ve been eating so when I go on the show and I’m trying to lower my caloric intake, and try to make my meals smaller, that ain’t s–t,” she said very matter-of-factly. “You go in and you eat what you supposed to eat and you’re still hungry. That don’t work, especially if you’re used to eating macaroni & cheese, mashed potatoes, fried chicken and all of that. And now you have to eat a salad?”

The finale of this season’s “Celebrity Fit Club” is September 4, and from what we gather Toccara, who is back at her fighting weight of 180 pounds (”I want to be the only bitch that weights 180 pounds with a six-pack,” she deadpanned), may have come close to the show’s expectations. During the candid chit-chat she also weighed in on…

Why “Snapple Lady” is back for a second season: “I don’t know. I guess Wendy [Kaufman] was a big hit last season. And she got a lot of following from the show, so I guess it was –ya know what? I don’t know, ask the producers. Don’t ask me.”

Being In The Mix With Jackee Harry: “It was interesting. We still communicate. It’s no bad feelings, no hard feelings. It was a learning experience, and not that I don’t want to sound bitter but you just can’t go in and just because you do a project call people your friends. I can’t say Gary Busey is my friend just because we did a project together. We’re associates and we know each other, and we have a good rapport but friends and having a good rapport are two different things.”

Life After America’s Next Top Model: “I tell you who I’m friends with. I’m friends with YaYa [Da Costa]. That’s my friend. I like YaYa but it’s kind of hard being friends with people you did the show with because we’re kind of like in competition with one another because there are still some things going on with UPN where they call us to do certain things and they only call certain girls. And say, me and YaYa are friends but I can’t be like ‘Girl, they called me to do this, yada yada yada…Oh, they didn’t call you?” So you gotta kinda be slick with it and say ‘So what you’re doing on August the 12. You gotta feel it out.”

Getting Close With Tyra Banks: “I don’t get a chance to know Tyra like that. All I know her as is the producer, the host, the mentor. I don’t really have an inside look on Tyra personally–only professionally. And to me, I have to give my hat off to her for carrying all of those hats and I think she does it really well. And plus she gave me a chance to be who I am. So I love that bitch!”

Internal Happiness: “I think it’s internal–feeling good about yourself. Right now to this day, I could pull fat from right up out of my love handles I can shake my arm and they would jiggle. So it’s not really what I see in the mirror because sometimes I’m out and I’m just having fun and I enjoy people and I’m enjoying life, I’m eating, I’m dancing and I’m having a good time. And I can go across a mirror and be like ‘Oh s–t, I look good.’ But I’m not thinking about my looks, I’m not consumed with my looks. It’s all about feeling good. I don’t know, everyone has to find out what makes them happy. I’m happy. My dreams are coming true, I moved to New York. I’m a model. I work. I could pay my bills. My family went through a lot of trials and tribulations and I guess their weakness became my strength. All of the things that they’ve went through, I knew that this is not what I wanted. I had it right there in my face. I had everything that I didn’t want to be right there in my face.”

Downsizing: “[My breasts] are humongous. I wear a size 36 DDD. I lost some weight. I was like a 40 DDD. I would like to get a breast reduction personally. But I think I will be too much, because if I got a breast reduction and I could wear any little top I wanted to: Oh My God Call The Police! My shape is fine so if I got a breast reduction, I would only go to a 36 DD. It’s still big. It would just take this unnecessary breast that’s in my underarms away, that’s it. I want to do it for me. I don’t have any back problems. I don’t have any issue with them. It’s just more of a vain reason and I don’t think that’s a good enough reason for me to do it.”

Busting Loose: “First of all, I’m a plus-sized model but I want to be the first Black plus-sized supermodel of the world. And in order to do that, I can’t be stuck in a plus-sized world. I need to do Guess like how Anna Nicole Smith had a contract with that company, or have a contract with Calvin Klein. I need to be a big girl that does things that big girls don’t do. All of the big girls do Ashley Stewart. And all the big girls do Lane Bryant and The Avenue. That’s what they gave us. But I have to step outside of the box. I have to be where they be like ‘Damn, did you see Toccara do Calvin Klein or The Gap? That bitch is bad!’ I don’t want to be tied down to only do the plus-sized lines. It’s going to be hard to get that so I have to work harder for Gap to want me.”

