TBS giveth, and they taketh away. I already posted the press release announcing Tyler Perry’s new show For Better or Worse, but the same release also announced the cancellation of House of Payne.

via press release:

TBS Orders Tyler Perry’s For Better or Worse Dramedy Based on Perry’s Hit Why Did I Get Married? Films
Debmar Mercury to Sell Syndication Rights

TBS has ordered 10 episodes of the new series Tyler Perry’s For Better or Worse from Tyler Perry Studios. The dramedy, based on Perry’s hit Why Did I Get Married? films, marks the third Tyler Perry series to come to TBS, which is also home to Tyler Perry’s House of Payne and Meet the Browns. As with House of Payne and Meet the Browns, syndication will be sold by Debmar Mercury.
Tyler Perry’s For Better or Worse follows the ups-and-downs of married life for Marcus and Angela, two characters who originated in the feature films Why Did I Get Married and Why Did I Get Married Too? Michael Jai White (The Dark Knight) and Tasha Smith (Couples Retreat) are set to reprise the roles of television anchor Marcus and salon owner Angela. Additional cast members to be announced.

For Better or Worse marks a new direction for Tyler Perry’s television properties. Unlike his family-oriented sitcoms, For Better or Worse will target young adults. Production on the series is slated to begin this summer at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta.

“Tyler Perry’s series have been tremendously successful for TBS, helping establish the network as a prime destination for African-American viewers,” said Michael Wright, executive vice president, head of programming, for TBS, TNT and Turner Classic Movies (TCM). “Given such a remarkable track record, we’re excited for the opportunity to expand our relationship with Tyler Perry and Debmar-Mercury with the new series For Better or Worse.”

For Better or Worse comes just as Tyler Perry’s history-making House of Payne prepares to end its highly successful run. “Even though it will be sad to say goodbye to House of Payne, I’m really looking forward to exploring new territory with For Better or Worse,” said Tyler Perry. “Working on House of Payne taught me a lot about what it takes to make a successful television series and I’m looking forward to applying that experience to For Better or Worse.”

Debmar-Mercury Co-Presidents Mort Marcus and Ira Bernstein commented, “The entertainment industry has never seen anyone like Tyler Perry, an extraordinarily talented film/television/stage producer, writer, director, actor and mogul who is capable of repeatedly turning out hit after hit for both TBS and broadcast syndication. We are thrilled to be associated with another of Tyler’s unique, remarkable and groundbreaking series.”

TBS’s association with Perry and Debmar-Mercury first began in May 2006 with the announcement of a House of Payne test-run on 10 local independent stations. After the successful test, TBS and Debmar-Mercury announced an additional 100 episodes of the series to air nationally on TBS. The first-of-its-kind deal marked a new model for the television industry.

The national premiere of Tyler Perry’s House of Payne on TBS in June 2007 drew 5.9 million viewers, at the time basic cable’s biggest sitcom audience ever. The show remained basic cable’s #1 sitcom until TBS’s August 2008 premiere of Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns. For the first quarter of 2011, House of Payne and Meet the Browns ranked among television’s Top 5 primetime sitcoms with African-American adults 18-34 and 18-49.

Tyler Perry is fighting fire with compassion.

The movie mogul, 41, is reaching out to an 88-year-old great-grandmother of seven, who lost everything when her house in Coweta County – just southwest of Atlanta – burned to the ground, reports Atlanta's WSB-TV.

The Atlanta-based filmmaker pledged to rent a house for Rosa Lee Ransby and her 4-year-old great-granddaughter for one year. Perry will also pay the utility bills, buy her furniture and build her a new home on the burned property.

The rental house is just doors down from Ransby's house – her home of 40 years, from which she escaped with her great-granddaughter on Tuesday when it caught on fire.

Coweta County firefighters began collecting donations, and Ransby was in her temporary new home on Thursday, just 48 hours after the fire.

"It's made my Christmas," Coweta Fire Chief Todd Moore says. "I've been doing this a long time – seen a lot of bad things come and go – but this is special."

Here is the first publicity photograph of the cast of Janet's upcoming film For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf.

The shot appears in the September 2010 issue of Essence Magazine.

Note to Mariah Carey: Tyler Perry wants a note from your doctor.

