Life on the way to ‘Lockdown’
Martha Stewart got her small-screen time in the sun after she served her time. Now another celebrity inmate, Lil’ Kim, the self-described Queen B of hip-hop, will have her own reality show on BET: “Lil’ Kim: Countdown to Lockdown,” which she managed to film 14 days before beginning her 366-day prison sentence for perjury and conspiracy in September.
The six-episode series premieres March 9 and chronicles the performer’s last two weeks of freedom -- shooting a music video, attending fashion shows and star-studded parties and preparing for a prison term in connection with a 2001 shooting outside a New York City radio station.
Executive producer Tracey E. Edmonds told a gathering of television critics at the Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel & Spa in Pasadena on Tuesday that she had been pursuing Lil’ Kim for a reality show for a long time. Edmonds said that although the hip-hop star had been shy about being the focus of such a series, she was able to persuade Lil’ Kim to tell her story after the artist was convicted for lying to a federal grand jury to protect friends who were involved in the shootout.
The show, Edmonds added, will reveal why Lil’ Kim (real name Kimberly Jones) made false statements and why she was prepared to pay the price for her actions.
-- Maria Elena Fernandez
