By now, we have all heard Gabrielle Union bitch, whine, moan, groan and complain to Essence magazine (December 2007 issue in which she graces the cover with fellow actresses Nia Long and Sanaa Lathan) about her extreme dislike for urban entertainment news blogs which are helmed Black female bloggers. After I read the complete Essence article, I quickly realized that wasn't the only thing she and the other two women had issues with. The ladies dished on an assortment of topics. Everything from how their bank account and lifestyle doesn't mirror the financial assets gained from their most successful movies--(Sanaa said, 'These movies make so much money for these big studios. All I want is for my life to reflect this financially.')--to admitting to being jealous and envious--a.k.a hating-of other actors who snatched up a role that they felt should've been theirs to relationships with the opposite sex; as well as being labeled as trophy girls.Peep the excerpts.
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GABRIELLE & SANAA ON APPEASING THEIR FANS:
GABRIELLE: ...Chris and I were having an argument in the middle of a casino in Vegas. I'm bawling and screaming. Anyway, this group of girls comes up, and their like, 'Oh, my God! Can you do the cheer from Bring It On?' There's no mistaking that this was not a good time. I don't even know why they would do that. But I said through tears, 'This is not a good time right now,' and they were so disappointed. But to this day--and that had to be about six years ago--I feel like I should have done the cheer. I felt anxiety about those girls having a bad experience with me. I have a lot of anxiety about judgment from other people. I have left many a gold plate and angry dinner companions trying to please everyone.
SANAA: Oh, I have plenty of people like, 'Sanaa Lathan is a bitch.' But if I'm having dinner, and you want me to get up from my dinner to take a picture, I'm going to say no. If you want me to have an attitude and call me a bitch forever, then do it.
NIA, GABRIELLE & SANAA ON BLOGGERS:
GABRIELLE TO SANAA: Sanaa, how much anxiety did we have this summer about your hairdo?
SANAA: I got my hair cornrowed before I went on vacation to Turks & Caicos.
NIA: I loved it! It was my idea.
SANAA: No, the cornrows were beautiful, but you know with cornrows, they get frizzy. So I came back, went to Miami, and me and Gab went out one night and the bloggers tore me to shreds.
GABRIELLE: In all fairness...did I not say...?
SANAA: [quoting the blogs] She looks all greasy!
THE LADIES SPILL THE TEA ON 'TROPHY GIRLS' & PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS AFTER THE JUMP!
NIA , GABRIELLE & SANAA ON BEING ENVIOUS OF OTHER ACTORS:
GABRIELLE: That's a tough lesson we all have to go through. It's like, no matter how much you hate on somebody, it doesn't change your life. I mean, you feel kind of okay in the moment as you're dogging somebody, and then at the end of the day you feel bad--and you still don't have the job.
NIA: And you want get one because you're putting all of that negativity out there!
SANAA: I truly believe that. And you know the thing is also, because we are artists, we feel. We have to nurture that sensitive side of ourselves, so of course we're going to get jealous and envious. We're human. But the key is to have the emotion, recognize it, deal with it, and move on. That's what being an adult is. I think in life you have to work on yourself, but it's almost like being an actress in Hollywood is double stress.
NIA AND SANAA ON PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS:
NIA: I would love to have another child. If that's in my cards, then great. I always felt that I would have another one. Would I like to get married? Yeah, I want to send out the invitations and get the dress and pick out the flowers. Do I want that man, that partner that I'm going to share my life with? Absolutely. But you really have to love yourself first, before you can attract that partner. So now I'm in the phase that if it happens, great, I'm open to it. If it doesn't, I'm still going to be happy. I have to forgive myself that things didn't work out with my son's father. I have to forgive myself that I had a child and wasn't married. It's life, these are the things that happen.
SANAA: The thing that's so sad about the whole thing with relationships is, I've been in relationships where I've been with the person and somebody called him and said, 'Yo. Your girl is at this party in Miami with so and so.' I'm sitting right next to the person that I'm dating, I'm like, 'Why would they do that? Did they get me confused with somebody? What is the need to break this up?
NIA, GABRIELLE & SANAA ON BEING A TROPHY GIRL:
NIA: I think we're all prizes. We're the trophy girls. And I don't mean that in a way where I walk around thinking that I'm a trophy girl, but in terms of the guys that are watching the videos, and the whole urban culture, it's like we're the three flavors. Right here. So our intentions could be, 'I met the perfect guy. He's so this and so that.' And I'm just as excited as he is. But there has to be a thing in your head that reminds you that they put us on a pedestal. We are immediately put on a pedestal as the images that they've seen us in and have fallen in love. Whether it's Love & Basketball, whether it's Daddy's Little Girls, whatever it is. That is something that is very present. So to get through all of that, it takes a ton of patience.
GABRIELLE: Also, a lot of guys aren't about the right thing.
NIA: Yeah, they just wanna be there for the experience. The image.
SANAA: They're not interested in having a real person. They're interested in some fantasy.
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Look for Sanaa to reprise her Broadway role as Beneatha Younger in the tv adaptation of Raisin in the Sun in February; Nia Long will continue to bless us with her small screen work in ABC's Big Shots; and Gabrielle hooks up with Morris Chestnut (for the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th time...take your pick) in the new romantic comedy film Perfect Holiday which will be released in December.
