So Now People Are Freaking Out About The Black Version of "Steel Magnolias"

It's been dubbed a PC-fest. Lifetime, you dun fucked up!

• Well!

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3De-i7rz9CsIM

• Get ready for the all-white version of Porgy and Bess, Porfirio and Elizabeth.

  Lifetime

• Only freepers use terms like "PC fest" Go back to the Rush Limbaugh forums, no one is "freaking out" except for racist knuckledraggers

• Why not an all-white version of "Raisin in the Sun?" Why not an all-Asian version of "Fiddler on the Roof?" Why not an all-straight version of "Boys in the Band?" Because IT IS STUPID, that's why.

  Leonard%20Pinth%20Garnell

• Not freaking out -- didn't see the original vag-fest either.

• R4, you are an idiot. A Raisin in the Sun is about being black in America. It's not just about characters who happen to be black. Whiteness is not the point of Steel Magnolias so who the fuck cares about an all-black remake? Did you bitch about the Wiz, too? Fuck off, racist redneck.

• r4, you're not that stupid, are you?

• For what it's worth, R4, they did an all-white version of RAISIN IN THE SUN on STRANGERS WITH CANDY. Jerry Blank was Lena. All the black kids were inanimate objects (like trees) or were stagehands. XD

• I'm black and I don't think that they should do this. Besides, the one with the all-white cast sucked donkey dicks, why remake it?

• "Whiteness is not the point of Steel Magnolias " You've obviously never seen the film or play, you reactionary cunt crumb. For you to inanely presume that any Caucasian role is immediately dispensible for African-American revisionism is racist, you dumb piece of shit. My above examples are specific to race and ethnicity. "Fiddler" is not about Croatians, or Asians, or Samoans. It's about Russian Jews. Would you be stupid enough to produce a version of "The Sound of music" with the Nazis all played by Blacks? You probably would, because you're a stupid little twit who also thinks Black people trashing a Denny's is "the White man's fault."

  Leonard%20Pinth%20Garnell

• The bigger question is going to be who will replace horse mouth Julia?

• Thank you, R9. (Biracial here.) R6 is one of those turds who just can't wait to call people "racists." Her point is almost okay, until the bitch gets to the idiotic "The Wiz," which is a perfect example of the disgusting co-opting of a work and its being crammed into a black context for no reason except $$ and arrogance. So I'll go to see "Golden Raisin in the Sun" and "Girls in the Band" and that version of "Flower Drum Song" transplanted to the Lower East Side in 1910 and set among immigrant Russian Jews. And who isn't surprised we haven't seen "Banjoman on the Roof" about the looming diaspora in the rural South as folk prepared to head to the urban North?

• DRINK THE JUICE LAKUISHA!!!!!

• R9 here, R12. It really was a wretched film, was it not? "The Wiz" was such a bomb Hollywood stayed away from films with predominantly black casts for almost three years, until Norman Jewison directed (and got financing for, working basically for free) for "A Soldier's Story". I also was unable to sit through "The Honeymooners". Just make decent movies with black actors, please. That is all.

• The original production of Fiddler actually spurred an all-Asian Tokyo production. The producer was mystified and asked if Americans understood the show because it was so Japanese. Of course, the American producers did everything they could to dampen the Jewishness of the piece. Jerry Robbins wrote scathing letters to the writers to "universalize" the text, and song after song was written for Perchik. It was a real challenge to write for a Jewish revolutionary without actually making any substantive references to his political beliefs. Steel Magnolias will be just fine with a black cast. Its sappy glorification of privileged heterosexual women and their pain will still resonate.

• Bitch, if ya jes talk smak bout evybody, sit you ass nexta mine!

• Aught ta call it Steel Gardenias

• R8, that episode was hilarious...I love you. What was even funnier were the names of all the actors cast for the leads in "Raisin in the Sun": Craig SNOW, Susan CREAM, and Jerri BLANK

• Bitch please. Y'all know there would be hell to pay if Nora Ephron 're-visualized' a Tyler Perry project so that it starred a bunch of upper crust white women.

