Eddie Murphy's career day

He's in, he's out. What's Eddie Murphy doing?

The Oscar-nominated actor (doesn't that seem like a long time ago?) is using his current shill tour for "Meet Dave" to talk about the end of his movie career. Whether that was by accident or design (or directly attributable to "Meet Dave," opening Friday), it's hard to say, but he's told various media outlets that he's retiring from 30 years in the film business to return to stand-up.

The latest (final?) word on the matter happened this morning on the "Today Show," when he told Al Roker that he's giving it until he's 50 (two more years, eight months).

Roker seemed incredulous that Murphy would walk away from such a lucrative run of fat suits and fart jokes (some $3 billion in boxoffice), but the actor's made up his mind, he said.

There's still "hope" though for another "Beverly Hills Cop" movie, intended to wash the bad taste out of our collective mouths from "Beverly Hills Cop III." Murphy didn't say if he'd hang around past his self-imposed deadline to wait for a decent script and/or director. There's always the comeback, right?

Since it's not too early to start talking Oscar, it's high time to start talking Razzie, too. Could Murphy (double role, no prosthetics) possibly grab as much Golden Raspberry attention this year as he did last, with three wins for multiple roles in "Norbit?" Chime right in, readers.

Comments

[jake]

Why do actors have to give themselves deadlines. do you have to give up a film career to do standup -- can't he do both? The eddie murphy that I love is the one that started his career with Beverly Hills Cop, 48 hours, etc -- not the later ones with Nutty Professor. So I hope and can't wait to see Beverly Hills Cop 4 and I want it to rated R.