The trailer for the film adaptation of Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees was just released, and like the book, it looks like the kind of story that will stir the pants right off your soul.

The Secret Life of Bees follows Lily Owens (Dakota Fanning) who — along with her stand-in mother, Rosaleen (Jennifer Hudson) — escapes from her abusive father, and takes up with three beekeeping sisters (Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys and Sophie Okonedo) in a pink house in Tiburon, South Carolina.

Let me do that math for you: Queen Latifah, Oscar nominee; Sophie Okonedo, Oscar nominee; Jennifer Hudson, Oscar winner; Alicia Keys, rock-em-sock-em talent; Dakota Fanning, best child actress since Jodie Foster. … continue reading

Considering the James Bond films have a habit of including hot women in every installment, and considering Alicia Keys has a habit of being a hot woman, it makes perfect sense that Keys is joining the Bond universe for their next chapter, Quantum of Solace. (The title of the film makes me scratch my head, but I find it’s best to not think too long and hard about these things.)

No, the lovely and talented Keys won’t be the newest Bond Babe. Thankfully, she’s sticking to what she does best: making music. She’ll join Jack White for a duet on the film’s theme song — the first duet in Bond theme song history, in case you’re keeping track. Considering Keys’ and White’s musical styles are pretty much exactly opposite, it should be an interesting collaboration. But, I’m betting it’ll be a little moment of brilliance ala Alison Krauss/Robert Plant.

While Alicia won’t be making an appearance in the film, we will be treated to yet another femme fatale, Olga Kurylenko, whose character Camille has one of the more benign names in Bond history. … continue reading

At the beginning of a work week, I usually need more than coffee to get me moving. In fact, any time I’m required to do something constructive before 10 a.m., caffeine alone doesn’t suffice. But I have a secret weapon and her name is Aretha. Ms. Aretha Franklin, to be exact.

I got to have a little “Respect.” (Just a little bit.) And all I have to do is hear the first few bars to remember I have it, at least from myself. I consider “Respect” my theme song. Silly? Maybe. But it works.

The idea of a personal theme song certainly isn’t new, but I hadn’t thought of it until the Ally McBeal episode in which Ally’s therapist, Dr. Tracy Clark (played by Tracey Ullman), advises her to get her own theme song. That piece of advice actually worked for me — it’s one of my favorite memories of Ally. Besides this, of course:

If you watched the show, you may recall that Ally's theme song was “Tell Him” by The Exciters. (Does anyone know the story behind this music video? It's weird.) That song pretty much summed up what Ally wanted out of life: a man to love. … continue reading

The 2008 Black Entertainment Television Awards were last night and, as expected, it was quite a spectacle. In what BET promised to be the “hottest ticket on television,” musicians, actors, athletes and others gathered to celebrate the achievements of the most accomplished black celebrities of the past year.

They arrived in droves, and they arrived in style. (Well, all except for Lil Mama, but I won’t even get into that.) Behold, some of the most fashionable ladies to attend the awards:

Gabrielle Union, Keri Hilson, Rihanna

Once inside, the festivities began, though not quite as smoothly as some would have liked. If you happened to tune in late (or not at all) don’t worry about missing Usher’s opening performance; it appears as though he slipped and fell during his dance sequence. Oh well, karma’s a bi-yatch, isn’t she?

Other than the homophobe du jour, there were performers who actually deserved some recognition. Alicia Keys brought the women of SWV, En Vogue, and TLC on stage with her, and they managed to completely bring down the house with TLC’s hit “Waterfalls,” and I was simultaneously reminded of why I miss '90s music so much. (Seriously, you want to watch that video. It was totally badass.)

T-Pain led all nominees with five, but females were actually fairly well represented; several were nominated for at least two awards and all gender-neutral categories contained at least one female nominee. That is more than can be said for the Grammy Awards, the CMT Awards, or the ACM Awards. But, out of the eight categories shared by men and women, only one woman prevailed: Erykah Badu (with Mr. Roboto) for Best Video Director.

A full list of nominees and winners can be found here, but I’ll (happily) round out the list of victorious women for you. … continue reading

So, if you watched last night’s telecast of the 50th Grammy Awards, you probably have some questions. Questions like, who is that guy, and why did he steal Amy Winehouse’s Grammy for Best Album of the Year? Or how is it that the Beatles won only four Grammys when they were together, while Fergie already has three? Or did Amy really thank her husband as “my Blake incarcerated” in her acceptance speech? Yes, yes she did. So without further ado, here are some of your most burning (though hopefully not itching) Grammy questions revealed.

