Eddie Murphy

Wanda Sapp often visited movie sets to watch her daughter perform stunts. She never dreamed she'd watch her daughter die. Sapp and two of her other children were present in November, when Sonja Davis fell to her death while working as a stunt double on the upcoming Eddie Murphy film "Vampire in Brooklyn." The family is suing Paramount Studios and Eddie Murphy Productions for $10 million, alleging that the film crew failed to provide proper safety equipment.

"Whoopi Goldberg Presents Moms Mabley," in which the former directs a film about the latter, premieres Monday on HBO. It is an homage and a celebration, with something of a high-class homemade feel. The first black female comic to make it in the American pop-cultural mainstream - the first black female stand-up comic, possibly - Jackie "Moms" Mabley will be unknown to many today. She died in 1975, after a career that began before the First World War but was visible only to the white audience from the 1960s, when she began appearing on network variety and talk shows.

Forbes has released its annual list of Hollywood's most overpaid actors. Topping the list is Eddie Murphy. Murphy's career seemed headed for a rebound with a 2007 best supporting actor Oscar nomination for "Dreamgirls" and an announcement that he would host the upcoming Academy Awards ceremony. But he dropped out of the hosting gig after producer Brett Ratner left, and his three most recent films have disappointed at the box office. If you take out Murphy's voice role in the latest "Shrek" movie, "Shrek Forever After," the worldwide gross of Murphy's last three live-action films -- "Imagine That," "Tower Heist" and "A Thousand Words" -- is a combined domestic box office total of $196.3 million.

"Reckless," a legal drama set in Charleston, S.C., has been picked by CBS for next season. The series, which stars Cam Gigandet and Anna Wood, revolves around a "gorgeous" Yankee litigator and a Southern city attorney who struggle to hide their mutual attraction while clashing over a police sex scandal. The show comes from Ian Sanders and Kim Moses, the creative force behind "Ghost Whisperer. " Catherine Hardwicke, director of several features including "Twilight," is an executive producer, and directed the pilot.

He's a world-famous funnyman who commands $20 million a movie. So what does Eddie Murphy get you at the multiplex? In the case of his new PG-rated comedy "Imagine That," some prepubescent girls -- and not too much else. The year has been brutal for any number of prominent movie stars, as new works from Russell Crowe ("State of Play"), Julia Roberts ("Duplicity"), Will Ferrell ("Land of the Lost") and Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx ("The Soloist") struggled to sell tickets.

It must have taken a lot of imagination for the makers of "Imagine That" to believe there was actually a full-fledged movie behind its limited, decidedly low-tech concept. No matter, the shiny, family-friendly trifle that was cobbled together by writers Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson ("Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure") and director Karey Kirkpatrick ("Over the Hedge") proves funny and charming, at least until the "is-that-all-there-is?" of it kicks in.

The seesaw career of Eddie Murphy continues. Just when he was trying to live down the box-office bomb "Holy Man," Murphy has rebounded in a big way in the prison comedy "Life," which co-stars comedian Martin Lawrence. The Universal Studios release took in $20.4 million over the weekend to become the biggest April opener ever. In recent years, Murphy has gone from hit to dud to hit in amazing fashion. It began with "The Nutty Professor," which was a runaway success.

Comedian Eddie Murphy brings his "Pieces of My Mind" act to the Pacific Amphitheatre tonight at 7:30. Murphy, who found fame as a regular cast member of television's "Saturday Night Live" and went on to movie stardom in such films as "Trading Places" and "Beverly Hills Cop," will stick to comedy in tonight's show despite last year's successful foray into pop music. His album, "How Could It Be," spawned a top-5 single, "Party All the Time."

Nobody can out-nerd Jerry Lewis, Eddie Murphy figured, so he came up with his own take on the remake of Lewis' 1963 classic, "The Nutty Professor," which Imagine Films will produce for Universal Pictures later this year. In the original slapstick comedy, which Lewis wrote, directed and produced as well as starred in, the actor played a goofy, bucktoothed professor who transforms into a swaggering lady killer named Buddy Love after gulping down a magic potion.

Eddie Murphy and Judge Reinhold will be reuniting as Axel Foley and Billy Rosewood in the pilot for the possible CBS series "Beverly Hills Cop. " According to a report on The Wrap , Reinhold has signed on to do a cameo in the pilot alongside his old big-screen partner Murphy, who is also an executive producer on the series. But don't expect the series to be all about these two '80s action movie icons. The series, written by "The Shield's" Sean Ryan, is a continuation of the three movies but will focus on Foley's son, played by Brandon T. Jackson.

