Look at Mahershala Ali

The tall, talented, majestic Mahershala Ali has some Hollywood gold. He won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for MOONLIGHT.  He played the street-tough Florida drug dealer who becomes a tender-hearted father figure to a gentle little boy who's an object of homophobic insults. Viola Davis would win the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for FENCES, the film adaptation of the acclaimed August Wilson play. Some TV viewers and critics may have complained about the length of the Oscars telecast -- those complaints are now an annual Oscars tradition -- but much history was made that night.  Mahershala Ali and Viola Fences won their Oscars for performances in films directed by African American males.  Denzel Washington, Davis' co-star in the film and in a Tony-winning Broadway revival, also directed FENCES.  Barry Jenkins directed and co-wrote MOONLIGHT.  More history?  Mahershala Ali accomplished something I don't think any other black actor has done since Sidney Poitier back in the 1960s.

Poitier starred in two of the five Oscar nominees for Best Picture of 1967 -- IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT and GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER. The winner was IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT.  Mahershala Ali starred in two of the Oscar nominees for Best Picture of 2016 -- HIDDEN FIGURES and MOONLIGHT. The winner was  LA LA LAND MOONLIGHT.

 In the entertaining, enlightening, and informative biopic HIDDEN FIGURES, Mahershala Ali and Taraji P. Henson had lovely charm and chemistry together.  She played the brilliant mathematician who brings race and gender diversity and inclusion to NASA as its working to send astronaut John Glenn into space for a historic first.  In the 1960s, segregation existed in America -- even within the scientific walls of NASA. The Civil Rights Movement was underway.  Katherine Goble (Taraji P. Henson) a widowed single working mother, meets and falls in love with National Guard Lt. Col. Jim Johnson (Mahershala Ali). They will wed before John Glenn's Friendship 7 flight.  Katherine Goble Johnson calculated the trajectories for the space launch. This black woman's monumental contribution was kept out of our American history books for decades. Not anymore.

Taraji P. Henson has one Oscar nomination to her credit.  I feel she should have racked up her second Oscar nomination in the Best Actress category for HIDDEN FIGURES. But that didn't happen, dammit.

I've mentioned before that Taraji P. Henson is one of those Black/Latinx actress who should've had an armful of script offers after her Oscar nomination, but had to turn to TV for steady employment. Just like Cicely Tyson, Diahann Carroll, Angela Bassett, Viola Davis and Rita Moreno.  Now hugely popular on EMPIRE, that hit series has given work to other black actresses who got one Oscar nomination besides Taraji. We've seen Jennifer Hudson (Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner for DREAMGIRLS) and Gabourey Sidibe (Best Actress Oscar nominee for PRECIOUS).

I noticed that 2008's THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON has been playing on one of cable's STARZ channel. This is the film that brought Taraji P. Henson her Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. The airings of it this month may be cross-promotion in a way.  Not for her. For screenwriter Eric Roth.  He wrote the BUTTON screenplay (which seems like a remake of his 1994 FORREST GUMP screenplay) and he wrote the screenplay for the newest remake of A STAR IS BORN, out now with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper in the lead roles.

If you saw THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON, Taraji P. Henson plays the uneducated, kind-hearted black maid who adopts the odd looking white baby left on a staircase where she works.  The location is The South right after World War I.  The maid is to Benjamin Button exactly what Sally Field's character was to Forrest Gump.

In the first 20 minutes of the film, we see that the maid has a sweetheart. The black gentleman caller is played by...you guessed it....Mahershala Ali.  The charm and charisma the  two actors displayed in HIDDEN FIGURES was not the first time they'd displayed it.

Mahershala Ali is back down South for the upcoming new film, GREEN BOOK. He plays a classical pianist who must travel through the Jim Crow South for an engagement.  GREEN BOOK was inspired by an actual safety booklet published for years for African American motorists who had to travel through the South. My dad had a copy.  GREEN BOOK, as you've probably figured, is about America's race relations. There's already Oscar buzz about this movie.

Come January, Mahershala Ali will be on HBO for a new season of TRUE DETECTIVE and he may hear that's he's being seen in another Oscar nominee for Best Picture.