Q: How it is it that the most electrifying performer in the room wasn’t even in the room?

A: Visa problems kept The Winehouse 5,500 miles away in London, but she still electrified via satellite with a performance that was equal parts raw, campy, sassy and defiant. Plus, she brought the one thing the somewhat stodgy awards affair sorely lacked — the air of unpredictability. God bless you, Amy Winehouse. Now get back to rehab and get better. … continue reading

Consider this the weekend of small lesbian parts. (I know, I know — there are no small lesbian parts, only small lesbian actors.) Several movie offerings include glimpses of gay ladies.

Saturday at 8/7c on HBO, Alicia Keys tries to make her character as straight as possible in Smokin' Aces. (When Keys first got the script, she asked, "What's this gay s---?" — and it all went downhill from there.)

After 30 minutes of that, you can give up and switch over to Cinemax (yeaahhh!) for Primary Colors (8:30/7:30c). Kathy Bates plays a "gay lesbian woman" (I swear that's what she calls herself) with a shotgun and a conscience. And the cast includes Allison Janney and Emma Thompson, too! This thinly veiled Clintonian saga from 1998 might seem like a brand new film, now that the real-life wronged wife has become a presidential candidate.

Finally, starting this Sunday at midnight, the first season of the critically acclaimed Mad Men will be rebroadcast on AMC. The season eventually includes a heartbreaking lesbian scene (is there any other kind?) — you can read all about that here.

And if none of those appeal to you, there's always The Fabulous Baker Boys on Fox Movie Channel at 8/7c on Saturday. No lesbian characters there, unless you count every woman in the audience when Michelle Pfeiffer starts slithering all over that grand piano.

As a bestseller about "the divine power of women and the transforming power of love," it was only a matter of time before Sue Monk Kidd's debut novel The Secret Life of Bees made its way to the big screen. But, still smarting from too many adaptation debacles to count (The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood comes to mind), I wouldn't have very much cared — until yesterday's Variety report about casting. With Queen Latifah, Jennifer Hudson, and Sophie Okonedo signed and Alicia Keys in talks, I'm setting aside my $11 now.

Dakota Fanning is due to star as teenaged protagonist Lily, but that doesn't interest me so much (apparently nobody has yet followed Sarah's advice and convinced her that she need not portray every precocious young girl). Nope, I'm all about this somewhat random but potentially quite satisfying group of non-adolescent stars: Hudson as Lily's nanny and friend Rosaleen, and Latifah, Keys and Okonedo as the Boatwright sisters. I'm also all about the fact that Gina Prince-Bythewood will be at the helm, using her own based-on-the-book script. Since the Love and Basketball writer-director is responsible for one of the greatest moments in female sports movies but has only done a modest amount of work since, much of it on TV, I'm eager to see her in charge of a major release. … continue reading

Some things just naturally go together. Chocolate and peanut butter. Ebony and ivory. Laurel and Hardy. Other stuff, well, it needs a little more explanation. Like, I’ve always been a little confused by the Nobel Peace Prize Concert. It’s not that I think the winners of the Peace Prize don't deserve a good show. Quite the contrary. But I’ve been somewhat intrigued by the lineups in the past. What, exactly, do pop megasuperstars have to do with world peace?

Since it began in 1994, some of the hottest international performers have played the concert to honor the winners of one most respected international awards. This year the lineup includes Melissa Etheridge, Kylie Minogue, Alicia Keys, Annie Lennox and KT Tunstall. The show was hosted by Uma Thurman and Kevin Spacey. Great lineup. Cool hosts. But I’m still perplexed. Should we now change it to "all we are saying is give Uma a chance"? … continue reading

The nominations for the 50th annual Grammy Awards were announced yesterday. As you've probably heard, the leaders of the pack are Kanye West (eight nominations) and Amy Winehouse (six nominations). Rihanna was nominated for four awards, as was Feist.

But I don't care about the numbers. I'm focusing on Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Both of those categories pit two of my favorites of 2007 (and probably of a lifetime) against each other: Winehouse and Feist.

