for more information about Kerry’s comments, head over to BlackThespian.

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In the past, Black actresses were slandered for stepping out with white men. In these “post-racial” times, it’s commonplace to see a black woman with a white man. Black women have decided to stop complaining about black men leaving them for white women when they get an ounce of success. Black women are now playing the interracial dating game without shame. With the recent split of Zoe Saldana and her fiancee, Keith Britton, The Urban Daily decided to offer up a list of eleven starlets who have no issue with bringing a white guy home for the holidays.

Garcelle Beauvais

Known for her roles on The Jamie Foxx Show and NYPD Blue, Garcelle Beauvais married Mike Nilon in 2001. Nilon and Beauvais looked like the perfect couple. Fans sympathized with them as they struggled with infertility for nearly five years. By 2007, the infertility issue was laid to rest as Garcelle gave birth to twins. By the time 2010 came around, the actress and her agent husband were in the headlines after she found out he had been having an affair for five years. Beauvais didn’t get mad, she got even. She embarrassed her husband by emailing his co-workers and detailing his affair. Didn’t Redd Foxx say something about not crossing Creole women in Harlem Nights? I’ll take a guess that Mike Nilon didn’t take that advice.

Diana Ross

The ultimate diva, Diana Ross, has never been shy about dating and marrying white men. If you think about it, her relationships parallel the happenings in her career. Ms. Ross was messing with Berry Gordy when she was recording music with The Supremes. She gave the legendary record executive a daughter in 1971, but gave the child the last name of her white husband, Robert Ellis Silberstein. It wasn’t revealed until years later that Diana’s eldest daughter, Rhonda, was Berry Gordy’s. After divorcing Silberstein in 1977, Diana Ross upgraded herself by trading nuptials with billionaire, Arne Naess, Jr. The power couple parted ways in 2000 and their children use Ross as their surname.

Paula Patton

Paula Patton is one of the sexiest women in the game right now. Plenty of guys are hating that she is married to blue-eyed soul singer, Robin Thicke, instead of them. This is a couple you have no choice but to respect. They met when they were teenagers and remained together through every false start of their respective careers. In a way, Thicke introduced Patton to the world. When he dropped his overlooked debut album, A Beautiful World, it was Paula’s naked body gracing its cover. Thicke expressed his feelings about the drama the couple has endured on the 2008 song, “Dreamworld.” “There would be no black and white, the world just treat my wife right. We could walk down in Mississippi and no one would look at us twice,” he sang. It’s looking like we’re slowly but surely inching toward his dream.

Kerry Washington

When it comes to Kerry Washington’s experiences in the love department, life has imitated art. Washington landed on moviegoers’ radar as Chenille Reynolds in Save The Last Dance. Kerry played the sister of a guy in an interracial relationship. Her character felt some trepidation about her brother’s choice, but grew to accept the relationship. In real life, she was engaged to an actor named David Moscow from 2004 until 2007. It was alleged she was dating with Common once her engagement was broken off. The only evidence of the rapper and actress being together was her appearance in his video for “I Want You.” Would it be considered reaching if we used that as proof? Yes?  We thought so.

Diahann Carroll

There’s no mistaking Diahann Carroll is a treasure in Black Hollywood. She always plays her characters perfectly. Having been married four times, it’s easy to say finding the one hasn’t been a walk in the park. Her most attention grabbing marriage was to singer, Vic Damone. Carroll admitted her marriage to Damone was a turbulent one. They wed in 1987 and legally separated in 1991. The pair attempted a reconciliation soon after, but officially divorced in 1996. Was Dominique Deveraux too much for the Italian-American crooner? Maybe so.

Janet Jackson

In 1989, Janet Jackson dropped an album with the mission to rid the world of color lines and racial boundaries. The notions that drove Rhythm Nation 1814 have manifested themselves in Janet’s love life. After annulling her quickie union to James Debarge in 1985, Jackson married Rene Elizondo Jr. in 1991. The public didn’t discover the couple exchanged vows until Elizondo filed for divorce in 2000. Janet came back to the “dark side” when she began dating hip-hop producer, Jermaine Dupri. Seven years and a creepy tattoo later, Janet was hit by jungle fever again. She’s been involved with Wissam Al Mana for a while now. Damn, there goes my dream of marrying her!