Eddie Murphy and Judge Reinhold will be reuniting as Axel Foley and Billy Rosewood in the pilot for the possible CBS series "Beverly Hills Cop. " According to a report on The Wrap , Reinhold has signed on to do a cameo in the pilot alongside his old big-screen partner Murphy, who is also an executive producer on the series. But don't expect the series to be all about these two '80s action movie icons. The series, written by "The Shield's" Sean Ryan, is a continuation of the three movies but will focus on Foley's son, played by Brandon T. Jackson.

Forbes has released its annual list of Hollywood's most overpaid actors. Topping the list is Eddie Murphy. Murphy's career seemed headed for a rebound with a 2007 best supporting actor Oscar nomination for "Dreamgirls" and an announcement that he would host the upcoming Academy Awards ceremony. But he dropped out of the hosting gig after producer Brett Ratner left, and his three most recent films have disappointed at the box office. If you take out Murphy's voice role in the latest "Shrek" movie, "Shrek Forever After," the worldwide gross of Murphy's last three live-action films -- "Imagine That," "Tower Heist" and "A Thousand Words" -- is a combined domestic box office total of $196.3 million.

Click here to download TV listings for the week Nov. 4 - 10 in PDF format This week's TV Movies     SERIES Arrow:  After an off-duty police officer is seriously wounded during a bank heist, Diggle (David Ramsey) tells Oliver (Stephen Amell) it's time to think beyond his father's list and help the citizenry at large in this new episode (8 p.m. KTLA). The Middle:  Frankie (Patricia Heaton) invites a couple of Marines (William Franco Vasquez and Nick Jonas Jr.)

Tom Sherak never would have been elected president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences if it weren't for the late Frank Pierson and a verbal spat that almost turned physical. It was early 2009, and Pierson and Sherak were at loggerheads at a Board of Governors meeting over a financing issue. The talk was getting contentious, so much so that Sherak said he thought the octogenarian screenwriter "could have beaten the crap out of me. " Then-academy President Sid Ganis threw the discussion to committee to avoid more arguing.

The problem with Eddie Murphy? It is not a problem of talent or fearlessness. He has plenty of both. But in "A Thousand Words," shot in 2008 and now available for your viewing displeasure, he's a first-rate talent stuck in yet another third-rate piece of bleccch, written by Steve Koren, who shoveled us the Adam Sandler leavings "Click" and "Jack and Jill," and directed by frequent Murphy collaborator Brian Robbins, whose résumé includes "Norbit" and...

At the height of Eddie Murphy's popularity, millions of Americans flocked to his hit films like "Beverly Hills Cop" and "Coming to America. " Paramount Pictures executives are crossing their fingers that even a fraction of that interest surfaces for the actor's "A Thousand Words," a comedy that arrives in theaters this weekend nearly four years after it was made and seemingly a lifetime removed from Murphy's 1980s heyday. Going out with minimal publicity support from the star, the DreamWorks production has generated tepid interest in pre-release surveys, and analysts expect an opening weekend box office of less than $10 million.

Eddie Murphy, who quickly catapulted from late-night TV comedian to megabuck movie star, has signed a three-year deal to produce and star in shows for CBS, the network said Monday. The CBS agreement calls for Murphy's Los Angeles-based production company to make a half-hour comedy series, pilots for other series and three annual specials. Neither CBS nor a spokeswoman for the performer could offer details on specific projects or on when the programs might air.

Eddie Murphy is buying Cher's Egyptian-style retreat for an undisclosed sum, but you can bet it's plenty! The asking price was $6.4 million. Cher had the big (12,000- to 15,000-square-foot), contemporary house with Egyptian decor built in the Beverly Hills area about 10 years ago. Situated on slightly more than 4 acres, it has massive gates, a curved, stone driveway; six bedrooms, six baths; a gym, and an atrium with an electronically movable skylight. Just push a button, and the glass opens.

Eddie Murphy may soon star in a more serious role, playing former Washington Mayor Marion Barry in an HBO film. An HBO spokeswoman said Friday that the network is working with Spike Lee and Murphy on the project, though she said it's in the early stages of development. Lee would direct the movie, and Murphy would play Barry, who, during his third term as mayor, was videotaped smoking crack cocaine in a hotel room during an FBI sting operation. He eventually served six months in federal prison on a misdemeanor drug possession conviction and was elected again to the D.C. Council in 1992.

Billy Crystal stepped in Thursday to host the 2012 Academy Awards, replacing Eddie Murphy who bowed out after producer Brett Ratner left the show under a cloud of controversy. Word of Crystal's appointment came just 90 minutes after telecast producers Brian Grazer -- who replaced Ratner on Wednesday -- and Don Mischer said in an interview they had not settled on a host and were mulling five candidates. "Am doing the Oscars so the young woman in the pharmacy will stop asking my name when I pick up my prescriptions.