Monday, September 21, 2015

GH's Nancy Lee Grahn Under Fire for Tweets



I wish I loved Speech, but I thought she should have let @shondarhimes write it.



@nxssy I do 2. I think she's the bees knees but she's elite of TV performers. Brilliant as she is. She has never been discriminated against

Well, unless you live under a rock or don't get social media feeds, then you are missing the huge Nancy Lee Grahn mess right now.
Seems last night she tweeted about Viola Davis and her Emmy-- and one tweet turned to two and into responses to other tweeters and ...
MESS.

Daytime Confidental has a piece about it with tweets. Buzzfeed  has another with many of NLG's responses to angered tweeters after reading what she said.


Nancy has been trending since I got up this morning at 7:30am. It's STILL going on.  There are only a few reasons people trend on twitter. One is good, one is you're dead and the other is you are in a whole lotta mess. 


I had gone to bed and didn't see the tweets first hand but scrolled through my timeline. I saw some of her tweets to one of my cyberpals on there (who's now got her name all over the internet)--and really just shook my head. When said friend ( who's a lawyer) gets told to 'read a damn book' then I know it got ugly. 

We all know in the soap world that NLG is outspoken. This went beyond the norm however, especially on a night that was meant to be historic and belonged to Ms. Davis. Her speech was moving and eloquent. TV's been around how long and this is the FIRST time a black actress won in the leading category? What the hell does that tell you?  It really shouldn't have been diminished in any way, shape or form. 

The Net is an unforgiving mistress. This will be in the news for awhile, especially on entertainment shows. The saddest part is that this is the buzz instead of Viola's win. 

18 comments:

  1. The Emmy Broadcast last night was the 67th annual show. So, in 67 years, there has not been a Black woman who won for dramatic actress in a leading role. Viola Davis's speech was so moving. I was listening with half an ear when she started with the quote from Harriet Tubman. Immediate attention, immediate tears. Viola Davis showed herself to be an intelligent, eloquent woman in her speech. And she is fantastic as Annalise, and deserved that award.
    I am so sorry that Nancy Lee Grahm tweeted the things she did. She diminished herself.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't think Nancy did anything wrong. She tweeted what she felt. Get over it and move. Personally I could care less.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think Nancy just meant that Viola has been very fortunate in receiving an Academy award and an Emmy, which reflects that she has been given great parts and opportunities. Nancy probably wishes she had such great opportunities and she is white. Whatever it was, it was inappropriate and she should be groveling. Viola D. is a phenomenal actress and her win was well deserved and her speech was heartfelt.
    LindaV

    ReplyDelete
  4. Kamele, I'm just letting people know what happened. I think she did tweet what she felt and ergo, you go into a public forum, you are fair game for replies. As for 'getting over it' she's still trending at 3pm. I think that the people that have to fight for a face/voice in that profession don't want to get 'over it'.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've always liked NLG, but I think what she did was way beyond insensitive. I wish she stopped to think before tweeting because if she did, I don't think she would have done it. How would she feel if she was in Viola's shoes--being the first to win a prestigious award and having someone else try to take that away from her?

    Social media and the relative anonymity of the internet make it really easy to tweet things without thinking and I really feel that this is what happened. I doubt that was something she would have said out loud.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Have there ever been any other Afro-American women who have deserved the award but never won because of their race? Can you name them?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Lara, that was certainly not Viola's intention--she talked about opportunity for work because there haven't been many parts written FOR WOC. It's not that they are deserving or won, it's they never got the chance because television hasn't had diversity.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Lara - I don't think there have been any, but that is because, prior to Viola Davis in How To Get Away With Murder and to Kerry Washington in Scandal, the last time an African-American actress had the lead role in a prime time network drama was Teresa Graves in Get Christie Love in 1974. So from 1974 until Scandal debuted in 2012, no one was snubbed because no one was given the opportunity.

    Nancy insulted the leading actress on a Shonda Rhimes show after she made Emmy history. ABC's close relationship with Shonda Rhimes is one of the few economically beneficial things ABC has going for them. Nancy quick typing fingers could conceivably cost her her job. I've loved her since she was Julia on Santa Barbara, but this doesn't look good.

    ReplyDelete
  9. OK, Karen just said it better than I did. But hey, I know my trivia!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Diahann Carroll was nominated for an Emmy in 1968 for her starring role in the series "Julia". One could make the argument she was not the winner due to color.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Actually, it was for an Emmy, but maybe supporting. Nevertheless, she didn't win.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thank you for your explanation. A few more questions: why do you think they were not given the opportunity? Also, are there any Afro-American writers in the business? Do they only give roles to white actors?
    To Love4dogs: You wrote "one could make the argument". Well, one could make the argument for many issues. Do you have any proof?
    Do we know the composition of the audience these writers write for (meaning: mostly Afro-American or mostly white or equally diverse and so on?) Do we know why they write "for" white actors only?

    ReplyDelete
  13. I think Viola is a fantastic actress as Analise! The show is so exciting to watch and I can't wait for Thursday night to see the new season start.

    If Nancy is jealous of Viola's accomplishments, she should try to get a primetime gig!

    ReplyDelete
  14. In 1968, it was quite something to have a woman of color starring in the title role.

    ReplyDelete
  15. In 1968? That was 47 years ago and that's the year the Civil Rights Act was signed. I thought things only improved from then on. Between 1968 and 2015 there were so many people of color who were very successful, from music to TV and so on. I think the answer to my previous questions could explain the lack of people of color getting opportunities and being awarded for their great job more than racial discrimination. All great, hard working actors deserve to be awarded, regardless of their sex or skin color. In my opinion, sexism nor racism are never OK, not just when they're against women or people of color.

    ReplyDelete
  16. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Oh, there's a huge lack of black writers on TV. Daytime is a prime and sad example.
    SkeeBOB I totally remember Diane Caroll as Julia :) I LOVED her show and little Cory, her son. I'm probably the only person that remembers it lol

    ReplyDelete
  18. Karen, I remember Diahann Carroll as Julia! That's why I brought her up ;-)

    ReplyDelete

  Joss is shocked that Dex almost killed Cyrus. Nina leaves. Dex explains he did try to talk Sonny out of it but Sonny was insistent. He wen...