Whoopi Goldberg

Whoopi Goldberg has never been considered the classic beauty. Despite that fact, she has always been able to bag a man. Whoopi entered into an affair with actor, Ted Danson in 1993. Their relationship was marred by a few media firestorms. Danson infamously roasted her at the Friar’s Club dressed in blackface. On top of the negative attention from the comedy roast, Danson and Goldberg’s affair led to Danson’s divorce, which was one of the most expensive divorces of the time. Ted Danson paid $30 million to ex-wife for his few months with Whoopi. She must have a diamond encrusted box. Goldberg must really know what she’s doing behind closed doors.

Rutina Wesley

To True Blood fans, Rutina Wesley is the angry black best friend to the main character, Sookie. Wesley’s introduction in the first episode featured her cussing out a white man for saying her name was pretty. Rutina’s character, Tara, continues to scream on the man by telling him she was named after a plantation. In the real world, Rutina Wesley doesn’t have an issue with a white man trying to spit game. She’s happily married to actor, Jacob Fishel. So much for life imitating art in this scenario.

Stacey Dash

Since entering the acting game, Stacey Dash has covered the walls of every black male teenager born in the 80s. Although Dash had plenty of black men checking for her, those gorgeous green eyes were focused on white guys. Brian Lovell took Dash’s hand in marriage in 1999 and gave it back in 2005. After a brief union with James Maby, Stacey thought she found the one in Emmanuel Xuereb. Their matrimony ended last year with Dash filing a restraining order. Inquiring minds want to know what she does to these guys to make them go so crazy?

Halle Berry

She might be the first Black actress to win the Best Actress Oscar, but she has begun to follow the trend in dating white men. Halle Berry’s love life has been well documented. Berry has been in dead end romances with Wesley Snipes, Christopher Williams, David Justice, Eric Benet, and Michael Ealy. With all of that, it’s no wonder Halle decided to add some milk to her coffee. Gabriel Aubry gave Halle something no man had given her before–a child. Once things went left for those two, French actor, Olivier Martinez became her resident arm candy.

Lena Horne

The legendary Lena Horne is revered for her beauty, grace, and performing abilities. Ms. Horne was also known for her honesty. After a short lived marriage to Louis Jordan Jones, Horne wed music conductor and arranger, Lennie Heyton. In her autobiography, she recounts the struggles they faced as an interracial couple in the 50s and 60s. In an 1980 interview with Ebony Magazine, Ms. Horne spoke about marrying Heyton to gain mainstream attention and learning to love him later. While I don’t condone that kind of thing, she had to get in where she fit in. It was hard out there for a black actress so she gets a pass.

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Quentin Tarantino has assembled an all star cast for his upcoming spaghetti western revenge drama Django Unchained.  After months of courting some of the top  black talent like Will Smith and Idris Elba, Oscar winner Jamie Foxx was cast in the coveted title role.  Joining the cast are Leonardo DiCaprio as evil plantation owner Calvin Candle, Samuel L. Jackson as Candle’s right hand man, Joseph Gordon Levitt (Inception) as slave trader Jano, Rza as slave Thaddeus, and  Kerry Washington as Django’s wife, Broomhilda.

Django Unchained tells the story of a slave (Foxx) who with the help of German bounty hunter  (Christopher Waltz), sets off on a mission of revenge to rescue his lady love Broomhilda, from the clutches of evil plantation owner Calvin Candle.  The movie is slated for a Christmas 2012 nationwide release.

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The video follows Cee Lo’s “Lady Killer” character as he claims victim after victim.  He keeps a memento of each of his prey in the form of a high heeled shoe that he places on a display wall.  But over the course of the video, The Lady Killer meets his match…

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Kerry Washington and Jada Pinkett Smith start the list off but who else made the cut?

CLICK HERE FOR THE COMPLETE LIST.

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The 14th Annual Urbanworld Film Festival kicked off yesterday at the AMC 34th St Theater in New York City. Actress Kerry Washington and actor Jamie Hector were the stars of their night for their roles in Night Catches Us.

The term Black Hollywood often times feels like an oxymoron. Images of African-American life barely make it to the big screen and when they do, they are generally muddled in some kind of violent gangster morality tale or simplistic slap-stick comedy featuring your favorite rapper Du Jour. Sure there are the Tyler Perry movies, but if his melodramatic fare isn’t quite sophisticated enough for you, then you are usually out of luck. The UrbanWorld film festival now in its 14th year is one of the few places where film fans can catch a diverse selection of movies that offer genuine glimpses into Black life, not completely burdened by unnecessary stereotypes.

“This is a great night for black film,” said Washington, who dazzled the red carpet in a chic black mini-skirt. “I will always support independent film because that’s the community I came out of,” added Hector. “And I’m still in it.”

