1st – Is she pregnant? She loves her Seddy Bear!

@ Marissa

So did I

Not sure what she is talking about. I don’t even see a lot of hoochie’s portrayed in movies thank God.

She look like she got that fit from Forever 21.

Black American should start their own Hollywood and not depend on White American, because you all see that they don’t give us good show and movies only a couple like the one’s they make for Holly Berry or Mr Washington. So all you rich folks get together and get a black Hollywood please.

I agree! Hollywood, please listen

SPEAK GIRL, THATS WHAT ITS ABOUT

I don’t think that the problem is seeing hoochies and gangstas in Hollywood movies, it’s that they’re not depicted in a realistic way. It’s nice to see successful Black men and women on the screen nowadays but if Black writers are going to white-wash them as if they’re not Black, as if they’re not dealing with Black issues in relationships and in the workplace (“Two Can Play that Game), then those films are no better than the films written by white folks.

Unless successful African-Americans actually don’t think they’re Black…

I think Terri’s compliant should not only be with White america, but her own people as well. Alot of the movies sterotyping Blacks are produced, directed, etc. by Black folks. So…

I am feeling this.

There is a lot more to us to being hoochies and gold diggers.

We have a mind and can use it to think Hollyweird.

^^^^then being

Awww, she looks really cute with a baby bump. And she looks really happy too. I have to agree with what she says. There are so many stories that could be told from our point of view but of course the white man just wants to show the ghetto hoochie side. Thats why we need to stop relying on ‘them’ to create projects. We need more Spike Lee’s and Oprahs to create their own projects and fund them. It can be done if we all pulled together but of course that will never happen.

^^^^amen^^

^^^^AMEN^^^^^

This is the most used comment by black actors. Lack of diversity…waa. waa.waa.

I UNDERSTAND her point but you can’t ask Hollywood for a handout. They have a vested interest in making movies that make PROFIT. Making movies about Black folks that work hard, love their black wives and kids will not make Hollywood money. Cause you can’t make white people give a shizz about us…and why should they?

That’s why Black actors as well as all African-Americans have got to get that “handout syndrome” out of their dome pieces and do a “Tyler Perry”

Plus…didn’t Oprah and Denzel put out “The Great Debater’s” ? It was a great film and it flopped…our own people don’t want to see movies unless it’s comedy (Madea) or Violence.

Unfortunately it’s called “show business” because if there’s no business there’s no show. Until we put our money where our mouth’s are we’ll continue to experience the same five black actors and actresses in every damn urban movie…

I concur Terri. You’re still a straight up “10″ and looking very lovely with your pregnancy swagger. Damn. . .how much I wish I were your husband and baby’s father.

RIGHT ON ..TERRI!

She looks beautiful. I do agree, however we as black folks don’t support our movies like we should. Most ppl rather wait and get it on bootleg. SMH!

I agree with her. I’m also SO tired of blacks being portrayed in such a negative light all the time. I get tired of Hollywood focusing on the negative as if that’s all their is to the black community. Their are some phenomenal black actresses and I hate that we don’t get to see them portraying strong characters.

Hear, hear. Pride, Great Debaters, Devil in a Blue Dress, Spike Lee movies, etc. – where are you Black audience? Support gentle Black movies (so they’re succesful) and the studios will make more of them. Mainstream audiences see that these movies make decent box-office and will be more likely to give them a try – thus exposing them to more Black actors and the Black experience.

Didn’t shows and films that depicted African-Americans in a somewhat realistic light

earn a lot of money back in the day? “The Cosby Show” was a Number 1-rated show and Emmy-Award winning. “Malcolm X” grossed $50 million dollars domestically. What the heck happened in fifteen years? Someone explain the Tyler Perry phenomenon to me, pleeeeeeeeeease?

Are Black people more ignorant to accept and even praise the Madea buffoonery now or more apathetic?

DOESNT SHE PLAY HELLA GHETTO ROLES

http://WWW.MYSPACE.COM/THAGRINDAHOLIC

“CHECK THE NEW TRACKS”

Also I think a Tyler Perry movie is way more damaging to the black collective psyche than something like boys in the Hood which was an intelligent film. It’s not the nature of the role that makes it sheer stupidity it’s the story telling. Black films these days are written on a fifth grade level.