• The point is that a magnolia is a white flower. They must use something black for the metaphor, like Steel Bowling Balls.

• [quote]For you to inanely presume that any Caucasian role is immediately dispensible for African-American revisionism is racist, you dumb piece of shit. He didn't say just ANY Caucasian role could be played by a black actor; he said the Steel Magnolia roles in particular would be fine played by non-whites, because there's nothing really white-specific about them. Basically, the play/movie is so stupid and silly and non-reflective of any group's reality that the racial and ethnic make-up of the cast could not possibly matter. The examples you cited, on the other hand, r4, are very specifically about the experiences of African-Americans, Jewish people, and gay men, respectively, so obviously it would not make sense to cast whites, Asians, and women in the roles. Similarly, being a Nazi soldier was an experience specific to white, German men and no one else, so despite your accusation, I doubt r6 would advocate casting blacks in the roles of the Sound of Music Nazis.

• Steel Vaginas

  Grace Jones

• I couldn't care less about adapting this trash, but if they decide on an all-black version of "All About Eve", I will cut those bitches down where they stand.

• "Whiteness is not the point of Steel Magnolias so who the fuck cares about an all-black remake?" You must have never seen the movie or play, because "whiteness" IS a major factor in "Steel Magnolias." The characters in the play are a very specific type; white Southern women, repeat WHITE SOUTHERN WOMEN. To make them all African-American would be ludicrous; can you imagine black actresses saying the dialogue that comes out of the mouths of very defined white southern women characters? It would be bizarre. What's next? A remake of "Steel Magnolias" with an all ASIAN cast?

• R24 you do know that black women live in the south also.

• Well I propose an all-white cast of The Color Purple then.

• In all honesty, though, wasn't that series of movies set in an African-American beauty parlor basically this already? A movie about women set in a salon frequented by other women of similar social status, dealing with the dramas of their lives? Why is rehashing dialogue important enough to kickstart a remake of something when virtually the same product was released earlier, with presumably a better grounding in the realities of what those women's lives would really be like?

• They did do a black version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

• I'm with R9. The worst thing about this proposed remake are the lame jokes people are making on here. If STEEL MAGNOLIAS were made now, it would have ended up on Lifetime where it belongs. People are acting like a remake of this shitty movie is akin to the slaughter of a sacred cow.

• Oh and the only good thing about the original is that Julia Roberts dies.

  R29 I think.

• "you do know that black women live in the south also." Yes, I know that. So what? That doesn't change the fact that the characters in SM are representative of a particular type of white Southern female and that making them African-American would ruin the credibility of the play.

• 'ruin the credibility of the play' HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

• "People are acting like a remake of this shitty movie is akin to the slaughter of a sacred cow." Please. Nobody gives a fuck about a remake of Steel Magnolias. This is just opportunity for gay white men to dust off their stale nigger jokes and then weep confusedly into their gin tonics about why "conservative" blacks don't just wuv them to pieces.

• R31 please go change your panties and calm down we will wait for you GeeeeZZZZ should I make you a mint julep in the meantime.

• I must be the only gay man alive who thinks Steel Magnolias was the biggest yawn fest ever. Friends dragged me to it when it was a play on Christopher Street, but I declined to see the film in a theater or at all for years. I just don't get the gay obsession with films like this or TV shows like Golden Girls. I guess I can understand the affinity for female singers, to a degree, but Jesus Fucking Christ, be a man, girl.

• Already done.

  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0388500/

• What's next? An African-American version of "Carmen"? A Caucasian version of "The Seven Samurai" or "The Ring"?

• [quote]A Caucasian version of "The Seven Samurai" The Magnificent Seven

• r38, let me introduce you to a new concept:

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony

  r37

• A couple of points: (1) All I want to know is WHO is going to play Aunt Fern!!! (2) R37 - An all Black "Carmen" as done. See lnk.

