“Beverly Hills Cop,” “Boyz N the Hood” make cut.

The Los Angeles Times top-10 list of movies that best reflect L.A. city life and culture is filled with Black star power. Among the contributions are: Jackie Brown, starring Pam Grier and Samuel L. Jackson; Boyz N the Hood, starring Cuba Gooding Jr., Laurence Fishburne and Ice Cube; Beverly Hills Cop, starring Eddie Murphy; and Collateral, starring Jamie Foxx. The movies included were all released within the past 25 years and feature the L.A. landscape as a “main character” in the script.

“Lakeview Terrace” minimizes its Madea factor

Apparently, Hollywood can only accommodate one crazy Black woman character at a time. Samuel L. Jackson’s new film Lakeview Terrace, co-starring Ray’s Kerry Washington, cut a scene in which Washington appears to “lose it” on camera. Washington, who plays the wife in a couple terrorized by their neighbor, pretends to seduce the next-door character, Jackson, but then pulls a knife on him. “It got removed,” she says. “The producers felt like, at that point in the film, my character was the only sane one and they needed her to stay sane in the mix. She was losing it.” Madea would surely be disappointed with the decision.

Pro Bowl safety will get a guaranteed $15 million.The Dallas Cowboys’ franchise player has signed a six-year, $39 million contract with the team. Ken Hamlin, a Pro Bowl safety, is guaranteed to earn $15 million, including a $9 million signing bonus. Hamlin’s deal was complete before a 4 p.m. NFL deadline Tuesday, by which teams were required to finalize long-term deals.

Rays Reyes is ‘relieved’
Major League Baseball pitcher Al Reyes won’t face charges stemming from a fight he had at a restaurant while celebrating his 38th birthday this year. Prosecutors dropped their case against the Tampa Bay Rays pitcher, who was hit with a Taser after the April bar fight. Reyes allegedly fell into a ceramic pot and then picked a fight with the man who he thought had pushed him. He later publicly apologized. Robert Heyman, Reyes’ lawyer, says the Dominican pitcher is “certainly relieved.”