Category Archives: celebrities

for oprah

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As texting and driving causes more deaths each year, Oprah Winfrey is campaigning for drivers to take their fingers off their keypad and get their eyes back on the road where they belong.

Winfrey has declared April 30, 2010 “National No Phone Zone Day.”  Online users can visit oprah.com tell their own “No Phone Zone” stories, create “No Phone Zone” public service announcements and take a pledge to stop using your phone when you’re on the road.

Read more: http://www.essence.com/news/hot_topics_4/oprah_says_dont_text_and_drive.php#ixzz0madwBXBZ

heterosis

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This strikes me as complete and utter bull****.  Excuse me, bologna is more appropriate for this forum.  I just don’t see how you can conduct a scientific study based on personal opinion.  Perceived attractiveness is not a science.  I have a theory that mixed race people have an interesting look, for lack of a better way to put it.  Since we are still a relatively small group, I think there’s something in a mixed race face that may make one take note.  A gaze may linger while a mind tries to process and perhaps dissect what it’s looking at.  And that probably prompts the occasional, “What are you?”  In my opinion, that does not equal more attractive, but I see how it could be misconstrued that way.

I also object to the antiquated notion of heterosis being used in this way- heck, in any way.  Cross-breeding!?  This leads me to believe that Dr. Lewis looks at race as more than a social construct.  I seriously disagree.

Lastly, the notion that because Halle Berry, Lewis Hamilton, and Barack Obama have risen to the top of their respective fields we are to infer that mixed race people are more successful on average makes my skin crawl.  More successful than whom?  Their black counterparts?  That must be what it means because I don’t think anyone can so easily forget the 40+ white presidents, 70+ white actresses, and I don’t know exactly how many (but most likely all) of the former Formula 1 champions that preceded these super-attractive, super-successful mulattoes.  UGH!  So glad I chose not to spend a semester at Cardiff!

Mixed-race people are ‘more attractive’ and more successful, results of a new study suggest.

The Cardiff University study involved rating 1,205 black, white, and mixed-race faces.

Each face was judged on its attractiveness, with mixed-race faces generally perceived as more attractive.

Author of the study, Dr Michael Lewis, also suggested mixed-race people were disproportionately successful in many professions.

The study based its hypothesis on Darwin’s notion of heterosis, the biological phenomenon that predicts that cross-breeding leads to offspring that are genetically fitter than their parents.

Dr Lewis said the phenomenon was mirrored in the results of his study.

“The results appear to confirm that people whose genetic backgrounds are more diverse are, on average, perceived as more attractive,” Dr Lewis said.

Yet there is reason to believe that mixed-race people may not just be more attractive, but more successful.

Dr Lewis said: “There is evidence, albeit anecdotal, that the impact of heterosis goes beyond just attractiveness.

“This comes from the observation that, although mixed-race people make up a small proportion of the population, they are over-represented at the top level of a number of meritocratic professions like acting with Halle Berry, Formula 1 racing with Lewis Hamilton – and, of course, politics with Barack Obama.”

Dr Lewis will present his findings to the British Psychological Society’s annual meeting on Wednesday.

SOURCE

oh… but… jill…

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I was pained by this headline, but upon reading the article wasn’t as offended as I’d prepared myself to be.  There’s a lot of history behind this pain, and I won’t ask anyone not to feel it or to ignore it.  That would be detrimental to our progress.  I’m glad Jill Scott has put this out there in this way.  I wonder, though, if her soul burns when she sees a not-so-successful black man with a white woman.  The history is the same and the choice sends the same message wealthy man or not, right?  Anyhow, I think we need to dialogue about this so that we’re clear on where these pains and hurts originate, so that eventually the love a person lives will speak to his soul’s credibility.  Not the color of the love a person lives.

Jill Scott ‘pained by mixed-race couples’

By Marcell Minaya

Jill Scott has reportedly said that her “soul burns” every time she see a “successful black man with a white woman”.

In an interview with Essence magazine, the R&B-soul singer-songwriter said that she wished that a male, African-American friend was married to a black, rather than a Caucasian, woman.

Scott wrote: “My new friend is handsome, African-American, intelligent and seemingly wealthy. He is an athlete, loves his momma, and is happily married to a white woman. I admit when I saw his wedding ring, I privately hoped. But something in me just knew he didn’t marry a sister. Although my guess hit the mark, when my friend told me his wife was indeed Caucasian, I felt my spirit wince. I didn’t immediately understand it. My face read happy for you. My body showed no reaction to my inner pinch, but the sting was there, quiet like a mosquito under a summer dress.”