Incorporating an enticing blend of independent features, shorts and documentaries, the film topics for this year’s festival range from Mike Tyson, to Islam, to Educational hope and inequality in NYC . One of the standout documentaries is “My Mic Sounds Nice” which originally aired on BET. Both well shot and thought provoking, the documentary will undoubtably become the benchmark for which other music films like it will be judged.

When I attended one of the early Urbanworld festivals at the old $2 worldwide cinema on 52nd street, I marveled at the passionate look on the faces of the young filmmakers and fans in attendance. It was as if they had discovered some sort of celluloid nirvana. The 2010 version of the festival is slightly more glam at the new 34th street AMC digs as the red carpet moments, like Thursday night’s screening of Keri Washington’s new film Night Catches Us, take on more importance. However at its core, the energy of Urbanworld has remained the same over the years. It is one of the only places where zealous film makers and fans can get their fix of quality films about a people whose stories are all to often ignored.

Check out the red carpet photos from opening night!

Other celebs who attended the event were tv/radio personality FREE, actress Kellita Smith (The Bernie Mac Show) and model Liris Crosse.

Stay tuned for appearances from Nia Long, Evan Ross, Golden Brooks , Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Omari Hardwick , Dijon Talton, Kid Capri, Crazy Legs and more.

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Not only can Kerry Washington act, she looks damn good doing it. Her latest project “Night Catches Us,” a Black Panther era drama with Anthony Mackie, is a favorite at the upcoming New York International Latino Film Festival. In celebration, we’re reflecting on Kerry’s steamiest scenes. Objections? We thought not.

5. “I THINK I LOVE MY WIFE”

No list highlighting Kerry Washington’s sex appeal would be complete without her unforgettable turn as Nikki Tru. Oozing pheromones from every pore of her body throughout the film, Kerry sauntered her way across the screen as the ultimate temptation for any man-married or other. When it came down to her lingerie scene towards the end of the film it was clear that Nikki (and Kerry) was the truth.

What was #1? Go to TheBVX.com too see more!

Celebs came out for the Keep A Child Alive’s 6th Annual Black Ball last night in NYC. Check out Halle looking stunning in her dress on the red carpet, plus Kerry Washington, Iman and Paula Patton!

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My new crush, Nicole Beharie (Habana Outpost, remember?!), sat down with The Urban Daily to talk about her role in American Violet – in select theaters today. While doing the interview, she dropped dime about maybe lacing up the thigh high boots, donning something leather and coming to my, err, I mean society’s rescue.

With that in mind, be sure to check out our review of American Violet [click here to read and listen] and check out these casting decisions if Marvel or DC Comics ever decide to put together a black female superhero summer blockbuster movie.

Still need saving? Check out our Black Superheroes gallery by clicking here! To see all the Black Super-heroines check out this video here!

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Samuel L. Jackson has signed on to join Kerry Washington, Naomi Watts, Annette Bening and Jimmy Smits in director Rodrigo Garcia’s Mother and Child, reports Screen Daily.

Garcia also wrote the screenplay, which follows the intersecting story of three women – a 50 year old woman, the daughter she gave up for adoption and a woman looking to adopt a child of her own.

Principal photography has reportedly started under producers Lisa Maria Falcone of Everest Entertainment and Mockingbird Pictures’ Julie Lynn. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel and 21 Grams) is the executive producer.

Everest’s Falcone said, “I am thrilled to be financing Rodrigo Garcia’s new film. The quality of the material has attracted a world-class cast, and I am proud that this will mark the first film of my new company.”

Don’t forget to check out yesterday’s OUT AND ABOUT for all the latest celeb sightings!

It’s good to know that some things never change. On the heels of President-elect Barack Obama’s historic win, Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am has crafted a new song, “It’s A New Day.” As if “Yes, We Can” wasn’t enough. Watch the star-studded video for “It’s A New Day” below:

This Overbrook Entertainment-produced flick finds itself bearing a very notable similarity to a well-publicized case in Los Angeles, where an officer for the LAPD was accused of serially harassment of his neighbors. The kicker was that they were an interracially married couple. Lakeview Terrace delivers on the fact-to-fiction hype and engrosses viewers into a tense and titilatting drama which turns into a thriller in a blink of an eye.

Samuel L. Jackson’s turn as the widowed officer Abel Turner is a villainous delight. His smarter-than-thou attitude carries over well and coupled with his sharp wit and booming voice, you can understand why Jackson has been so successful in Hollywood for over two decades and shows no signs of stopping now. As Turner reels from the lost of his wife, newlyweds Chris and Lisa Mattson (Wilson and Washington, respectively) move into the neighborhood to start their own new life.

