08 March, 2010

Tipping Her Hat to Hattie


Mo'Nique, who at last night's Oscars took the Best Supporting Actress statuette for her gritty turn in "Precious," is reportedly at work on a biopic of Hattie McDaniel.

Fans of Turner Classic Movies will know McDaniel as the attentive maid in "Gone With the Wind" (1939). The role - and in the 1930s there weren't many for black actors that didn't require pulling on housekeeping uniforms - won the Kansas-born McDaniel the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress on February 29, 1940.

I'm a longtime, die-hard Dorothy Dandridge devotee, and at one point it seemed every black entertainer from Janet Jackson to Whitney Houston was racing to play her, before Halle Berry pulled it out.

I think it's time Hattie got her due. This is Mo'Nique's part to perfect.

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