Boris Frederic Cecil Tay-Natey Ofuatey-Kodjoe has been a hottie since his early modeling days, back when he was gyrating in TLC videos (“Red Light Special”) and showing up to look good for Faith Evans “(“Never Let Go”). But since then, he’s proven himself to be more than a pretty face. Kodjoe has established himself as a pretty good actor, a businessman and even a funny man thanks to his time on The Real Husbands of Hollywood. If that’s not enough, he’s also a great dad. Say what you want about Kodjoe’s personality (after seeing him in person and reading about past Twitter comments, yeah, he can be a bit…stank), but no one can deny that this guy is one delicious looking brother, and we’re talking delicious in one of his suits, or bare-chested and shiny. Click on through and you’ll see what we mean!

While Betty & Coretta might not have had people seeing Emmy nominations in the future of the stars, especially not Mary J. Blige (if you ask Betty Shabazz’s daughter, Ilyasah), there are two more Lifetime movies on the way to help you celebrate Black History Month. Toni Braxton’s Twist of Faith is ready to premiere this weekend, and the trailer for Pastor Brown has just been released, with that movie set to premiere on the 16th.

Directed by actor Rockmond Dunbar, the movie stars Salli Richardson-Whitfield, who is playing the daughter of a dying pastor, whose last wish is for his daughter to return to the church and take over his place in the pulpit. Unfortunately, Whitfield’s character has a less than stellar past (including stripping and leaving behind a son), which makes her return home anything but smooth. Especially when that drama comes to light. She has to try and rebuild a relationship with her sister, played by Nicole Ari Parker, and her son, who is now almost a grown up, played by Michael B. Jordan, and find a way to lead a church who doubts her. Ooooh the drama. Check out the trailer for the film below and let us know if you’ll be tuning in to the Lifetime movie on February 16.

We see them on TV, and on the movie screen. We hear them on the radio. We follow them on Twitter. Our fave celebs are creating all kinds of buzz and blazing trails in everything they do. These business-savvy celebs have launched some lucrative ventures worth checking out. Take a look…

straightfromthea.com

Jennifer Hudson

It seems that just about everything JHud touches turns to gold. First, it was her Oscar-worthy role in Dreamgirls. Then it was her Grammy-award winning debut album. Now it is Weight Watchers. JHud wowed us with her phenomenal weight loss reveal last year, and now she hopes to influence people in her native Chicago to do the same. JHud became the first celebrity to have a Weight Watchers center when she opened the Jennifer Hudson Weight Watchers Center in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood last fall.

What’s next for JHud? A launch of her new clothing line, the Jennifer Hudson Collection on QVC this fall, as well as recurring role on the hit NBC show Smash, where she’ll take on the role of Broadway star Veronica Moore.

If you haven’t had a chance to check out Melissa Harris Perry’s weekend show on MSNBC you really should because she’s putting the issues of the black community, and black women in particular, on the map in a major way.

This Sunday, the Princeton professor invited actress Nicole Ari Parker, Curly Nikki blogger Nikki Walton, University of Pennsylvania professor Anthea Butler, and cultural critic Joan Morgan to have a candid discussion about the natural hair boom, which has sent relaxer sales on the decline since 2007. The women also talked about why black hair in general is a $185 billion business and I love that Nicole Ari Parker laid the truth behind that figure right out on the line.

“What’s so interesting about that,” she said, is “with all of the politics and all the emotional health issues, and us loving ourselves, we’re vain. We want to look good.

“Nobody is talking about that. We even judge each other. We were just talking about Solange being upset on twitter because there is still this thing about getting your hair done—whether it’s an afro, twists, braids, relaxers—everyone wants their hair done, so she embraces just get up and go, and she’s beautiful.”

Beyond that understandable economic growth, the women also delve into the other economic side of black hair and the radical idea of people robbing hair stores to steal hair that actually came from someone else’s head to put on another person’s and what kind of mentality and, frankly, addiction and issues of acceptance spark that sort of behavior.

