March 27, 2015

Real Talk, TV/Film

“GIRLHOOD” Screening & Discussion in Harlem!

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This Saturday, March 28th, in partnership with Imagenation Cinema Foundation, theHotness.com is hosting the 7:30pm screening of the critically acclaimed film Girlhood. Please join me as I moderate a post discussion with panelists Yvette Russell (former ESSENCE Entertainment Editor & current Director of Programs for READ Alliance), Shawanna Bell (Program Coordinator at Young Life), and Genesis Mullen (Young Life member) along with girls from the Harlem chapter of Young Life for Read more...

March 13, 2015

TV/Film

Black Love Matters in Real Life & in Film

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On the recent cable broadcast of Book Of Negroes when Aminata Diallo says to her former slave owner, “I love that slave man… freely,” she was not only claiming her love for her African husband, she was committing an act of resistance. Manifesting their love was a radical expression of freedom for slaves that even chains couldn’t suppress. That kind of freedom was a threat to the entire institution of slavery and, seemingly, is one Read more...

November 22, 2013

TV/Film

My Interview With Ava DuVernay About Scandal

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Last night’s episode of Scandal was the bonafide real deal TRUTH!! It was the hot oil in a black bottom skillet; the Kool in Kool-Aid! To quote one of our geniuses, it was “superbad, superslick” and it all came together so brilliantly under the direction of filmmaker Ava DuVernay! Please read my Ebony mag interview with this cinematic force of nature. Ava is so smart, fiercely her own woman, and all about Team Liv. I Read more...

November 11, 2013

Real Talk, TV/Film

I’m On The Katie Show! (Part I)

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Please check me out every day this week on the Katie Show (ABC @3pm). I was selected to be one of three women discussing the challenges of finding my ideal job in this shaky, shut-downed economy and Katie Couric has set out to help me get this cool gig in a new segment called “Katie’s Classifieds.” Unbeknownst to me, I was referred for this series and the producers selected me the night before they started Read more...

March 24, 2013

Real Talk, TV/Film

My Connection to “Olympus Has Fallen”

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I just saw the trailer for Olympus Has Fallen and see that it opened strong this, its opening weekend, coming in #2 at the box office making over $30 million. Is it just me or has there been a surge in the number of movies being made about the White House coming under attack since President Barack Obama has taken office? The new G.I. Joe movie revolves around the West Wing possibly being blown to Read more...

October 15, 2012

Real Talk, TV/Film

Ava Duvernay’s MIDDLE OF NOWHERE

I was thrilled when I read last night that MIDDLE OF NOWHERE was the #1 debut at the box office this weekend for indie films and, averaging $13,000 per screen, it had the biggest per-screen total for any film currently in theaters (even making twice the per screen figures of both Taken and Argo). This is major and no doubt a direct result of Ava Duvernay’s refusal to fail mixed with her massive grassroots Read more...

August 13, 2012

Real Talk, TV/Film

Why Sparkle is Whitney’s Perfect Farewell

Last Thursday would have been Whitney Houston’s 49th birthday and I still cannot wrap my mind around the fact that she is dead. Six months after her shocking death and her passing feels as sudden and as unreal now as it did that day in February when she drowned in her Beverly Hilton Hotel bathtub. Unlike Michael Jackson’s death where many of us felt like we somehow had let the King of Pop slip through Read more...

March 5, 2011

Real Talk, TV/Film, Videos

theHotness: Week In Review (03.05.11)

 

So this ends the first week of Women’s History Month. Yeah! And oh what a week it was. Tiger blood? The Oscars? Kim K’s god-awful Jam? Lil Kim’s face?

Let’s take it from the top: Already said to be the whitest Oscars in decades, The Academy Awards lived up to everyone’s expectation of homogeneity. I didn’t even bother to tune-in. I just wanted to see the dresses and the next morning Read more...

February 14, 2011

Grooves, TV/Film

The Grammys: Sisters Are Doin’ It…

 

The Grammys opened with a bang last night, but quickly fizzled into a tricked-out Technicolor circus of flashing lights, frenzied feathers and alien egg births. And like most things that are tricked out, once you get past the fancy frame, you notice the picture on the inside is a muted bore.

But first things first, I have to admit that kicking-off last night’s 3 ½ hour event with a tribute to Aretha Franklin got Read more...

January 31, 2011

TV/Film

Marriage, Money, Modeling & Mayhem

On Sunday night I tuned into watch the ignant tomfoolery that is the “Real Housewives of Atlanta.” Last night’s season finale centered on Cynthia Bailey’s wedding day. What should have been a blissful countdown to her nuptials with fiancé Peter Thomas, instead looked more like the countdown to her execution. There was confusion, sorrow, doubt, attempted sabotage, and lots and lots of tears, all of which were shed by the bride-to-be, her mother and Read more...