Nia, Sanaa & Gabrielle Dish on Blogs...
Courtesy Essence Magazine
The following are excerpts from a candid conversation that was essentially a barefoot, free-to-be-me exchange. It was a nothing-to-prove, nothing-to-hide talk between girlfriends that, no matter how they try, don’t get to see each other enough (sound familiar?)—and who, like you and me, want to greet 2008 by simply becoming a more improved version of their own majestic brown selves.
The friends gathered happened to be extraordinarily successful film and television actresses: Nia Long, 37, a standout on ABC’s new, sexy drama Big Shots; Sanaa Lathan, 36, reprises her Broadway role as Beneatha Younger in the TV adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun this February; and Gabrielle Union, 35, rejoins heartthrob Morris Chestnut in the film The Perfect Holiday, out this month. But though they are public women, as you will read, in their private lives they are facing some of the very real and complicated challenges that many of us confront every day.
Essence: How do you deal with the 24-hours-a-day gossip that comes out on the Internet?
Gabrielle: Just last week somebody gave me a baby. This isn’t Perez Hilton or the White gossip people, these are women of color, specifically Black women who, for whatever reason, don’t like the company I keep.
Sanaa: She’s talking about the gossip sites.
Essence: The blogs
Sanaa: That are run by Black women.
Gabrielle: And now because everyone is clamoring for celebrity tidbits, the bigger gossip sites and even mainstream entities are picking up on it. No fact-checking, no nothing. And in one week’s time, there were like five different dudes, a baby—I’m a home wrecker. In literally seven days. I can’t point the finger at the White media. They don’t care about us. Paparazzi are not staked out in front of any of our houses. They are not going through our garbage because they don’t care about us in that way. So when you hear crap about us, it is coming from our own community, which hurts.
Nia: We are some of the few Black actresses whose passions are rooted in our community.
Gabrielle: There is this idea that there is integrity in journalism; if it’s written it has to be true. But that’s not the case. When blogs or any of the magazines get it wrong, there’s no accountability. In the next breath, they’ll complain on the blogs that we don’t have enough Black stars. Well, you rip us to shreds every two seconds from our nose to the weave to the clothes to the shoes to the ashy ankles.
Tres Chic Style is proud to admit that this blog does not intentionally or purposely set out to maliciously attack any celebrity -Black or White.
However, because fashion is our forte.....We will post and review celebrity looks/styles and call you out if need be....
And for the record ladies...there are several blogs written by Black Women like myself (see below) that actually applaud your talent, beauty grace and style minus the "malicious gossip". We do not make it a priority "to stake out any celebrity's home or rummage through your garbage ". I am too cute for that nonsense "boo-boo".....
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