Legendary Della Reese Makes Rare Appearance to Support “The Bible”
It’s not like “The Bible” needs support. But if it’s going to get some Della Reese would be the logical choice. Della, who’ll b3 82 this July, and husband Franklin flew in from LA yesterday to help friends Roma Downey and Mark Burnett with their promotion for the hit mega series “The Bible.” Right now you can see a free installation at 450 West 14th St. for “The Bible” that includes a rare Torah, artifacts from the Dead Sea Scrolls, a page from the Gutenberg bible, and rare objects from the dawn of time. Many of the 40,000 objects come from the Vatican’s Green collection and are never in the US.
It’s very a cool exhibit. Della and Roma, of course, co-starred on TV’s “Touched by an Angel,” and have remained BFFs forever. Burnett, aka Mr. Downey, only produces “Survivor,” “The Voice,” and everything else on TV. He has the Midas touch. “The Bible” is bigger than anyone would have guessed, making the History Channel into a destination. Lots of celebs showed up to take it all in including Joey Pantoliano and his wife Nancy, Carol Alt, Arianna Huffington, and the great actor and writer Malachy McCourt.
Malachy, whose late brother Frank (much missed) wrote “Angela’s Ashes,” told me he’s writing a new book as well. “It’s called “I Read Your Brother’s Book.” It will be very funny.” Malachy is a New York treasure, always working and well remembered from “Ryan’s Hope.” It was great to see him.
Meantime, “The Bible” DVDs hit stores on April 2nd. Burnett has another hit on his hands.
PS Here’s a video of Della when she was young and having her Jennifer Hudson like career:
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News. Friedman previously wrote the Intelligencer column at New York Magazine, He writes for Parade magazine and has written for Details, Vogue, the New York Times, Post, and Daily News and many other publications. He is the writer and co-producer of a film about R&B Music called “Only the Strong Survive,” which was released by Miramax in 2003 and was a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals.
Roger Friedman
I agree!
Rick Metzger
Very, very nice. Score One-Plus for the good guys, so to speak. I am happy for Ms. Reese and her husband and all others who made this series the grand hit that it has become.