Lakeview Terrace starts off slow, allowing the characters to find their footing. Turner’s kids played by Pride’s Regine Nehy and Jaishon Fisher (That’s So Raven) give Jackson’s character enough ammunition to showcase that something is indeed “off,” but that vagueness is not as cleverly masked as other thriller’s packed with suspense like The Usual Suspects. Washington and Wilson’s chemistry is apparent and although you may be staring at Kerry Washington’s sexiness, it is Patrick Wilson who helps drive the plot along.

Points are deducted for the dragging plot line between the three stars. The tension that build between the three principle characters is offset by the sheer point that there is a clear and present result that can be taken, but Wilson and Washington are too stubborn to take that road. With enough chills to freeze a polar bear, these three character driven to maddness through the blurring lines of interracial love, make Lakeview Terrace an interestesting commentary on our current state of affairs with a heavy dosage of sociopathic tendencies that would make Norman Bates grin.

The Urban Daily: Good afternoon, Ms. Washington, you look gorgeous today. Could you describe your character, Lisa, in Lakeview Terrace?
Kerry Washington: Lisa is a very complicated woman. I was really excited about playing her because I’ve never seen this kind of black woman on the screen before.

TUD: What type of woman is that?
KW: You know… a kind of Prius driving, Birkenstock wearing black chick who’s a Berkeley girl. I have a lot of girlfriends like that, so I liked that idea as that being my character. I really loved all of the complexities in the relationship in their marriage and in their neighborhood. I think Lakeview Terrace is a very rich film. There’s a lot going on in it!

TUD: Mr. Jackson, your character, Abel Turner is quite a character himself. Is he comfortable with all the chaos he creates?
Samuel L. Jackson: Yeah, I think that Abel is comfortable with who he is and where he is in his life. He’s trying to figure out how to navigate raising his teenage daughter, because she’s raising questions with him, but like most teenage daughters – the number one thing they say most is, [in a mimicking voice] “That’s so unfair!” His opinion is one that people definitely have to get used to. He’s dealing with bad people, mostly and because of that he pretty much thinks the worst of the majority of people that he encounters. He has a way of thinking and then this young couple moves in and immediately he can see that they’re different. This is an influence that Abel feels like he can’t have around his kids. Not just because they’re married and are interracial and are a couple, but he see this young woman who is at home, working and she’s kind of cute and brassy, so he doesn’t know if he wants his daughter to be influenced by that. So, he definitely has his own opinions.

TUD: What are your respective thoughts on interracial dating?
KW: I think that people should be allowed to love whoever they want to love – regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender and sex. People should just be able to love who they love.

SJ: I’m aware that a lot of people tend to think that, but one can be a racist just because of what one’s attitude is. It’s not just black and white. People look at people and say she’s so tall or he’s so short or make comments about that fat girl in the corner. It’s true with guys especially because ugly guys can get the good looking girls. It’s just one of those things that can’t really be explained, it’s just understood.

TUD: Would you say that there’s a difference between black men and white men?
KW: I think that there’s a difference between people, no matter what color they are. We have lots of ways that we can identify culturally, you know? There’s a difference from people who grew up in Manhattan versus those who grew up in the Bronx. I fit into the Bronx group. There’s a difference between people who were born in the 80’s and those who were born in the 70’s. I point that out not to separate us as human beings, but to point out the uniqueness between people and all the things that contribute to who we are culturally.

TUD: What is that?
KW: It’s a tapestry that’s woven from a lot of different threads. So, yes, I think that racial identity is a part of that, but I also think you could have two kids, like there is in this movie, who come from two different sides of the coin, yet are more similar and can create a happiness from it.

TUD: Do you think this explosive conclusion to Lakeview Terrace was inevitable? Or do you think there were moments where something else could have happened?
SJ: There was a time where the situation could’ve been diffused as easily as it became explosive. There was a light that my character, Abel, has that affects the couple from sleeping. The end result is simple: buy some curtains [laughs]! They’re the affluent couple next door, her husband (played by Patrick Wilson) is some guy who works at Whole Foods or something and they can afford to buy some curtains. When Abel goes to the house warming party, he’s very open with them and their guest, but they talk down to him – leaving Abel to have to defend himself. Once they cross that line, the line’s crossed and he feels threatened in a very real kind of way, by his career, not able to make a living for his kids and all these other factors affect him and he kind of loses it and unravels.

