Dispatch from the TV Critics' Association Summer Press Tour

Tuesday July 15, 2008

Categories: Television

Just beyond the storied pool at the Beverly Hills Hilton, the television networks are busy parading their new shows to the nation's TV critics. Diverse luminaries from Benjamin Braff to Ludacris to Spike Lee, mill around in the halls and answer press questions, while newsman Bob Woodruff and rocker Tommy Lee check in via satellite.

George Foreman, legendary boxer, creator of grills, husband, and the father of ten children, discussed his new TV Land reality show "Family Foreman." George and his handsome sons George III and George IV were genial as they talked about the prospect of opening their lives to the camera.

"They couldn't follow us into the restroom, and they couldn't see how much [George Sr.] weighed on the scale, but besides that, they got to see everything," laughed George III. That includes George Sr.'s work as a minister, which he views as one of his most important roles.

"For over 31 years now, I've been a preacher, a minister at the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what I really do. I moonlight as a grill salesman to feed all these kids, but in reality that's what I do...preach."

Preaching isn't a part time job for Foreman. "I preach about three times a week in Houston, Wednesday, Saturday, and twice on Sunday. [At a] non-denominational church. I'm the best floor-mopper around."

Foreman encourages his children to find their own faith, "As your kids grow older, you've got to make sure they know, 'Look I'm a preacher and you're not.' So I spell it out in the show that my faith is my faith. Whatever faith they have, I don't know yet. But they're having fun with their lives. Let them figure it out as they grow."

"Moonlight and Mistletoe," starring Tom Arnold, Barbara Niven, and Candace Cameron Bure, will air on the Hallmark Channel during the holidays. I sat down with Bure, who achieved fame as DJ Tanner on the 80s sitcom "Full House," as she nibbled on salad at lunch. A self-professed Christian with a monthly column on Christian Women Online as well as a mother of three, Bure lets her faith guide her role selections.

"I wanted to make something my children could watch," she said, "and that reflect my moral standard." Her characters don't necessarily have to be squeaky clean, she says, "as long as they experience a turnaround, as long as that character is redeemed in some way."

She also perceives that Hollywood has created more Christian and family-friendly movies, since the financial success of "The Passion of the Christ." "More and more people are jumping on board, now that they see we can do this," she said, "It's exciting."

Ben Vereen will play a homeless man in the upcoming Hallmark movie "Accidental Friendship." Starring Chandra Wilson and Kathleen Munroe, the film follows the true-life story of LAPD officer Sgt. Tami Baumann and her transformative friendship with Yvonne, a homeless woman. Vereen, whose credits include "Roots" and "All that Jazz," spoke with passion about the tendency of people to view the homeless as merely "addicts or psychological doombats" and sees an opportunity to portray a homeless person as a kind and intelligent individual as a natural evolution of his art.

"I'm a believer that all life is an art form. In the scriptures we read-- and I don't care if it's the Bible or the Bhagavad Gita or the Qur'an--whatever book you read, it says in the beginning, God created. It didn't say God manufactured. We are all created beings, so therefore we are art forms of that expression."

---written by Rebecca Cusey, an L.A.-based entertainment reporter.

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