The Last Reality Show: “I don’t want to be famous because I do reality shows. I don’t want to be a reality star. I want to be more like you’ve seen me on the cover of this, you’ve seen me doing this movie, or doing this commercial. It’s not that I don’t want to do any more television but everything I do has to have a purpose. On ‘Top Model,’ we were striving to get a contract to be a model. On ‘Fit Club,’ we were trying to lose weight and be healthy; it wasn’t just for entertainment purposes. Like doing ‘The Real World’ or ‘The Surreal Life,’ they’re just sitting around chilling. They do little things for the community or whatever, I don’t know. I just don’t want to be on TV to be on TV.”

Black Women Depicted As Bitchy On Reality TV: “Well, [producers] can’t show anything that you didn’t do. They can’t show what you’re not. They can take what you do and maybe piece it together and cut out some words–they have their tricks. But they got to get it from you in order to use it. Also, it’s reality TV first and foremost. So when they go out and they’re auditioning these people, they’re auditioning for characters. They’re auditioning for personalities. So maybe…”

Represented by the legendary modeling agency, Wilhelmina Models, Toccara has lots of irons in the fires. Some she’s able to speak on. Some she’s not at liberty–just yet. Coming up, she has a Los Angeles fashion show with supermodel veteran Janice Dickinson, who is also a reality TV star (now appearing on “The Surreal Life”). “That heifer is crazy,” Toccara said of fashion’s eternal wild child. “That chick is really crazy. That ain’t no front. That’s really her.” She recently taped a segment of Miss Banks’ upcoming talk show, which premieres in syndication on September 12. She has an acting project coming up, but until she signs on the dotted line, she’s mum on the subject. “I can’t tell you about it but it’s big. Don’t worry, I got your number. I have one more meeting and then I’ll know,” she assured.

Whatever it is, we are sure that Toccara is ready for her big splash.

“I got to stay hot, gotta stay hot, gotta stay out there.”

Rent Party
So Broadway gets another shot at the box office when the eagerly-anticipated filmed adaptation of “Rent” hits theaters nationwide November 23.

And already the buzz is beginning.

“Seasons of Love,” the first single from the Warner Bros. Records soundtrack to Revolution Studios’ film, is now available for purchase exclusively on the iTunes Music Store for 99 cents.

And now that things are getting underway on the music front, more of the “Rent” blitz is happening.

Not only will some of the original cast members of the Pulitzer Prize winning musical appear in their original roles in the Christopher Columbus-directed flick. They will also reunite on the Great White Way for a one night only benefit performance, celebrating the show’s 10th anniversary. It will take place at the Nederlander Theatre on April 24.

For those who are not aware, “Rent” debuted at New York Theatre Workshop before moving to Broadway’s Nederlander Theatre, where it opened on April 29, 1996. The rock musical earned 10 Tony Award nominations and netted four awards, including Best Musical. It’s one of the longest running shows up on Broadway.

Based on Giacomo Puccini’s classic 1896 opera, “La Boheme,” the musical tells the story of struggling young artists living on the edge in New York’s East Village. The work of art is the brainchild of the late Jonathan Larson.

The original cast of “Rent” included Gilles Chiason, Taye Diggs, Tony winner Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Rodney Hicks, Kristen Lee Kelly, Jesse L. Martin, Idina Menzel, Aiko Nakasone, Timothy Britten Parker, Adam Pascal, Anthony Rapp, Gwen Stewart, Byron Utley, Daphne Rubin-Vega and Fredi Walker-Browne.

The entire cast previously reunited for a concert at Studio 54 on June 4, 2001.

Tickets for next year’s benefit begin at $1000 and include the post-performance party. In keeping with the “Rent” tradition, tickets for the first two rows of the theater will be available for $25.

Proceeds from the benefit will be shared amongst the three beneficiary organizations: Friends in Deed, the Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation and New York Theatre Workshop.

“Rent,” the movie, stars Rosario Dawson, Taye Diggs, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Jesse L. Martin, Idina Menzel, Adam Pascal, Anthony Rapp and newcomer Tracie Thoms. The film is being produced for Revolution Studios by Jane Rosenthal and Robert DeNiro and 1492 Pictures’ Chris Columbus, Mark Radcliffe and Michael Barnathan.

