Rosie Perez delivers her thoughts straight up, in a high-pitched, part-Brooklyn, part-Puerto Rican patois, which HBO recently encountered as she fought against alterations in her new three-week series, Rosie Perez Presents Society's Ride. Executive producer Perez (costar of White Men Can't Jump) zooms in on performances by such acts as Heavy D. and Onyx intercut with behind-the-scenes footage of her and the bands. As described by Perez, network negotiations have never sounded more colorful (for the record, HBO refuses to comment):
''I told [HBO] I wanted to do a live-to-tape hip-hop show with no compromise. I said, 'I'm going to have a recording artist called BOSS, and she's gonna say, 'F--- around and catch a bad one,' and I'm gonna have reggae artists that say, 'I like to dickie dickie.' And they go, 'Great, great, we love it.' But when they actually saw it, they bugged out.''
''I called up Michael Fuchs at HBO, you know, the big man in charge, and I was like, 'Look, my man, just watch it. And if you like it, have the courage to air it in its entirety without one f---ing change. 'Cause you will be the man.' And he said, 'I am the man, Rosie.' And I said, 'Then prove it to me. But if you really are offended by it, I'll understand, we'll shake hands, no love lost.' A week later, he called and said, 'You got your show.'''
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