  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0274415/

• Sigh. R40 - please see r39. (Seriously, people, did you think I just [italic]happened[/italic] to pick "Carmen" and "The Seven Samurai", of all things?)

  r38

• (Now waiting anxiously for somebody to alert me to the remake of "The Ring".)

  r37

• R38 - the more important question IS who will play aunt Fern!!!

  R40%2C%20sigh

• I see no reason for an all black version of Steel Magnolias. But I don't see why it's particularly PC to do it. I don't see anything particularly white-specific about Steel Magnolias. It isn't about race. It's about a bunch of Southern ladies in the South - a combination of rich, bourgeouis, political, backwoods, and girlie - and could just as easily be about black women as it is about white women. And given the closeness of the women, their generation (of the older characters), and the lingering issue of race (at least at the time the play was originally set) it might be still somewhat challenging to believe - although I could be wrong and I'd certainly like to believe I am - that some of these women are black and some are white. The only reason to make it an all black cast is to attract a black audience, but that's perfectly ok as far as I'm ok. I really don't give a shit. Why a controversy? It's not as if the play makes no sense with a black cast. One would have to be blind to the diversity of black American life in the U.S. to think that black women like these women don't exist here.

• How about an all White version of 'The Help'?

• Agree with R44. It is one play that would work with an all-black cast. It might actually improve it.

• like "Upstairs, Downstairs"? R45?

  Jean Marsh

• most people here. . . . need another fucking hobby

• IS THERE NO ONE IN THAT F***ING TOWN WITH A SHRED OF ORIGINALITY??? I only saw the white one once. Unimpressed. Is Esther Rolle still alive to reprise her role as Weezie? If not, I'm not watching.

• Drink the grape juice, Shelbyqueesha!

• R39, that's not irony.

• "It is one play that would work with an all-black cast. It might actually improve it." How the hell would "improve" it? "Drink the grape juice, Shelbyqueesha!" Yes, I imagine that they would want to change the names of the characters to suit the ethnicity of the new cast. I mean how many African Americans do you hear of who have names like names like Clairee and Shelby and M'Lynn and Annelle and Drum and Whitey Black?

• I love R35.

• R44: But why bother? If being black doesn’t enhance the story line, what’s the point? Once again, hire a good writer and create something new. I guess blacks can only relate to other blacks.

  I%20can%27t%20wait%20for%20the%20Hispanic%20version.%20

• [quote]The only reason to make it an all black cast is to attract a black audience, Must be a pretty dumb- fuck audience if their only reason to see it is because they share the same skin color.

• "A remake of "Steel Magnolias" with an all ASIAN cast?" Uh, hello. THE JOY LUCK CLUB? It was given a definitive movie version by a white cast, so it makes sense that they would try it with blacks.

• That's very true. Audiences are not so narrow-minded. White audiences flocked to the blaxploitation movies of the 1970s and 1980s, and of course African Americans went because of the high quality of the acting, cinematography and writing, not because the films just happened to have black casts.

• [quote]That doesn't change the fact that the characters in SM are representative of a particular type of white Southern female and that making them African-American would ruin the credibility of the play. Stop, r31, you're killing me! SM has no credibility to ruin. Sure, its dialogue might sound kind of ludicrous coming out of black women's mouths--just like it sounded pretty ludicrous coming out of white women's mouths. It's STUPID dialogue, not white-specific dialogue, and the characters are silly, too, and not representative of ANY type of real women. Why someone wants to remake this shitty film, I do not know, but it's not like the film's going to be worsened or defiled by casting black women in the main roles. But of course the truth is that r33 is right and this thread is just an excuse for racist white gay men to make verrrrryyy tired, unoriginal, and non-witty jokes about the character names, etc.

• Thank fuck there's only blacks & whites in the human species, it'd be so much more complicated if there were others- y'know, if the mythological Peruvians, Mongolians, Armenians, Somalians, Tibetans etc actually existed. Thankfully they've been erased as they overly complicated the situation for both parties, marginalised out of existence...

  What%20if%20I%27m%20not%20%27black%27%20or%20%27white%27%20and%20neither%20elite

• [quote]it's not like the film's going to be worsened or defiled by casting black women in the main roles. Making it a second time is by defenition worse. Anyways, carry on with your 'a bunch of white guys' with your contradictory 'racist' whinnying, mary.

