False Advertising

For the past four months, I've had December 25 highlighted on my calendar. Yes, it's Christmas Day but that's not the reason I circled the date. While attending the annual National Association of Black Journalists convention in Indianapolis in August, I had the opportunity to see a few scenes from the movie Dreamgirls and hear co-star Jennifer Hudson serenade the audience in person. The folks promoting the movie told us Christmas Day would be the release date.

For the better part of the last month, I've seen any number of commercials, trailers, appearances on Oprah, reports on Entertainment Tonight, Inside Edition, Access Hollywood, and other shows promoting Monday, December 25 as the release date. Now, that Christmas is just a couple of days away, and I'm planning my holiday around Beyonce' Knowles, Jennifer Hudson, Anika Noni Rose, Jaimie Foxx and Eddie Murphy, I find out the movie will not open in Columbia on Monday. Unless I travel to Charlotte or Atlanta, I can't see Dreamgirls until January 19th!

I feel like Della Reese's character, Vera Walker, in Harlem Nights when she went to the refrigerator in Benny's (Redd Foxx) kitchen with her "mouth ready for some orange juice" only to find "just a swallow left in the container."

I might be okay with waiting until Friday, December 29th, but January 19th? That's another 25 days! That's another three and a half weeks! That's unacceptable!

If DreamWorks and Paramount were going to do the staggered release, they should have promoted that. "In major cities Christmas Day, everywhere on January 19th," would have worked for me. Instead, they became Messrs. Grinch and stole my Christmas.

I guess this makes my holiday planning a bit easier. In terms of Dreamgirls and December 25th, I can just sing a few bars of my favorite song from the show. "And I am telling you, I'm not going!"

Oh, Good Evening!