RIP Larry Hagman

Another one of our iconic Texans has passed on.  Actor Larry Hagman, who everyone remembers due his most famous character as JR Ewing for the CBS and rebooted TNT show Dallas, passed away of complications from throat cancer yesterday afternoon in Dallas.

The 81 year old actor was born in Weatherford, TX to actress Mary Martin and while many people remember him for playing the delightfully ruthless oil baron JR, there's another role people of my generation remember him for in addition to his roles on Broadway, and movies such as  Fail-Safe, Nixon and Primary Colors . 

He played astronaut Major Anthony Nelson on the sitcom I Dream Of Jeannie that ran on NBC from 1965-1970.



He recently reprised the role of JR Ewing in the TNT reboot of Dallas that started earlier this summer, was renewed and has completed shooting for its second season that will start January 28.

As to what that means for the rebooted Dallas is still yet to be determined, but we will all miss JR's larger than life presence on the show and the man who played him.

Rest in peace Larry.

Scandal Season 2 Starts Tonight!

Y'all know how much I love Kerry Washington, and I'm looking forward to the start of the second season of the Shonda Rhimes produced ABC show Scandal starting at 9 PM CDT.

I also like Columbus Short and his character Harrison, too.

It cranks up tonight and picks up where it left off from that Season One ending cliffhanger episode.  It lets us know who Quinn Perkins really is, delves into her backstory and begins to answer the questions of what's up with Olivia and POTUS Fitz, how sprung is he over her (and vice versa) and is the FLOTUS actually pregnant?  

It'lll be interesting to see what clients and cases pop up requiring the special PR skills of Olivia and her team.  So yep, it's going to be another interesting season at Olivia C. Pope & Associates.

Sherman Helmsley Moves To Deluxe Apartment In The Sky

Another one of the iconic actors of my youth has passed on.   I also had the pleasure of meeting him during my airline days, so I was doubly sad to hear this news.  

Actor Sherman Helmsley, who played George Jefferson on that iconic CBS show The Jeffersons, Deacon Ernest Fry on NBC's Amen and was the voice of Earl Sinclair's boss BP Richfield on the ABC animated series Dinosaurs was found dead in his El Paso, TX home at age 74. 

Helmsley's George Jefferson started out as the counterpart neighbor to Archie Bunker but moved on up to his own groundbreaking lead actor sitcom role in 1975 along with television wife Isabel Sanford who passed away in 2004.  The show earned Helmsley Emmy and Golden Globe nominations and The Jeffersons was the first show to feature an upscale African-American couple.  It was also the first to feature an episode with a Black trans character.  

When it was canceled ten years later, it not only at the time was the longest running sitcom on television, it led to his role on 'Amen' from 1986-1991 

Dinosaurs was a guilty pleasure for me when it was on, and I was pleased to discover that Helmsley was doing the voice of BP Richfield..  

Helmsley's death has also caused me to reflect on how much better television was in the 70's and 80's and early 90's in terms of not only entertaining you, but leaving you with a social message as well.  It's something we really need to get back to.   

Rest in peace Mr. Helmsley.  Thanks for the long career in which you made us laugh and entertained us.  Enjoy that rest you've earned in that deluxe apartment in the sky.

Our Chocolate Coming Out Parameters Are Not Like Yours

Over the weekend I shook my head and chuckled to myself as the reactions in the Blogosphere and elsewhere began to trickle in as a result of Queen Latifah's performance at the Long Beach Pride Festival and Raven's comments regarding rumors that she's part of the rainbow family.

The Queen has been dogged by those rainbow rumors ever since she played butch lesbian Cleo in the movie Set It Off off back in the late 90's.  Her appearance at the 4th largest pride festival in the States only added new fuel to the fire.

The latest person to feel the come out of the chocolate rainbow closet heat is now 26 year old Raven-Symoné in the wake of a National Liar Enquirer article claiming she was dating America's Next Top Model out lesbian contestant AzMarie Livingston

Raven tweeted this response to the rumors

"I'm living my PERSONAL life the way I'm happiest," she tweeted. "I'm not one, in my 25 year career to disclose who I'm dating. and I shall not start now. My sexual orientation is mine, and the person I'm datings to know. I'm not one for a public display of my life."

She continued that "however that is my right as a HUMAN BEing whether straight or gay. To tell or not to tell. As long as I'm not harming anyone. I am a light being made from love. And my career is the only thing I would like to put on display, not my personal life. Kisses!"

Got that right.   Thanks for telling it like it T-I-S is, Raven.

While having more out and proud chocolate rainbow people is always a good thing and frankly we could use more positive Black TBLG role models, it's not only still up to that person to make the call when they are comfortable enough in their own skin to do so,  we have as African descended rainbow people different parameters we factor into that coming out decision.