• First of all, r59, every group you named is a nationality and/or ethnicity, not a race. Tibetans and Mongolians are Asian, Somalians are black, etc. Yeah, many might have other stuff mixed in, but who the hell doesn't? Second, who ever said those people don't exist? We were discussing a non-theoretical situation in which a movie originally featuring white actresses in all the main roles is being remade with black actresses in those roles; thus, the focus on white and black. Nobody suggested "white" and "black" are the only groups of humans in the world, Missy Butt-Hurt.

• Sorry to keep you out of the groups demeaned and insulted, R59.

• r58: "and the characters are silly, too, and not representative of ANY type of real women." The characters in the play were based on the true story of the writer's mother and sister and women in the town that he knew.

• Oh, please. Don't distract the "Blackify Everything" supporters with facts.

• Yeah there's race, the human race. First, get a grip R61 Second, STFU if you really think its as simple as continent of origin, based on 19th European concepts and constructions of the fake concept of race, Missy Butt-Hurt.

• [quote]First of all, [R59], every group you named is a nationality and/or ethnicity, not a race. Tibetans and Mongolians are Asian, Somalians are black, etc. Yeah, many might have other stuff mixed in, but who the hell doesn't? Ever heard of dual-heritage rather than *other stuff mixed in*

• [quote]The characters in the play were based on the true story of the writer's mother and sister and women in the town that he knew. So what? That doesn't mean that the women and their story were artfully or believably depicted in the writer's hackish play and screenplay. And even if he'd done a good job with the story, it's supposed to be a story about mothers and daughters, female friendships, and tragic death--nothing really white-specific there. But again, bottom line, it's a silly piece of shit, anyway, so if you're going to get all offended about the remake, get offended that somebody would bother doing one with any kind of cast.

• People are freaking out because they're renaming it "Steal Magnolias!"

• "Friends" was a white version of "Living Single".

• Who the fuck needs a fucking remake of a silly movie like "Steel Magnolias" anyway? Remakes or sequels, no matter who they cast in the damn thing, almost always suck big time.

• "it's supposed to be a story about mothers and daughters, female friendships, and tragic death--nothing really white-specific there." The characters in SM sure as hell were "white-specific." Those women were all very, very WHITE.

• The black versions are always so pathetic. Originality is the key to a movie, when will Hollywood ever learn?

• Yes, r66, I have--same diff and equally beside the point.The point is, nobody here is denying that other groups of people beside white and black exist. This just happens to be a discussion of remaking a specific movie, which originally had a cast made up of white American actresses, with a cast of black American actresses. Of course, people such as Mongols, Somalis, Tibetans, etc. also exist--and in general, probably do get overlooked--but in this case, they truly do have fuck-all to do with the topic at hand.

• r67: "so if you're going to get all offended about the remake" I'm not at all offended that a remake is being made. You're imagining things.

  r63

• Original?! White?! lol. Original, like Elvis or Madonna. Like those two. Dance, art, music, make up, even fashion of sorts (ceremonial dress, face painting et al) all ORIGINALLY from Africa. Don't get it twisted, bitch.

• Oh brother, pointless bitchery reigns!

  Rolling%20Eyes

• Must be a pretty dumb- fuck audience if their only reason to see it is because they share the same sexual orientation.

• [quote]Dance, art, music, make up, even fashion of sorts (ceremonial dress, face painting et al) all ORIGINALLY from Africa. Really? Then please to explain the ancient cave paintings in France and Spain predating those found in Africa by 10-15 THOUSAND years.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_painting

• Hasn't Miss Perry already done this a dozen times?

• "But why bother? If being black doesn’t enhance the story line, what’s the point? Once again, hire a good writer and create something new. I guess blacks can only relate to other blacks." My bet is that they are bothering because 1) being white doesn't enhance the story line either, 2) it gives black actresses a chance to play some iconic roles, 3) it's not about race so there's no reason not to do it, 4) it's a tested popular vehicle, 5) people will watch it, and perhaps 6) they knew it would get people talking and 7) as this thread attests, they were certainly right about that one.

