Halle Berry Steals Oscar Show

Yahoo, Reuters ^ | March 25, 2002 | Jill Serjeant

[Sally II]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Halle Berry stole the show at Sunday's Oscars (news - web sites), becoming the first black woman to win a best actress Academy Award and accepting it with a weeping, emotion-filled speech that bought tears to the eyes of her worldwide audience.

Berry, 33, a rising star but hardly a household name, won for her role as a woman overtaken by rage and frustration in the racially charged movie "Monster's Ball" that is considered her best performance in a 10-year career.

Moments later she was joined in the record books by Denzel Washington as they became the first blacks to win both the best actor and best actress Oscars in 74 years of Academy Awards (news - web sites).

Last year's awards ceremony saw Hollywood sweetheart Julia Roberts whooping with unabashed delight at winning her first best actress Oscar.

Berry, who up until a few days ago had been considered an outsider for Hollywood's highest honor, looked about to faint.

With tears streaming down her face and gasping for breath, Berry dedicated her award to all the African-American women who had struggled before her to make their way in Hollywood.

"This moment is so much bigger than me. It's for every nameless, faceless woman of color that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened," she said.

"I am so honored, I'm so honored, and I thank the Academy for choosing me to be the vessel from which this blessing might flow," Berry said, telling reporters afterward that she wondered how she would make it up the steps to the stage.

She emerged as a late favorite in a race that had been dominated by Nicole Kidman and Sissy Spacek until Berry proved the surprise winner of the Screen Actor's Guild two weeks ago.

Before Sunday, Sidney Poitier had been the only other African American to win a lead acting Oscar, getting the award for his 1963 performance in "Lilies of the Field."

. . . .

[Sally II]

Okay, I think Halle Berry is a lovely woman, and I'm sure she's as fine an actresss as any of them, though I haven't seen more than a couple of her films. But did her acceptance speech raise any alarms in people like it did in me. I ask, aside from the the Bay Area, what other centralized group of people can be more liberal that the denizens of Hollywood? And yet for as supposedly Liberal and Progressive Hollywood is they've been so racist that they are only now giving a best actress oscar to a black woman?!!! Is there a problem here with Hollywood Liberalism? Is it possible that even the Hollywood Liberals are racist?!! Or is black Hollywood over reacting a little? Or is it a little of both.

Reminds me, every once and a while I catch this ultra liberal station from Berkeley. And someone is always on there complaining about racism, about how blacks and now Arabs are being racially profiled or being looked at wrong --and yet they elected Barbara Lee as a congresswoman!!! Someone have any idea why places that are ruled by the left wing complain the most about racism? You'd think they would have the opposite result, wouldn't you??

[mlo]

Her acceptance speech was the most self-indulgent display I've ever seen at the Oscars.

[tacticalogic]

The most blatant case of petty theft I've ever seen.

[tallhappy]

Halle Berry Steals Oscar Show

Where'd she put it? Did they find it yet?

[PoisedWoman]

accepting it with a weeping, emotion-filled speech that bought tears to the eyes of her worldwide audience.

Tears, schmears. She made me turn away in embarrassment. She does her cause no good with these histrionics. Actually, a truly skillful actress might have made some good racial points, but Halle did not. Bad acting. Let's take her Oscar back.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Excellent. I've thought the same myself. The conclusion I came to was that liberals are really racists underneath and their guilt makes them think and behave the way they do. I've found that people often accuse others of what they themselves are guilty of (liberals anyway).

[Argus]

Is it possible that even the Hollywood Liberals are racist?!!

All liberals are racists, because they think skin color is the most important thing about a person. Hollywood epitomizes this attitude to an almost pathological degree. Item - in the tribute reel to Sidney Poitier, every participant was black, as if this were the only thing about Poitier worthy of notice. Item - Halle Berry's acceptance speech stressed her "blackness" first, acknowledging that she received the Oscar as a token - "The first Black woman to win Best Actress in a Leading Role" - rather than for actually giving the best performance of the year. Item - Halle, like the actresses she specifically paid tribute to in her speech - Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, and Diahann Carol - is mulatto, her "cafe au lait" complexion and "white" features matching Hollywood's standard of beauty. Actresses with "Negro" features like Hattie McDaniel and Whoopi Goldberg can win Best Supporting Oscars for "Mammy" parts, but don't hold your breath expecting a woman who really looks "Black" to get the top prize.

[Vladiator]

What does that mean?

[NYCVirago]

Her acceptance speech was the most self-indulgent display I've ever seen at the Oscars.

Julia Roberts' "I love my life" comment while announcing Denzel Washington as the Best Actor winner was rather annoying, too.

[lelio]

liberals are really racists underneath
While that is true, listening to Rush this morning I thought it was more of a publicity play. How can we make it seem like the country was racist up until now? Why, don't give a black woman an Oscar until the right moment so we can get more movie revenues.
Also Rush had a good point that Julia Roberts has enough clout to get whomever she feels like in a male role. How many of them were black?

[white trash redneck]

Keep in mind what the woman does for a living. She's a actress. I think her whole display last night was a calculated act.

[Ax]

Dang! It happened again! Why is it that every time the Oscars come on, it is my night to rearrange my sock drawer?

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Lefties are all racists. They can't help themselves.

But I thought Halle was great as "Storm" in the X-Men movie. She shoulda got the oscar just for that.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Did you see Sally Field?

[Sally II]

The conclusion I came to was that liberals are really racists underneath and their guilt makes them think and behave the way they do.

My thoughts exactly. And I agree with others that she did a horrible job of overacting in her acceptance speech. I only saw the clip of it after the show, and I had to laugh at Nicole Kidman's reaction. Kidman looked like she was trying very hard to turn her disgusted expression into one of empathy.

Anyhow, the big movers and shakers of Hollywood should be embarrassed by the implications of her speech. But knowing the Left, they'll find some way to deflect Berry's suggestions of Hollywood racism onto some unsuspecting conservatives.

Regarding some of the other comments, I wouldn't call her winning theft, but it does look like affirmative action. Did she have to kiss Billy Bob to get that Oscar?

[mombonn]

Diana Ross deserved an Oscar for "Lady Sings the Blues" waaay back when!

[dalebert]

Halle should have been smart and excepted on the merit of her work. She is half white. I noticed her white mother was with her last night.

[dougherty]

Her acceptance speech was the most self-indulgent display I've ever seen at the Oscars.

At first I thought she was having some kind of a seizure. She was out of control, rambling, ranting and embarassing to watch.

[linn37]

her white mama was keeping her down