CNN said Tina Turner turned down a role in The Color Purple that later went to Oprah!

CNN has officially jump the shark and will be off the air by next year. Bet on it. She turned down the role of Shug.

CNN is wrong. Tina Turner did NOT turn down Oprah's role in The Color Purple.

Tina turned down the role of Shug Avery, the role that was eventually played by Margaret Avery.

OP who was the commentator or host who made the blunder.

r3 it was some woman reporting on Jake Tapper's show. I don't know her name.

She turned down the role of Shug because she said she lived it, and she didn't want to go through that again.

They said the part about living the role and not wanting to do it again but they had the wrong role.

True - Turner was first offered the role of Shug , but she told Spielberg she had 'already lived that role and didn't want to repeat it'. (Too bad she went with the forgettable 'Mad Max' film).

Spielberg then offered the role to Diana Ross, but Ross wanted the role to be bigger than it was written, and she wanted top billing in the credits (she wanted her name above Whoopi Goldberg's and Oprah Winfrey's). Spielberg told her 'no' to both requests and moved on from her. (I guess he could tell right there, working with her was not going to be a joyful occasion.)

About twenty years ago, in an interview (I think with Oprah), Turner said she was working on her next movie project, one which she was going to produce and star in - a remake of 1962's epic 'Cleopatra'. However the buzz died down and the film never got made. (She would've made an interesting Cleopatra).

It’s stupid for her want to change the nature of the role as a supporting character but I don’t see why her name wouldn’t be above every else or specialized in any way. Whoopi and Oprah were not just less popular than Diana Ross, they were nobodies at the time. Diana Ross wasn’t a mere popular actress she was one of the biggest names in all of entertainment.

[quote]Spielberg then offered the role to Diana Ross, but Ross wanted the role to be bigger than it was written, and she wanted top billing in the credits (she wanted her name above Whoopi Goldberg's and Oprah Winfrey's).

Danny Glover got top billing. Whoopi got Introducing Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah didn't even make the poster as she has often discussed. I think that story must be wrong r7. If Ross was in it she probably would have got top billing (Avery got third billing.)

Whoopi came at the end in billing after Glover, Adolph Caesar, Margaret Avery, Rae Dawn Chong and introducing Whoopi.

Stop watching CNN, it is complete garbage now.

R8 I don't think any supporting actress gets 'top billing' (and her role was a supporting character). I think she realized that, too, which is why she wanted her role to be rewritten into a 'bigger role' so she wouldn't be just a supporting actress any more, and the billing would have been 'Starring Diana Ross'. But that wouldn't have made sense since the story isn't about Shug.

" I lived that life" says it all really. Anna Mae, you did good.

Nicholson got top billing in Batman for a supporting role.

Robert DeNiro in Goodfellas too.

Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman in Superman

Tina Turner wanted to take the role of Sophia but Gary Morton talked her out of it.

R12,

Anne Hatheaway is the main character in Devil Wears Prada. Guess who got Top Billing.

R14 Also Clooney’s Batman flick, Arnold Swartzenneger got top billing.

Heath Ledger is second billed above Halle Berry in Monster's Ball.

With three movies behind her ('The Wiz' flop being the last one, seven years earlier), I don't think Ross had the same power as Brando, Schwarzenegger, DeNiro, Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep, etc. where she could demand top billing for a supporting role.

Danny Glover got top billing for a supporting role.

It didn’t boil down to billing posturing. They would have worked that out. Diana didn’t take the role because probably wanted to reshape the entire film, making the Shug character a lead. I have a strong inclination she wanted another starring vehicle to land an Oscar nod for leading actress.

My Godmother played the role of Squeek.

CNN is so awful. I put them on again and some idiot said "What's Love Got to Do With It" was her mantra.

Just this afternoon they had a clip of Turner saying she didn't really like the song. (I think she meant the message of it.)

CNN pull the plug.

The whole abuse thing was a lie that gave her a massive career resurrection and made her millions and millions. Ike said when they fought she gave as good as she got.

Here she is on Cavett dominating the meek Ike and talking about fining her backup singers for bad behavior (04:35).

Some interesting trivia...

Tina Turner, trying to break-out as a solo act, was asked to guest on Olivia Newton-John's ABC special "Hollywood Nights", which premiered before the Oscars on April 14, 1980. After the show was taped, Turner approached ONJ's new manager Roger Davies, and asked him to be her manager. She loved how he fired up ONJ's career (she was the reigning pop queen since he took over as manager the year before) and wanted him to do the same for her comeback - and he agreed.

In 1985, the two artists were working on new albums and Davies was gathering songs for them. For Tina Turner, her chose 'Soul Kiss' , 'Toughen Up', 'Culture Shock' and a few other songs. Turner didn't like any of them - especially 'Toughen Up' and 'Soul Kiss' , both songs she felt were 'subservient' to male lovers. Turner liked the songs he gathered for ONJ's album - "Typical Male" , "Break Every Rule", etc. So Davies switched the projects - gave Turner the project he was putting together for ONJ, and gave ONJ the project he was putting together for Turner.

He stayed with ONJ from 1979 - 86 (they parted ways after 'Soul Kiss' flopped) , and with Turner from 1981-2010.

[Quote] She turned down the role of Shug because she said she lived it, and she didn't want to go through that again.

R5 you mean she lived as a whorish lesbian?

I do know they offered Tina the role of Shug.

But when you hear this quote about "I lived that role already and don't want to repeat it" that DOES sound more like Oprah's role of Sofia.

Or perhaps Tina was talking about how Shug was a part of Celie's story, which is also closer to her own.

[quote] CNN is so awful. I put them on again and some idiot said "What's Love Got to Do With It" was her mantra. Just this afternoon they had a clip of Turner saying she didn't really like the song. (I think she meant the message of it.)

Eh, every so called expert comes out of the woodwork and blathers on with these types of events, so it's not always accurate.

I know Private Dancer was thrown together in like a week. Bowie took Capitol Records execs to a show and they immediately signed her but the whole thing happened in the blink of an eye. I don't think she loved the material (she wanted harder edged rock and, if I remember right, some of the songs were ONJ rejects) but it ended up being her biggest hit, so it must have worked.

The comments she said to Quincy Jones were quite different than the cleaned-up version that's been passed around the media for 30 years now: "I wouldn’t do a black picture if I was dying! It took me twenty years to get out of that black shit and I ain’t going back!"

[quote]The whole abuse thing was a lie

Sure, Jan.

[quote] The whole abuse thing was a lie

I couldn't agree more, dear.

There was a lot of song trading in the 80s, not that similar to the Brill Buildings I guess.

Tina didn't really like Brittain/Lyle's WLGTDWIT and was surprised when it was a huge hit. The British group Bucks Fizz also recorded it but it went unreleased until recently. One of the songs Tina recorded for the Private Dancer album

But she stuck with Terry Brittain and Graham Lyle who We Don't Need Another Hero wrote the first side of Break Every Rule. One song that didn't make the album was Diane Warren and Albert Hammond's Don't Turn Around, which became a b-side. Tina also recorded Paul Brady's Paradise Is Here which Cher covered for her It's A Man's World album.

In 1988 Bonnie Tyler released a new album which included her version of Don't Turn Around, Save Up All Your Tears (later covered by Cher and Robin Beck) and The Best. The Best wasn't a hit and British reggae group Aswad had a UK number 1 in 1988 with Don't Turn Around. Ace Of Base went on to have a US hit with Don't Turn Around.

Foreign Affair only included one Graham Lyle song, I Don't Wanna Lose You, and Tina's version of The Best obviously became her signature song.

[quote] not that similar to the Brill Buildings I guess.

?

or did you mean "dissimilar?"

Yes, that's what I meant. And Brill Building, not Brill Buildings.

Some of are you too literal. It wasn’t just one character it was the films entire premise and all of the stories. She was only offered the part of Shug, it’s production from screenplay to actual film was made with her in mind. With that being said I don’t know how true that quilote is but Tina did say and do a lot of shitty things in regards to blacks. Not overtly but just her worldview. I have aunts and uncles who were in the industry. She would refer to herself as new black.

Yup, R38. Same here. I've heard so many stories about Tina Turner and how she treated black people back in the day; all were negative. So many of her fans perpetuate this myth that Black Americans mistreated her, and that's why she retreated to Europe, where she found solace, which is a bunch of bullshit. She had a long history of saying negative things about Black people and tried her damndest to detach herself from anything remotely Black.

Her views of Black people weren't that different from Adolph Ceaser's character in A Solider's Story.

And?

I saw this thread on Twitter about Tina being "anti black"

The “Tina Turner is anti black” claims are WILD considering how Black Americans have made a mockery of her abuse for DECADES. To expect someone to remain open-armed and accepting of a community that wasn’t welcoming of her in her entirety is audacious as hell.

Folks are “offended” by her feelings as if as a collective the Black Community respected her entire story. Through tv shows, plays, movies, and songs we have repeatedly shown her that we didn’t respect her in her entirety…so why are y’all surprised…?!

There was JUST a whole trend on tiktok of black folks reenacting scenes from what’s love got to do with it-a movie that took into account her real life experiences. As a whole Black folks didn’t give enough of a damn about her…but you mad cus she matched the energy?!

Also, if as a collective Black Americans laughed at the abuse Tina experienced and used it as humor through mass media…wtf do you think she was experiencing in personal interactions with us before she moved…?! I can only imagine the outta pocket comments she probably received.

Some, or a fraction of black society, thrive on violence. Tina’s abuse wasn’t remarkable to those who are in that lifestyle.

R41 I agree in many ways with your sentiment. The only time I have ever been disappointmened with Queen Bey is when she allowed Jay to rap the lyric, “Now eat the cake Anna Mae”.

Well, neither Anna Mae or that fat one could act.

I never held it against Anna Mae. She was more than enough as it was.

Too, even. You hear?

As for the fat one, though - The Color Chicken Fat.

R41, again, a lot of that mockery was based on that cartoonish movie of her life (that even Tina herself said was wildly exaggerated). Before her biopic, Black Americans did not mock Tina or her abuse. Many celebrated her comeback with Private Dancer. So that's revisionist history to say that Black people mocked her.

Tina said many derogatory things about Black people back in the 70s ('Africans are lazy' and how she preferred to travel Europe than African countries) and refused to play Shug Avery because she spent two decades running away from that 'black shit.' Tina even rejected her most famous song, "What's Love Got To Do With It," because it sounded too R&B (i.e., too Black).

Like many Southern African Americans of her era, Tina had issues with her heritage. But it wasn't Black Americans who turned their backs on her; she turned her backs on them.

Did Tina wear wigs? Like during the What's Love Got to Do With It period when she had that upswept style.

She sure did R46. Turner said she was wearing wigs since her Ike and Tina days, when she had a mishap at the hair salon (the dyes in the hair color burned her scalp).

Tina was great as "Aunty Entity" in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. She was the ruler of Bartertown. A town powered by pig shit.

PIG SHIT

Lucy wanted to play Shug Avery as well. She sat in a tanning bed for twelve hours and was burnt to a crisp. She couldn’t walk when it came time to audition. Gary just shook his head and quoted the “You sho is ugly” line from the script. It almost led to divorce.

R49 😂 😆