• "being white doesn't enhance the story line either" Being white IS the story line. To make the characters black would radically change everything about it. I can't believe there are some people who think using black actresses for these roles wouldn't change a thing.

• Maybe it'll make it interesting (the original wasn't). IIRC, people were puzzled about the ABSENCE of black characters in Steel Magnolias. That movie pandered to a white fantasy of the good ol' South. The new version will, at worst, pander to a black fantasy of it.

  Stop%20the%20presses%21

• [quote]people were puzzled about the ABSENCE of black characters in Steel Magnolias. That movie pandered to a white fantasy of the good ol' South. Did I miss the chains, cotton fields and spirituals.

• "Maybe it'll make it interesting (the original wasn't)." How would using black actresses make it "interesting?" You seem quite biased.

• I don't get how it would change the story, R22. Haven't you heard of predominantly black towns in the south where people like the characters in the film/play exist? They do exist. Its not only white people. Now, if the entire cast was white, I could see casting Annelle as a black chick, but that would be the only character that I think you could pull off as not white.

• I'm glad to see a thread full of gay men who realize how stupid this play/movie really is. I have never understood the gay obsession with it. And have NEVER EVER understood why gay men think the line "I love you more than my luggage" is one of the most hilarious, and therefore must be repeated ad nauseam, lines ever written in the American theater.

• IMHO the only person whose objection should count is Robert Harling since the story was based on his family's lives. If he has no problems with it then all of you can go to hell.

• Amen, R86. I thought I was the only gay man who hated this stupid piece of shit movie. They could remake it with whites, blacks or dogs and it would still suck. Well it might be kind of cute with dogs.

• Dialogue like this is why they decided to do an all black verison: Nancy Beth Marmillion: That Jackson is one big hangin' man! Shelby: [annoyed] Yes, I know.

• Making a black version is fine but most likely it will sink to the bottom at the box office, or fail on cable tv. Black films often times do poorly because they don't resonate with middle america and (from personal knowledge) people swap the bootleg version instead of supporting the film in the theatre. Unless one of the characters is Tyler Perry in a dress, I don't see a lot of success. I could be wrong, but somehow I don't think so.

• I hear Gabourey Sidibe is in talks to play the lead in a remake of "The Diary of Anne Frank".

• r23, I think that has been done, as a stage play. Sound familiar.

• [quote]I hear Gabourey Sidibe is in talks to play the lead in a remake of "The Diary of Anne Frank". Here come the Germans. Quick, everyone to the attic. Um, Anne sweetie, perhaps you should head for the basement. And if they have a coal bin...

  Les%20B.%20Frank

• There are a lot of crazy assholes in this thread.

• I'm looking forward to the new revamped all-black musical, "Flower Sum Dong."

• Me wuv woo Wong time, r95,

  Grin

• The actress who played the aunt in "Flower Drum Song" was Juanita Hall, the one who sang the "Chop Suey" song in the film, was African-American. She got quite a few roles in Hollywood playing non-blacks because she looked Asian/South Asian.

• From the NJ Turnpike: Take Exit 3 to the Walt Whitman Bridge After the toll plaza stay in the far right lane and take I-95 South Follow I-95 South to the Philadelphia International Airport Exit

• what R94 said

• Is Robert Harling, gay?

• I want a white Precious.

• "It's STUPID dialogue, not white-specific dialogue" I've heard much worse "stupid dialogue" than the dialogue in SM. And if it sounds stupid coming out of the mouths of white women, it sounds even MORE stupid coming out of the mouths of black women. I read a review of this thing. It said the women don't seem like they're from any place in particular, unlike the very Southern women in the original. The review also said that it's very dull. Two things happen: a wedding and a death. The rest is just banter. The actresses in the original were able to pull that kind of thing off, but not in the remake. This all black remake of SM is what's "stupid."