Also as far as this whole black representation thing. Black people you are off the plantation just because white people choose to evaluate blacks as a whole instead of seeing each one of us as individuals doesn’t mean we should join in. If somebody thinks all black people act a certain way because of what they saw on a film screen then they are racist. I don’t see white folks in hizzy because Jason and freddie cougar are white.

cool…

I agree with her 100% because she isnt taking the stance of, say Bill Cosby, and saying that anything that is “ghetto” is a disgarce, because thats false. What she is saying is that there are ghetto black people the same way there are white trash whites and all can be shown in hollywood, but, dont show just one side. I dont think shes asking for a handout but hollywood is a reflection of society. Society thinks that people like Lindsey Lohan and Paris Hilton are more interesting than Angela Bassett and Jada Pinkett; they also think that they’re more maketable. Society thinks that beauty is a cetain hair type, a certain weight, a certain complextion. I can name 50 white actors and actresses but can only name a handful of black ones off the top of my head. It sounds simple to say do it yourself, but the type of money it takes to make a film, pay the actors, and market it? Huh! Thats why independent films rarely make it big unless they are bought by a major studio. That’s damn near billionare status to have the money to do that and have a successfull film that you will make money back on. I guess you can get Cosby, Oprah Winfrey, and the Bob Johnson’s of the world to create their own Black studio but they have an old school vision so you know that you will never see any “Keylolo’s” represented. We need that. Cosby once said that the “Martin” show was “modern day cooning”. I know some people that act just like Shanayna. I will admit that some of the acting was over the top but so was some of Fred Sanford shows. The point is.. we need hollywood to help us convey different sides of US and we also need them to see the art in our movies even if they cant relate.

Tell em Terri!! But I fully agree with soulwoman. When was the last black film that actually had some depth written and produced by someone black? A lot of our people are perpetuating the stereotypes with the trash they put out. I would say with the exception of Tyler Perry, but all of his films pretty much have the same formula. We neeed to step outside of ourselves and create some material that depicts the complexity that is our lives. AND NO MORE MOVIES WITH GABY AND MORRIS CHESNUT!!!

Why do we keep complaining about things we dont control aka Hollywood. Get control and we control our own destiney.

1874 there was an African American who created a production company and produced over 40 films. (sorry forgot the name, read about him in the book “40 Million Dollar Slave”)

So if it was done it that time why cant it be done today on a grander scale with the talent of black actors, producers and writers we have not to mention the money this group produces.

but i guess if its accepted amongst us that our success and accomplishments get a passing grade according to WHITE standards – then we have a flunking grade for numerous generation.

knowing our history knocks down barriers in the future.

Dina

She look like she got that fit from Forever 21.

Girl……I was thinking the exact same thing!

We do have a black movie studio (Tracey Edmonds/Robert Johnson) and they gave us Whose Your Caddy-a film so bad that NO STORE is selling it.

And tons of decent black films are made-they just go to dvd or get limited runs in theaters because the cast doesn’t appeal to the LCD-dumb black teens that keep BET on the air.

Remember How She Moves? No promotion whatsoever and people that saw it loved it.

Look at the stuff that get promoted by our own black media. How many times was Girlfriends covered in Vibe or XXL or King or other black magazines? Or the Bernie Mac Show? My Wife & Kids? The Parent Hood? Soul Food tv series?

In fact did any black magazine talk about poor Merlin Santanta or Tony Thompson or Pimp C? You better believe when those white boys died from drugs it got talked about in white magazines.

We fell apart when rappers started doing all the films and folks took whatever role was out there. There’s a reason why Bill Bellamy stopped doing films for a while after How to Be A Player. He got typed casted. And we saw a HUGE increase in hood movies on dvd. Now our decent films are going straight to dvd while crapfest films are in theaters.

And we can’t change the image that Hollywood puts out until we change it in our hoods. Yes it is okay for a black man to be a father to his SON (not just his daughter). Black boys can be smart in school. Black folk can still get married.

I always did have a thing for Levita.She’s a cutie…

SHE COULD NOT HAVE PUT ANY BETTER – BUT FOR SOME REASON “AMERICA” LOVES TO FOCUS ON THE NEGATIVE STEROTYPES OF BLACKS/AFRICAN-AMERICANS – IT’S BEEN LIKE THAT FOR DECADES. AND CONGRATULATIONS ON THE BABY MS. TERRI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

she is right on- it’s good to hear her put this out there

@Ghost- your insights are deep.

Speak!

Eloquent statement and I hope it opens eyes and ears to talent and diversity of black actresses. Speaking of, N’bushe Wright, one of the most talented and striking black actresses who has yet to get her due respect and recognition.

Married to and raising two, who better to represent black women…Obama 2008!

…”When was the last black film that actually had some depth written and produced by someone black”…

…good black movies don’t typically do well at the movies…why?

The Great Debaters & Rosewood are 2 that come to mind right now…black folks didn’t flock to the movies to see those…why?

I AM SICK OF BLACK NETWORKS LIKE BET TO STEPPING UP TO THE PLATE AND MAKING DECENT MOVIES. MTV MAKES MORE BLACK MOVIES THAN BET.

