Snoop Dogg

Snoop Dogg (b. 1971), also known as Cordozar Calvin Broadus Jr. and Snoop Doggy Dogg, is an American hip-hop emcee, record producer, and actor. Snoop is best known as an MC in the West Coast hip hop scene.

Snoop Dogg filmed a celebrity cameo scene for It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie. Snoop Dogg's brief scene, in which he interacted with Kermit and the Electric Mayhem backstage in the Muppet Theater, was removed from the final cut of the 2002 telefilm by The Jim Henson Company and NBC, and was also absent from the DVD release, which included other deleted scenes.

According to a press release published on Henson.com, "As commonly occurs during this stage of production, we have had to cut several scenes originally planned for the movie which did not advance its storyline. Unfortunately, one of the scenes we have had to cut was a brief appearance by the talented artist Snoop Dogg. We are very proud of this TV movie and are confident that it will be a highlight of the holiday season."

However, according to many reports, the motives for cutting Snoop's scene were not simply time constraints. Reporters stated that producers had extra incentive to cut the Snoop footage when protest arose over mixing a hardened hip-hop artist with classic children's characters.

Conservative radio show host Larry Elder, Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly, and Project Islamic Hope's Najee Ali led a protest threatening an NBC boycott over the inclusion of Snoop Dogg in the family film.

Najee Ali argued that the emcee was unfit for family television fare stating:

“I grew up watching the Muppets. They are very precious to me—those memories of watching [them] as a child, Now I have children and want them to feel that way, too... There are plenty of other hip-hop artists that they could have chosen rather this guy. He was the very worst choice.”

Kermit himself was quite frank about the matter in a guest appearance on The Late Late Show on November 22, 2002. Host Craig Kilborn quizzed him about the situation. Kermit's response was as follows:

“Well, I think that kinda what happened was, that, uh, Snoop came along to do our movie at about the time that he was, like, quitting drugs...? Unfortunately, he was starting porn.... Yeah...it's really nothing personal, because, porn's fine, you know, but it's not what we do in a Muppet movie, and...and he's a really, he's a very nice guy, I mean, I really liked him, we had a lot in common—Frog, Dogg, you know... And it's no dis, homey. If you're watching. It's no dis.”

Snoop's involvement in producing pornographic films included a contribution to the Girls Gone Wild franchise; this may have inspired a reference to the series in The Muppets' Wizard of Oz, when Rizzo asks: "How do the producers of Girls Gone Wild do it?"

External links

• IMDb