Whoopi Goldberg

Comic Relief: The Greatest... and the Latest features a number of performances by some of the most talented comics of their day performing for a charity that collects money for the homeless. Among the performers who appear on this release are Sarah Silverman, Lewis Black, Jon Stewart, and David Cross. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Based on the groundbreaking show Meerkat Manor, which followed the lives of a family of Meerkats living in the Kalahari desert, this film pays tribute to Flower, the matriarch of the family on the series. Just as on the show, the movie combines traditional nature footage with dramatic narration, telling Flower's story from her birth, up until the time of her tragically early death. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide

Donald Faison, Jamie-Lynn DiScala, Joey Fatone, and Whoopi Goldberg star in actor-turned-writer/director Mike Cerrone's identity crisis comedy concerning a young black man raised as an Italian-American. Renato may be black, but don't tell him that. Ever since he was just a young boy Renato was raised by Italian-Americans, and now that he's a grown man he refuses to even consider that he might be anything else. All of that quickly changes, however, when Renato's birth parents show up one day in an attempt to make good on the misdeeds of their past. When Renato realizes that he has been black all along, he rejects his Italian family, breaks-up with his Jewish girlfriend, and makes a concerted effort to connect with his true origins. But as Renato is about to realize, he will never truly become the man he was born to be if he isn't comfortable in his own skin. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

"A family walks into a talent agent's office..." So begins "The Aristocrats," a joke kept mostly secret by stand-up comedians for decades. An intentionally "bad" joke, the laughs in The Aristocrats aren't in the punch-line (one of the only elements that's the same every time), but in the set-up, made unique by each comedian who tells it in an attempt to fashion the world's dirtiest joke. The cat was finally let out of the bag by Penn Jillette and Paul Provenza, the seasoned funnymen who gathered together a hundred people to tell a hundred different renditions of the bit. Among those presenting their personal take on The Aristocrats in this film of the same name are Jason Alexander, Robin Williams, Gilbert Gottfried, Jon Stewart, Emo Philips, and Chris Rock. The Aristocrats premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Ten years after The Lion King shot to the top at the box office and first introduced the characters of Simba (Matthew Broderick) and his pals Timon (Nathan Lane) and Pumbaa (Ernie Sabella), Disney presented this retelling of the Academy Award-winning animated musical. Switching the perspective to that of meerkat Timon and warthog Pumbaa, The Lion King 1 1/2 puts a new spin on the events of the original film. This time around, the comic duo are conveniently at the center of much of the story. Along with returning cast members Moira Kelly, Whoopi Goldberg, and Cheech Marin, The Simpsons' Julie Kavner and Seinfeld's Jerry Stiller lend their voices to newcomer characters Timon's Mom and Timon's Uncle Max, respectively. The straight-to-video film also features the never-before-heard song "That's All I Need." ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Joining the cast of the Lifetime network doctor series Strong Medicine during its fifth season is Tamera Mowry as Dr. Kayla Thornton, new first-year resident at Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Women's Health Clinic. Though raised in a rural community, Kayla has returned to her home town of Philadelphia to pursue a medical career that was inspired by the tragic death of her brother. The arrival of Kayla proves to be a blessing for the clinic's male nurse Peter (Josh Coxx), who falls in love with the attractive resident--even though his feelings are not entirely reciprocated, at least not at first. Otherwise, Season Five picks up where Season Four left off, as Dr. Lu Delgado (Rose Blasi), one of Rittenhouse's two medical directors, falls in love with Ben Sanderson (Grant Show), the hospital's chief benefactor. Even so, Lu balks when Ben begs her to come with him when he is transferred to Hawaii. Meanwhile, Lu's partner Dr. Andy Campbell (Patricia Richardson) continues having issues with her daughters Jessie (Michelle Horn) and Lizzie (Morgan Flynn) over her divorce from her abusive husband Les. Andy tries to move on with her life by dating Dr. Milo Morton (Richard Biggs), but this proves difficult thanks to the resistance of her ex-husband. Tragically, Milo is slated to be killed by a drunken motorist, which is one of the motivating factors for Andy to consider giving up the clinic and lobbying for the position of State Attorney General (the other is the fact that she is denied the position of clinic chief of staff, a post recently departed by Dr. Paul Santiago [Philip Casanoff]). Meanwhile, Lu has problems of her own, beginning with the likelihood that her son Marc (Chris Marquette) has gotten a girl pregnant.On a more positive note, Lu enters into a relationship with Jonas Ray (Nestor Carbonel), a self-made millionaire from humble Cuban-refugee origins. Guest stars this season include Olympic athlete Keri Strug) and versatile actresses JoBeth Williams, Lynn Whitfield and Charlotte Rae. The series' 100th episode "Cinderella in Scrubs" manages to find roles for the likes of Fran Drescher, Camryn Manheim and Sara Gilbert. And in the 108th episode "First Response", the series' regulars are shunted into the background while the focus is on Nicole Hiltz and Lauren Velez as Kate and Vanessa, dedicated members of Rittenhouse's EMS team, and foster sisters (one white, one black) in the bargain. Can it be that "First Response" was intended as a spinoff for a new series? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The world's most obnoxious celebrity talk-show host demonstrates how he rose to mediocrity in this pungent show business satire. Jiminy Glick (Martin Short) is a corpulent entertainment reporter who is looking to kick his career into high gear. Hoping to snag some celebrity interviews, Jiminy and his wife, Dixie (Jan Hooks), head north of the border to Canada, where Jiminy will attend the Toronto Film Festival. At first, Glick's attempts to ingratiate himself with stars and semi-stars are little short of disastrous, but after the easily star-struck reporter allows egocentric filmmaker Ben DiCarlo (Corey Pearson) to shamelessly self-promote his latest project on air, word gets around that Glick is an "easy interview," and his star begins to rise. However, Jiminy's good fortune is tempered by his unwitting involvement in a murder plot centered around booze-addled actress Miranda Coolidge (Elizabeth Perkins) and her wildly pretentious husband, Andre Devine (John Michael Higgins). Somewhere along the way, filmmaker David Lynch (played by Short) happens along, offering his theories on the controversial murder of Lana Turner's paramour Johnny Stompanato. A large number of Hollywood celebrities make cameo appearances in Jiminy Glick in La La Wood, including Steve Martin, Kevin Kline, Susan Sarandon, Whoopi Goldberg, Forest Whitaker, Kiefer Sutherland, and Sharon Stone. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Directed by Bob Clark, Super Babies: Baby Geniuses 2 follows a new generation of ultra-smart talking toddlers who have landed in the center of a dastardly scheme perpetrated by media mogul Bill Biscane (Jon Voight). With the help of Kahuna (Leo, Myles, and Gerry Fitzgerald); part spy, part superhero, all baby Archie (Michael and Max Iles); Finkleman (Jordan and Jared Scheiderman); Alex (Joshua and Maxwell Lockhart); and Rosita (Keana and Maia Bastidas), the youngsters set off in hopes of preventing Biscane from launching a state-of-the-art satellite system which, if successful, would be capable of worldwide mind control. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