She continued: “Was I jealous? Did the reality of his relationship somehow diminish his soul’s credibility? The answer is not simple. One could easily dispel the wince as racist or separatist, but that’s not how I was brought up. I was reared in a Jehovah’s Witness household. I was taught that every man should be judged by his deeds and not his colour and I firmly stand where my grandmother left me. African people worldwide are known to be welcoming and open-minded. We share our culture sometimes to our own peril and most of us love the very notion of love. My position is that for women of colour, this very common “wince” has solely to do with the African story in America.”

Scott added: “Our minds do understand that people of all races find genuine love in many places. We dig that the world is full of amazing options. But underneath, there is a bite, no matter the ointment, that has yet to stop burning. Some may find these thoughts to be hurtful. That is not my intent. I’m just sayin’.”

SOURCE

dumas disappointment

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FRANCE: Race row in France after white actor used to play mixed race French national hero

SOURCE

FURIOUS BLACK campaigners in France have protested after filmmakers used a white actor to play legendary mixed race French writer and national hero, Alexandre Dumas.

In a film called L’Autre Dumas, Gerard Depardieu, who is blond and blue-eyed, was given darker skin and curly hair to play Dumas.

FRANCE: Race row in France after white actor used to play mixed race French national hero

Dumas, the grandson of a Haitian slave and the son of a Napoleonic general, was mocked for his African features even as he created well-loved books such as the Count of Monte Cristo and the Three Musketeers. They are also high grossing hit films.

Patrick Lozès, the president of the Council of Black Associations of France (CRAN) told the Times: “In 150 years time could the role of Barack Obama be played in a film by a white actor with a fuzzy wig? Can Martin Luther King be played by a white?”The filmmakers also reportedly credited a fictional white assistant with creating some of Dumas’ well-loved books, The Times newspaper reported.

The campaigners said they are furious because the film not only uses a white actor, but seems to attempt to discredit Dumas’ genius, further bury his black origins and keep black actors off the screen.

“Possibly for commercial reasons they are whitewashing Dumas in order to blacken him further,” the Council said on its website.

undercovers

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This sounds cool to me.  I hope they make the characters biracial!

J.J. Abrams finds ‘Undercovers’ female lead

British actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw to star with Boris Kodjoe

By Nellie Andreeva

J.J. Abrams has cast another ingenue as the female lead of his newest TV project.

After a lengthy search, British actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw has landed the female lead opposite Boris Kodjoe on “Undercovers,” Abrams’ pilot for NBC.

“Undercovers,” which Abrams co-wrote with Josh Reims, revolves around a domesticated husband (Kodjoe) and wife (Mbatha-Raw) who are re-activated as CIA agents after years of retirement.

Abrams also will direct, marking the first pilot he has helmed since “Lost” in 2004.

Mbatha-Raw, a graduate of London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, broke through during the summer when she was cast as Ophelia opposite Jude Law in the Donmar Warehouse production of “Hamlet,” which had successful runs in London’s West End and on Broadway.

The daughter of a South African doctor and an English nurse, Mbatha-Raw hasn’t appeared on American TV but has done arcs on several popular British series including “Spooks” and “Doctor Who.”

She is the latest discovery for Abrams, who is known for breaking new young female talent on his TV series. He cast Keri Russell on “Felicity,” Jennifer Garner on “Alias,” Evangeline Lilly on “Lost” and, most recently, Australian Anna Torv on “Fringe.”

Although Kodjoe and Mbatha-Raw are biracial, casting on the leads for the pilot was done color-blind, producers said, as they looked for the actors who best fit the characters and had the best chemistry.

SOURCE

hiatus over

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I hope…

It’s been a rough month.  Sorry I haven’t had much to offer the biracial blogosphere.  I’m sick of only posting inspirational quotes now, but really don’t remember how to do this anymore.  It’s like I wake up everyday to a life that I don’t recognize since I lost Indy.  Hopefully, if I just try, the blog and the vlog can help ground me.