Black people in general are politically liberal, but socially conservative.   When I say conservative, I don't mean the batturd crazy stuff that is on regular display in Republican circles.   We are also as a community still grappling with as the recent marriage equality evolution and announcement by President Obama was an example of, reconciling our personal deeply held faith traditions to our social justice leanings when it comes to the issues of BTLG human rights.  

And yeah, let me be real on this, some of my peeps are just straight up transphobes and homophobes hiding behind their faith to be as bigoted as they wanna be.   The faith based drama they stir up causes deleterious effects in our lives.

As we African-descended transwomen are painfully reminded of on a monthly basis, the anti-LGBT hate speech fuels anti-trans violence that has cost far too many transpeople our lives.  It forces us to factor personal safety into our coming out decision making.. 

Many of us Black GLBT people grow up in the church and still faithfully attend regular Sunday services because our religious faith is an intrinsic core value we build the rest of our lives around.  If coming out means that we're no longer welcome in a church we've attended since childhood, that's for some people a price they are not willing to pay.

Our families and those relationships are also as important to us as the ones we have with our church and our faith and spirituality.   One of the things I was afraid of when I transitioned was how I would handle the worst case scenario of never seeing any of my family members again if they chose to cut ties to me. 

While my family relationship was rocky for a few years, fortunately that permanent split I feared didn't happen even though I was prepared for it had it occurred. But I have run across people in my nearly two decades spent in the rainbow community for whom birthdays and holidays are very depressing moments for them because their families did cut ties with them.  

Since we African-Americans have had to deal with being the last hired and first fired in this country, a J-O-B has huge importance to us. 

If you're a public figure like Queen Latifah and Raven, you additionally have to factor into your decision whether coming out is worth the money and roles you're going to lose out on in a vanillacentric Hollywood that is already hard enough for straight cisgender Black actresses to work in.
 
Now people, leave Raven-Symoné and The Queen alone about their private lives and who they may or may not be sleeping with. We are already blessed enough in terms of them sharing their singing and acting talents to entertain us, and they deserve to have some part of their lives that is private.

Neither is it any of our concern who they choose to sleep with.    If they wish to tell us that part of their business, that should be their decision alone to make in terms of going public with that or not and if they do the timing of that announcement.

Whitney Goes Home

I've been watching the homegoing service of Whitney Houston for most of this rainy depressing day in H-town. 

I've also been contemplating the fact we're only a year apart age wise and its been a week since the shocking news circled the globe that she died way too soon.  

Sure the movie Sparkle when it comes out near her August 9 birthday will give us one last chance to see her and hear some fresh music from the soundtrack of it. But during most of the 3 hours and 45 minutes the service lasted, I was pondering a lot of things including how capricious life is.

Life is not only capricious, it's chock full of sometimes cruel ironies at times. I doubt that Dionne Warwick thought that she'd be the MC of her talented cousin's funeral, but yet there she was doing so. 

I thought about the now 18 year old Bobbi Kristina and how she was going to deal with the pain of losing her mother, and Bobbi Kristina's elegantly dressed grandmother stoically walking behind the casket supported by people on either side of her while dealing with burying her daughter.

As the parade of family members, dignitaries, ministers, and people from the entertainment and music industries took their turns either to say a few words or serenade her in song the reality hit me, especially as they lifted up her casket at the conclusion of the service to the tune of her singing 'I Will Always Love You'  this wasn't a bad dream and we would never see her again or hear that angelic voice live in concert.

And at that point I started crying at that thought. 

'The Game' Season 5 Cranking Up In January

I was deliriously happy when BET resurrected the NAACP Image Award winning series The Game and decided to broadcast a new season of 13 shows.

The Mara Brock Akil produced show picked up two years later where the Season 3 storylines left off when the CW abruptly canceled it after its merger with UPN  

The Game kicked off Season 4 with a bang on January 11, 2011 when it garnered a record breaking 7.7 million viewers in its BET premiere.   Pleased with The Game's successful season, BET subsequently renewed the show for a fifth season with a 22 episode run    

Season 5 of The Game will commence on January 10, 2012 and we get to see what has happened since the Season 4 finale.   Derwin and Melanie were at a fertility clinic in which he found out the news that Melanie previously had undergone an abortion.  Jenna has turned down Malik's desire to reconcile with her.   He's also in hot water with the Sabers owner after he found out  about Malik's affair with his wife Parker, and Tasha discovers during a chance encounter with Bo that he's not only not terminally ill, but is married with a family.   And speaking of family, Jason quits his sports talk show job to focus on parenting his increasingly rebellious and out of control daughter Brittany

Here's the sneak peek video that was on the BET website for the show..
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So I'll definitely be looking forward to checking it out on Tuesday nights and watching the drama surrounding my fave characters on The Game.   I'm also hoping the show continues on the successful path it has blazed since being revived and broadcast on BET and gets renewed for another season..

