Halle Berry, Aretha? I think not. Jennifer Hudson could kill this performance, expect for when Aretha catches the spirit toward the end. I question J-Hud's dancing chops after Dreamgirls, although I admit it is probably hard to dance next to Beyonce and a Broadway star.

No, really. She does.

And a movie?
For television. My autobiography, From These Roots. Hopefully it will happen early spring. I have verbal commitments from Billy Dee [Williams] to play my father, and Terrence Howard to play Smokey Robinson.

Who'll play you?
I'm not sure yet. Jennifer Hudson came to read for me. I also have an interest in Halle Berry possibly doing it. And Fantasia.

I mean no disR-E-S-P-E-C-T, but Halle Berry is pregnant and less than physically or vocally suited for Aretha's movie needs. Team J-Hud. On the less critical end, I can honestly think of no one who would be a better Smokey Robinson than the toilet paper bandit.

[People]

• In another crushing blow to Michael Vick, a South Carolina inmate is suing the football star for "$63,000,000,000 billion dollars" for stealing his pit bulls and selling them on ebay to buy weapons in Iran. [Fox]

• Aretha Franklin, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Carol Moseley Braun and other barrier-breaking black women will come together to honor tennis legend Althea Gibson on the opening night of the U.S. Open. [IHT]

• Authorities deny that an arrest of two Detroit-area college-bound black teens for the murder of a white woman they have no connection with was based on race. [Mlive]

• The Florida congressman who blamed a same-sex prostitution bust on being afraid of the black guy he was soliciting, now has to backtrack and apologize to the local NAACP. What a tangled web anti-gay Republican politicians who are actually gay themselves and kind of racist too weave! [FT]

• Never go to a concert without your video phone. You could be missing out on YouTube gold. [NYT]