Little Richard Wants Jackson in Role

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. —  Little Richard says he’d like Michael Jackson to play him in the movies. Eddie Murphy, he says, isn’t good-looking enough.

The 57-year-old piano-pounding rock ‘n’ roller will be in Atlantic City on Saturday for a one-time appearance at Trump Taj Mahal.

He said he is looking for a record deal and negotiating to create a syndicated variety show. He is also planning an autobiographical movie.

“I want to see Michael Jackson as me,” he said. “There was talk that Eddie Murphy would do it, but I think he would talk too nasty, say things that don’t need to be said.

“And he’s not good-looking enough to be Little Richard.”

Little Richard, whose hits include “Long Tall Sally,” “Tutti Frutti” and “Lucille,” doesn’t jump around the stage as he once did, nor does he indulge in the drugs, liquor and frequent sex with both men and women that twice led him to leave rock ‘n’ roll for gospel, in 1959 and in the mid-1970s.

“I think everything is under control at this age,” he said in a telephone interview. “We don’t have to pay tolls. We just sing with a lot of soul, but we are still bold.”