• Since the movie is not set in a specific time period, I suppose the script can hold up for a black cast. I have no interest in watching it, though. The movie is such an iconic sentimental one, I have no interest in seeing "sassy black women" recite those lines. My brain says that all these women would have WORKED FOR the white characters. Ouiser and M 'Lynn would have had black servants dressed in crisp white uniforms serving dinner, especially at Shelby's wedding.

• I want an all-black GYPSY next.

• [quote]You've obviously never seen the film or play, you reactionary cunt crumb. I've never seen Steel Magnolias. I always thought it was just about a group of women going through their "dramas." So explain to me why the characters have to specifically be white?

• [quote]I want a white Precious.

  http://pmchollywoodlife.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/mama-june-lead.jpg%3Fw%3D600

• I guess I'll never stop being amazed at the mind-boggling ignorance of racists.

• r107 A lot of people on DL are just trolls. If you said the sky way blue, they'd say it was red.

• Only gay men could be upset about a black version of Steel Magnolias on Lifetime. Who gives a fuck? And, all the threatening "what's next an all white version of Porgy and Bess?" Fine. yeah, there would be some backlash, but again, if it was done not to make fun of the original, in the bigger picture no one would give a fuck for more than a few days. And, those people would be few. No one even thinks this black version is that good, so you should be happy. But, yet another rage troll, who has to be annoyed by something to the point of rage. Yeah, I'm sure this really matters in your life. Get a fucking grip.

• Very true, R108, but some of them actually seem to believe what they're saying.

• I thought Clybourne Park was the white version of A Raisin In The Sun.

• Well played, R37, very well played. You had me going for a second there...

• Certainly does not upset me- just another example of mediocrity. A remake of a mediocre movie/play- so what. I won't see it and I don't watch reruns of the original having seen it once.

  charlie

• R6 didnt have a culture studies course in her curriculum at bumfuck community college. *sigh*

• The might have renamed it as "Steel Magnolias" refers to seemingly delicate what flowers that are really very strong. However, "Steel African Violets" probably wouldn't fly.

  Dustin

• R82, I don't remember reading a single thing about the abscence of black characters when the movie was in theaters.

  Winchell

• r115 How literal.

  English%20Rose

• The might have renamed it as "Steel Magnolias" refers to seemingly delicate white flowers that are really very strong. However, "Steel African Violets" probably wouldn't fly.

  Dustin

• They really wanna be white.

• [quote] Well I propose an all-white cast of The Color Purple then. [quote] I want a white Precious. This really is the heighth of racist absurdity. I mean seriously. Not even clever, or funny, or witty, or even ironic. Just categorically DUMB. [quote] A lot of people on DL are just trolls. If you said the sky way blue, they'd say it was red. You've just described REPUBLICANS, dear, not Datalounge.

• Well, first off I guess I should say that the remake is one of the 3 biggest telecasts in the history of lifetime network. And it's their most watched program among women 25-54 in history. And basically that it's a big, fat, hit. Oh, and it was also quite good, but that will make the racists' heads in here explode. And it's so funny that the playwright has no issue with this, yet some old queens on DL do. Keep on being afraid of the world while life passes you by, folks!

  http://m.deadline.com/2012/10/lifetimes-steel-magnolia-remake-premieres-big-with-6-5-million-viewers/

• I saw a few minutes of it tonight, and it is what it always was: a community theater piece that gives all the neighbor ladies a chance to act, Act, ACT. White cast, black cast, it's all the same. They're paper dolls mouthing sitcom dialogue. And the bathos; it's the audience that gets thrown into a diabetic coma.

• I don't know about the play, but the movie was not critically-acclaimed. Any claim that was is revisionist. We didn't have Rotten Tomatoes at the time to archive the reviews, but I remember the movie was a hit but generally panned by critics. And the tv movie is supposed to be more comparable to the movie. It's racist to whine about doing it with an all-black cast, but it's not racist to think it sucks as much as the original movie.

• All I have to say is this whole argument is retarded...I'm from the south and the first version is way better acting and by several actors who have awards...the Acting in the second one is just pure garbage