We Speak Entertainment
Pam Grier Biopic Is On The Way With Jay Pharoah Playing Richard Pryor

*‘70s screen siren Pam Grier is readying and a biopic that will bring her life story to the big screen, according to Deadline.
The film follows the 2010 release of her memoir, “Foxy: My Life in Three Acts,” which chronicles her private life that included love affairs with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Richard Pryor, and Freddie Prinze.
The script for “Pam,” the working title of the biopic, is about to be shopped, one that Jay Pharoah reportedly read and attached himself to play Pryor. The former “Saturday Night Live” star said, “The story is heartbreaking, raw, honest and beautiful, all rolled into one testimony.”
Deadline writer Mike Fleming Jr. notes how he “was surprised to hear that Grier experienced relatively little sexual harassment during her rise” to fame.
He also writes: “There is a disturbing tale in her book about a time she was invited to Sammy Davis Jr’s house where, in front of his wife Altovise, the singer became so aggressive in his attempt to bed Grier that she had to enlist Liza Minnelli and her husband Jack Haley Jr to drive her away from the estate while she hid in the back seat.”

And then there’s this: As she first revealed in her book, Grier was raped at age 6 by two older boys, and again in college. It nearly happened a third time – she didn’t include that assault in the book because her publisher felt it was too much, she said – when “I fought off a 300-pound retired football player, a family friend who was supposed to come out to mentor me. I suffered scratches, abrasions, everything, but I beat the shit out of him with furniture and walked away from it.”
Grier said that her saving grace during her rise was signing with agent John Gaines, who made sure that she didn’t find herself in potentially dangerous situations when she went up for roles.
“I called John my fairy godmother because of the way he protected me and guided me,” she said. “If you go to meet someone on a business deal, your lawyer, manager, agent, someone must always be with you. John always set those rules for me and created a comfort zone. He just had seen so much, he knew. When he took me to clubs, and someone would hand me a drink, he would say: “Don’t drink that. See the sediment at the bottom? You drink that and you won’t remember the next week.’ I became comfortable, not accepting the invitations. Sammy Davis Jr, and even his wife Altovise invited me back and I declined. If I didn’t have John the agent to go with me to the industry dinners or cocktail parties, I stayed away from them. I didn’t really experience the sexual harassment you might think. I wonder if they saw my films and thought that I probably could beat them up. And you know, I could, because I studied enough martial arts seriously that I probably could have really hurt someone.”
Grier’s “own decision to disclose the rapes in her life came, she said, from counsel by Gloria Steinem and in observing Maya Angelou’s experience in divulging the trauma of a childhood sexual assault. In that case, Angelou was raped by her mother’s boyfriend — an incident that so upset the future poet that she didn’t speak for the next five years.”
She kept her assaults secret for similar fears. She said: “My grandfather Daddy Ray taught all us girls to hunt, fish, shoot and drive the boat and a tractor. … If I had told my family, especially what happened when I was 6? The men in my family would have hunted those boys down, for hurting me. It would have destroyed my family, and I decided to stay quiet and see how long I can go and how much stronger I can be with this energy inside me.”

