June, 2012

Jennifer Hudson has learned a valuable lesson in building her career: it pays to diversify your talents. Since she exited “American Idol” back in the day she’s known that success didn’t have to come through her singing alone. So we had JHud the actress and after that Jennifer Hudson the Weight Watchers spokesperson and after she lost more than 80 pounds, she added author to the mix. That’s a lot of hyphenates but she seems to make it work. So it comes as no surprise that she’ll be adding yet another title to the mix when she debuts her fashion…

The London paparazzi scene is kinda crazy but Rihanna seems to be taking it all in stride. I guess she’s used to having her photograph taken at every waking hour but this is on a whole ‘nother level. Clearly they can’t get enough.

As I was switching through the channels yesterday I noticed that director Tyler Perry was co-hosting “Live With Kelly”  as part of the promotion for his latest movie “Madea’s Witness Protection.” Great for him. While I have mad respect for the man and his hustle I don’t enjoy Madea. Yes, I said it. I may be in the minority but I think he can do better (and he has). But the truth is Madea plays to his audience base and the man is simply giving the people what they want. And because of that I have come to the conclusion…

There’s been alot of buzz about “Beasts of the Southern Wild”, it took home top honors at both Sundance and Cannes. Now we can see it for ourselves and I for one can’t wait. Why? Because Quvenzhane Wallis is a pint-sized powerhouse that can’t be denied. And because the story is about black love—-between a father and a daughter. How often do we get to see that? Okay, so they’re poor and they live in the Bayou but they’re are far from woe is me characters.

Quvenzhane plays Hushpuppy the central character of the film and apparently this 8-year-old (who never…

Unless you’ve been on a desert island, you’ve heard a whole lot about Tracy McMillan lately.  For those of you who are not familiar, Tracy wrote the infamous “Why You’re Not Married” blog for HuffPost back in February 2011. That one post spread like wildfire, receiving over 2,000 comments and was no doubt shared hundreds of thousands of times over via email, Twitter and Facebook.   The response was really no different when she followed up with her May 2012 post, “Why You’re Still Not Married.”  Some folks were, as they say, “hot as fish grease.”

In my personal circle, many of…

Shonda Rhimes, who’s the first Black women to have 3 dramas on the air, is getting flack for pointing out that ABC Family’s new show “Bunheads” doesn’t have one diverse cast member.  Rhimes expressed her disappointment via the following tweet:

“Hey @abcfbunheads: really? You couldn’t cast even ONE young dancer of color so I could feel good about my kid watching this show? NOT ONE?”

When her followers questioned her point-of-view, the showrunner clarified further. To sum it up she isn’t bothered by her child watching white performers and she likes that the dancers are of different sizes, according to Entertainment…

When I wrote about the trailer of “Django Unchained” last week I didn’t know that the slave genre may soon replace the servant movie as the next Black thing. Okay, I am being facetious but when read earlier this week that the great actress Alfre Woodard was joining a production called “12 Years A Slave” it did make me wonder. While this new flick is not going to be like Foxx’s latest where the slave (or should I say ex-slave) has the power and the one-liners, it is interesting that Brad Pitt’s production company is adapting it from the autobiography…

Sheila E. still gives her heart and soul in her performances like her set last night in Bonn, Germany. And there is something about seeing a sister play drums with such skill that we have to give her mad props. From “Glamourous Life” to today she’s still giving us rhythms to move to.

Robin Roberts is a very, very, brave woman. From the moment she disclosed her battle with breast cancer five years ago, she offered Black woman a public face for a scary disease that many of us die from. With grace and grit she fought and taught us more about the disease—-shaving her head, ditching her wig and giving us a front row seat during her recovery. And because she did I believe she saved lives in the process. Robert’s actions took an extraordinary amount of courage and yesterday she showed her mettle yet again when she disclosed that the treatment…

Although Condola Rashad, breakout star from “Stick Fly”, didn’t take home a Tony Award on Sunday, look out for her to do great things. Success runs in her family, with parents Phylicia Rashad and Ahmad Rashad as well as aunt extradinaire Debbie Allen. Next she’ll take on the role of Shelby (originally played by Julia Roberts) in the all-Black production of “Steel Magnolias”. Stay tuned, this should be good.