Bookings
Last week, publishing titan Judith Regan, who is President and Publisher of the HarperCollins imprint ReganBooks, announced that she will release a memoir by former New Jersey governor James McGreevey. The book, as yet untitled, will chronicle the span of McGreevey’s political career-from his meteoric rise in New Jersey politics through the events leading up to his August 12, 2004, press conference, when he announced he would resign his office with the words “My truth is that I am a gay American.” No date has been given for the tome, but if we could guesstimate, the book should see the light of day as early as next spring. “Jim McGreevey has a rare opportunity, and the courage, to tell the whole truth about his life,” said Ms. Regan, who has published tell-alls from the likes of supermodel Janice Dickinson, porn star Jenna Jamison and shock-jock Howard Stern.

And “Desperate Housewives” star Teri Hatcher is getting into the literary mix with her recent signing with the Disney-owned Hyperion imprint. A book titled “Burnt Toast” is in the pike for release, promising to offer an original perspective on life–from the woman who won America’s heart when she stood up on national television and proclaimed herself a “has-been” on the same night she received a Golden Globe Award. “I have had many women approach me, sharing their own stories, and ask me how it feels to have a second chance at 40,” Ms. Hatcher said in a statement. “With this book, I truly hope to reach everyone that I don’t bump into on the street and share my story.”

Stuff
Now that R&B bad boy Bobby Brown has a hit show on his hands–with Bravo’s top rated “Being Bobby Brown”–momentum has been building for his music career. Aside from the fact that the former New Edition crooner belts and bellows (mostly off-key) on the infectious reality series, it has been years since the public has gotten a dose of his true vocal prowess. Mr. Brown’s golden years of vocalizing will be revisited when Universal Music Entertainment (UME) releases the “20th Century Masters DVD” collection on August 30. According to a publicist for the reissue imprint, there isn’t any specific details of which videos are featured on the disc. I’m sure the set features the ‘best of’ the R&B innovator, from his first solo radio hit “Girlfriend” to his last hit single, 1992’s “Humpin’ Around.” Clips for the mega-smash “My Prerogative” and the groundbreaking “Don’t Be Cruel,” along with the press-generating duet with his beloved wife Whitney Houston, “We Got Something In Common” should also give fans a nice walk down memory lane.

Funnyman David Alan Grier was due to make a splash on the Great White Way this summer season with a starring role in “The Mambo Kings,” but the ill-fated production never even went into previews. Word has it that the beleaguered stage incarnation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel was a mess from the jump. Anyway, the “In Living Color” comic will be on Broadway, by hook or by crook. He has a string of gigs at Caroline’s On Broadway starting next Thursday (18). The Detroit native just turned the big 5-0 on June 30 and is still going strong. He was just seen in the Nicole Kidman/Will Ferrell reinterpretation of “Bewitched” and has a role in the visual effect comedy “Instant Karma” starring The Rock, Mira Sorvino, Burt Reynolds, and Eartha Kitt, currently in production.

“America’s Next Top Model Season 3″ winner Eva Marcelle Pigford a.k.a. Eva The Diva is now being managed by J. Lo’s ex-handler Benny Medina, who is now overseeing the careers of Mariah Carey and the mother-load of still relevant supermodels Tyra Banks. Ms. Banks’ makes her talk show debut this season, and the early word on the production is that she is nobody’s Oprah Winfrey. No word on where Eva will pop up, since reportedly being replaced by the voluptuous BET personality Melyssa Ford as the spokesperson for Apple Bottom jeans. Can’t wait to see what Mr. Medina has in store for her. Can’t wait.

Jamie Foxx is gracing the cover of the “Vibe” magazine’s 12th annual “Juice Issue,” which arrived in mailboxes last week. In the story, written by acclaimed scribe Cheo Hodari Coker, the recent Academy Award winning actor gives one of the most candid interviews of his career, talking in detail about his rumored affair with Oprah Winfrey (whom he refers to as God), those nude photos of him that surfaced just before Oscar time, and how he burned bridges in Black Hollywood and later learned a few lessons from Al Pacino. During one of the more reflective moments of the interview, the future “Miami Vice” star reveals details of his racially tumultuous upbringing in Terrell, Texas: “I was in slavery. I was called ni—er everyday. Everyday!”