She still is processing the painful memories. “A long-term boyfriend of mine — this was someone who had gone to Harvard and someone I’d helped when he was out of work — and when I felt confident I could tell him about the things that happened, while I was working on building my confidence to talk about the things I wrote in the book. And when I told him he was shocked, and said, ‘Wow, you’re tainted.’ I said, ‘What? I’m tainted? He said, ‘Yeah, because of the attacks, the rapes and what you’ve gone through.’”
As for the biopic that Grier wants to see told on the screen, the “Foxy” memoir provides some of the most memorable tales — ranging from her work in those AIP and Corman films to being a ’60s activist, and a romantic life where she fell in love with Abdul-Jabbar, Prinze and Pryor.
Her romances with Prinze and Pryor resulted in heartbreak, and Grier was one of the last people Prinze spoke to before he shot himself in 1977. Her relationship with Pryor disintegrated over his drug problem. She once received a crisis call from Sidney about it.
“‘Pam, Richard’s high, and we’re like 10 weeks behind and they’re going to pull the plug on the movie,’ Sidney says. ‘Gene Wilder … everybody’s mad. Everybody’s upset. Everyone’s afraid they’re going to lose their jobs. Can you come down here and talk to Richard? I think you’re the only person who can reach him.’
“I was on my way to do Fort Apache, the Bronx in New York, and I said I would come down on my way and see if I can do anything or say anything,” Grier said. “I get there, and he’s freebasing. I’d never seen anything like that. Holding a Bunsen burner of liquid in front of your face, while something’s in a net that looks like a rock cooking … it was just so bizarre to me. And I wanted to say, ‘Well, you know, Sidney, Richard has some fears, insecurities and they have to be addressed. Maybe like a musician he has to prepare himself, get high before he comes to the set. I don’t know. You always knew he did indulge and now you want him to stop? I don’t know how you’re gonna do that. But you’re gonna have to give him some time, help him figure out how he can prepare without that, so his career isn’t destroyed.’
“So Richard and I talk, we go to the set and he says, ‘I’m glad you came and I’m going to try, I’m really going to try to stop. I didn’t want you to be disappointed.’ And I said, ‘I’m not disappointed. It’s just you have such an opportunity. People love you so much. And you’re gonna take it all away. For some reason you don’t want to give whatever it is. So, I’m gonna go.”
Finally, Grier had enough of the empty promises.
“Shortly after, a call comes in through the production office of Fort Apache and it’s Jim Brown,” Grier recalled. “He says Richard wants to talk to me and I need to fly there. He may not live through the night. And I ended up saying, ‘Well you know what, Jim? Richard did some things that disrespected me.’ And he always said, if you disrespect someone and they hang around that means they have no self-esteem and you can do anything to them — lie, and steal. I said that if I come back to his bedside and back into his life … he’s just going to have to get out of his bed alone, walk by himself and find himself. And I remember Jim saying, ‘Wow. That’s cold, Pam.’ And I went, ‘Yeah, it is. It is cold. But maybe this tough love will help him to change. I don’t know.’ And I remember going back to my apartment and just sobbing. Like why?”
We Speak Celebrity News
Author Burt Kearns (“Shemp: The Biography of the Three Stooges’ Shemp Howard: The Face of Film Comedy”) Guests On Harvey Brownstone Interviews

Harvey Brownstone conducts an in-depth Interview with Burt Kearns, Author, “SHEMP! The Biography of the Three Stooges’ Shemp Howard”.
Burt Kearns is an award-winning producer, director, writer, journalist and author who is renowned for his work in nonfiction television and film, in TV shows like “Breaking the Ice”, “Legsville Oral History”, “Guinness World Records Unleashed”, “Joe Rogan Questions Everything”, “The Secret History of Rock ‘n’ Roll” with Gene Simmons, “All The Presidents’ Movies”, and many more. He produced the excellent 2001 documentary, “Death of A Beatle”, about the death of John Lennon, and he co-wrote and produced the 2006 movie, “Cloud 9”, starring Burt Reynolds. He’s an Emmy Award winning newswriter, and he served as managing editor and producer of the highly popular TV shows, “A Current Affair” and “Hard Copy”.