It was a really interesting two-part discussion that you can see unfold in the clips below. Check out the dialogue and Nicole Ari Parker’s comments on the reactions she received from men once she went natural and how she actually got more attention when she let the perms go (not that she’s not already happily taken).

What do you think about the segment> Have any of you had a similar experience?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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Source: Mrsgrapevine.com

Boris Kodjoe may get a few side-eyes for his Twitter commentary but one thing we can’t argue with is that this man loves his wife, Nicole Ari Parker. Today, the gorgeous couple is celebrating their seventh anniversary and the man who brought two lovely children into the world with his former “Soul Food” co-star chose to commemorate the special day with a surprise, one-of-a-kind poem for his wife on Essence.com:

My Seven Year Itch

You’ve always been my itch, so many ways you’ve touched my body, mind and soul from the moment He designed our paths to cross, finally.

You’ve always been my itch, so good to me I’ve wanted you day after day, night after night, making me wonder how my body was able to be without you all this while, before our very first touch.

You’ve always been my itch, giving wings to my thoughts, encouraging them to unforeseen heights, where I would build our castle in the sky, fit for a king and his queen.

You’ve always been my itch, filling my spirit with comfort and peace like I hadn’t felt since a child in Oma’s garden, so familiar and yet so new.

You’ve always been my itch. My seven year, seven days a week, 24/7 itch I always want, desire, crave, and never ever want to be without.
Not for seven seconds.

Nicole,
Happy 7th anniversary
Let’s do this again
I love you more

A couple of months ago, Boris told Essence that men need to learn to be more present in their relationships and make a woman feel special at all times. He certainly is a man of his word. Love, love, love these two!

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

Source: Playbill.com

Truthfully, I could just post Blair Underwood’s profound response to the criticism the cast of the Broadway remake of a Streetcar Named Desire is receiving and be done because he so clearly pinpointed the underpinnings of the backlash, but since context is key, I figure I better provide some.

On April 22, a multi-racial production of Tennessee Williams’ classic, a Streetcar Named Desire, opened with Blair Underwood, Nicole Ari Parker, Daphne Rubin-Vega and Wood Harris. The piece was expected to run only until July 22 but stellar reviews have warranted another month of shows due to the positive response from people who have focused on the craft of the actors, rather than their color. Though Streetcar is not a story about race, the racial makeup of the reproduction has somewhat overshadowed the story they are telling, as one critic in particular made it his point to dismiss the play as mere foolishness.

At the end of 2011, before this production even opened, New Yorker writer John Lahr wrote a wish list of sorts of things he didn’t want to see in theater the coming year, and we can deduce from his words, that one of those things is this production. He wrote:

“And no more infernal all-black productions of Tennessee Williams plays unless we can have their equal in folly: all-white productions of August Wilson.”

It’s the age-old, if they can do it, we should be able to too, argument white people have used to fight black history month, the need for affirmative action, and any other policy, event, or situation that seeks to level the playing field among the races. What white people don’t realize when they make these silly comments is that they already can and usually are doing whatever it is we’re still trying to do, hence the push for whatever effort we’re vying for at the moment. That controversial sentiment continues to follow the film so much so that Blair Underwood and Nicole Ari Parker have almost had to defend this production, and perhaps after being questioned on the matter one too many times, Blair decided to make the case for this play plain and simple, for those who want to understand it. He wrote on Facebook:

“Though 90% of the reviews have been positive…(we are, after all critiquing an art form & everyone is entitled to their own opinions), it is in the commentaries from the likes of John Lahr (theatre critic for The New Yorker magazine) where you realize that there are those who are not even remotely interested in reviewing or critiquing the work and/or artistry upon the stage. Mr. Lahr & other so-called “guardian Elite” of the New York theatre world, would rather take a position of condescension & dismissal when people of color have the “audacity” to take on the extraordinary, beautiful work of Tennessee Williams. Once you know your history and know that there was indeed a culture of people (in the 1700s), endemic to Louisiana called the “gens de colour libre,” or “free people of color,” and that these people owned plantations & some actually owned their own slaves, there is no basis to dismiss the backstory of our Dubois sisters who hail from their family owned plantation called Belle Reve; Or to dismiss the part of the story where Blanche Dubois pines for an oil millionaire called Shep Huntleigh. If these dismissive Nay Sayers knew their history, they would know that there were a number of black people that owned oil wells in the 30s & 40s:

These are three actual black millionaires in the deep south of the 1930s & 40s that serve as prototypes for Shep Huntleigh:

-Lee Wilder Thomas

-William Madison McDonald

-Joseph Jacob Simmons

madamenoire.com

There are a myriad of reasons why marriage-minded people find themselves single in their 30’s and 40’s. We can’t all marry our high-school sweethearts days after graduation, but that doesn’t mean we won’t come across the love of our lives eventually.

In fact, Pew Research Institute found that a substantial number of people don’t get married for the first time until their 30′s. Further, study after study proves that marrying later in life is actually a benefit for those who want to get married and stay married.

The actresses on the following slides prove it’s never too late to live your “Happily Ever After” and you can still find “The One” after your 30^th birthday.

Read the rest of this entry »

Photograph by Autumn de Wilde

Tennessee Williams’ hit Broadway play A Streetcar Named Desire, which originally starred Marlo Brando (Stella!), is coming back to the stage with an all black cast.

This time around, Blair Underwood is playing the role of Stanley. Nicole Ari Parker plays Blanche DuBois, Daphne Rubin-Vega is Stella, and Wood Harris plays Mitch. The play’s producers,  Stephen C. Byrd and Alia M. Jones, were behind the 2008 revival of  Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

The revival production, which opened this past weekend at the Broadhurst Theatre, is receiving moderate to favorable reviews. The Associated Press called it “ flawed but compelling,” giving it 2 1/2 stars out of four. While Entertainment Weekly gave it a B+.  But you’re the best critic when it comes to your tastes, so it’s best to see the show for yourself.

Check out pictures of the cast from their opening weekend, below.

Source: The YBF

Blair Underwood and Nicole Ari Parker take a bow at the end of a show.

Source: The YBF

After the shows, the cast attended an after party. It’s good to see Wood Harris working. The man is so talented. And we’re loving Nicole’s dress and (natural?) hair.

If you’re going to be in NYC in the near future, you can score some tickets here.

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FashionBombDaily

Hey loves! It’s weekend wrap-up time and I’ve got some music news, movie news, entrepreneurial news and some other stuff to tell you about.  Let me say this in case you didn’t know: some of these celebs are crazy…and think we are too. Check it out!

Read the rest of this entry »

Boris Kodjoe and Nicole Ari Parker are one of our favorite black Hollywood couples—they’re gorgeous, in love, and seemingly have minimal drama living in the suburbs of Atlanta away from the limelight. After seven years of marriage, 10 years of being together, and two kids, the pair seems to be doing something right, and they recently chatted with Essence.com to share what that something is, and how other couples can get it.

When it comes to men, “Guys have to be more present,” Boris says:

“When the wife walks in, it should be an event. You have to look up, you have to close the computer, and you have to say, hey baby, wow!”

I knew there was a reason I liked this man—besides his looks. Of course Nicole doesn’t have any complaints with that advice, but she says it’s not just about being complimented, it’s the simple things like being treated that way that make her want to go out of her way to please him.

“When he does it, I feel like a million bucks,” she says. “Then I’m nice all day. That’s when the food comes. I’m roasting chicken with rosemary and lavender, and everything.”

I don’t think there’s any woman who disagrees with that sentiment, but for some reason some men just don’t get it. Like Boris says, it’s very simple:

“Make her feel great and you get food and everything else.”

#Truth! Check out more of the couple’s exclusive—and hilarious—interview as they talk about meeting on the set of “Soul Food,” how they plan to make it last forever, and things you need to be wary of before jumping the broom.

What’s your secret to a happy marriage?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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