I UNDERSTAND WHAT SHE IS SAYING, WHERE IS THE DIVERSITY? ALSO, MANY OF THESE BLOCKBUSTER ROLES ARE BEING OFFERED TO BEYONCE, HALLE, CHRISTINA MILIAN (YES), ALICIA KEYS, ETC…..AND THESE WOMEN DONT REALLY LOOK BLACK, SO TO THE STUDIOS ITS PERFECT.

@ tj

Agreed with every thing said. Black actresses need to start auditioning for nonspecific ethnic roles and blow these people away. Not only is Halle doing it, Kerry Washington is also and thank god because Halle’s been shoved down my throat in a number of crappy movies one too many times. It’s time other black actresses specifically of the unknown variety and especially those not from the music industry have a go at making their mark on hollywd.

What is Hollywood supposed to do? Black actors are a special-interest constituency demanding a dozen contradictory objectives. Bow to one (middle-class portrayals), and a contrasting demand is raised (more stories about working-class blacks and the various youth subcultures). And where does the line start for the various Asian ethnicities, the Muslims, the Latinos, the Africans in all their sorrows, etc.? And who is going to go to these movies, assuming they could or should get made? The small statistical population of college-educated assimilated African Americans who want their vanity flattered on a movie screen? Inner-city types who want their turn in the public eye? Will the audience for one type of black movie go faithfully to another type of black movie that’s not to their taste in blackness? Will a hip-hop score have to be added to everything to signify a baseline blackness and hedge the filmmaker’s bets on the box office receipts?

It’s absurd. Hollywood could make a corresponding claim that black people should be more interesting. Even the most advanced of us don’t seem comfortable straying too far from our peasant roots (why else would Cornell West be “rapping”). Black stories are predictable. They’re a kind of socialist realism. The characters are only there to verify what we want to believe about authentic negritude (it’s urban, it’s impetuous, volatile, status obsessed). Is there anyone besides Carl Franklin, Charles Burnett, and that kid who made “Hav Plenty” (Christopher Scott Cherot)telling stories with characters who wouldn’t be at home in “Porgy and Bess”? And what is their reward from movie-mad black America? Tumbleweeds in the aisles?

Are we even ready for a higher artistry in our films? John Sayles wrote and directed a more compelling and complex vision of modern black life than anything I’ve seen on the black channels lately. The piety of the bourgeois commissariat (Oprah, Maya Angelou, etc.) over “The Color Purple” obscures its shortcomings and is the worst enemy imaginable of real art.

I think Ms. Vaughn is within her rights to complain, but her complaint is misdirected. The more immediate complaint should be with the black audiences. We have to be pushed to get beyond our provincialism and petty loyalties to the standard black-story tropes. We need to be ready for a challenge to our certainties about what is authentically black. We need better art. Especially a work that can kick over the idols. Without the hip-hop beat, please. Stand or fall on the firmness of the concept; no crutches.

In order for mass black audiences to be open to other types of films besides, hip-hop, thug street life or the other stereotypes a sense of for real book reading must occur.

As a whole our minds can be a little narrow.

I wonder if Hollywood did put out let’s say a slew of Black Films how many of us would really support them.

I personally would love to see

sci-fi Octavia Butler writings in film….

No one would go see it.

Blair Underwood tried to put out a sci-fi film couldn’t get it funded.

So there are a lot of parallels to this.

None are easy all are obtainable.

But this is how things can get started.

Duane Martin & his wife are involved in “black film” making, hopefully these artist get together and work with shareholders to get other films out.

The key is funding

How come every time I see her, she pregnant?

I like Terri. She’s pretty and talented. And while I understand what she’s saying, it really doesn’t matter because as soon as black people fight for and recieve more diverse meaty roles (ala Halle in “Monsters Ball” or Denzel in “Training Day” or whatever else) there are some black folks that will still complain about those roles they did and how they were done. People want more diverse roles, but then want to cut down or ridicule the actors for taking them. You can’t have it both ways.

I remember Halle Berry saying something like “I started producing films becuase I got tired of being the dancing bear in the situation and decided instead of complaining that there are not enough roles for us, I will go out and do something about it”. Thats what i’m talking about. A lot of people in that business complain…but thats all they do…instead of getting up and doing something about it. In life you have to make things happen, stuff is not just going to fall in your lap. And you can’t sit around being mad and blaming actors like Halle, Denzel or Will Smith for getting the roles. They get the roles because they worked hard to get to where they are at and deserve them.

