Second Chance for UPN Lovebirds
Talk about putting reality on TV: Actors Boris Kodjoe and Nicole Parker met — and fell genuinely crazy in love — while playing a boyfriend and girlfriend on Showtime's Soul Food. Now they'll be doing it again on Second Time Around, UPN's new fall sitcom about two exes who get back together. And we thought Nick and Jessica living out their romance onscreen was a little weird.
For their part, the Soul mates don't find their sitch at all odd. "We met working together," Parker says. "We met as working actors on the same show playing love interests, so in a way, the only thing we know is how to work together. Our whole friendship developed in that 16-hour day [while filming a] one-hour drama. So a sitcom life is nothing!"
"She's my absolute best friend in this whole world," Kodjoe adds, "so there's no better situation than to be creative with your best friend." Laughingly, Parker interjects: "OK, he's getting paid to love me."
Color us cynical, but we've gotta ask. What happens to Ryan and Jackson — the sitcom's leading lovebirds — if Parker and Kodjoe should ever break up off screen? C'mon, this is Hollywood. Stranger things have happened....
"We're not here to air dirty laundry," Kodjoe says. "We're blessed, and this is like a dream come true. So we're not looking to manifest any negativity. Seriously, we don't worry about that at all. It's not an issue for us. We live every day and we live every moment. And we're not worried about what's going to happen in five or 10 years."
