It’s a happy birthday to Oscar winner Forest Whitaker, who turns 46 today. Whitaker has always been a rather soft-spoken and reserved guy, and I think he’s really taken internally some of the professional slings and arrows that he’s had to suffer over the course of his career. The amusing and strange thing to think about? If Whitaker hadn’t been bounced from the helm of Fat Albert — a movie he was attached to direct for quite some time, but eventually departed after creative differences with creator Bill Cosby — his career trajectory might have been altogether different and precluded him even doing The Last King of Scotland. For a feature interview on Whitaker, click here.