And while the Jamie Foxx piece is a nice feather that “Vibe” editrix Mimi Valdes (the original Mimi) can tuck under her hat, the piece de resistance was the Bobby Brown feature that the magazine’s longtime editor Rob Kenner delivers, replete with in-your- face commentary from none other than Whitney Houston–who talks on record for the first time since the image-damaging interviews she did with news journalist Diane Sawyer and syndicated radio shock jock Wendy Williams. I’m not going to give away too much, but that piece alone is worth picking up the magazine when you see it on the stands.

As quiet as it’s kept, Broadway’s smash musical “Hairspray” is going through changes. The phenomenal powerhouse Mary Bond Davis, who helped the show win a string of awards with her portrayal of Motormouth Maybelle, has exited the show –rather quietly. Her replacement is 1960s singing legend Darlene Love, famous for the Phil Spector-helmed hits “He’s A Rebel” and “Wait Till My Bobby Comes Home.” Ms. Love, who also starred in the “Lethal Weapon” film franchise, will reportedly be in the show until next spring. Ms. Davis was most recently was seen in the cutesy Olsen Twins motion picture debut “New York Minute.”

This year, the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) will honor the legendary songwriter, musician and singer Stevie Wonder, who will receive an all-star tribute for his lifetime achievement on UNCF’s annual televised fund-raiser, “An Evening of Stars.” The four-hour tribute will be recorded at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood on September 9 and September 10. Confirmed guests for the show include Fantasia, India Arie, Vivica Fox, Toni Braxton, Robert Townsend, Mary Mary, Kirk Franklin, Donnie McClurkin, and of course the face of UNCF Lou Rawls, who has commandeered the program since 1979. Other celebrities are being confirmed at press-time. As the nation’s oldest and most successful minority higher education assistance organization, the United Negro College Fund’s mission is to provide financial support to its 39 member institutions and increase minority degree attainment by reducing financial barriers to college. The show will air nationwide in over 65 markets, January 5 through January 7. Perhaps Mr. Wonder’s longtime record company Motown will release the long-awaited new album from the musical genius by then.

Hot Stuff
In the smack middle of a blazing hot and humid summer season, we still got the hook-ups for our loyal readers. The abundance of entries that poured in for our last sweepstakes contest that featured the “New York Times” best-selling memoir “Confessions Of A Video Vixen,” written by Karrine Steffans a.k.a. “Superhead,” along with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and biographer Karen Hunter, courtesy of Amistad/Harper Collins, has prompted “The RU Report” to keep the good thing going.

This go round, lucky readers will win a copy of the new “Def Jazz” compilation, courtesy of GRP Records. The brainchild of record producer Tony Joseph, a former radio and club DJ, “Def Jazz” is a collection of smooth jazz interpretations of rap, hip hop, and R&B classics from the house of Def Jam Records. Each of the 10 tunes, performed here by an all-star roster from the world of contemporary jazz–Gerald Albright, Rick Braun, Joey DeFrancesco, Roy Hargrove, Dwight Sills, Kevin Toney and Jeff Lorber, was carefully selected from the archives of the hip hop giant Def Jam–a company celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

The remake of the label’s very first #1 R&B smash hit “The Rain,” done up by emerging neo soul singer Ledisi, and featuring the tune’s original singer Oran “Juice” Jones is worth copping this CD for alone.

Get this great giveaway while supplies! Only a few entrants, selected at random, will receive a copy of the “Def Jazz” CD. To enter, send your full name, full mailing address and daytime telephone number to: TheRUReport@aol.com. All eligible entries must be submitted by August 26, 2005. All data will be verified and all privacy will be protected. No replies will be made to any submissions. Winners will be contacted individually by GRP Records.

Notable/Quotable
“What is the point of working all your life and then stopping? All right, so you start off when you’re a kid, and you make an impression. You can’t always be a leading lady. You can’t always be a glamour-puss. It all changes, thank God.”
–81-year-old screen legend Lauren Bacall, who appears in four movies this year and recently released a memoir “By Myself And Then Some” via HarperCollins.

©2005 The Ru Report™. All Rights Reserved~~P.O. Box #25 Bushkill PA 18324

Message Karu F Daniels or email him directly at therureport@aol.com

By Karu F. Daniels on 8/12/2005[read on] [3 comments]

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