TUD: What was it about this character that made you want to do it?
SJ: He’s very different from who I am. I’m always looking for specific acting challenges or trying to explore some emotions that I don’t have. I love to be in situations that are foreign to what I’m doing right now. Abel was pretty much as far away from me as I could get, right now, so it was fun to play him.

TUD: Did you have any artistic license to change the script?
SJ: In the original script, Abel is a crazed racist, kind of like a mad dog, his wife is still alive and he’s sort of abusive to her and his kids. There’s all this kind of stuff going on and in the end, it’s too easy to hate. So, when we started the rehearsal period, we were able to craft some other stuff. Got rid of the wife, he’s by himself raising two kids and it leaves the people to try and figure out why he’s this angry with people. When you find out what happened to his wife, that’s a big twist to let the audience be informed on his hatred.

TUD: Would you say that there was some sexual tension between you and Sam’s character in the movie?
KW: That is one of the things that I really like about this movie. A lot of the relationship between Lisa and Abel is non-verbal. I think some people label that as a “sexual tension” because whenever there’s that sub-textural communication, that’s kind of the thought that we first go to. That’s just the assumption that we make. I just think that they have a complicated identity. They’re interesting to me because they come from two completely different worlds. Their moral code, their education, their worldliness, their economic upbringing is all so different. But they feel like they should understand each other because of their race. That’s so interesting to me because they have this struggle and tension with each other. It’s like – they should know each other, but they don’t…

SJ: I guess you can say that… Naturally, you got a guy like Abel, who’s next door and he probably thought, “Why are they together?” I hear my wife’s friends say sometimes question why they’re not with a black man and why he’s with a white woman who may or may not be as attractive as them. A lot of us have those questions and I can see why Abel would have those thoughts. There’s a scene and if it ever ends up on DVD, you’ll see where Kerry’s character comes out and she’s got on this little thing and she kind of temps him to come over, he goes over and that scene happens – where he thinks that she’s trying to seduce him. But actually, she’s trying to get something else going.

TUD: Have you ever had a crazy neighbor?
SJ: When my wife bought the house we ended up in, there were five brownstones on the block we were in and like seven apartment buildings. When spring came, all 3000 people who lived in that neighborhood came out and of those five brownstones, we all had 8 or 9 steps that went up to our front doors. All the kids in the neighborhood sat on those steps, playing their boom-boxes and ate chicken. Crazy kids left the bones and when we tried to come home, they looked at us like we were interrupting them to go up our stairs! We became the neighbors from hell, my wife talked everybody into buying gates and blocked the steps off because we didn’t want them to sit on our steps.

TUD: Ms. Washington with all the work that you have going on – talk about the stuff you’re doing with the Obama campaign…
KW: Honestly, I’ve been having the time of my life. I’ve been to about 9 states for Senator Obama. I’m an official surrogate and I’m co-chair of the voter registration drive and Vote For Change movement. I’ve just been as involved as I possibly can be. I was in Denver for the convention, which was amazing. I was just crying like a baby during Michelle’s speech. This is truly an incredible experience.

Be sure to keep an eye on Samuel L. Jackson and Kerry Washington as they prep for their next roles in Soul Men and Eddie Murphy’s A Thousand Words, respectively.Lakeview Terrace is in theaters now!

According to the Associated Press, Jessica Alba exclaimed Obama’s speech was, “Incredible,” before meeting up with fellow entertainers Rosario Dawson, Fergie, Wilmer Valderrama and Kerry Washington. Meanwhile, Fergie claimed that the experience “was excellent and amazing.”

The stars were aligned in support for the country’s first black presidential candidate to break through the glass ceiling as everyone from George Lucas and Forrest Whitaker toLost star Daniel Dae Kim and Oprah Winfrey had praise for the night’s events.

will.i.am performed his Obama anthem “Yes, We Can” with John Legend during the evening, while Oprah Winfrey, one of Obama’s biggest supporters, had the biggest reaction of them all. “I cried my eyelashes off,” she told the AP, moments after Obama accepted the nomination before an estimated crowd of 84,000 people. “I think it’s the most powerful thing [that] I have ever experienced.”

Last night also marked the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech and Winfrey compared Obama to the iconic leader. “He’s not an African-American candidate,” she concluded. “He’s a candidate for Americans.”

With the support of America’s most powerful woman not named Hillary, the road to November is paved with more debates and as the Democratic National Conventionconcluded The Urban Daily/NewsOne.com was there every step of the way.

Be sure to check out our DNC 2008 coverage over at NewsOne.com!