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Halle Berry made history as the first African American woman to take home the Academy Award for best actress in a motion picture, and for that reason alone, the former pageant queen's words hold a lot of weight.
In the March edition of Essence magazine, the new mother of 9-month-old daughter Nahla opened up to CNN correspondent Lola Ogunnaike about her current relationship "status," her past romances and her disappointment with Hollywood peers.
Though the Cleveland-born beauty won the coveted award for her performance in the gritty Lee Daniels-produced drama 'Monster's Ball,' she couldn't shake criticism about taking the role, in which she and Billy Bob Thornton had an all-out balls-to-the-walls sex scene.
Angela Bassett, who had been nominated for best actress 10 years prior for the critically acclaimed Tina Tuner biopic 'What's Love Got to Do With It,' famously told Newsweek magazine that she had been offered the lead role of Leticia Musgrove first but turned it down because she "wasn't going to be a prostitute on film."
Other Hollywood notables and industry-goers shared similar reactions to the rawness of the scene.
Berry revealed that she was hurt by the backlash. "I would have rather had them call me up at home and say, 'Halle, what the f--- was that,' as opposed to them airing it publicly," she told Essence. "That was such an important moment for me and to have people attempt to dampen it not only for me, but for all the people who found hope and joy in that moment."
"You find out who your real friends are," she added. "Take mental notes and keep it moving."
And that's not all she had to say about Hollywood.
Regarding racism in Tinseltown, Berry said she believes there are many more opportunities for black actors today and that "things have absolutely gotten better" since her early days on the TV sitcom 'Living Dolls' and being denied a role as a park ranger. "Young black artists have no idea how hard it used to be," she added.
Professionally, she knows hardships -- and also personally.
BHM MEDIA NEW
While on a family vacation with Tom and Suri, Katie Holmes hit the beach near Rio de Janeiro in this blue one piece.
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Rihanna hits the stage at the NFL Pepsi Smash Super Bowl Concert in a pair of knee-high black boots. What do you think about the pop singer's look?
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Mischa Barton wore this Elie Saab couture mint green gown to the Fashion Dinner for Aids at the Pavillon d'Armenonville. Is Mischa's look a hit or miss?
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Heroes star Hayden Panettiere arrives at the NBC Universal Pre-Super Bowl event at Portofino in a black tuxedo jacket and dress with a plunging neckline. Is the Hollywood starlet hot or not?
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Diane Kruger wore Nina Ricci for the Fashion Dinner for Aids at the Pavillon d'Armenonville. Is her dress a mess or amazing?
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Kim Kardashian opted for this floral strapless Tracey Reese dress for the 2009 Moves Magazine Super Bowl Party at The Venue Club. Let us know what you think about Kim's look.
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Burlesque beauty Dita Von Teese wore an ice blue Elie Saab (left) satin dress at the Fashion Dinner for Aids at the Pavillon d'Armenonville.
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Spanish actress Penelope Cruz appeared at the the 2009 Goya Cinema Awards in Madrid in this black lace Chanel gown. Is it a win or a loss?
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Amy Adams wore a Jasmine di Milo gold and silver sequin backless dress and Christian Louboutin heels to the 61st Annual Directors Guild of America Awards.
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Being thousands of miles away didn't stop Meryl Streep from celebrating the inauguration. The actress wore this Catherine Malandrino flag dress to the Paris premiere of Doubt.
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A hot Halle Berry topic of late is her relationship with 33-year-old model and restaurateur Gabriel Aubry, who is the father of her baby.
The twice-divorced Revlon cosmetics spokeswoman declared that she would not marry again. "I feel more married now than I did in any of my actual marriages," she said about her relationship with Aubry. "We live the truth of that and that's more important than a piece of paper."
She previously signed pieces of paper (aka marriage licenses) with baseball star David Justice and R&B crooner Eric Benet. The 'Strictly Business' star was also reportedly romantically linked to former R&B chart-topper Christopher Williams, soap opera star Shemar Moore and former box-office superstar Wesley Snipes.
Aubry is a stark contrast from her aforementioned mates; they're all black.
But she may not be looking back. "I tried black men. I tried," Berry joked. "I married two black men. You know I tried."
"I don't hold all black males responsible because of the two bad eggs I got," she clarified, possibly contemplating how many of her black male fans consider her a sex symbol. "I even dated black men after my last divorce, but this is just where I found love."