The fourth season of the feminist-oriented doctor series Strong Medicine begins with an immediate followup to the previous season's cliffhanger ending. As the firefighter boyfriend of the Rittenhouse Clinic's director Dr. Lu Delgado (Rose Blasi) hovers between life and death after being shot by one of Lu's patients, Delgado's partner Dr. Andy Campbell (Patricia Richardson) makes the painful decision to separate from her abusive husband Les (Brian Kerwin), enraging her daughters Jessie (Michelle Horn) and Lizzie (Morgan Flynn) in the process. In later episodes, Andy begins a relationship with a Dr. Morton (Richard Biggs), but hesitates to introduce him to her daughters; Lu finds herself in a delicate situation when the man who raped her in Season Two comes back into her life--as a patient in desperate need of emergency heart surgery; the clinic's handsome-hunk male nurse Peter (John Coxx) unexpectedly lodges a protest when a chimpanzee is slated to be used for an experimental transplant procedure. Guest stars this season include Diahann Caroll,Shelly Long and Laila Ali, not to mention Grant Show, who in the season's concluding story arc makes three appearances as Ben Sanderson, a wealthy benefactor to the clinic. Because he is not open and above-board in his dealings, Ben incurs the rath of the combustible Lu. The tension reaches the breaking point in the season finale "Quarantine", in which an epidemic forces Lu and Ben to share some extremely close quarters--with astonishing results. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A black family gets a first-hand look at the trials and tribulations of upward mobility and suburban segregation in this pointed comedy. In 1973, Tom (Danny Glover) is an African-American attorney who is determined to raise himself up by his own bootstraps from his position near the bottom of the totem pole at a law firm. Tom takes on a case no one else is willing to touch -- defending a confessed arsonist whose crime claimed the lives of two teenagers -- and when he manages to score a surprising legal victory for his client, Tom is given a promotion and he moves his family to a new home in the suburbs. However, Tom and his wife Mabel (Whoopi Goldberg) discover they're only the second black household to move into the neighborhood (the first was a woman who struck it rich in the lottery), and housewife Mabel soon learns her neighbors aren't especially open to the notion of ethnic diversity in their community. Good Fences was directed by former cinematographer Ernest Dickerson and produced in part by his frequent collaborator Spike Lee; the film was screened in competition at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide