George Lopez is doing what he can to support Prince.
Earlier this week, Prince’s older half-brother, Alfred Jackson, told ET’s Nischelle Turner that the 55-year-old actor “has helped us out tremendously, and we’re extremely grateful.”
At a private memorial service at Los Globos in Los Angeles on Saturday, Lopez confirmed to ET that he had indeed helped the family out, though he didn’t go into detail about the specifics about the financial implications.
“I assisted the brothers that were in need at that particular moment,” he said.
Lopez was by himself in Columbus, Ohio, when he found out that Prince had died unexpectedly at age 57. “It wasn’t an easy day or weekend,” he admitted, noting that he eventually had Eddie Murphy’s brother, Charlie Murphy, around to help him cope. “Thank God we have each other. We really kind of brought each other back up. It was tough news.“
Lopez also shared a story with ET — similar to the one he would later tell during the memorial service — about how The Purple One inadvertently effected his former talk show, Lopez Tonight. “The art director came over and said ‘Prince wants the green room painted white.’ It was this nasty green,” he explained. “So I said, ‘Well if he wants it painted white, then paint it white!’ They took all the furniture out, they painted it white, they brought in some white couches, some white carpet — and it wasn’t him, it was me.”
Lopez later told Prince that he got the room painted just for him, to which he apparently replied, “You did?!… it’s beautiful now, but thank you.”
Prince appeared to tolerate Lopez’s jokes, but the one thing he didn’t seem cool with was the comedian’s potty mouth.
“When we met, he thought I used inappropriate language too often, and he wanted to be my Bible teacher,” Lopez laughed. “I said, ‘OK, if Prince wants to give me Bible lessons, then I’ll do it.”
The two were set to meet on a Wednesday for the lessons, but Lopez came down with food poisoning, which he assumed were from jalapeños. Prince apparently had another idea of what may have stricken Lopez. “It might have been the guy down below,” Lopez recalled Prince’s theory. “He thought it was the devil keeping us apart. That devil, he couldn’t keep us apart. We had some great moments.”
Lopez attended Saturday’s memorial alongside a number of people who were connected with Prince, including hairstylists, assistants and technical directors for Paisley Park, Prince’s complex in Chanhassen, Minnesota. The ceremony itself was upbeat, positive and emotional, and it featured an artist painting an image of Prince, plenty of his music, and a slideshow running along the wall.
Many in attendance were discussing how shocked they were that Prince died at such a young age and were having trouble wrapping their heads around it, with one group calling it “more shocking than Michael Jackson’s death.”
When ET spoke to Alfred Jackson earlier this week, he was equally as emotional, saying, “I miss my brother, because my brother was everything in the world to me. God bless Prince, God bless the world. He’s a legend, he really is.”
Jackson was the first family member to speak since Prince’s death. He is one of the potential heirs to Prince’s estimated $300 million fortune, along with the singer’s four other half-siblings, John Nelson, Norrine Nelson, Sharon Nelson, and Omarr Baker.
They all met earlier in the week to discuss Prince’s estate, as he did not have a will. Find out more in the video below.
Source: Entertainment Tonight
