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On Sunday, February 9, 2003, the NBA and the Atlanta Hawks climaxed All-Star Week by bidding Michael Jordan, the most prolific basketball player ever, a fond adieu. No longer an afternoon affair for lovers of basketball, now it is a prime time “event” for lovers of the “game.” Chosen for its famous southern hospitality and historical significance, according to Commissioner David Stern, “Atlanta is an ideal host city for us to celebrate today’s greatest players while we honor the NBA’s storied past.” Fans worldwide converged on the Mecca.
Dazing the world with giants like Yao Ming, Shaquille O’Neal, Kevin Garnett, Jermaine O’Neal and Ben Wallace on court, while blowing up ten spots like Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Shoops and Tina Thompson in the stands, the biggest story this weekend was a tiny gamer named Jamia Simone Nash. On Saturday before the Rookie Challenge and Rising Stars Slam-Dunk Contest, she stole the show singing the national anthem.
In the spotlight at Philips Arena before two sold-out crowds, Jamia’s tiny statue awed the frenzied throng into silence. Barely three feet high and little more than a dot from the upper levels of this cavernous structure, instantly she tugged the crowds’ heartstrings in anticipation of the fledgling’s fall. Then, like a soft bell’s chimes, Jamia’s voice rang clearly and sonorously, filling the arena with such volume it was as though you were standing next to the tiny soloist. Amazed that such a powerful sound with such well enunciated syllables emanated from such a small package, the building erupted in thunderous applause to Jamia’s crescendos. However, the most startling and surprising facts of all are, Jamia at just six years old, sang a cappella.
A six spot, Jamia Simone Nash unseats “Lil’ Bow Wow” as hip-hop’s youngest artist. Upstaging Mariah Carey, the weekend headliner, Jamia overshadowed Miz Alex as the entertainment surprise of the weekend. For those in attendance, Jamia’s performance of the national anthem ranks with those of Jimi Hendrix, Whitney Houston and Marian Anderson. The product of a devoutly religious family, her father says, “Jamia is God’s gift to the world, and we were blessed to be chosen to be a part of God’s plan for Jamia.” Amen!
About Me: The DISH echoes her father’s sentiments. It is an honor to tell the world of such a treasure. Jamia has been singing since the age of 2. An exceptional reader, she loves to sing, dance and act. She has performed on ShowTime at the Apollo, appeared on Tonight with Jay Leno and shared the stage with a host of noted artists. Jamia Simone Nash is a rare talent. For more about this little songbird, log onto the World Wide Web; the keywords are Jamia Simone Nash.
Jonnetta, Ife, Lorenzo and I sat in the center of the stadium with the sound and light crew when the show was about to start. Usher’s 19-year-old brother James and the little girl Parker McKenna Posey from the hit TV show “My Wife and Kids” sat with us. Parker was there because her dad is the drum tech for Usher.
James couldn’t walk through the stadium without causing chaos, partly because he resembles Usher, partly because he appears at the end of Usher’s shows playing keyboards and is becoming a heartthrob in his own right. James’s album will be out next year. Between James and little Parker, it was pandemonium to the end, when James was escorted to the stage.
During his concert, Usher pulled some girl up on the stage. We saw her after the show sitting backstage. Jonnetta and I were like, “uh-uh.” She was a cutie, though…about 22 years old, drop dead gorgeous and a hugely demonstrative, crazy-for-Usher-acting fan.
Baby Parker, who is only 9 years old, sat next to me and was screaming and begging for Usher to pick her to come up on stage. I hollered, “What”! Oh no not you, you pint-sized 9-year-old!? And while Usher was practically making love to the girl on stage, Parker leaned back and covered her eyes because she just couldn’t stand seeing her Usher with another. These kids are seeing too much too soon.
After the concert, Parker’s dad came to pick her up and tried to get her out of the stadium while the lights were still down. I told him he had to pay me for babysitting her. She had accidentally swallowed three sticks of my gum as she screamed and sang along with Usher. Freaked me out!
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Parker McKenna Posey is a spunky 8-year-old actress who is best known for her role on the hit TV series My Wife and Kids. Posey plays Kady Kyle, a spirited young girl with lots of attitude. TFK Kid Reporter Harsha Viswanathan talked with Parker about acting, her love of animals and being a kid.
TFK: How did you end up on the set of My Wife and Kids?
Parker: I went for an audition when I was four. They asked me to read the lines. Tisha, the mom on the show, said, ‘You better get this girl in,’ because I had just asked her, ‘Do you want a piece of candy?’
TFK Kid Reporter Harsha gets cozy with Parker McKenna Posey >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
TFK: So far, you’ve acted in comedy and drama roles, like on NYPD Blue. Which do you prefer?
Parker: I like comedy because I like to make people smile.
TFK: How do you balance acting and school, not to mention fun?
Parker: I have to come here in the morning and get ready for rehearsal stuff. When we’re not shooting, I come up to my dressing room. Then I do some school work until they call me down and I do my thing on set. When I’m done, I call my friends.
TFK: What’s your favorite subject?
Parker: Art. I like to draw ballerinas and make sculptures.
TFK: What do you want to become when you grow up?
Parker: I want be an actress, but I want to be a veterinarian, paleontologist, astronaut – do some science stuff. I’m interested in the whole entire world with animals and everything.
