Added hqs from Keep A Child Alive’s 6th Annual Black Ball – Arrivals.

Gallery  Links:
Public Events 2009: Keep A Child Alive’s 6th Annual Black Ball – Arrivals [HQ]
Public Events 2009: Keep A Child Alive’s 6th Annual Black Ball – Inside [HQ]

Dorothy Dandridge was the first black woman nominated for a Best Actress Oscar. Almost a half century passed before another black woman — Halle Berry — won the award.

They and three others — Pam Grier, Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey — are subjects of the new book “Divas on Screen: Black Women in American Film.”

“These women have pushed the racial boundaries for audiences, setting new standards for beauty and body type,” said author Mia Mask.

She took on the book because, while black male stars are now enjoying huge success, little has been written about their female counterparts — as performers who can headline a film, said Mask, who teaches film and drama at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

Dandridge was nominated for her lead role as the hedonistic factory worker in the 1954 classic “Carmen Jones,” alongside Harry Belafonte.

Berry won an Oscar in 2000 for playing the wife of an executed murderer in “Monster’s Ball.” She also had portrayed Dandridge as a stunning femme fatale in a 1999 HBO film about Dandridge’s life.

When Dandridge became a star, “she was working in an environment in which there were almost no women of color (in leading roles),” said Mask, and Dandridge “had to fit into the mold of shapely and svelte.”

By the time the statuesque Grier arrived on the Hollywood scene, she could break that mold with her forceful but hip physical presence as an action heroine.

As for Winfrey, Mask said she chose her because the talk-show host’s television presence catapulted her film appearances to the level of global stardom, transcending any category.

In spite of vast changes, Mask said, sore points persist in casting black women for star roles: a paucity of quality parts, and a new trend of pairing black lead actors with female leads who are not.

“Studio heads don’t think two black characters will appeal to general audiences,” said Mask.

She chose Dandridge and Berry “as bookends” for the time span that transformed black women in commercial films.

“We’ve gone from the trope of the tragic mulatta to biracial beauty,” said Mask, who is taping a five-part series for National Public Radio to air in late October — each on one of the women in the book.

Actress Halle Berry – who recently released her first fragrance called Halle by Halle Berry – is so determined to smell unique she mixes different scents to create a personalized aroma.

She said: “I’ve always wanted to have my own scent. When I was younger, I never wanted to smell like every other girl in class. Even as an adult, I’d mix different perfumes together.

“Some days it would be great and people would say, ‘Oh, what fragrance is that?’ And I would say, ‘Well, it’s about five different ones!’ ”

When it comes to make-up, Halle is far less adventurous and generally sticks to the same products she’s used for years.

She explained to Britain’s InStyle magazine: “I’ll only follow a new beauty trend if it suits me and works with my skin tone. The most important thing for me is to stay fresh-faced and confident.

“I do try some new things. The only product I stay well clear of is green eyeshadow – it just doesn’t work for me!”

Halle attended the Keep A Child Alive’s 6th Annual Black Ball last night looking so incredibly sexy in a little black dress with her hunky man Gabriel Aubry by her side. So far there has only been added MQ versions but hopefully I’ll get some HQs for you as well.

Gallery  Links:
Public Events 2009: Keep A Child Alive’s 6th Annual Black Ball – Arrivals [MQ]
Public Events 2009: Keep A Child Alive’s 6th Annual Black Ball – Inside [MQ]

New candids from October 13, 2009.

Gallery  Links:
Candids 2009: October 13, 2009

I have updated the gallery with various of videos featuring Halle.

Video Links:
Public Events: Oscar Acceptance Speech 2002
Public Events: Accepting People’s Choice Award 2007
TV Commercials: M&M Commercial
Interviews: The Tonight Show with David Letterman – October 2003
Miscellaneous: Halle Berry PunkD

New candids from the past week.

Gallery  Links:
Candids 2009: October 4, 2009 – Set 1
Candids 2009: October 4, 2009 – Set 2
Candids 2009: October 7, 2009

During Halle Berry’s memorably overwrought Oscar speech, she devoted her statuette to “every nameless, faceless woman of colour that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened”. However, seven years later, it’s quite clear that whatever door was opened that night has now – in Berry’s case, at least – pretty much slammed shut. Enduring one of the most disappointing post-Oscar careers since Mira Sorvino (next seen in a film called Multiple Sarcasms), Berry’s place on the A-list is precarious to say the least.

After her winning performance in Monster’s Ball, where her character fell in love with a racist, Berry’s choices were highlighted by a refusal to let skin colour dictate her work. Once turned down for a role in John Woo’s Broken Arrow because “there are no black park rangers” (she told Michael Parkinson), Berry was given the chance to play race-irrelevant characters and compete at the very top of her game. But as her pay cheques rose, the quality of the films declined.

Her defining low-point was in 2004 when she picked up $14m (£8.7m) for her role as Catwoman, a record for a female black actor. The film was trash, or rather “litter”, and the only award it earned her was a Razzie. Refusing to give up, Berry continued to squander the talent that won her so many chances in the first place – for instance, two years ago she starred in the offensively stupid cyber-thriller Perfect Stranger, a film where we’re supposed to achieve a giddy thrill from the thought of instant messaging. Meanwhile, other female actors of colour gained prominence by playing roles that put race first, or at least very high on the list. Sophie Okonedo bagged an Oscar nomination for Hotel Rwanda, Thandie Newton won a Bafta for Crash while Jennifer Hudson won her Oscar for belting her way through Motown saga Dreamgirls. Simply put, none of these roles could have been played by white female actors.

Berry’s new film finally brings race back in the picture, albeit in a wildly improbable way. Frankie and Alice will see her play a woman with a racist alter-personality. The plot possibilities boggle my mind: will we see her burning crosses on her parents’ lawn? Or having heated arguments with her reflection? The movie is still, perhaps understandably, on account of that plot, struggling for distribution, and quite what it will do for her career other than continue to rip it into tiny, embarrassing pieces, is beyond me. Berry’s strategy to deal with the severe lack of non-cliched roles for black actresses has backfired, to put it mildly, and the oddly appropriate battle that will play out in Frankie and Alice may prove rather cathartic.

Berry once said that she wanted “to be an actress of colour who can make a difference and go down a path that no woman has gone down before”. No one can argue that her career hasn’t been especially unique, but since her Oscar win in 2002, no other black woman has even been nominated for best actress. Of course, this isn’t her fault – despite her best attempts to make the Academy formally rescind her award – but rather a predictably staid star system that refuses to deviate far from the norm.

Looking forward though, a change may be coming. One of Berry’s future projects has her playing the true-life story of a white teacher in Class Act, surely her most ambitious act of race-reversal to date. As Jamie Foxx also lies in the running to play Frank Sinatra in Martin Scorsese’s upcoming biopic (if reports are to be believed), maybe we’re finally reaching a new era of totally colour-blind casting. Whether or not these particular decisions are for the best is debatable, but I bet Frankie and Alice would have one hell of a time fighting it out.

Source.

Gallery  Links:
Candids 2009: October 1, 2009

Have added some candids from the 24th September.

Gallery  Links:
Candids 2009: September 24, 2009