After the singer dropped out of his latest movie, an adaptation of Ntozake Shange's 1975 play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, less than a week before filming was to begin, director Tyler Perry had to cut short his vacation and find a replacement.

"I said, 'What? You're kidding me?,' " Perry writes in a lighthearted new letter to his fans. "It's five days before she has to go to work; nobody does that. We have a deal."

Jetting back to Atlanta where the movie is filming, he selected Thandie Newton to fill Carey's role. (She will join Whoopi Goldberg, Kerry Washington and Janet Jackson in the cast.) Perry also discovered that the singer's doctor was to blame for her sudden departure.

"I was told that we got a call, saying that even though our deal was done, she had been advised by her doctor not to do the film," Perry writes. "I said, 'What? You know I want a doctor's note, don't you? LOL."

As pregnancy rumors surround Carey, her would-be director won't buy into any speculation. "All I know," he writes, "is that I’m waiting just like the rest of the world to find out what happened."

In the end, he doesn't hold Carey's decision against her.

"What I do know of [Carey] is that she is a professional and wouldn't back out of a deal unless it was a major issue," Perry writes. "So, whatever is going on, I wish her and Nick [Cannon] the best and she has all my love, prayers and support."

Jokes Perry: "I just wish I could have finished my Mai Tai before I had to get back and re-cast this role!"

In an unprecedented gesture, Tyler Perry has pledged $1 million to the country's oldest and largest civil rights organization, The NAACP.

"I feel so honored and blessed to be in a position where I can give," said Perry. "Had it not been for the perseverance and vision of the thousands who came before me in the 100 years of this legendary organization, I would not be in the position I am in today."

The millionaire and creative force behind the Madea film franchise and plays, as well as executive producer of this season's likely Oscar contender, Precious, represents the mission of the NAACP at work, says Chairman Julian Bond.

"Tyler is a courageous pioneer in bringing positive images of African American culture and struggles to the screen. His remarkable journey from poverty and childhood abuse to become one of the world’s most successful filmmakers and entrepreneurs is an inspiration to us all," Bond said.

The gift, which will be distributed over the next four years, will support advocacy programs on economic equality education, health care and criminal justice.

Adds Maxim Thorne, SVP of the NAACP, "Tyler Perry is setting a high standard for others to follow."

Alicia Keys, Iman, and Padma Lakshmi co-hosted Keep a Child Alive’s 6th Annual Black Ball at Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City on Thursday (Oct. 15). Guests including Usher, Halle Berry, Nick Cannon, Mary J. Blige, Robin Thicke, Estelle, and Queen Latifah were there to honor former President Bill Clinton, Sir Richard Branson, and African Ambassador Youssou N’Dour for their humanitarian work. Keys performed her own set and dueted with John Mayer on “Ain’t No Sunshine.”

There's nothing funny about Tyler Perry's latest work: a revealing account of the horrific abuse he suffered as a child.

"I always thought I would die before I grew up," the comedian writes in an uncharacteristically somber letter to fans on his Web site.

After watching a screening of the lauded movie Precious, which he executive produced with Oprah Winfrey, about a 16-year-old girl who is physically and emotionally abused, the New Orleans native, 40, best known for his comic Madea character, reveals a flood of memories came back, and that "a large part of my childhood had just played out before my eyes."

Beginning with his mother's failed attempt to leave his abusive father, Perry recounts a horrific list of beatings and hardships he suffered.

"My father came home, mad at the world," he writes. "He was drunk, as he was most of the time. He got the vacuum cleaner extension cord and trapped me in a room and beat me until the skin was coming off my back."

Perry goes on to relate accounts of being seduced by a friend's mother at age 10, to being molested by another friend's father, to finding out that his own father was molesting a friend. And he tells of how his grandmother made a bizarre attempt to rid him of his allergies.

"She said she was going to kill these germs on me once and for all," he says. "She gave me a bath in ammonia."

But seeing Precious, he said, helped him realize once again that he had survived it all.

"It hit me so hard, I sat there in tears realizing that somehow, by the grace of God, I made it through," writes Perry, who signed on as an executive producer on the film. "My tears were tears of joy, being thankful that I made it."

And the most important lesson of all? Learning to forgive, he says.

"I know that there are a lot of people out there with stories far worse than mine but you, too, can make it. To those of you who have, welcome to life. I celebrate you," he said. "We're all PRECIOUS in His sight."