The March issue of Essence magazine is on newsstands now.
Mel B Pictures
In this photo provided by Kraft Foods, Spice Girl "Mel B" poses for a photo wearing a T-shirt she designed based on the classic pink ribbon used for breast cancer awareness, after a fashion show and launch of "Pose for the Cure" web site to help Kraft Foods raise money for the 'Susan G. Komen for the Cure' fight against breast cancer in New York, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2008. The shirt is for sale on the web site and the net proceeds will benefit the foundation. (AP Photo/Kraft Foods, Ray Stubblebine) **NO SALES**
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In this photo provided by Kraft Foods, Spice Girl "Mel B" poses for a photo wearing a T-shirt she designed based on the classic pink ribbon used for breast cancer awareness, after a fashion show and launch of "Pose for the Cure" web site to help Kraft Foods raise money for the 'Susan G. Komen for the Cure' fight against breast cancer in New York, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2008. The shirt is for sale on the web site and the net proceeds will benefit the foundation. (AP Photo/Kraft Foods, Ray Stubblebine) **NO SALES**
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In this undated image released by Oxfam Tuesday Sept. 23, 2008, British singer Mel B participates in the 'In My Name' global campaign calling for action against poverty and demanding world leaders keep their promises on millennium development goals. (AP Photo/Oxfam, HO) ** NO SALES **
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In this photo provided by Kraft Foods, Spice Girl Mel B, left, serves as the emcee at a fashion show and launch of "Pose for the Cure" web site to help Kraft Foods raise money for the 'Susan G. Komen for the Cure' fight against breast cancer in New York, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2008. Mel B wears a T-shirt she designed based on the classic pink ribbon used for breast cancer awareness. The shirt is for sale on the web site and the net proceeds will benefit the foundation. The woman at right is unidentified. (AP Photo/Kraft Foods, Ray Stubblebine) **NO SALES**
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NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 09: TV personality and designer Khloe Kardashian and Olympic-level swimmer and model Amanda Beard (R) pose backstage at the Mel B With Ultimo Spring 2009 fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at the Metropolitan Pavilion on September 9, 2008 in New York City. (Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images )
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NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 09: Ultimo Scottish designer lingerie brand founder Michelle Mone (L) and pop singer Melanie Brown pose backstage at the Mel B With Ultimo Spring 2009 fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at the Metropolitan Pavilion on September 9, 2008 in New York City. (Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images )
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NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 09: Pop singer Melanie Brown poses backstage at the Mel B With Ultimo Spring 2009 fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at the Metropolitan Pavilion on September 9, 2008 in New York City. (Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images )
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NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 09: Pop singer Melanie Brown and Olympic-level swimmer and model Amanda Beard (R) pose backstage at the Mel B With Ultimo Spring 2009 fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at the Metropolitan Pavilion on September 9, 2008 in New York City. (Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images )
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NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 09: Pop singer Melanie Brown and singer Aubrey O'Day (R) poses backstage at the Mel B With Ultimo Spring 2009 fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at the Metropolitan Pavilion on September 9, 2008 in New York City. (Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images )
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NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 09: Pop singer Melanie Brown, Olympic-level swimmer and model Amanda Beard, singer Aubrey O'Day and TV personality and designer Khloe Kardashian pose backstage at the Mel B With Ultimo Spring 2009 fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at the Metropolitan Pavilion on September 9, 2008 in New York City. (Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images )
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Comments: (358)
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By: Zhanaya Wynn on 4/17/2009 5:22PM
White people do not understand EVERYTHING and should perhaps stop and listen to see why it is that so many black people do not like Halle Berry. First, she is a liar: everything she has said about her first husband, David Justice, everything is all a big lie just to make her look good. All that crying on Oprah was to make him look bad and to have everyone hating him for doing to her what Halle said that he had done. Then she treats Eric Benet like pure spit [and treated his daughter even worse] and then pretended to be surprised when he cheated on her. HE CHEATED ON HER BECAUSE SHE WITHHELD SEX FROM HIM ALL THE TIME in an attempt to prove her worth and her superiority. Then when it was definitely over and she could not buy him back, she dropped the daughter too; and this is the daughter that Halle went to every newspaper while she and ERic were together to pretend that she loved the daughter so much. Halle loves no one but herself. She stole an election while in high school and then USED the race card to deflect attention away from her and her dastardly deed. She has even stolen scripts from people making minimum wage when all they would have wanted from her for the script would have been name recognition and a few thousand bucks. Instead, Halle Berry feels that maybe it would be so much easier to just steal it. After all, it would be her word against theirs and who're you gonna believe -- Halle Berry or your lying eyes? Her movie on Dorothy Dandradge was as far removed from Dorothy's own tragic life as the sitcom Taxi is from the film, Taxicab. Although the Dandridge film was ostensibly about the racism that Dandridge endured, the film itself made every white person look absolutely wonderful while the blacks were made to look almost demonic. Babatunde as Harold Nicholas who was NEVER as bad or evil as Berry had re-written the script to seem; and why would she use a WHITE WOMAN as director of this film? And why would Otto Preminger [who gave her some of the WORST advice imaginable] be portrayed as someone TRULY WONDERFUL while the sister, Vivian, was made to look like a handicapped hag, escapee from WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? Sibling rivalry is one thing but Vivian was portrayed as an Idiot. I could go on and on but I have to stop here because I am working on a screenplay and believe me, I will not permit Berry to take nary a peek
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By: Lori Baker on 4/16/2009 11:01PM
"White people do not understand EVERYTHING..."