I think thats why people are so hard on Gabrielle Union whenever they see her in a picture at a party, you start thinking to yourself “damn, do you even make movies and work anymore”? I have hardly ever see Denzel, Halle or Angela Bassett out partyin. Why? Because they were always on their grind (which is why they are where they are now)…and at the end of the day that is also what seperates the A-list actors from the B or C-list. Step your game up.

@ Harlem Chic

Actually the film did really well!

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 6 wins & 5 nominations

I am sure we all have great views on this topic and I really enjoy reading the comments, but you have to realize who is going to see these movies and putting there money in these movies.

Our Youngsters don’t wanna see movies like “The Great Debaters…..” They wanna see a hoochie or a gangsta, someone that they feel they are better than. Not someone that they can be just like, so sad but true. From what I have seen and experienced I don’t hear alot of positive talk from parents that are African American. I volunteer at my kids school three times a week and I try and reach out to other parents “white and black” on volunteering. When I talk to white parent they say of course, when I get to a black parent I get well I have to work, I can’t get off my job, I have even gotten “FOR FREE” nah that’s ok. Well I think I have said enough………..! I am just saying look at our young generation.

You Go on head Lovita Alize Jenkins-Robinson

@ Funnymoney

I think you’re talking about Oscar Micheaux.

————————–

1874 there was an African American who created a production company and produced over 40 films. (sorry forgot the name, read about him in the book “40 Million Dollar Slave”)

Oscar Micheaux

If anyone knew who he was and what he did, the actors wouldnt even have to question Hollywood about there exsistence.

He did Films from 1919 – 1948

Some of his works Temptation

Underworld

1937

God’s Stepchildren

1938

Swing

1939

Birthright

Lying Lips

1940

The Notorious Elinor Lee

1948

Betrayal

Micheaux attacked the racism depicted in D.W. Griffith’s film, The Birth of a Nation.

He also introduced the world to Paul Robenson.

i see her point but i agree with mia, they need to quit complainin and start making a way for themselves, u cant count on someone else to tell u ur story

there’s a bit of that “please massa let us entertain u best we can” tinge to this statement. She has a good point but it sounds far to passive

She is so beautiful .I am crazy about her.I am sorry to hear that she is fell in bad cancer.Is that true? I just the news in in millonaire dating site”W e a l t h y L o v i n g.c o m”.I hope…but…Is the baby really …

i thought she was gay?

THATS NOT MY KID I TOLD HER.

@ Ugly in LA

Everything you said is a straight up lie.

First off most films get commissioned off of novel options and are written in house after the pick up so by saying there are no substantial black dramas being written is like saying Edward Jones, Toni Morrison, Zadie Smith and others aren’t getting options I know for a fact that they are. You aren’t seeing them because they aren’t being produced, but the script is there. So your whole black screenwriters aren’t writing good scripts argument is completely ludicrous ignorant and off base.

Also Tyler Perry produces his own films he even formed his whole production company so he essentially green lights himself and worries about the distribution deal later (which is not a problem with his success) So you’re thing about white people making him do anything is str8 crazy.

You clearly don’t know anything about the industry in general and certainly not the black side of things because these “black movies” you’re seeing are written by white people.

Talkin bout you work in the industry SMH

@ Ugly.

I never said they weren’t sitting on shelves. There’s a difference between sitting on a shelf and not being written at all.

Since I am a screenwriter I know a lil bout black screenwriters as for the notion that these scripts won’t make money at the box office… most art house films don’t.

And also with Tyler Perry he decides what to do himself. He is in complete control of production hence the title PRODUCER. He can stop wearing the dress anytime he pleases. My guess is he’s a drag queen (seriously think about it what’s the diff between tyler perry and a drag queen?) and doesn’t want to let it go.

Moreover my point is the problem with black art is not the the black writers, directors, or even producers it’s black audiences being cooned out and dumbed down.

There are so many black men in hollywood who have serious power and there is no reason we should still be fighting about putting more than one image out. I blame it on all of these black executives who seat in these meetings and listen to the degrading ideas that come out about us and they just nod and agree. It is their fault.

Oh! So many women are now pregnant. I totally agree with her. She is such a sensitive woman. May she always happy. Me too. I also found my lover several days ago. Maybe it’s unbelieveable. But I knew him on a club called Wealthychat.com I thank it so much.

Why so many of you cryin to white hollywood? It ain’t real!!

And if you can’t make it there, go to a trade school and learn to fix a fridge.

Butterfly MacQueen said after Gone with the Wind that she’d never appear as a service women again. Yes, we saw very little of her and Hollywood was fine but her powerful personnel conviction set her apart, even from these tired ass black sell outs we have today.

Hollywood caters to a majority white demographic. Got it!

Good.

Acting isn’t mother’s milk!!!!!!!!!!!