It's well known that Snoop Dogg wasn't "born" in the traditional sense. Instead he materialized, a wee Snoopling, on the set of a rap video, blunt tucked into his diaper. Dancers bounced him from breast to breast, letting him grab their giant earrings. They argued over who was allowed to feed the heavy-lidded prince of hip hop his next bottle of gin.
Sometimes those fights would get overly aggressive; that's when Snoop Pup would raise his tiny hand, kissie-face his tiny mouth and look each lady in the eye. His miniature acts of stoner pacifism united the video dancers and made them see the good in themselves and each other. Then the moms would make out. It was a nurturing environment, full of faux-fur diapers, tiny gold knuckle rings and story times ending in "... and so I shot him."
All of which is basically common knowledge to anyone who went to high school in the 1990s. Yet for whatever reason Beverly Broadus-Green continues to insist that she pushed Snoop out the old-fashioned way, and that she called him Calvin, and that Snoop is some sort of "nickname."
Since then their lives' missions have diverged, with Beverly becoming a road-traveled ordained evangelist and Snoop doing ... well, Snoop stuff. Still, Mama Broadus assures the producers of her new reality show, Ladies in the Pulpit, that mother and son get together for Sunday dinners and that she still knows best.
The program is in its formative stages, modeled in Real Housewives fashion, with various casts clustered across the country. The cities will not be as glossy, granted. Beverly lives outside of Los Angeles. But who cares? Ladies in the Pulpit: Rancho Cuamonga has a nice ring to it. Also on the list: Jacksonville, Florida. And yes, Dallas, Texas, among others.
Designed to give a look inside the lives of powerful gospel women, you've got to wonder if the plot lines will be compelling enough to cause us, the sinful masses, to tune in. It's unlikely that you'll see a table flipped during communion or a weave snatched during Sunday service.
But that's the point, says Steffanie Rivers, executive producer and co-partner of Women of Ruth Entertainment, the company behind the show. "We're sure that there will be drama because that's reality, but how they handle it is different."
Providing alternative conflict resolution isn't the show's only agenda. Women of Ruth believes people are curious about what type of women go into the ministry.
"Our goal is to show that they are fly, they dress nice, have husband issues, they get their nails done," Rivers says. "We want to show that they are everyday women and the issues they face are the same as ours."
Although in Beverly's case, her issues might be a little different: drug use, cursing and objectification of women have been topics of dinner chat since Snoop took the microphone back in the '90s. It's caused a few divides.
Mother and son have dealt with most of their differences by now, Rivers says.
"At some point you have to let go and accept [your kids] for who they are and be respectful of one another. You can't get hung up on things you can't control -- like what they're going to be having in a bag at the airport -- because you never know."
Beverly Broadus-Green and the other cast members of Ladies in the Pulpit will attend the show's launch party at 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 26 at Meridian Gardens in Arlington. It's open to the public for a $25 cover. The program is still being shopped around.
