TYLER PERRY OPENS NEW FILM STUDIO

Tyler Perry unveiled his new multi-million dollar TV and film studio in Atlanta this Saturday among friends.


Tyler and his date for the evening actress Gelila Bekele

Other celebs for the night included Sidney Poitier


The occassion brought Oprah to tears

Will Smith

Nicole Ari Parker and Boris Kodjoe....talk about a handsome couple

Doesn't Tasha Smith look fab!

Patti Patti in her usual over-done look


Star

Terri Vaughn...I really like this mix of casual meets formal.

Holly Robinson Peete

ANTM Eva (Pigford) and her man Lance

Tracey Edmonds


The sprawling complex includes more than 200,000 square feet of studio and office space and sits on 30 acres that once housed Delta Air Lines' finance, reservation and computer center. Perry will shoot his TBS sitcoms "House of Payne" and "Meet the Browns" along with other film projects at the studio, reports the Associated Press.

Perry, 39, said the studio features five sound stages that will be named after Quincy Jones, Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee and Cicely Tyson — with one still unnamed.

Still, while celebs were celebrating, protesters from the Writers Guild picketed outside against his firing of four writers on his series "House of Payne." The Writers Guild of America West filed an unfair-labor-practice complaint with the National Labor Relations Board against Perry after his studio fired four writers for the TBS comedy “House of Payne” who were seeking union representation.

Jeff Hermanson, an assistant executive director for the Writers Guild, said the four writers — Kellie Griffin, Christopher Moore, Teri Brown-Jackson and Lamont Ferrell — had sought a union contract because they felt they were underpaid and lacked benefits.

Perry maintains the writers were let go because of the quality of their work.