I really don't know who to root for. In fact, I have never felt more conflicted in my life (well, I guess I should say I have never felt more conflicted about something that ultimately means so little to me). … continue reading

A reader (thanks raquel_pt!) tipped me off to singer Alicia Keys' new interview and photo spread in the September issue of Vegas magazine.

Now, I'm not a huge Alicia Keys fan — loved "Fallin'", wasn't impressed with Smokin Aces — but these photos are fairly ... inspiring:

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I just came across this photo of Tina Turner and Janis Joplin performing at Madison Square Garden in 1969. It's Tina. And Janis. Together!

The photo is by Amalie R. Rothschild and is currently part of the Music and Fashion 1965–1975 exhibit at the Staley-Wise Gallery. Rothschild has taken some stunning shots of rock stars, many of which are included in her book Live at the Fillmore East: A Photographic Memoir.

I really can't fathom the idea of Janis and Tina on a stage together. Who needs caffeine (or whatever the crowd was on) with that kind of raw genius nearby? The idea of two talents and a microphone made me imagine some other rock duos (or folk duos or whatever-else duos) I'd like to see. Here are a few ideas. They may not really make much sense, but that's why I'm calling them fantasy duos.

Stevie Nicks and Amy Winehouse
"Rhiannon" meets "Rehab" — how great would that be? But Stevie might have flashbacks when confronted by Winehouse's in-your-face hedonism. She would make her cry, make her break down!

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I love it when my favorite things intersect — like, say, when Heart appears on The L Word, or '80s stars sing a Dreamgirls song. It always surprises and delights me. But I've never been more surprised than I am by the notion of stars of The Sopranos appearing on Sesame Street. They'll drop by for a holiday special, as will Jennifer Hudson, Sheryl Crow and Alicia Keys. Celebrities will help Elmo count down the days to Christmas.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Tony Sirico (Paulie Walnuts) and Steve Schirripa (Bobby Baccalieri) "will shed their tough-guy image from their years on Sopranos in a skit in which they will play Bert and Ernie with guidance from the real Muppets." … continue reading

The New York Daily News recently commissioned Dr. D'Lynn Waldron, one of "the world's leading experts in the art of 'age-processing,'" to imagine how famous New Yorkers will look when they're senior citizens.

First up: Paris Hilton now and at 80 years old. Yikes!

Alicia Keys fares better as a 71-year-old:

… continue reading

But his rendition of Hillary Clinton at 80 is enough to make you wonder if by the Republican party is co-funding this initiative:

Disney's upcoming animated movie The Frog Princess, an American fairy tale musical set in New Orleans during the 1920s Jazz Age, will star the first black princess in Disney history. No announcement has yet been made about who will voice the 19-year-old a chambermaid named Maddy, but Alicia Keys and Dreamgirls Jennifer Hudson and Anika Noni Rose are reportedly among the contenders.

This is a really great - if long overdue - development, but I rolled my eyes when I saw that that the movie was set in New Orleans. Of course the first movie featuring a black princess would be set in New Orleans - because that's where the black people live, according to Hollywood. Not Cleveland or Seattle, or Boston, but New Orleans. Yes, there is a very large population of African Americans (and Caribbean Americans) in New Orleans, but a lot of black people live elsewhere, too! Apparently a movie about a black princess from Cleveland just isn't as appealing. Why not?

In a word: voodoo.

Every time there's a special New Orleans-themed episode on a TV show, like the one on Bones earlier this season, or the latest episode of Blood Ties I watched last night, it always features black folks who practice voodoo. And sure enough, one of the characters in The Frog Princess is "an elderly, 200-year-old Voodoo priestess/fairy god-mother."

Nevermind that (I'm guessing) the majority of black people in New Orleans don't practice voodoo - white people just can't get this idea out of their heads. It exoticizes black folks and makes them seem more like the "other," and less like your neighbor down the street. I'm not black, and I'm not from New Orleans, but I'm offended on behalf of both. And intelligent people everywhere. Yes, I know I'm on a rant, and probably about something no one else cares about, but I don't like lazy writing that's based on stereotypes.

Watch, now I'll go home tonight and discover a voodoo doll that looks like me with pins stuck in it on my doorstep. If I turn into a giant snake in my sleep tonight, you'll know why!