While there are a million reality television shows out there, I still enjoy the comfort of the cinematic experience and a good sitcom here and there.
Nowadays, things are on the up and up, as there are many great black actors who are bringing serious talent to the big and small screens. Take for instance the very fine Michael Ealy in the buddy-cop comedy “Common Law” (one of my favorite shows of the summer), and Jamie Foxx in the new Tarantino western Django Unchained (dropping this Christmas). But while very talented black actors and actresses are getting the chance to flex their acting chops and do so very well, there are still some actors that seem to fall short on the big and small screen.

Here are a few seasoned actors who should work on their craft, and really try to break form the norm so they can end up in A-List bliss instead of the black hole that is reality television, or even worse: Doomed to being seen solely in Thursday night BET movies.

Source: uptownmagazine.com

Lisa Raye

I don’t know if doing Player’s Club held Lisa Raye back creatively, but every performance I see of the star seems to be Diamond all over again (talking like she’s reading off of a cue card). You might be able to blame it on the lack of diverse roles, but it seems that the all-white lover only plays the sassy sista, and even on her show, “Single Ladies,” it’s more of the same. If you’re going to be the sassy sista every time, at least put your foot in it and make us want to keep watching! Oh Lisa, you’ve been in the game since ’95 and there still hasn’t been much evolution. But we’ll keep our fingers crossed…

Singer Sheryl Crow once said that “A change would do you good,” and when it comes to hair, she was probably talking about me. I don’t really believe in rocking one style for too long because I’m one of those people who will get antsy really fast, see other people’s styles and think, “Now THAT would look great on me!” In the time that I’ve gone all chameleon with my hair, I’ve done many a thing that have caused me to lose some hair, as well as have it grow like weeds on an unkempt lawn. Thought I’d share a few of those hair lessons with you as you go on your own hair journeys.

Confidence Is Everything

Back when I went to the salon and allowed the beautician to put clippers to hair I had been trying to have grow long for years, when it was all over and I looked in the mirror, I didn’t like what I saw. You could see my scalp! And as a woman with a larger head, the results weren’t as fabulous immediately like I thought they would be. But one day I went to work and a co-worker told me the look fit me well, and after some thought, I agreed that it wasn’t so bad after all. Little did I know that being confident about the look would inspire other people. Customers used to walk in the store I worked at and tell me they loved my hair, and after a while I was walking past mirrors thinking, “Yeah, I love it too…”

anonymousradioshow.wordpress.com

They say women are tricky, but men have their tricks too. Why else do women become hung up on men who are no good for us? Because those men know just how to keep us interested, in the face of the hard reality: they will never actually give us what we want. Check out these tips to help you forget about your bad boy.

(Express / Getty Images)- Black Voices

Style is no foreign concept to black people. For centuries we’ve either invented and trademarked trends or altered someone else’s fashions to make them our own. Black Voices.com compiled a list of black men who’ve embodied this quality over the years.

Head over to Black Voices see which celebs have been on the cutting edge when it comes to fashion.

More on Madame Noire!

• Canada Eh? 8 Celebrities We Didn’t Know Were Canadian
• Let Me Have My Shine!: How Jealousy Ruins Relationships
• Black Don’t Crack: Men Who Look Darn Good For Their Age
• “Mommy, Are We Born This Way Until We Get A Weave?”
• 10 Bad Habits That Get In the Way of Good Relationships
• Lil Kim Needs Some Friends
• When It’s Not Worth Fixing
• Why Your Clothing, Your Man, Your Hair and Reality TV Don’t Define Black Women

Christmas is this Sunday, and if you’re unlucky like a lot of people, you’ll have to see every crazy aunt, trifling cousin or drunken uncle at the family dinner. We all know family is family, and you love them the best you can, but in all honesty, there are some relatives you wind up wishing would have got caught in traffic on their way to your mother’s house. We all have at least one or two in our family, but then again, some of us have all the following ratchet relatives listed below. Pray for us.

This fall, there aren’t very many black faces in the new network broadcast line-up, so that means even fewer black women to represent.  However, there are a few shows where you can see black actors and actresses doing their thing, usually in secondary or recurring roles (sigh). So if you happened to be on the lookout, here are the new fall shows where you can find some great writing, good acting, and as a plus, a few black faces. 

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