I’m thinking that the best place to (re)start is by telling you all what I’ve been doing while I haven’t really been doing anything.  Wait for it… Wait for it (yes, I know you can see it already)…

I have been watching a lot of Roseanne.  A LOT!  I bet I’ve seen half of the nine seasons of episodes.  I really liked Roseanne as a kid.  I identified with Darlene and Becky back then, though.  Now, to my horror, I’m relating to Jackie and Roseanne.  Don’t get me wrong, they’re great, but when and how exactly did I get so old!?  I have gained new found respect for Roseanne Barr.  I am a big fan of John Goodman.  Always have been.  Roseanne and Dan were such a great couple!  And OMG, OMG the clothes!!! (Here is a website dedicated to the “fashion” on Roseanne.)  Also, George Clooney was a pretty major player in the first season.  I only remembered him being on The Facts of Life, once they had the store, but there he was playing Roseanne and Jackie’s boss at the factory.  And did you know that in the pilot episode D.J. was played by some kid named Sal Barone, not Michael Fishman.  I hope you did not, because that is completely useless knowledge that has been sealed into my brain since I saw the pilot episode a couple of weeks ago and was so shocked by that.  And grateful cuz Fishman was so cute and so funny, and Sal….wasn’t (as).  The two Becky thing still confuses me though.  Oh, how I wish they would have a Roseanne reunion show.  Here’s a photo of what it might look like…

But where’s Jerry?  “Who is Jerry?”, you ask. Roseanne and Dan had a baby toward the end of the run.  His name was Jerry.  By the way, I know people said that the show sucked toward the end and that they should never have won the lottery or whatever, but I watched the entire final season and it was really good, in my opinion.  Roseanne was droppin’ pearls and my guess is that America couldn’t handle it.

Roseanne + Dan Forever!

In case you missed it (check TVLand and Oxygen)…

The show centered on the Conners, an American working class family struggling to get by on a limited household income in the fictional town of Lanford, Illinois. Many critics considered the show notable as one of the first sitcoms to portray a blue collar American family with two parents working outside the home. For many years, Roseanne tackled taboo subjects or joked about issues that most other popular shows at the time avoided, such as poverty, alcoholism, drug-abuse, sex, menstruation, birth birth control, teenage pregnancy obesity, abortion, race, social class, domestic violence, and homosexuality.  Barr’s real-life brother and sister are gay, which is what inspired her to push for introducing gay characters and issues into the show: “My show seeks to portray various slices of real life, and homosexuals are a reality.”  The show was also significant for its portrayal of feminist ideals including a female-dominated household, a female lead whose likability did not rely on her appearance, relationships between female characters that were cooperative rather than competitive, and females openly expressing themselves without negative consequences.

In the fall of 2008 Barr said, on what the Conners would be up to now, “I’ve always said now that if they were on TV, DJ would have been killed in Iraq and [the Conners] would have lost their house”. When asked for more details on where the rest of the Conners (Jackie, Becky, Darlene, David, and Mark) would be, Barr said “Your question is intellectual property that may be developed later, so I don’t want to get into that”.

congrats, maya rudolph

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Maya Rudolph Welcomes a Girl

by Sarah Michaud

After playing pregnant in this summer’s Away We Go, Maya Rudolph has welcomed a real-life bundle of joy: her second child with director Paul Thomas Anderson.

Maya Rudolph Welcomes a Girl

Maya Rudolph and Paul T. Anderson

The couple’s daughter, Lucille, was born Nov. 6 in Los Angeles, the Saturday Night Live alum’s rep tells PEOPLE exclusively.

Lucille joins big sister Pearl, 4. As with their first child, Rudolph and Anderson, 39, chose not to find out the sex of the baby prior to delivery.

“We didn’t find out with [Pearl], which was kind of fun,” Rudolph, 37, told David Letterman.

“Because when you’re ready to throw in the towel and you’ve got nothing positive to think about or feel, because you’re so heavy and you want to float in a pool of salt water to be buoyant, it was nice to have something to look forward to.”-SOURCE

-I thought this was a cute interview, too.  Not nearly as cute as little Pearl though!-

Actress Maya Rudolph, who is currently pregnant with her second child, sat down recently withBlackBookmag to talk about her daughter Pearl,3. Read below as Maya answers a few questions about being a mother to her first-born.

Q: Did you set out thinking that you’d be a specific type of mother to Pearl?

A:  There’s definitely this fantasy that’s like, “I’m not going to be a mother, I’m going to be Mother-f#$%^*&-Theresa.” And then you realize that you’re still the same person, the same things still bother you, you’re not perfect, but you can still be someone’s parent, someone’s mother, and it can still be okay. There’s no question that you want to give them everything and you want their lives to be perfect. Has any human achieved that? No, probably not.

