ABOUT FABULOUS REGINA HALL

 This is about talented Black actresses getting good comedy script opportunities from Hollywood.  Regina Hall is good at drama, She is really good at comedy. She has been making me belly laugh since the SCARY MOVIE franchise started in 2000 followed by her work in GIRLS TRIP and the wonderful indie film, SUPPORT THE GIRLS. Regina Hall made me laugh this year when she was a presenter on the Golden Globes telecast.

Diane Keaton won a Best Actress Oscar for a Woody Allen comedy (1977'S ANNIE HALL).  Mira Sorvino won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for a Woody Allen comedy (1995's MIGHTY APHRODITE). Dianne Wiest won two Best Supporting Actress Oscars for Woody Allen comedies (1986's HANNAH AND HER SISTERS and for playing the grand but faded Broadway star in 1994's BULLETS OVER BROADWAY).

In all its Academy Awards history, rarely has a Black actress received an Oscar nomination for a comedy performance. I'd love for Hollywood studios to send good comedy script opportunities to Regina Hall, the quality of the ones that brought Oscars to those three women.

The only Black actress I can think of who got an Oscar nomination for a comedy performance is Whoopi Goldberg. She won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for playing the psychic in 1990's GHOST.

From 2006 to 2008, Whoopi hosted a live weekday morning radio show that was broadcasted out of midtown Manhattan. It was a Premiere Radio program called WAKE UP WITH WHOOPI. She hired me to be her weekly entertainment contributor and movie reviewer. (This hiring came about because she had been one of my first guests on my VH1 prime time celebrity talk show in 1988 and remembered me.) One morning, during a long commercial break, she told me that even though she had a Best Actress Oscar nomination for THE COLOR PURPLE to her credit, she could not get an audition for GHOST. The director was not interested in seeing her and she was, understandably, hurt and disappointed. Patrick Swayze (who was also a guest on my talkshow) heard about this. He was a big Whoopi Goldberg fan and told the GHOST makers that if they didn't let her audition, he'd drop out of the movie deal. The rest is Oscar history. Whoopi told me this before she told it on ABC's THE VIEW.

Claudette Colbert won the Best Actress Oscar for the 1934 screwball comedy, IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT. Judy Holliday repeated her Broadway success in the 1950 film version of BORN YESTERDAY and won the Best Actress Oscar. In this comedy, A Washington, DC print journalist working on a story introduces a crooked millionaire's girlfriend to some literature and classical music. Her boyfriend is in town to buy political influence. The journalist inspires the "dumb blonde" girlfriend to wake up and realize she needs to declare her independence from her "fascist bully" tyrant of a boyfriend. In the meantime, she's starting to fall for the journalist. It's a comedy with a political statement that still resonates today.

Here's a clip from BORN YESTERDAY starring Oscar winner Judy Holliday. Broderick Crawford co-stars.

Regina Hall could definitely handle substantial roles like those.

The first Black person to be nominated for an Oscar -- and the first to win -- was Hattie McDaniel, Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner for playing "Mammy" in 1939's GONE WITH THE WIND. Hattie McDaniel in GONE WITH THE WIND, Ethel Waters in 1949's PINKY, Juanita Moore in 1959's IMITATION OF LIFE, Cicely Tyson in 1972's SOUNDER, Diahann Carroll in 1974's CLAUDINE, Oprah Winfrey in 1985's THE COLOR PURPLE, Viola Davis and Octavia Spender in 2011's THE HELP all got their Oscar nominations for playing domestic workers who had drama while working for White folks. Halle Berry won her groundbreaking Best Actress Oscar for playing an irresponsible, verbally abusive mother whose husband was a death row prison inmate in 2001's MONSTER'S BALL.  Lovely Lupita Nyong'o won her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for playing a raped and beaten plantation cotton picker in 12 YEARS A SLAVE.

Whew! That's a lot o' drama. I'd love to see Lupita Nyong'o star in a romantic comedy like Billy Wilder's 1954 film, SABRINA, which brought Audrey Hepburn a Best Actress Oscar nomination.

Teri Garr hooked a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her comed role in 1982's TOOTSIE as an insecure, struggling actress in New York City. That's a character that could be played by a Black actress ... like the wonderful Kerry Washington, for instance.

There are so many good, versatile Black actresses available for A-list Hollywood script opportunities. Opportunities that could lead to Oscar nominations like the one Whoopi Goldberg got for GHOST. Regina Hall is one of those actresses. Yes, I'm a big fan. Here's a trailer for the indie comedy film you should see -- 2018's SUPPORT THE GIRLS starring Regina Hall.

Thanks for reading my post.