Cinema: Looking to Score

Omar Epps shoots for romance and hoop dreams in Love & Basketball

Talk about rude awakenings. When Omar Epps caught an early screening of The Mod Squad last year, he hoped for at least a modest success. After all, he had trounced many of Hollywood's hot young black actors and even a few rap stars for the spot opposite Claire Danes and Giovanni Ribisi in this Gen X version of the cult TV series. Once the screening began, however, Epps quickly lost interest and shut his eyes to escape the boredom. "I fell asleep," he recalls. "When I finally woke up, I looked around and said, 'S___, this movie is gonna bomb!'"

Hanging...

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