Q: Once Pearl was born, was she just as you imagined she’d be?

A: We didn’t know if she was going to be a boy or a girl, and, when she finally came out, there was a really quick snip and suddenly, she was resting on my chest, staring at me. And her eyes were super-black. She looked like Marlon Brando in The Island of Doctor Moreau, because she was covered in all of these white blankets staring at me. I remember, in that moment, thinking, Yes, this is my baby. I’d always tried to picture what my baby would look like, and in that second, I was like, Yes, this is the baby I’ve been expecting. And then the doctor said, “Oops, we forgot to see what it was.” I didn’t know if it was a boy or a girl, but I knew it was my baby—you spend so much time being pregnant, not knowing who the hell is coming.

Q: how has it been for you to watch a person forming her own world, using you as her mothership and then going off on her own.

A: There’s no question: you get that proud mom grin sometimes, when it’s like, Check it out. That’s my kid. But, yeah, she is who I thought she’d be in a lot of ways. Let’s put it this way: If she had come out as a total wallflower, and said stuff like, “I hate reading and I don’t like to perform,” then I’d be like, That’s not my kid. So it doesn’t really surprise me that she’s like, “Hey, I’m funny and I like to hang out.”

heidi & seal & lou & leni & henry & johan

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Seal posted photos on his website!  So beautiful!

 

“It’s difficult to imagine loving another child as much as you love your existing children,” Seal writes. “Anyone who has a family will tell you this. Where will one find that extra love? If you love your existing children with all of your heart, how then can one possibly find more heart with which to love another?”. “On Friday, Oct. 9, 2009, at 7:46 p.m., the answer to this question came in the form of our fourth child and second daughter,” he continues. “Lou Sulola Samuel was born, and from the moment she looked into both of our eyes, it was endless love at first sight. She is beautiful beyond words and we are happy that she chose us to watch her grow over the coming years.”

happy birthday, amy

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Today is Amy Grant’s birthday.  I won’t be baking her a cake today as I did in my youth, but I thought I’d post this Amy anecdote that I came across while surfing the internets.  The excerpt is a retelling of a bit from a recent Lewis Black stand-up routine found here. Happy Birthday, Amy!

Last night, Black told a story that lasts about 10 minutes. By the 10th minute, the audience response was a tidal wave of laughter.

The bit centered on Black following country music superstar Vince Gill to the stage during a USO show in Afghanistan. There were 8,000 troops in attendance, and, as Black said, “They were all just crazy about Vince Gill, who is a country western legend. Let me tell you something about country western music: A lot of it is, well, s—! Even people who are country western music fans have to admit that a lot of it is, well, s—! Some of it’s good. The rest of it is based on old episodes of ‘The Jerry Springer Show.’ ”

Gill opened his 30-minute set with a song.

“Thirty seconds into this song, I had a feeling come over me that is the same feeling I get when I am taking a bath and the water temperature is just right,” Black said. “The song was that (effing) beautiful.”

Gill then told a story.

“The story was funny! So, he’s funny, too. And he was clean,” Black said. “The son of a bitch can sing, he’s funny, and he’s clean. I’m offstage, going over my material, taking out all the profanity. I’m left with 4 ½ minutes of stage time!”

Gill then brought out his wife.

“If you don’t know who Vince Gill is married to, then you should be,” Black glowered. “His wife is Amy Grant, the most beautiful Christian singer in all of Christiandom. She sings like an angel, she is beautiful, and she is filled with cream! With these two onstage, being angelic and basking in their angelic Christian love, I was willing to accept Jesus Christ as my personal savior, just to get the crowd behind me!”

Gill then sang a song inspired by his father.

“Vince Gill wrote this song in tribute to his dead father,” Black called out. “Now, who isn’t going to like this song about his dead father? Nobody! I thought, ‘I’m screwed. I don’t have time to go out and kill mine!’ The title of this song is ‘It’s Hard to Kiss the Lips at Night That Chew Your Ass Out All Day Long.’ Face it,that’s (an effing) funny title! And we have a profanity we can use: ass! Oh, hee-hee! Vince Gill has established the one profanity I can use. Great!”

With the troops roaring, Gill and Grant finally left the stage.

“So now it’s, ‘Let’s hear what the aging Jewish guy has to say!’ ” Black shouted. “I only wanted one thing: for the person who decided I should be following Vince Gill to appear onstage, too, so this person canshare this experience with me!”