Breaking: In West Philadelphia, Born And Raised

Oh, Will Smith’s from Philadelphia. Hey, did youse know Boyz II Men are from here, too?

Celebrities from Philadelphia [NBC 10]

And They Say You Never Learn Anything From TV

Buried deep in an article about Boys’ Latin of Philadelphia Charter School — the first all-boys charter school in the state — is this factoid about how at least one boy is preparing about going to a school with same-sex education.

[Jesse] Oyola said he knew about boys’ schools from seeing reruns of the TV show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, in which Will Smith’s character attended a boys’ school. He added: “But I never would have believed that I would go to a high school with all boys.”

Oyola will be happy to know Boys’ Latin will feature only a classroom and a hallway and plentiful breaking of the fourth wall. Also, Alfonso Ribeiro is a substitute teacher.

Pupils eager to excel at single-sex charter [Inquirer]

Leftovers: Clever Police Fool Idiot

• Police managed to capture two suspects wanted for murder — their ages, of course, are 15 and 19 — after the two stole cell phones. The cops called the suspects on the stolen phones, set up a meet to buy the phones back for $100 and — presto! — two murder suspects captured. Excellent. [Inquirer]

• Will Smith’s annoyingly-spelled The Pursuit of Happyness took first place in the box office over the weekend, taking in $27 million in sales. $27 million, incidentally, is what Smith should be fined for making that crime against humanity, Wild Wild West. [AP/Yahoo!]

• PATCO train passengers were forced out onto a catwalk on the Ben Franklin Bridge this morning after smoke was seen coming from the first car. Unfortunately, the bridge was closed to walkers (as it usually is), so the passengers had to hold on to the side of the bridge instead. [AP/Metro]

• And, finally, a puppy for Monday. [Daily Puppy]

Incidentally, ‘West’ Is Salma Hayek’s Best Movie

Alfonso Ribeiro — best known for playing Carlton on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air — recently attended a New York party thrown in honor of Will Smith. New York magazine interviewed Riberio and asked him what part of Will Smith’s career was easiest to make fun of.

Now, remember, the last thing of note Riberio really did was this instructional DVD that came with a washing machine. (I swear to God. My friend got it.) But how does he reply?

“Well, there was Wild Wild West. That’s really all we can ever really make fun of.”

That’s pretty bad, but I’m fairly sure these lyrics to “Freakin’ It” are much, much worse: “I read in Rap Pages they refer to me as soft/ Yeah, more like Microsoft… As soon as it drop watch the phones blow up!/ BOOM then ship a mill/ Quick to the store/What, sold out?/When y’all gettin more?”

Party Lines [NY Mag via Gawker]
Wild Wild West [IMDb]

Will Smith Inspires Philadelphia Population To Turn Guns On Alien Invaders, Robots, Kevin Kline

While this week’s Northeast TImes editorial attracts most of the attention, the letters to the editor pages are, as usual, a ball of fun as well.

Take, for example, this letter by John J. Furlong of Trevose:

I’d like to know when black people are going to start to understand when they are being exploited.

I had to laugh out loud when I saw the news about Will Smith coming to Philadelphia to protest violence.
The creep made millions promoting violence. Seems like only yesterday that I had to follow SEPTA buses around the city with life-sized posters of Smith with two assault type guns promoting one of his very low IQ and excessively violent movies.

Even the comedy show where he arrives in California shows the reason to be a pack of goons giving him a beating in Philadelphia. It’s the mainstream of black comedy and movies. Gotta get something in about how tough the hood is; or reference a drive-by shooting in some way; or glorify the drug dealer.

Wake up and smell the gunpowder, folks. Why didn’t you invite another one of your heroes, O.J. Simpson, to be the keynote speaker? Smith, the hypocrite, should have been laughed out of town.

Look, just because a few guys who were up to no good started makin’ trouble in Will Smith’s neighborhood — and he got in one little fight and his mom got scared — doesn’t mean you have to go be an asshole to him or anything, John.

Making a rap against Will Smith [Northeast Times]
Related: The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Theme [YouTube]
Yesterday: ‘Northeast Times’: Blame Gays For Philly’s Problems

Fresh Prince gets into couch-jumping act

Although it’s been a while since Tom Cruise’s couch-jumping escapades, Will Smith — Philadelphia’s favorite rapper/actor/entrepreneur — has picked up the idea and run with it:

Later, he accused Matt Lauer of being “glib.”

Will Smith Pulls A Tom Cruise [PopSugar]