Wow. Talk about a strange thing to say. Does any race understand EVERYTHING? About anything?
I don't know how you are such an expert on what happened in the private bedroom of HB and David Justice or Eric Benet. Unless you know the couple personally and they've shared this information with you, you don't know anything but what you've read in gossip rags or heard through a rumor mill.
Maybe your beefs about Halle and how she's conducted herself professionally have merit. I don't know. I'm successful Hollywood writer and I haven't heard these stories you're telling. But my point earlier was not about her professional conduct. It was about posters here tearing her down purely for her decision to date and have a baby with a white man. That's racist. And it's sad to see that hear on "Black Voices."
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By: Bj on 3/19/2009 7:06PM
Halle Berry is Bi-racial, her mother is white and her dad was black. So what does it matter which race she chose to have a baby with. It was a black man who beat her so badly that she lost the hearing in one ear. Did Angela Bassett become a domestic violence victim from playing Tina Turner? Did she become a divorce after playing one in Waiting to Exhale? No! Why? Because it was a movie - just like Monster's Ball. She didn't fall in love with Billy Bob Thornton - it was a movie.
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By: Forbin le Corbin on 3/23/2009 4:42PM
Halle Berry has lot's of self hatred. I don't want to hear all this bullsh** about "Lawd I tried" No you didn't try hard enough! And even though she says shes dated black men.. Tell me why every black man she has ever dated was lightskin... Oh yeah, they put Wesley Snipes name up there but thats a complete lie! She never dated Wesley Snipes.
Halle never had a baby untill she was married to a white man because she wanted to have a yellow baby. Why do you think she always talks about her fears of having an ugly baby?... I HATE HALLE BERRY with so much passion I truley Hate her. And I am a black male!
But why should I feel upset? I hate Halle Berry and she hates me. She hates me because i'm black, and because i'm a black male, she probably hate me even more that i'm a dark skin black male... So we are even.
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By: Asia on 3/24/2009 7:15PM
"To the white men...I believe she dated Kevin Costner and Danny Wood from New Kids on the Block. But one white guy that stands out is a dentist she once dated...who sued her for $80,000. He then exposed Halle to the tabloids and completely embarrassed her...by talking about their sexual encounters...etc. AND YET, Halle wants to paint ONLY the black men of her past as the scum...I say this white sounds like scum to me. What I remember of the black guys Halle has dated is they for the most part protected her...they did not discuss the issues she has...even an interviewer asked Eric Benet after their divorce..."Why are you protecting Halle Berry still?" And I can recall Eric supporting Halle big time when she had the hit and run. Not too bad of a guy in my eyes...he could have left her then. But we'll just let Halle be Halle...she'll fall on her face again...she doesn't realize that the problem is her."
