raverjennee
10-28-2005, 05:17 PM
10.28.05 CNN.com
LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- The distributor of rap star 50 Cent's upcoming film said Thursday it was taking down some movie billboards near Los Angeles-area schools after community leaders complained they glorify gangs and violence.
Posters for "Get Rich or Die Tryin' " show the chart-topping gangsta rapper stripped to the waist in a crucifixion-like pose with his tattooed, bullet-scarred back to the camera and arms outstretched, holding a microphone in one hand and a gun in the other.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich sent a letter to distributor Paramount Pictures urging the billboards be yanked, starting with one outside a public school in Altadena, a suburb north of Los Angeles.
"This billboard conveys to the students a disturbing message actively promoting gun violence, criminal behavior and gang affiliation, he wrote in the letter to Paramount Motion Pictures Group Chairman Brad Grey.
Antonovich said the billboard outside the school for sixth through 12th graders was particularly egregious because the community had recently mounted an anti-gang campaign.
Activists in the south-central L.A. neighborhood of Hyde Park, another community plagued by gang violence, staged a rally Tuesday calling on Paramount to remove a billboard next to a preschool. The sign was taken down the next day.
A spokesman for Paramount, a unit of Viacom Inc., told Reuters that additional billboards were being pulled Thursday.
The R-rated film, whose title is taken from 50 Cent's major-label debut album, is due to open November 9. It stars the rap artist, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, in a biographical story about a drug dealer who abandons crime and violence to pursue a music career.
LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- The distributor of rap star 50 Cent's upcoming film said Thursday it was taking down some movie billboards near Los Angeles-area schools after community leaders complained they glorify gangs and violence.
Posters for "Get Rich or Die Tryin' " show the chart-topping gangsta rapper stripped to the waist in a crucifixion-like pose with his tattooed, bullet-scarred back to the camera and arms outstretched, holding a microphone in one hand and a gun in the other.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich sent a letter to distributor Paramount Pictures urging the billboards be yanked, starting with one outside a public school in Altadena, a suburb north of Los Angeles.
"This billboard conveys to the students a disturbing message actively promoting gun violence, criminal behavior and gang affiliation, he wrote in the letter to Paramount Motion Pictures Group Chairman Brad Grey.
Antonovich said the billboard outside the school for sixth through 12th graders was particularly egregious because the community had recently mounted an anti-gang campaign.
Activists in the south-central L.A. neighborhood of Hyde Park, another community plagued by gang violence, staged a rally Tuesday calling on Paramount to remove a billboard next to a preschool. The sign was taken down the next day.
A spokesman for Paramount, a unit of Viacom Inc., told Reuters that additional billboards were being pulled Thursday.
The R-rated film, whose title is taken from 50 Cent's major-label debut album, is due to open November 9. It stars the rap artist, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, in a biographical story about a drug dealer who abandons crime and violence to pursue a music career.