Wanted Black ‘Fairy Tale,’ Arsenio Hall Tells Court

Entertainer Arsenio Hall testified today that he and Eddie Murphy set out to create the first black fairy tale when they conceived the idea for the movie “Coming to America.”

Hall, testifying on behalf of Paramount Pictures in a $5-million lawsuit by writer Art Buchwald, said he did not see Buchwald’s screenplay idea, “King For A Day,” before he and Murphy began working.

Buchwald claims that he wrote the original idea in a treatment submitted to Paramount and that he had a contract with the studio to develop the idea into a script.

Hall, speaking softly in a packed courtroom with Buchwald watching from a front-row seat, said he and Murphy were intent on improving the image of black people as well as Murphy’s screen image.

“There had never been a black fairy tale,” Hall said. “We wanted to create like a fairy tale--beautiful--like the prince got the girl. We wanted a fairy tale everyone could relate to.”

Hall said he and Murphy wanted to shape the screenplay themselves because “otherwise, it would just be another black story written by white people.”

As for Murphy’s image, he said: “We did a face lift on his character. He was not the wisecracking Axel Foley character from ‘Beverly Hills Cop.’ This showed him soft, sensitive, non-materialistic. He was a gentleman. In this movie, he was the perfect man. Any woman would love him.”

At one point, Hall said he and Murphy are as close as brothers, and Paramount attorney Robert Draper asked: “Would you lie for Eddie Murphy in court?”

“No,” Hall said firmly.

He noted that two other writers got the screen credit for “Coming to America” and claimed that if he knew Buchwald was the writer, Murphy would have had no problem giving him credit for the script.