Gooding Jr paints Cape Valentine red

Fee Bearing Hollywood actor Cuba Gooding Jr was spotted having a great time at Waiting Room on Long Street on Friday night. PICTURE: KENT LINGEVELDT

Fee Bearing Hollywood actor Cuba Gooding Jr was spotted having a great time at Waiting Room on Long Street on Friday night. PICTURE: KENT LINGEVELDT

Published Feb 16, 2014

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Cape Town -

Hollywood actor Cuba Gooding Jr was spotted painting Cape Town red on Valentine’s night in at least three popular City Bowl night spots, apparently checking out what the city has to offer.

The Oscar-winning actor, in town filming a mini-series adaptation of Lawrence Hill’s award-winning novel The Book of Negroes, was spotted at Cubana in Green Point, then at Waiting Room and Fiction on Long Street on Friday night.

It’s not clear how many times Gooding Jr was asked to say “show me the money”, but he was apparently more than happy to pose for photographs and chat to his fans.

“He took photos with everybody who wanted to take shots with him. We were all quite shocked that he was there,” said Kent Lingeveldt, who was photographing the Uppercut hip hop and funk night at Waiting Room.

“He was having a jol,” he added.

Lingeveldt first noticed Gooding Jr was in the club when the actor “photo-bombed” a picture he was taking of a DJ.

“I thought, ‘That guy looks like Cuba Gooding Jr’,” he said.

He appeared to be loving the music, repeatedly saying: “DJ, you’re playing my track.”

Gooding Jr introduced a man he was with as his co-star, leading Lingeveldt to believe they must be filming in Cape Town.

Fans took to social media to express their excitement at spotting the actor. Student Tulisa Kopele posted that she ran into him at Cubana.

Lingeveldt couldn’t resist posting a selfie with the star to Instagram, and Italian-South African graphic designer Caterina Toffoli posted on Twitter that she was just having a “casual jol with Cuba Gooding at Fiction”, accompanied by a photograph to prove it. In it, Gooding Jr was wearing a Fiction T-shirt he had not been wearing at Waiting Room.

Gooding Jr is known for his roles in Men of Honor, As Good as it Gets, Norbit, Rat Race, Pearl Harbor and A Few Good Men, but is possibly best-known for his 1996 Oscar-winning “show me the money” role as Rod Tidwell in Jerry Maguire.

More recent parts include a supporting role in The Butler and brief appearances in Don Jon and Machete Kills.

According to film industry magazine The Callsheet, The Book of Negroes tells the story of a resolute African woman who survives slavery, the American revolution and the jungles of Sierra Leone to secure her freedom.

According to Denis Lillie, chief executive of the Cape Film Commission, shooting on Gooding Jr’s new series here is scheduled to begin soon, possibly this week.

Lillie told Weekend Argus there was currently “a lot of activity” around the production, but that he was not yet able to comment further.

Also starring in the mini-series is Louis Gossett Jr, known for his Oscar-winning role as Sergeant Emil Foley in An Officer and a Gentleman.

- Sunday Argus

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