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Fresh off her Emmy nomination for Succession, Sanaa Lathan is set to star as the TV psychic Miss Cleo in a Legendary Entertainment drama series, Deadline exclusively reported.
Lathan will also serve as executive producer along with former head of drama for Sony Pictures Television Sharon Hall through her company Mom de Guerre Productions.
Miss Cleo 101
Miss Cleo, born Youree Dell Harris, was an actress who became the spokeswoman for the Psychic Readers Networks, a pay-per-call-minute service, commercials from 1997 to 2003. She was popular for the tagline, “Call me now!”
Harris also went by a few other names such as Ree Perris, Youree Cleomili, Youree Dell Harris, Youree Perris, Rae Dell Harris, Cleomili Perris Youree, and Cleomili Harris, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
She began to work for the network as Cleo in the late 1990s. She initially appeared in an infomercial and claimed that she was a shaman from Jamaica. The Psychic Readers Networks website also said she was born and raised in Trelawny, Jamaica. As Miss Cleo, Harris spoke with a Jamaican accent.
Using Miss Cleo's name, the network started sending unsolicited emails that said that Miss Cleo was authorized to issue the receiver as Special Tarot Reading and urged the receiver to call immediately. Lawsuits started piling up against the network for deceptive advertising.
One of the main complaints alleged that the calls were answered not by Miss Cleo but her “associates” who were paid actors reading off scripts. The calls, while promoted as free, were charged to the caller.
In 2002, the Federal Trade Commission filed lawsuits against the network's owners as well as Harris' promoters for deceptive advertising, billing and collection practices. Harris, on the other hand, was not indicted.
The Psychic Readers Networks ended up billing their victims for approximately $1 billion. To settle the lawsuit, Harris' promoters agreed to erase $500 million of debts their victims owed to the network. They also paid $5 million in fines to the FTC.
While the FTC did not indict Harris, Florida sued Harris under a law provision that allowed spokespersons to be held liable. The charges were ultimately dropped.
After the “psychic debacle” with the network and several states, Harris established her own company called Waghwaan Entertainment, in reference to her manufactured past as being Jamaican. Court documents revealed that Wagwan is Jamaican English for “What's going on?”
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From Miss Cleo to Miss Harris
In 2002, she voiced Auntie Poulet, a character in the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. The next year, TV music network Fuse signed Harris as a spokeswoman but ended up beefing with another spokesperson evangelist and singer Tammy Faye Messner.
She also continued to do “psychic readings” for $75 to $250 as well as weddings at $350 and more. Harris also had a podcast.
In 2015, claiming that they owned the character Miss Cleo, the Psychic Readers Networks sued General Mills when Harris appeared in a series of commercials for French Toast Crunch. The ads were discontinued. The network also sued LVMH-owned Benefit cosmetics for using Harris, appearing as Miss Cleo in a makeup commercial.
Seven years after Harris' death in 2016, HBO Max released a documentary about her life Call Me Miss Cleo.
Lathan will bring Miss Cleo back to life in the upcoming series. The show is described as a darkly comedic drama inspired by Harris' stint as a psychic for the pay-per-call service up to the tumultuous court case.
The actress first rose to prominence when she played Blade's (Wesley Snipe) mother in the 1998 film. However, before she played her Emmy-nominated role as Lisa Arthur in Succession, she starred in the 2000 film Love & Basketball opposite Omar Epps.
