A little rain can’t keep a Princess down. This weekend Anika Noni Rose’s character, Princess Tiana,  was officially inducted into The Disney Princess Royal Court. The ceremony was held at New York City’s New York Palace Hotel where she joined a host of other legendary characters including Cinderella, Jasmine, Mulan and Snow White in this historic group.  The event celebrated the release of the “The Princess and the Frog’s” DVD and Blu-Ray release today ($29.99-$44.99).. And I say pick it up. This is definitely a movie you want to have in your collection if you have a daughter, niece, goddaughter or you want to honor the little black girl within.

Although Halle Berry and Denzel Washington were noticeable absent from this year’s festivities, Black men and women brought their A game to the Red Carpet.

12►

I saw Anika Noni Rose (aka Disney’s Princess Tiana) on “Good Morning America” yesterday and in spite of the mixed feelings all around about this ‘black princess’, I can’t help but be excited for the actress/singer. She got very little attention for her role in “Dreamgirls” and she was the lone cast member who had actually won an award for her singing/acting talent. Anyway, she sang a song from the upcoming movie’s soundtrack $9.49 on GMA and I immediately thought that like “A Whole New World” from “Aladdin” these songs are going to reach a whole new audience. But there’s music here that we’ll like too. I love Rose’s cuts especially “Down in New Orleans” and  Ne-Yo’s “Never Know I Needed” but I’m most excited about Jenifer Lewis’ over-the-top “Dig A Little Deeper” which features The Pinnacle Gospel Choir because it puts a smile on my face.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock you know that Disney’s first black princess, Tiana, and her movie “The Princess And The Frog” will be in theaters nationwide December 11th. Last night, the flick had its Hollywood premiere and it’s star, Anika Noni Rose, looked like a royal in a single-shoulder short stunner as she greeted the guest in her court. After playing second fiddle (very well I might add), Anika’s finally getting some time in the main spotlight.

I knew better as a child. You know, about the whole white only princess rule…Being from Ghana I had a good idea of what royalty looked like, having it in my blood. So at age 10, when my two white friends in the neighborhood gazed looking perplexed at me calling myself a princess I was confident enough to explain my history. Read the full story

When “Dreamgirls” came out a couple of years ago folks spent the majority of their time talking about Jennifer Hudson, Eddie Murphy and Beyoncé (not necessarily because her performance was award-winning). Anyway, the third Dream, Anika Noni Rose was a mere footnote in the whole story. Perhaps she might have been referred to as ‘the other one’ except for the presence of Sharon Leal (sorry, Sharon). Read the full story

I don’t know about you, but once I heard that Jill Scott was set to bring Alexander McCall Smith’s delightful and woefully underestimated Precious Ramatoswe, proprietor of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, to the screen I couldn’t wait to see it. Folks in the UK got to see a sneak peek of the series and its “traditionally built” heroine last year and frankly I was jealous. After I read that, I kept badgering my friends over at HBO about when it would make its way to these shores. Read the full story