Check out this "Teaser Trailer" from Tyler Perry's upcoming #1 Box Office hit, (Sure it will be) "I Can Do Bad All By Myself"

The Hollywood Reporter states that Mary J. Blige will make her big-screen debut in Tyler Perry's 'I Can Do Bad All By Myself'.'

The cast already includes Taraji P. Henson, Gladys Knight, Brian J. White and Marvin Winans. The film is about an alcoholic jazz singer forced to take care of her deceased sister's three children. Blige will play a nightclub manager and singer who is good friends with Taraji P. Henson's character.

Didntinviteme has learned that Gladys Knight will join Taraji P. Henson in Tyler Perry's 'I Can Do Bad All By Myself.'

Also added to the film are Brian J. White and Marvin Winans. The film is about an alcoholic jazz singer forced to take care of her deceased sister's three children. Knight will play a church secretary, and White plays Henson's boyfriend. Winans will play a pastor in the film.

Taraji P. Henson, who was nominated for an Oscar for her role in 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,' is starring in the film, which is based on Perry's play of the same name. Variety states that the project will begin shooting March 16 at Perry's newly opened studio complex in Atlanta.

'Bad,' which features Perry's Madea character, is set for release Sept. 11.



Knight hasn't been seen on the big screen since she had a small role in 'Hollywood Homicide' opposite Harrison Ford back in 2003. She has guest starred on several television series, with roles on 'A Different World' and 'Living Single.'

This is White's second stint in a Tyler Perry film. He had an uncredited role in 'Daddy's Little Girls' back in 2007. He will be seen in two upcoming films: '12 Rounds,' with John Cena, and 'Fighting,' with Terrence Howard.

Winans is a Grammy Award-winning gospel singer who hails from Detroit.

'Why Did I Get Married Too?' a sequel to 2007's 'Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married?' has been set for release on April 2, 2010. The first pic, based on Perry's stage play, grossed $55 million domestically.

Perry's current film, 'Madea Goes to Jail,' landed in second place this past weekend with $8.8 million and has a total gross of $76.2 million.

Just when Disney thought the Jonas Brothers' concert film would do as well as the one Miley Cyrus did a year ago, its hopes were dashed by the ever present Madea. Tyler Perry's 'Madea Goes To Jail,' which also stars Derek Luke and Keshia Knight Pulliam, sustained its position atop the box office with an estimated $16.5 million. Its total take now stands at $64.9 million, making it the biggest Perry movie yet, surpassing 'Madea's Family Reunion,' which took in $63.3 million total when it came out in 2006.

Coming in second place with a disappointing $12.7 million was 'Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience.' A year ago, Disney scored well with 'Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour.' That film brought in an astonishing $31 million from just 683 theaters. The Jonas film was played in twice as many theaters but failed to bring in the same numbers.

Capitalizing on its Oscar win for best picture, 'Slumdog Millionaire' ranked third, with an estimated $12.2 million. The Fox Searchlight film has grossed $115.1 million since its release in November. Crossing the $100 million mark with the $9 million it brought in this weekend was the fourth-place film 'Taken.' The Liam Neeson film has a total cume of $107 million. Rounding out the top five was the romantic comedy 'He's Just Not That Into You,' with $5.8 million. The film, which stars Drew Barrymore, Ben Affleck and Justin Long, has a total take of $78.5 at the box office.

Tyler Perry can soon add yet another feat to his list of accomplishments: island owner!

When the movie mogul turns the big 4-0 this September, he plans to join the ranks of David Copperfield and Mel Gibson with the purchase of the ultimate getaway.

"I'm a loner by nature, so when I'm out there on these islands, I just feel like the only person in the world," says Perry, whose latest film, Madea Goes to Jail, grossed a whopping $41 million its opening weekend.

After recently spending a week vacationing on a private island in the Great Exumas in the Bahamas, he admits it's not all relaxation: "Renting an island is the best place for me to work uninterrupted."

What will he call his own private isle? "It won't be Tyler Perry's Island!" he laughs. "I'm so sick of seeing Tyler Perry all over everywhere!"

Instead, he'll wait until he's inspired by the exotic locale, which he hasn't quite decided on yet. "It'll speak to me," he says. "I'll know what to call it once I'm there."

But he will put one rule into full effect: "There will be no paparazzi on my island!" he declares.