Essay Eighty

Dead men walking with MultiCultClassics Minutes…

• Scotty has beamed to the final frontier. Trekkies around the galaxy mourned the passing of James Doohan, who played the able, affable and occasionally alcoholic engineer on Star Trek. As it turns out, Scotty wasn’t even Scottish. The Canadian-born actor enjoyed faking dialects and decided to make Montgomery Scott a Scotsman. Wonder if Scotland natives ever found the character to be stereotypical and offensive. Plus, maybe Sulu wasn’t really Asian or Uhura wasn’t truly Black.

• Somebody wants to shoot Notorious B.I.G. again, only this time for the silver screen. Plans are underway to produce a feature film about the rapper, with key players already assembling for the effort. Journalist Cheo Hodari Coker is set to handle the script, and reports claim Antoine Fuqua will direct the action. Casting should be interesting. Actors like Jamie Foxx would have to pull a De Niro-does-Raging-Bull move to be credible. Anthony Anderson might be an interesting choice, considering his performance on The Shield.

• Atlanta rapper Gucci Mane is facing murder charges for his involvement in a May 10 shooting. At this point, most sources agree Mane was the main shooter; although now the artist is rhyming it was self-defense. This isn’t Mane’s debut performance with the law. He was sentenced to 90 days in April 2001 for cocaine charges. So he’s clearly making progress in his thug career.

• Getting in trouble with the law takes on a whole different meaning in Jude Law’s household. The actor made a public apology to his fiancée and family for his affair with the nanny. Yes, confessing via worldwide media is the perfect way to keep a romance strong. And technically, the actor still owes everyone a mea culpa for Alfie.

• Deaf man walking. Kevin Hall will make PGA Tour history as the first deaf golfer when he competes in Thursday’s U.S. Bank Championship. The 22-year-old Hall said, “If they identify me as a deaf golfer, that's fine. Eventually people will identify me as just Kevin.” Or maybe just champion.