TFK: What’s your favorite part about being famous?
Parker: Meeting stars!
TFK: If you could be anyone for a day, who would you choose to ‘switch lives’ with?
Parker: Mariah Carey! She is so pretty! Or maybe Avril Lavigne because she plays the guitar.
TFK: What are some of your hobbies?
Parker: I like to go swimming and go to the movies with my friends. I’m very good with colors – I like to draw and do art. I like to design and decorate.
TFK: I hear you love Lisa Frank merchandise! If you could be an animal, which would it be and why?
Parker: A dog! Probably a Teacup Yorkie, like my dog. Or maybe a mermaid or a unicorn even though they’re not real.
TFK: Do you still have a zoo of pets at home?
Parker: No, I just have three now. I used to have a whole BUNCH of things in my house before! I had three birds, lots of fish, four rats, four hamsters, two cats, and a bunch of bugs, because I used to collect them. Not at the same time, though!
By Harsha Viswanathan
Friday, June 2
ABC adds a touch of Hollywood to its prime-time lineup next season. Gabriel Byrne will star in a new sitcom, as will the long-legged Geena Davis. Andre Braugher returns to TV for a medical drama, and the cigarette-inhaling Denis Leary is set to star in an ABC cop caper.
But one big name has been overlooked amid all the ABC hype:
Parker Posey!
No, not the brown-eyed, big-foreheaded indie film queen, the one starring with Matthew Broderick in the Broadway dud Taller Than a Dwarf. ABC has signed up a different Parker Posey. Parker McKenna Posey.
This Parker P. is four years old, likes potato chips, Will Smith and slasher horror movies.
Parker McKenna Posey–a Hollywood native whose mother is white and father is black–will play Damon Wayans’ daughter in My Wife and Kids, a sitcom scheduled as a midseason replacement for ABC’s fall lineup.
Yes, she’s heard a lot about her given name.
“All the time,” said Ms. Posey’s mother, Heather Stone. “Even before I put her in [show] business, people were like, ‘Parker Posey, isn’t she …?’ And I was like, ‘Yes!’”
But Ms. Stone said her daughter isn’t named after the famous Parker P. She’s named for her father Rodney Lewis Posey’s late great-aunt, still another Parker Posey.
Ms. Stone said that she was five months pregnant when she learned there was an actress named Parker Posey. She said she was standing in a grocery store checkout line flipping through a copy of People when she came across a photograph of Ms. Posey. She nearly had a nervous breakdown, she said. “I said, ‘You know, Parker is an odd name for a girl to begin with, but for her to have the exact same name [as someone else] is strange, too.’”
Indeed, while Parker McKenna Posey isn’t the first person to share a name with a famous person, she does share a name more curious than most. The older Parker Posey was named after the 1950’s supermodel Suzy Parker. As the story goes, Ms. Posey was born prematurely and was not expected to live, and her mother, Lynda, wanted her to have a strong name, a fighter’s name. (The older Ms. Posey did not respond to a request to be interviewed.)
Ms. Stone, an actress who has since split from Parker McKenna’s musician father, said that once her daughter started auditioning for commercials and TV, she considered giving her a new name. “And I said, you know, I can’t do Parker McKenna Stone, because her initials would be P.M.S.,” Ms. Stone said. “And then I didn’t want to do Parker McKenna Stone Posey, because that’s just entirely way too long.”
Ms. Stone settled on Parker McKenna Posey, her daughter’s given middle name. Asked if she ever uses the full name at home, Ms. Stone said: “We do when we get mad.”
Ms. Stone put the young Ms. Posey on the phone. NYTV asked Ms. Posey if she knew there was another actress with that name. “Yeah,” Ms. Posey said, shyly. Has she seen any of her movies? “Yeah,” she said.
How’s the sitcom going so far?
“I colored my picture,” she said. “I played with Tisha [Campbell-Martin, the actress] and Damon. I call him Damie.”
Ms. Posey gave the phone back to her mom, who revealed that these days, Parker McKenna Posey prefers a different name altogether, a nickname:
Mookie.
Tonight, the older Parker Posey, not Mookie, is a guest on a repeat of Late Night with Conan O’Brien. [WNBC, 4, 12:35 a.m.]
On a whim, SHARON and LARRY PALMER took their daughter KEKE to an audition for “Barbershop 2,” where she landed a small part as QUEEN LATIFAH’s niece. That didn’t come as a total shock to her parents, former actors for the Black Ensemble Theater (nice genes!). But Keke, born and raised in Robbins, made such an impression, Mom and Dad decided to pack their bags and drive 2,000 miles to Hollywood, where more auditions awaited the 11-year-old.
Next up, Keke stars with WILLIAM H. MACY in TNT’s “The Wool Cap” (it premieres Sunday). And she’s shooting her own family-oriented show for the Disney Channel, tentatively titled “Keke and Jamal.” In January, she’s slated to shoot a movie with LAURENCE FISHBURNE.
“Everybody is telling us that things are happening so fast for her,” Sharon Palmer, a Chicago-area teacher, told Armour & Co. “It’s like a dream. My husband and I haven’t really talked about it yet. We just get up and say, `OK, where are we taking her today?’”
Keke appears to be handling the attention quite well. “I’m just happy that my parents are helping me through this,” she told us. “They’re here with me, my sister is here with me. I’m just happy everything is working out.”
