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Genius: A night for Ray Charles?

Published Friday, October 22, 2004 by seanlmccarthy | E-mail this post

That Ray Charles fella sure was a great musician. But this TV special on CBS sure smells and sounds more like a night for Jamie Foxx and the producers of the biopic, Ray (sorry, but they don't deserve the links). It's hosted by Foxx, airs a week before the movie opens, features film clips of Foxx as Ray -- as opposed to, oh, clips of the real Ray Charles -- and has an appearance by the musician's "biggest" fan, Tom Cruise. No, wait. Cruise is there because he starred with Foxx in this summer's Collateral. Funny thing about tributes. They never seem to acknowledge creative artists properly while they're alive, then try to make up for it by making money off of their legacies.