2002: Nippy News Release Articles

'Cheetah Girls' Could Be Developed As TV Series
submitted by: Lisa D.
source: The Toronto Sun
Date: November 26, 2002

This Raven Flies Again
The Littlest Cosby Kid's All Grown Up

By JIM SLOTEK

Midlife crises come at all ages. The actress formerly known as Raven-Symone had her first one at six when The Cosby Show ended. No big deal.

Now simply known as Raven, she started playing young wiseacre Olivia on the show in 1989 at age three. "I remember people coming up to me on the street and thinking, 'This is what it's like being on TV.' When it ended I had to realize I wouldn't be seeing these people again that I'd spent three years with." Or to put it another way, half her life. "But I did (the Mark Curry sitcom) Hangin' With Mr. Cooper. I wanted to do an album after Cosby, and I did it. I wanted to keep doing TV and singing, so I did a miniseries (Queen) and another album. Then I did movies (The Little Rascals, Dr. Dolittle) and now I have my own show."

More about her show - That's So Raven - later on. As I spoke with the gregarious young Raven at her Toronto makeup chair last week, she had just finished e-mailing her homeschool assignments to her various teachers over the Internet.

Now, between brushes, she was preparing to shoot a scene of The Cheetah Girls, a Disney Channel/Family Channel TV movie based on the books by Deborah Gregory about four teenage girls in Manhattan - Galleria, Chanel, Dorinda and Aqua - who dream of stardom in the music world. Disney execs have already dubbed the movie - which is co-exec-produced by Whitney Houston - "urban Clueless."

The irony is that two of the real-life actresses, Adrienne Bailon (Chanel) and Kiely Williams (Aqua), have already attained such stardom as members of the platinum-selling teen pop/hip-hop group 3LW.

So Raven, Baillon, Williams and Sabrina Bryan (Dorinda), haven't spent a lot of time dreamily career planning as they've hung out in T.O. offscreen for the past six weeks (obeying all the while her parents' midnight curfew). Nor is that on the agenda when Raven is with her friends back in L.A. "My friends have the same kind of vibe as the Cheetah Girls, in that they're very talented and in the business. But my friends are much more laid-back. We just get together, watch TV or go shopping. We're like 'Let's not talk business today. Let's just chill.'"

Filming wrapped on the weekend with a huge dance scene on Temperance Street involving hundreds of extras.

So it's back to her other group of best friends. She has them on every set, including her upcoming sitcom That's So Raven. It debuts on the Family Channel in the spring.

"It's about a girl named Raven Baxter who has visions; she can see the future for, like, five seconds at a time. But they don't give her every single detail and she sometimes interprets them the wrong way.

"Her best friends and family know about her, but she doesn't want anyone else to know 'cause she's afraid they'll treat her like a freak. Her friends are human, though, and sometimes they slip up."

Exec-producer Debra Martin Chase says the only reservation she had about Raven is that The Cheetah Girls may become a series, and Raven already has her own. Whether she could handle two series is a question, but the actress's current priority is the series with her name on it. "I hope That's So Raven lasts a long time. Maybe three seasons," she says, maybe unaware that three years isn't as long as it used to be.

"The thing is, I love doing it. It's not a job for me," she says, as the final touches are put on her face. "I get to be pretty every morning - look!" she adds, pointing to the mirror cheerfully.