We all know there’s Hollywood and then there’s black Hollywood. African American stars don’t get the same notoriety as their white counterparts despite their good looks, amazing acting chops and undeniable star power. Sad,right? From heartthrobs to veterans, these 15 thespians deserve the awards and accolades more than any other. Check out this list of black actors and actresses that should be leading in Hollywood.

WENN

Nia Long

Nia Long is beautiful. She is also the girl next door with a great deal of sass and sophistication. She lit our fire playing Nina in “Love Jones” and Bird in “Soul Food.” She’s been acting for quite some time and her staying power is phenomenal. Hollywood should take a deeper look.

Source: miumiu.com

If you’ve ever seen director Ava DuVernay’s work in either I Will Follow or Middle Of Nowhere, you know that she is immensely talented and has a knack for filming people of color in a way that has them looking absolutely regal. Recently, DuVernay partnered with high fashion brand Miu Miu, a subsidy of Prada, to produce a short film featuring the brand’s clothing. The film, called “The Door,” does not include any dialogue but it tells a story of a woman whose friends are trying to help her cope with and overcome a recent breakup.

In addition to Gabrielle Union, the woman whose going through the breakup, the film also features Adepero Oduye, from Pariah and Steel Magnolias, Emayatzy Corinealdi from DuVernay’s Middle of Nowhere, (which was an awesome film by the way), singer Goapele and veteran actress Alfre Woodard. DuVernay explained that the film got its title “The Door” because: “In the film, characters arrive at the door of a friend in need, bringing something of themselves. Eventually, we witness our heroine ready to walk through the door on her own. The door in the film represents a pathway to who we are.”

Check out this beautifully made 9-min film below. (If you’re not at work, make it full screen so you can bask in the beauty. )

Another week, another “Scandal” controversy. This week, Star Jones, who’s known for her strong, often unpopular, opinions is the latest to tweet out. Here’s what she had to say.

Source: Twitter

Wooo Star! Why she gotta be all that though?! I mean, I get it. Olivia Pope has made some terrible decisions in her personal and professional life. Though she is making moves and acquitting the innocent and convicting the guilty, she is nowhere near blameless in all of this. She’s slept, past tense, with the president, a married man. She’s constantly dealing dirt with shady people (murderers, spies and what not) and she rigged an election, all for the greater good. It’s really not okay. But even still I always bristle at one woman calling another a slore, even if that woman is a fictional character. Any one of us could be a slore by someone else’s standards. But all of Olivia’s whorish ways are in the past. As far as we know, present day Olivia has yet to sleep with Fitz. But that’s semantics.

Just this past week, a woman I went to college with wrote this extensive piece as to why she can no longer support “Scandal” with her viewership, despite the fact that she initially found the show very entertaining. She said that the more she watched it, the more she felt like she was being convicted by the Holy Spirit to let it go. She increasingly felt the story line glorified adultery. After reading her piece, I couldn’t argue with that. In fact, I even agreed that there are forms of media I consume that I need to be more cognizant of. You are what you ingest. If God convicts you to stop doing something, then by all means, don’t disobey him.

I just haven’t received that message from God. To me, watching the show, it’s quite obvious that both Olivia and Fitz are suffering because of their extramarital affair. At the end of the night she goes to bed alone, drinking wine and eating popcorn. (Has anyone ever seen her eat on the show?) He’s stuck in a loveless, emotionally draining marriage and they both have to publicly live a lie, day in and day out. I don’t know about you; but that is, in no way, the new hotness. It’s messy and honestly a really great reason why you shouldn’t mess with someone else’s husband, no matter how unhappy he is with his wife.

And maybe it’s just me, but I cannot get with Star’s rationale for Olivia getting together with Edison. Yeah, he’s a successful brotha; but he also threatened her and called her a slore! I know he wants to be with her and they have history together but that’s not love, Star! Even if Oliva decides to wash her hands of Fitz altogether and do better, certainly Edison isn’t the best option. Who calls a woman a slore and then proposes to her? No sir. If these two got married, something tells me, the next scandal the gladiators take on, will have something to do with Olivia being slapped around at home. And lawd knows we don’t need Huck to have to kill anyone else.

No, there is no way I could argue that “Scandal” and its characters are beacons of light. No one is completely “good” on this show. But at the end of the day, it’s not too different from the world we live in ourselves. No one is out here living a completely righteous life. We, women, despite success in our careers, often pick men who are no good for us. We’ve all collected a little dirt along the way. In fact, Kerry Washington told Oprah, that’s what drew her to the character. To paraphrase, she said there was a time when black women were only portrayed as wanton and loose, subservient and dimwitted, with plenty of attitude. Then there were the “Julias” and the “Clair Huxtables,” where black women were perfect, flawless in life and love. And now, black women are finally able to accept roles where we can play the human dichotomy realistically. Where good and evil can exist in one person. Hypocrisies and all. You know, the way life really works.

I can understand if you want to argue about “Scandal” on Twitter–mentioning both the actress, creator and network– or on other places on the internet (hence the reason for this post), because at the end of the day it’s a work of fiction. A television show, it’s supposed to inspire questions and debates. But if it starts to really challenge and conflict with the beliefs you hold dear, in a way that you feel is detrimental to your character, there’s always the option to do like my friend from school and turn the tv off.

Source: imdb.com

From 24 Wired

After an advanced screening for the new James Bond film Skyfall in New York City, Naomie Harris (Pirates of the Carribbean, 28 Days Later) discussed her role as the newest “Bond girl,” Eve. In particular, she talked about her intense physical training for the movie, what surprised her about it, and how it’s affected her since. Skyfall opens nationally November 9, 2012.

Read Naomie’s interview here.

These ladies kept the laughs coming on their respective television shows and in their classic movies, but after catching our eye, they seemed to show up less and less on our televisions and on the movie screen. They’re mad talented and while some have been preoccupied with more important things (including motherhood), others have just had a hard time getting a good role in a bias Hollywood. Here are nine women who need a job on TV or in a big career changing film ASAP, because their talents are too great to go to waste. Check it out (and be prepared to click…).

It’s rare that you see a black female accepting a nude scene in a movie. But, there have been some brave female actresses who have bared it all and took on a role that involved a nude scene.

Source: WENN

Halle Berry

Halle Berry made headlines and head turns with her topless scene in Swordfish, which banked her an extra $500,000.

Source: blogs.indiewire.com

The phrase “tragic mulatto” doesn’t conjure up negative emotions without reason but if there is one place where it pays—literally—to be a biracial woman, it’s Hollywood. Juliette Fairley, the child of a white mother and black father, doesn’t quite see it that way.

Shadow and Act recently published a press release from the actress who has decided to write, produce, and star in a series of short films titled, Mulatto Saga, Juliette Fairley’s Mulatto’s Dilemma, and Juliette Fairley’s Diary of a Mulatto Bride, and though the sheer use of the word mulatta, let alone the subject matter sounds a little 18^th century vintage, Ms. Fairley insists this genre of film is necessary. She even got biracial actress Jasmine Guy along for the ride because as Fairley puts it:

“There’s a lack of roles in Hollywood for biracial women. So, I create my own content that I star in and in the process I create work for other actors of all races, genders and nationalities.”

I’ll just let that first sentence sink in for a bit. I understand everyone has to carve out a niche that makes them relevant and I won’t discredit the biracial struggle or even the lack of modern-day depictions of the issues women of mixed heritage face; however to say that there is a lack of roles for biracial women in Hollywood is just wrong plain and simple. Did Juliette Fairley miss the memo? Biracial is the new black honey.

One doesn’t have to look very deeply to see that there is only one acceptable hue and hair texture in Hollywood and it is that of the biracial woman—and it is that reality that is actually quite deep. It’s not even so much Halle Berry getting roles over say Viola Davis or Paula Patton becoming the greatest thing since sliced bread while Nia Long has been absent from the big screen for years (minus “Mooz-lum”), it’s the reality that non-biracial black women take second fiddle to mixed women even when it comes to being cast in parts that are clearly meant to represent a woman of sole African or African American heritage.

Less than a month ago we exposed the blatant colorism in the “Abe Lincoln Vampire Hunter” film in which fair-skinned Jacqueline Fleming, a Copenhagen, Denmark-born actress of African American and Danish-German descent was chosen to play Harriet Tubman, a dark-skinned African Ashanti slave. Regardless of the mythical nature of the film, the choice to cast Fleming for the part proves the fallacy of the “it’s hard out here for a mulatta” meme Fairley wants us to buy into. It’s quite obvious that Fleming’s role was that of eye candy in the fantasy horror film and since it would have been too ridiculous to cast a completely white woman—although the nature of the entire film is quite far-fetched—a light-skinned woman of black and white ancestry was the next best thing to play the heroic slave figure.

You could even use the controversial casting of half-English, half-Zimbabwean Thandie Newtorn as an Igbo woman in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “Half of a Yellow Sun” to disprove Fairley’s point. As petitioners pointed out in their protest of the casting, yes Igbo people come in all shades of brown but none are like that of the biracial actress. When Africans can’t even get roles playing characters of African descent (Jennifer Hudson and the “Winnie” casting directors I’m looking at you), let alone Black Americans being allowed to take on characters without a light is right slant, it’s hard to feel much sympathy for the plight of the biracial actress, particularly when Fairley is trying to dredge up more empathy with such an antiquated term as mulatta.

It’s not the 1700s, mixed people no longer have to try to “pass” to be accepted in Hollywood or even the broader society. In fact, they’re at the top of the casting list no matter the medium, be it acting, singing, or modeling, due to their exotic features and ability to be black, but not really, when appearing on screen or in print. I know some would like us to think it’s simply because their light skin eliminates such hassles as having to adjust lighting to complement darker complexions (Acura I’m looking at you) but we all know it’s a little bit deeper than that. Issues certainly still remain when it comes to accepting biracial individuals, but let’s be clear, it’s the black community that still struggles with divisive attitudes and charges that people of mixed heritage act “too white” or aren’t down enough. Hollywood on the other hand welcomes them with open arms. I’ve yet to see a light-skinned or biracial woman complain she can’t find a decent role in Hollywood but the names of dark-skinned black woman who’ve repeatedly expressed that sentiment would roll off my tongue like bidding numbers at an auction if someone were to ask me.

We all need to tell our stories, and if Fairley has the means and the opportunity to tell hers then by all means she should do so—just don’t present it under the false guise of biracial discrimination. Let’s also not divide the black community any further than it already is. Though I’d like to say someone needs to put forth a concerted effort to employ darker-skinned actresses, let’s just work on showcasing the many facets of black women overall. We come in all shapes, shades, and sizes, let’s see that on the screen instead of segmenting ourselves further.

What do you think about Juliette Fairley’s film ideas and her claim that there’s a lack of roles in Hollywood for biracial women?

Brande Victorian is the news and operations editor for madamenoire.com. Follow her on twitter @Be_Vic.

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Source: flickr

Today marks the 77th birthday of one of our living legends, Diahann Carroll. With a career that spans over five decades, many of us don’t remember a time when the spry Carroll wasn’t on the stage or some type of screen. Whatever role she played, we could be sure that she would bring an air of class and dignity to the project and for that we’re thankful and are taking the time to celebrate her legacy through a series of pictures from her most memorable roles.