Halle always talks about the two men she married, both of whom were black. She never gives a run-down of EVERY single man she ever dated (black or white), so I really don’t believe your comment is accurate. The question was asked of her about the race of her boyfriend and she answered it as truthfully as she could. Also, what else could Eric Benet do but be supportive of Halle in public? He was the one having to repair his image after his so-called "sex addiction" (that we haven't heard of since his divorce from Halle), so it's only in his best interest to be as positive as possible. Remember, he was the cheater, not Halle. Now he's busy portraying the doting father and he's actually getting into his music again and being nominated for Grammys. Perhaps if he had concentrated on his music, his daughter, and his wife, instead running around with all those other women, they would STILL be married and he may have fathered Halle's child. So if you're going to give an example of how supposedly "crazy" Halle is, using Eric Benet is NOT the way to go!
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By: Asia on 3/24/2009 7:16PM
"And David is still married and Eric Benet is still going strong with his current girlfriend...and yet these are bad eggs?
It's interesting they both say the same thing about Halle. She is not as much of a victim as you think! David once said Halle can go off
with the best of them! He didn't even believe that she tried to committ suicide...he said the heartbroken woman on Oprah was not the same woman he saw in court. At the end of their divorce they had a heart to heart according to Halle and she said she would take that convo to the grave...and she said SHE WILL ALWAYS LOVE HIM!
David is a good guy! Like he said he just married the wrong woman - he said simply that they were not compatible PERIOD -- he said it was not as complicated as Halle is making it out to be (and him being black had nothing to do with why their marriage didn't work out...MISS HALLE!) -- furthermore -- if David was so bad why did Halle beg for him to stay! Halle was even the one who asked David to marry her! In the end, David LEFT... Halle may have filed - but that I believe was more legal reasons -- California has a law where you split property 50/50 so Halle at the time making less than David I'M SURE WANTED as much as she could get...David at the time I believe was trying to file in Georgia...where the laws were not as strict.
...in the end, DAVID said all he wanted to do was move on -- just like Eric said all he wanted to do was move on (Erykah Badu even had to come to Eric's defense http://www.vibe.com/news/news_headlines/2008/02/erykah_badu_vh1_storytellers/) -- but Halle kept going to the media and spilling the beans FROM HER POINT of VIEW.
I'm not saying these guys are perfect -- but I don't think they are as bad as Halle is making them out to be -- in fact I don't think they are bad at all -- they just got caught up with a beautiful woman that turned out not to be right for them.
Check out David Justice here!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhdF_Wa7qbA
All that says is that there is someone for everyone, and that everyone has moved on with their lieves. Even Bobby Brown, Mike Tyson, and Ike Turner went on to find women that would marry and/or have children with them. Are these men not considered "bad eggs"?
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By: Zhanaya Wynn on 4/17/2009 5:46PM
The first boyfriend who is said to have abused Halle causing her [if true] hearing loss is a dentist who is white and not Wesley Snipes who is suddenly rumored to have been the one. Wonder who started that. BTW: Not listed above are two other boyfriends who RAN AWAY SCREAMING from Halle: Michael DiLorenzo, the guy who was partnered with Malik Yoba of the New York Undercover cop series, and Michael Ealy of the television production of Their Eyes Were Watching God. And it was HALLE who insisted on the "sex addict" moniker to be placed upon Eric to save face, hers. And, to the above person, Eric Benet's first wife DIED in a car accident so he could not have worked things out with her.
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By: London Hill on 4/24/2009 6:15PM
I am married to a white man and love it. However I will say this, It is hard to find a man period with any given standards a woman may have. Angela did a far MUCH better job in What's Love . . . than Halle did in Monster's Ball. Having standards in Hollywood specially when you are black is wonderful. Now for Halle to copare herself to those of us who are not actresses and do not hava full advantage of the type of men she meets is crazy. We do not have ths same opps as she does or the pickings when it comes to men. Also if you look at all the actresses that were nominated other than Dorthy Dandridge and Halle. They were all BLACK women who were not of mixed race. Also the did not have lighter skin. I am of mixed race with lighter skin and darker skin in Hollywood is not one of the last requirements on the list for a black actress unless otherwise specified by the director. Take a look at your LEAD Black actress roles where the majority of the cast is WHITE. I am sorry she was upset by the comments and put a damper on her win, But she must realized so many came before her so she can get where she is. For a Biracial actress in Hollywood with light skin to get a part like Halle, is easier than Gabrielle Union, Nia Long, Vivica Fox,Regina King. Yes there are those who have starred in feature films like Whoopi, Alfred, Angela,Oprah,and others but what I am saying is How often do you see it. Look at our sitcoms, How ofter do you see the black man but not the woman.
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