A Diva's Christmas Carol

A Diva's Christmas Carol

DVD cover of A Diva's Christmas Carol
Based on A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens
Written by Richard Schenkman
Directed by Richard Schenkman
Starring Vanessa L. Williams
Rozonda Thomas
Brian McNamara
Kathy Griffin
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
Production
Running time 120 minutes
Release
Original network VH1
Original release
  • December 13, 2000 (2000-12-13)

A Diva's Christmas Carol is a 2000 VH1-original Christmas television film starring Vanessa L. Williams, Rozonda Thomas, Brian McNamara and Kathy Griffin. The film is a remake of the Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol, featuring a pop singer who gets a reality check by three Christmas spirits. The film premiered on December 13, 2000.

Plot

Ebony Scrooge (Williams) is one of the world's most successful pop singers. With her cold-hearted soul and nasty attitude, she lacks a great deal of holiday cheer and makes her manager Bob anything but happy. While in New York for a charity concert, Ebony (who was once part of the 1980s trio "Desire") is visited by the ghost of one of her former singing partners, Marli Jacob (Thomas). She tells Ebony that she was unhappy with her for willingly abandoning her during her struggles with her drug addiction which ultimately killed her, and that God knows Ebony took advantage of Marli's death to plot her solo career. Because of it, Marli is still earthbound and in chains, and warns Ebony of a similar doom. Marli tells her that she will be visited by three spirits: Ghost of Christmas Past, Ghost of Christmas Present, and Ghost of Christmas Future, who will hopefully turn Ebony's life around.

The Ghost of Christmas Past (Kathy Griffin) shows Ebony her tragic past with her abusive alcoholic father, and how she became the cold person she is today because of it. The only person that made her feel loved was her brother, Ronnie, and even he was trying to be positive for their family, which continued even after the two were removed from their father's custody and split up in foster care. It was also revealed that even though Ebony had been adopted into a nice family, she had refused to visit her father, whom she has never forgiven for the abuse he put both her and Ronnie through. After visiting their father, Ronnie learned that she had been right about him not having changed his ways after he began drinking again and left home for good. Ronnie later married and had a daughter named Olivia, before dying of a sudden brain aneurysm. Ebony had a relationship with Bob, who was a DJ at the time, and he was considering marrying her before she coldly broke up with him. Ebony had worked well with Desire until her coldness caused rifts, which eventually broke up the band. Before leaving her, the ghost takes Ebony to Terry, Desire's other singer, who is now destitute.

Ebony then finds a wild party in her suite by a heavy metal dude who is The Ghost of Christmas Present (John Taylor), who shows her how she is overworking Bob and her crew. She comes to learn just how much her band really hates her and talks behind her back. Ebony shows sympathy and concern for Bob's ailing son Tim, slowly realizing just how strained his relationship with his family is. The ghost shows Ebony where her accountant Ernie is spending his Christmas with his girlfriend, and how he has been secretly stealing money from her accounts over the years. The Ghost then takes Ebony to the apartment of her estranged niece, Olivia. Olivia tells her husband and friends that despite Ebony's cold attitude, she still loves her aunt. She starts regretting her past treatment towards Olivia, now realizing that she is the only living blood relative. Lastly, Ebony meets the homeless people her concert is supposed to benefit, but whom she's never interacted with. The ghost shows her how they appreciate Christmas despite having nothing. At this point, she is starting to see everything in a new light and feels terrible in the way she mistreated Bob and her band. Before leaving, the Ghost warns Ebony of the two main killers that could destroy her own life: Ignorance and Greed.

However, the last spirit (Ghost of Christmas Future) is the one that gets through to Ebony. It's depicted as a miniature television showing a tragic episode of Behind the Music, which depicts many artists such as Brian McKnight commenting on the life and death of Ebony Scrooge. Her former band mates uses the show to air out their grievances about who she really is inside and ruining her public image in the process. When Bob reveals how much he couldn't forgive Ebony for making him work on Christmas that led to both Tim's death and his wife, Kelly, divorcing him, it breaks her heart. It is also revealed that she died flat broke due to both Ernie draining her finances and her own career floundering in her last years. Ebony also discovers that Olivia was the only person who went to her funeral.

After learning her lesson, Ebony opens her heart to Christmas once again. She hires a chef to make a lavish Christmas dinner for her crew. Ebony reconciles with her niece, Olivia, whom reveals her pregnancy, and invites Terry to perform with her. She allows Bob to go on vacation with his wife and has Tim taken to the best hospital in New York for treatment. At the beginning of her concert, she fires Ernie and has him arrested for his embezzlement by the police and his girlfriend, who turns out to be an FBI agent. Marli, now wearing angelic robes, watches Ebony and Terry reunite and perform "Sleigh Ride", an old song of theirs, and Ebony briefly sees her applaud before she departs for Heaven. A year later, Ebony greets Bob and Kelly, along with a healthy Tim, as they go to baptize Olivia's daughter.

Cast

Soundtrack

Vanessa Williams sang the songs for the movie's soundtrack, including the original songs "Heart of Christmas" and "Heartquake" (featuring Rozonda Thomas). She also sings a remake of the 1948 holiday classic "Sleigh Ride".

Trivia

In the American Dad! episode "Hayley Smith, Seal Team Six", Steve Smith references the film and even sings an altered line from "Heartquake", changed to be about cheesecake.

Release

Paramount Pictures released the film on DVD in Region 1 on November 19, 2002.

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0270317/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm

External links

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