Search - The Divine Brown: Million Dollar Hooker - A True Story on DVD

What happened to Divine Brown?

golgotha.gov | Texas | 02/10/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Divine Brown: Million Dollar Hooker (2006)
directed by Van Banks

In the summer of 1995, Hugh Grant was caught by the LAPD with a prostitute named Divine Brown. Both were arrested and the incident got more media attention than Hugh probably wanted. Divine, on the other hand, cashed in on the incident and appeared on various talk shows to discuss the infamous encounter. Hugh eventually went back to making the kind of romantic comedies he'd been known for but Divine Brown faded into obscurity. This was a major tabloid media story in the mid-1990s and should have been a very easy follow-up movie to make.

The first few minutes we hear a narrarator retelling the Hugh Grant story over a "re-enactment" on Sunset Blvd. Next, we find out that the narrarator is Money Banks, one of Divine Brown's pimps. He tells the story of their big London trip where they courted the media. Some of the articles are briefly flashed onscreen and we see some shots of her posing for photo sessions, making press appearences and meeting stars. They travelled all through Europe to milk the attention for all it was worth. This is the best part of the movie- too bad its also the shortest.

Next we are treated to an endless barrage of pimps babbling on and on about how great their game is. The older pimps lament the good ol days of pimping and criticize the younger generation for introducing weapons and drugs into the industry. The younger pimps are just loud and obnoxious. This goes on for a good 20 minutes or so. Out of the 20 or 30 people in this segment, only Gangsta Brown has anything to do with Divine Brown. He was the dude who brought Money Banks into the profession and was himself trained by Fillmore Slim, made famous in the documentary AMERICAN PIMP. Not that this is something he talks about. We learn this from a three minute MSNBC news segment that is thrown into the middle of the nonsense. Its pretty sad when your most informative footage is clipped from corporate TV. Gangsta Brown muses that because he profited from the media coverage of Divine Brown incident that he is the most successful pimp of all time.

The next segment is from the 2002 "Players Ball" in Cleveland, Ohio. This part is similar to the earlier babbling segment except that the pimps are wearing cooler suits and occasionally have a ridiculous pimp chalice on their hand. Occasionally we see someone yelling into a microphone or a half naked lady, but mostly more of the same. Unsurprisingly the cartoonish Don "Magic" Juan makes an appearance with Fillmore Slim. Slim blasphemes that the Lord is keeping them alive so that they can pass the game onto the younger generation. This is the most memorable part of the Players Ball section.

The camera fades out then abruptly cuts to a brief rant from Divine Brown herself. She is clearly distraught because somebody firebombed her house and almost killed her children. Considering she hasn't been a part of the movie for a good twenty minutes, this is a hell of a thing to just throw in there all of a sudden. The clip is emotional and would have made for a very powerful angle in the documentary. But just as suddenly as the clip comes in, the movie is over and the end credits are rolling. When was this footage taken? The movie never says.

If you were paying attention during the pirated news footage, you learn that Money Banks' real name is Van Banks. Van Banks is the director of this movie. Being so close to the "subject", you'd think he'd be able to give more backstory. Where did he meet Divine? What was she doing? Did he have anything to do with her appearance at ECW FIGHT THE POWER '96? Did he notice anything about the media spin in Europe vs. the US? Did his "peers" have anything to say about the incident? Does he have anything to say about her recent traumatic experience? Rather than give us any insight at all, Mr. Banks decided to give us a lot of his ego and even more of his goofy friends. I might be able to tolerate the misleading title if this movie showed me something new. In reality this isn't even a documentary on pimpin: it is footage of people rambling.

To put it in the simplest terms, this "documentary" is less than 50 minutes long and less than 15 of those minutes actually have to do with Divine Brown. If you're interested in her Hugh Grant encounter, you'd be better off searching YouTube for the clip of her interview on the Danny Bonaduce talk show. What happened to Divine Brown? This movie won't tell you."