But beyond all of that, Burt Kearns is also a highly acclaimed author. He wrote, “Tabloid Baby”, which traces the evolution of the tabloid television genre. He then co-wrote “The Show Won’t Go On: The Most Shocking, Bizarre, and Historic Deaths of Performers Onstage”, followed by “Lawrence Tierney: Hollywood’s Real-Life Tough Guy”.
Last year, he appeared on Harvey Brownstone Interviews to discuss his brilliant bestselling book entitled, “Marlon Brando: Hollywood Rebel”.
And now, he’s back to talk about his brand new book entitled, “Shemp: The Biography of the Three Stooges’ Shemp Howard: The Face of Film Comedy.” The Three Stooges are widely considered to be the greatest, most successful and most influential slapstick comedy group in modern history, and if you’re a fan of The Three Stooges – and who isn’t? – this extremely well-researched book is an absolute must-read, because the author enlightens us on the incredibly impressive – but until now, largely unexplored – life and body of work of the most misunderstood and the most underrated member of The Three Stooges, Shemp Howard, who was actually a highly accomplished, influential and respected comic actor in his own right.
Along with his brother Moe and vaudeville comedian Larry Fine, Shemp was an original member of the Three Stooges, but in 1932 he quit the group to pursue a solo acting career. He appeared in over a hundred movies alongside the biggest Hollywood stars, including W.C. Fields, John Wayne, James Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, William Powell, Lon Chaney Jr., Myrna Loy, and the team of Abbott & Costello. But in 1946, when Curly became too ill to continue working, Shemp gave up a successful film career to help his brothers out by returning to The Three Stooges.
What’s really fascinating and compelling about this book, is that, because of his meticulous research, Burt Kearns challenges and debunks the “official” version of Three Stooges history, largely promoted by Moe, that’s been repeated for decades. The book shatters many myths and uncovers the surprising and often troubling facts behind the scenes surrounding Shemp’s departure from and return to The Three Stooges, and the circumstances surrounding his untimely death. But more than anything, the book confirms Shemp Howard’s well-deserved place in cinematic history.

Harvey Brownstone is a retired judge of the Ontario Court of Justice and was the first openly gay judge in Canada. He is also the bestselling author of “Tug of War: A Judge’s Verdict on Separation, Custody Battles and the Bitter Realities of Family Court” and hosted “Family Matters with Justice Harvey Brownstone,” a television talk show on matters involving the family justice system.
After a distinguished legal career, Harvey was appointed a judge at the age of 38 in 1995. He has presided in family and criminal courts. He has been a trailblazer in several ways. He was the first openly gay judge in Canada. He was the first sitting judge in the world to write a national best seller and to host a TV talk show.
Harvey has been a role model and icon in the LGBTQ community. When same-sex marriage was legalized in Canada in 2003, he was the only judge to make himself publicly available to officiate at weddings for lesbian and gay couples travelling to Toronto from all over the world to get married. In 2007, he officiated at the wedding of Edith Windsor and Thea Spyer, the American couple whose marriage triggered the 2013 United States Supreme Court decision overturning the definition of “spouse” in the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

In February 2021, Harvey launched his online talk show “Harvey Brownstone Interviews” on his own YouTube channel. He saw this as an interesting hobby. Within several months, the show attracted hundreds of thousands – and then eventually, millions – of viewers. Because of the overwhelming success of the show, Harvey decided to retire from the judiciary on December 31, 2021 after having presided as a full-time judge for 26 1/2 years. Free from the constraints imposed upon judges regarding the expression of opinions and the endorsement of private enterprise, Harvey now happily devotes his full-time attention to hosting “Harvey Brownstone Interviews” as a regular member of the public – albeit one with a rather illustrious and unique career history.
Watch Burt Kearns on Harvey Brownstone Interviews on Youtube here:
The official website for Harvey Brownstone Interviews may be found at https://www.harveybrownstoneinterviews.com
Get “The Talk Show Blend” – Coffee For The Modern Day Trailblazer! By Harvey Brownstone from Breakfast At Dominique’s available at https://www.HollywoodBlends.com
For more information about Harvey Brownstone, here’s his Wikipedia page:
-
We Speak Actors1 week ago
‘Elkhorn’ star Travis Lee Eller talks Westerns, character-building, and the art of the perfect hat
-
We Speak Entertainment1 week ago
-
We Speak Entertainment1 week ago
Who Got Next Music Presents: Rhythm & Tech Pre-Lauch Tour
-
We Speak Podcast1 week ago
Kontrax Valentino on Building The Beat Lounge, Image Consulting & Community Empowerment | MTM S2E2