So recently, there have been quite a few things that I've thought about and wanted to blog about and I'm just now getting around to it... Here goes!
First, I recently read about actress Holly Robinson Peete claiming that Kim Kardashian took away a potential role for a black actress, or as she calls them, "blacktresses". Read the article here. She calls it a "brilliant, PR move", which it may be but I think it's so interesting that everyone is so upset with Kim Kardashian. First, Tyler Perry can cast and does cast whoever he wants to be in his movies! Second, this is not the first time he's cast a role that wasn't black. Actresses like Sofia Vergara and Kathy Bates come to mind. He usually gives the main character a diverse best friend and sometimes, they are racially diverse. But, none of this is really about Kim Kardashian being in his movie. It's really about her divorce... so let's move on to that.
Here's my two cents, in a nutshell: Kim Kardashian was 30 when she married Kris Humphries and she, as many people do, succumbed to the inner and outer pressure to hurry up and get married and have children. She was dating an eligible bachelor who was also interested in getting married and her sisters, both older and younger, seem to have already beat her to the punch when it comes to establishing families of their own. Furthermore, she's the most famous of them all so there's a significant spotlight on her and her love life. It's definitely not a good idea to rush into marriage but we've seen this before... and when you have the money and you feel this is something you "should" be doing, you go for it and ignore all the signs that say you shouldn't. I think they both made a mistake and I thought it was a mistake before they got married, from watching the show. As far as I'm concerned, Kris Humphries is a jerk and he didn't fit well into the family. And he's been a jerk for awhile -- google him. But Kim and her family excused all of this and tried to see the best in him and they got married... If you watched the wedding special, you'd see that he acted like a child about most of the issues surrounding their wedding and their marriage. I'm glad that Kim Kardashian was brave enough to get out of it this soon and didn't stick with it to save face. I think it will be very interesting to see what led to her decision on Kourtney and Kim Take New York... I don't work for E! but I'll be watching and I think a lot of people will have to eat their words. Moving on...
While I'm on the topic of celebrities that everyone just loves to hate, let's get to my girl, Beyonce. The amount of press surrounding her pregnancy (and Kim's divorce) is ridiculous. When I think about these two situations and read different comments online, I realize that the people in our society think way too highly of themselves, egos galore! Everything is not a publicity stunt and celebrities are not always doing things out of concern for their fans or their portrayal in the media. It's especially interesting to think Beyonce would stage a pregnancy or pretend to be farther along than she is in her pregnancy since she has been so private about her personal life in the past. Why would she choose to exploit her pregnancy and future child when we still haven't even seen her wedding pictures? She hasn't seized the opportunity to do a reality show or write a tell-all book about Destiny's Child, but she'll pretend to be pregnant? I was one of the people who noticed that she was glowing before she announced her pregnancy -- that cannot be faked. Furthermore, the girl is gaining weight. Thanks to years of hardcore performing and dance training, her metabolism is ridiculous so the weight gain isn't making her fat or anything, but her face has definitely rounded out and her lactating boobs are bigger. Basically, she's pregnant. And if you think she's putting it all in your face, she's not. Imagine how silly she'd look if she had waited until she was 6 months pregnant and showing to finally announce that she was. For years, people have been wrongly speculating that she's expecting and I'm happy that she got to reveal it on her own terms when no one suspected a thing. Let's all keep in mind that, in February, there will be a child here who doesn't deserve all of the negativity swirling around right now (not that Beyonce does); how would you feel if you were in her shoes? No, really?
Insert transition here: Speaking of egos, I've been watching the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) and I've been particularly interested in episodes of Oprah's Lifeclass. One such episode covers ego and reflects back to an instance of her own boosted ego, when she rolled out the fat wagon on an early episode of the Oprah Winfrey Show. I won't spoil it for you here but I will say that it made me seriously contemplate different times that I've been egotistical and why. I would seriously encourage you to watch it. It's really a wonderful way to learn more about yourself and to improve yourself. Love the format and I think it was very intelligent of her to use her old show as material rather than interview new people -- it's great!! Life-changing, even.
Hmm.. other great shows? Well, I've been trying to be supportive of BET since they've finally developed a positive show. I'm referring to Reed Between the Lines, which purports itself to be the closest thing to the Cosby Show, since the Cosby show. This is an easy comparison because they've got one of the Cosby kids (Malcolm Jamal Warner) and they're building on the dual professional household model -- Warner plays an English professor and his wife (Tracee Ellis Ross) plays a psychologist...and the parents really "dig" each other. The children are well-mannered and get along well with each other and their parents... it's all very reminiscent of the squeaky-clean image of the Cosby show. On top of that image, the family deals with more complex issues: so far, I've seen episodes exploring pornography, "good hair", and alcoholism, for example. I'm one of those people that still watches Cosby show reruns so I've definitely been waiting on a show like this but I'm not sure they've captured the magic. It seems they are trying to follow a blueprint for a home that's already been built. Plus, they don't seem to realize that Tracee Ellis Ross has to be the funny one here -- she has to be the "Bill Cosby", if you will... the level of humor isn't there yet and Bill Cosby is a comedic genius who called the shots, so it may never be there. I'm also not a huge fan of Warner's character being so harsh with the kids sometimes but I'm giving it sometime so that they can develop their own rhythm -- I'm not usually a fan of shows during their first season, anyway. But, this is one of many steps BET will need to take to live up to "Black Entertainment Television."
Hmm, what next? Actually, let's go ahead and abbreviate this as Part 1... TO BE CONTINUED.
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