The Globes Are Off… And So Is The NAACP.

For the first time since the awards were established 65 years ago, The Golden Globe ceremony has been canceled this year.

Admittedly, awards shows in general come across as dry, overlong, and the self-congratulatory orgy of excess for a small contingent of people whose egos are already constantly stroked by all of the media and most of the free world. But for those of us who appreciate a wry acceptance speech from S. Epatha Merkerson every now and again, a chance to clap for and rag on anorexic actresses’ sartorial choices, and the sheer “ooooh, BURN.” humor of some saucy celeb telling Access Hollywood’s Billy Bush to get lost, this whole cancellation thing comes as pretty bad news.


It also doesn’t bode well for those of us hoping our favorite shows will return with new episodes before the end of the season. This strike’s getting messy. Hollywood, just come up off the extra .08 cent per DVD and the Internet airing residuals, so these fine people of the WGA can get back to doing what they do best: helping us all waste our time, thinking about and discussing characters who don’t really exist.

If you’re still wondering how you can find out who’s going to take home the awards this year, the Hollywood Foreign Press has planned to replace the annual three-hour telecast with a one-hour press conference, announcing the winners, at 6 pm PST/9 pm EST on January 13.

… And speaking of awards ceremonies, y’all know the NAACP Image Awards 2008 nominees are out, right? Sure you do! Many have already voiced their outrage over Angelina Jolie’s Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture nod for her portrayal of Afro-Cuban-Dutch widow, activist, and author Mariane Pearl in A Mighty Heart.

Yeah. We didn’t get it, either… but not necessarily because Jolie is White. Not even because it seems that she’s the first White actress to be nominated in the 39-year history of the awards. It’s just… wouldn’t it make more sense just to give an award to Mariane Pearl herself? We’re guessing it’s her life and the grace and courage with which she processed her tragedy that led to the movie deal and to Jolie’s “controversial” portrayal. So why generate more needless controversy with an acting nomination, reminding everybody that a White actress slightly browned her skin and pulled on a curly wig to portray her?

And if you’re thinking, “nominate Pearl for what, pray tell?,” we got you. Did you know that the NAACP has literature categories? Yeah, we didn’t either, really. It does, though–nine of them! Couldn’t they have nominated Pearl for Outstanding Literary Work – Biography/Autobiography (or Non-Fiction, even) in 2004, when she initially released the memoir on which the biopic is based? She’s the “Colored” one. And it’s her “Advancement” that’s worthy of their “Image” award, right?

In other Image Award news, it’s a big year for the non-African-American nominee, even if you set Jolie aside. America Ferrera, Jimmy Smits, Adam Beach, and Daniel Sunjata are all up for acting awards. Dora the Explorer and Go, Diego, Go got nods in the animation category. Dr. Sanjay Gupta: Saving Your Life was recognized in the news category. Mindy Kaling, Krista Vernoff, and Natalie Chaidez (among others) were nominated in television writing categories.

They also gave big-ups to Seal.

slb

slb (aka Stacia L. Brown) is a writer, mother, and college instructor in Baltimore, MD. Check her out here: http://stacialbrown.com and here: http://beyondbabymamas.com.
  • I just read an article (I forget the source… *my bad*) that said the real “losers” in all of this are the independent/small films that use major award shows to get mainstream recognition…

    And please, ugh, let the strike end… pay the writers so I can get new episodes! Thank goodness for the Wire…

  • e

    yeah i need the writer’s strike to end about three weeks ago. now we’re forced watch more bad reality tvs shows (although i’m (not-so) secretly excited for another season of flavor of love!).

    re NAACP awards: wow i guess it was a slow year for black people…

    interesting site, i followed leah here :)

  • Aisha

    Is the NAACP showing black-brown solidarity? Taking Colored People literally? Does National Council of La Raza need to include us as well?

  • Are you sure Jolie’s portrayal of Pearl isn’t tantamount to blackface?

    It’s not purposely demeaning or being played for laughs, but I wonder how much intent matters in this kind of thing.

  • slb

    I’m pretty sure it isn’t. This is blackface. This is blackface. This is probably even blackface.

    But Jolie wearing a powder/foundation combo two or three shades browner than her own for a *biopic* on a woman with afro-cuban-dutch ancestry (meaning, arguably, she’s not “Black” per se, to begin with, right?) seems tantamount to what forest whitaker and your girl kerry washington did to play idi amin and wife in the last king of scotland.

    people have called that blackface, too, and i just don’t agree. blackface seemed to have been created solely for the purpose of minstrelsy (or for exaggerating black behavior and appearance to “comic” effect).

    for me, altering one’s appearance to play a role in a film just isn’t the same thing. what jolie, whitaker, and washington have done in these films where they’ve darkened their skin to better resemble the people they’re playing is akin to what charlize theron did in monster, what eddie murphy does whenever he’s a klump or a norbit’s girlfriend or that jewish dude in coming to america, what deniro did for raging bull… and the list goes on.

  • Tabitha

    Does anyone *really* care about the Image awards? I *get* why they do them but when there are only Barbershop and Tyler Perry films being made, really? We need an awards show for that?

  • Pingback: Okay, now *this?* This might be blackface. « PostBourgie()