Jamie Clayton Interview

I talked about Jamie getting the role of Kyla on the HBO series Hung in a June 19 post, and now she's starting to do interviews.about it and being a trans actress in Hollywood.

Here's Jamie discussing it on The Insider. 

Thandie Newton Takes 'Vogue' To Task For Lack Of Black Women On Cover

Guest post from Renee of Womanist Musings, who is all that and four bags of ketchup flavor potato chips.

There is no doubt that actress Thandie Newton is not only incredibly beautiful, but accomplished; however, like many other women of colour, she finds herself unable to grace the cover of 'Vogue' magazine.  In an interview with Pride Magazine, she had the following to say according to Huffpo:

"Don't get me started on black people being on the cover of big magazines. It's so preposterous. I mean, I've been on the cover of Harper's Bazaar four times; I've been on the cover of InStyle four times, but Vogue, not once."

"And people say to me, I mean literally, people have said to me, 'What have you got against Vogue that you don't want to be on their cover?' And I just laugh."

"They [Vogue] don't feel the need to represent because it doesn't make any sense to them. It's just baffling to me, but as usual America will dictate the ways things go and a magazine like Vogue will just follow America," she said. "But it's like, don't you want to trail blaze?"

Vogue does not feel any pressure to have equal representation for women of colour because the media, just like every other social institution, aids in the maintenance of White supremacy.  We have seen time and time again that women of colour are denied coverage that White women so easily get, and when they do finally make the cover of a magazine, they have to worry that the image will be so lightened that they will be unrecognizable.  Women of colour are also repeatedly denied the opportunity for meaningful acting parts, but they sure are deemed desirable when the part of a maid is available. Even Thandie once played the role of a maid, in Interview with the Vampire, starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise.

Race is a large determinant of who gets positive attention in the media.  When it comes to women, there can be no doubt that White women still represent what it is to be 'woman'.  They are held up as the most talented, attractive, maternal, sexy etc., while Black women are still relegated to the place of the world's unwoman.  The fact that White women continue to gain from the othering of women of colour, means that though many supposedly fight for equality, they are not moved as a group to recognize their racial privilege, or defend us.

Thandie is not the only woman of colour to talk about the erasure in fashion magazines like Vogue.  Despite the big splash that an all Black version of Italian Vogue a few years ago, Black women are continually relegated to the sidelines.  A simple look at the catwalk, shows that White women continue to be overrepresented in fashion shows.

Unfortunately too often, people cite the exception to the rule rather than the rule.  Putting women like Michelle Obama on the cover does not negate the fact that women of colour are rarely featured, nor does it stand as proof that the fashion industry, or Vogue magazine is not racist. Erasure is a form of covert racism that is practiced on a daily basis.  The very same people who would never dream of using a racial slur, have no problem excluding Black women, or actively denying us good and fair representation.

The common response to this is that Blacks should start our own magazines, if we want representation, but the truth of the matter is that a magazine is not an easy undertaking to start. No matter how talented a person is, the start up capitol is still necessary and since we know that Blacks are economically disenfranchised, the very idea that Blacks should just start our own separate magazines is ridiculous.  We don't exist on a level playing field, and this why proposals such as this, as a way to deal with erasure and racism is quite simply ridiculous.

I personally don't read Vogue, because I am not interested in fashion, and I certainly would not support a magazine that cannot be arsed to have someone who looks like me appear on even a semi-regular schedule; however, I recognize what this lack of exposure is doing to young Black women.  There is a reason why even today despite all the gains of the Black community, that Black children continue to prefer the White doll.  Everywhere they look, everything that is constructed as good, pure and beautiful is White.  From the television shows that they watch, to billboard and magazine covers they are shown, to be White is to be worthy of attention and adoration.  No matter how hard a parent tries to invest a child with racial pride, they are fighting the institution of White supremacy, which is determined to enforce the exact opposite. We need Black women on the covers of magazines like Vogue, if our children are ever to see themselves as valuable.  We need these covers to dispel the idea that Black women are just born unattractive.  There is absolutely nothing neutral about erasure and until we address the fact that it essentially amounts to a value judgment based in racist ideals, we are going to continue to have a divided society in which some people are privileged over others, simply based in the Whiteness of their skin.

Jazzmun

You have probably seen this talented performer in various movies and TV shows over the last decade but didn't know her name until now.   Jazzmun has been movies such as the 40 Year Old Virgin, Punks, and numerous television shows such as Detroit 1-8-7, Big Shots,  The Wayans Brothers, and Roseanne.