# Halle Barry: Rein in in **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 25, 2002, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halle-barry-rein-in-in/100018 "2002-03-25T16:10:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2002, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halle-barry-rein-in-in/100018/201 "2002-03-28T17:35:34Z")
[http://us.imdb.com/Bio?Berry,+Halle](http://us.imdb.com/Bio?Berry,+Halle) > [@](#): > > Halle Berry was born on August 14, 1968 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA to African American father Jerome Berry, a former hospital attendant, and Caucasian mother Judith Berry, a retired psychiatric nurse. Halle also has an older sister named Heidi. Halle first came into the spotlight at 17 years old when she won the Miss Teen All-American Pageant, representing the state of Ohio in 1985 and a year later in 1986 when she was the first runner-up in the Miss USA Pageant. After participating in the pageant, Halle became a model. She was a beauty contest type - to me, that does influence how I think about her speech. NOTE: not her victory, not its relative importance as an event in the lives of Americans and African Americans, but as a speech. I assert that there was more structure and forethought than one might previously have suspected… ---
**Author:** ![tradesilicon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@tradesilicon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tradesilicon)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2002, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halle-barry-rein-in-in/100018/202 "2002-03-28T21:37:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JillGat \* > \*\*But I think the _real_ Hollywood break-through will be the day a **woman** (of any color) who looks at all like any of those guys or is even as _old_ as any of them (or any number of similar older, not-classically-pretty male Hollywood actors of any race) gets the same visibility and star roles they have. And when they do, I want to see these women with sexy, younger men playing their love interests. > > THAT, Halle, will be a breakthrough. \*\* Well, I’ve seen a few Joan Collins deals wher her love interests are quite a bit younger and prettier than she. I think Liz Taylor had a few. Julie Christie in Afterglow - nominated for Academy ward. Angela Bassett, Stella Got her Groove Back. Oh gosh, there are many, many such castings. But I will grant you that far more times older men starr along side younger women. Just saying that the older woman/younger man ain’t nothin new. ---
**Author:** ![Abe\_Babe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3ab097/32.png) [@Abe\_Babe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abe_Babe)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2002, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halle-barry-rein-in-in/100018/203 "2002-03-28T22:12:43Z")
So what if her speech was prepared beforehand. She was one of four (five?) people nominated for an award that is widely considered to be the most important for her field of work and would be presented on national TV. If she _didn’t_ prepare a speech, she would be a complete moron. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2002, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halle-barry-rein-in-in/100018/204 "2002-03-28T23:22:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Abe Babe \* > \*\*So what if her speech was prepared beforehand. She was one of four (five?) people nominated for an award that is widely considered to be the most important for her field of work and would be presented on national TV. > > If she _didn’t_ prepare a speech, she would be a complete moron. \*\* **Abe Babe** , I agree - of course she had to prepare - that goes without saying. The issue, to me, is: did she “prepare” to appear shocked, amazed, etc…, then snap into her “this is bigger than me” speech? A lot of the credibility people have given her is based on the fact that she seemed genuinely stunned. If she was, and recovered enough to give her prepped speech, good for her. If, however, she “milked” the situation by planning to get all stunned and tongue, so she could appear to recover, it comes across as much more…yucky. Given her beauty pageant background - where they seem to require the winner to react in very much the same way that she did (i.e., get verklempt, then recover enough to be poised and recite the appropriate “right” things), and given how the whole speech played out, where she had prepared enough to thank her lawyer (twice), it just seems that perhaps the whole arc of her speech was a bit to…structured. Given the emotion she would’ve been feeling, it gave the whole performance much more ooomph, but what if it was, in some significant way, a performance? People cited Cuba Gooding, jr. as another exuberant speech. I haven’t seen it since that particular Oscar broadcast, but I remember feeling that it was more genuinely spontaneous than Halle’s. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2002, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halle-barry-rein-in-in/100018/205 "2002-03-28T23:29:58Z")
> [@](#): > > I cannot believe the Oscar-awards are influenced by prejudice. . . .must . . .keep . . . from . . . bursting . . .out . . . BWAAAAAAAA-HAAA-HAAAAA!!! The Academy members are people, like any others. Don’t believe me? Find out how many blacklisted artists and directors were nominated during the Red Scare era. I’ll wait . . . 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Oblong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c0e974/32.png) [@Oblong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oblong)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2002, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halle-barry-rein-in-in/100018/206 "2002-03-28T23:55:23Z")
You mean the likes of Travolta, Sheen, Baldwin, Julia, Michael Douglas, Whoopie, Robin Williams… all those good hearted liberals who always chastise the rest of the country, specifically conservatives, about how mean they are… you mean they are prejudiced too? If that is true, then hollywood needs to get off it’s high horse when it comes to tolerance and acceptance. ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halle-barry-rein-in-in/100018/207 "2002-03-29T02:01:25Z")
you know I took this little challenge the other day [http://home.centurytel.net/muellertourney/tournament.htm](http://home.centurytel.net/muellertourney/tournament.htm) and couldnt decide between Miss Berry and Miss Riece sorry I dont even own a tv, so I didnt really have anything relevant to add. ---
**Author:** ![JillGat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halle-barry-rein-in-in/100018/208 "2002-03-29T02:47:47Z")
[[Well, I’ve seen a few Joan Collins deals wher her love interests are quite a bit younger and prettier than she. I think Liz Taylor had a few.]] 1.) Have they been cast in movies with younger love interests? 2.) Do you suppose these women have had any kind of _cosmetic procedures_ done? Do you think they’d have continued to get jobs in Hollywood if they hadn’t? My point is that Halle Berry’s award did not open doors for the majority of average looking women. ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halle-barry-rein-in-in/100018/209 "2002-03-29T05:12:13Z")
Well, the only bad thing that will come about is that the Black movie awards will go the way of the Negro Leagues when Jackie Robinson started playing for the Dodgers. ---
**Author:** ![grayhairedmomma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/47e85d/32.png) [@grayhairedmomma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grayhairedmomma)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halle-barry-rein-in-in/100018/210 "2002-03-29T15:36:47Z")
> [@](#): > > _posted by WordMan_ > Given her beauty pageant background - where they seem to require the winner to react in very much the same way that she did (i.e., get verklempt, then recover enough to be poised and recite the appropriate “right” things), and given how the whole speech played out, where she had prepared enough to thank her lawyer (twice), it just seems that perhaps the whole arc of her speech was a bit to…structured. Given the emotion she would’ve been feeling, it gave the whole performance much more ooomph, but what if it was, in some significant way, a performance? If this was a performance, then I’ll say she definitely deserved that Oscar. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halle-barry-rein-in-in/100018.md?page=10)