Cosby daughter hooks up with "Madea" comedy

Actress Keshia Knight Pulliam, who starred as Rudy Huxtable in the 1980's television series ''The Cosby Show'', poses at the 39th Annual NAACP Image Awards in Los Angeles, California February 14, 2008.

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Little Rudy from "The Cosby Show" all grown up and playing a hooker? Yes indeed, thanks to Tyler Perry.

Keshia Knight Pulliam will star as an imprisoned prostitute in "Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail." Derek Luke also stars in the Lionsgate comedy, which is set to begin filming in Atlanta next month for a tentative early 2009 release.

Writer-director Perry returns to the front of the camera as the irrepressible matriarch Madea, whose penchant for trouble-making lands her behind bars. She comes to the rescue of Candy (Pulliam), a fellow inmate preyed upon by a large woman. Luke will play an attorney who has a past with Candy.

Pulliam, 29, recently appeared in Perry's TBS series "House of Payne" and is launching an Atlanta-based production company for film and television projects that she has in development. She played Bill Cosby's lovable daughter Rudy Huxtable in NBC's ratings smash "The Cosby Show."

Luke, who made his screen debut as the title character in "Antwone Fisher," played opposite Robert Redford in "Lions for Lambs."

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter