No.

Judy Berman at Broadsheet thinks that Tina Fey should have been named Esquire’s Sexiest Woman Alive.

I guess we can’t have everything, though, because the magazine has announced that Halle Berry is its 2008 pick. Yawn. Berry is undoubtedly a great-looking woman and a fantastic actress, but Esquire’s choice is so obvious it’s almost redundant. Considering all the noise the news media has made about Palin’s attractiveness, the so-called VPILF’s doppelganger could have been the perfect cover girl.

Argh! The Halle Berry-is-a-good-actress meme is like the Obama-is-a-Muslim meme: it persists despite plenty of available evidence to the contrary.

G.D.

G.D.

Gene "G.D." Demby is the founder and editor of PostBourgie. In his day job, he blogs and reports on race and ethnicity for NPR's Code Switch team.
G.D.

Latest posts by G.D. (see all)

  • rakia

    Your constant hateration on Halle continues to astound me.

    Don’t know if I’d of put her at #1 on the list this year, but she’s up there. Shoot, Halle’s been holding it down since, like, ’94. She’s been fine for so long that people just aren’t taken by it anymore.

  • who wants to have sex w/tina fey? i’m tired of halle bein’ the sole attractive black woman, but tina fey? let’s not be silly.

  • Grump

    Tina Fey as Sarah Palin probably would not have mixed well with Esquire’s endorsement of Obama that was published in this same issue. Actually, Halle has been holding since ’92(Boomerang)!!!!

  • “She’s been fine for so long that people just aren’t taken by it anymore.”

    Rakia, I think that’s it for me. Besides, is Halle “sexy” or is she “beautiful”? I’d say the latter. But I’m not Esquire’s target audience…

  • Shani: I COMPLETELY agree. I don’t think Halle Berry is sexy so much as really, really pretty.

  • quadmoniker

    Shani: I agree with you. I think she’s pretty, but she lacks important things, like personality, that would change her from objectively beautiful to someone you’d actually want to jump on.

  • Grump

    Shani: can’t a person be both sexy AND beautiful?

  • Grump: Not to speak for shani, but yeah. Of course. But Halle Berry has no heat. She’s not funny or toweringly smart or any of those other things that make people sexy. She’s really pretty and really boring.

    Hell, she’s not even that good at her job.

  • I’m gonna be the contrarian here but I have to go on record as saying Halle is sexy, pretty, beautiful, fine, etc. In some ways, these are distinctions without much difference.

    And she’s out of the box for Esquire because, to the best of my knowledge, they’ve never had a sister tabbed for the honor. Tina Fey is cute and all but, uh, we’re talking D-League to an NBA All-Star.

    Btw, Halle can flex some acting chops sometimes. Ya’ll didn’t see “Jungle Fever” and “Boomerang”?

  • Grump: Yeah, but Halle ain’t the one. :-)

    G.D. “But Halle Berry has no heat.”

    Ding ding ding!

    QM: “I think she’s pretty, but she lacks important things, like personality, that would change her from objectively beautiful to someone you’d actually want to jump on.”

    Exactly. All I want out of my sexiest men and women alive: a desire to jump on them.

  • blackink: I’m so glad you brought up “Jungle Fever.” Halle Berry’s all-purpose blaccent is the thing that annoys me the most.

    Slave trynna pass? (“Queen.”)Default Blaccent.

    Crack addict? (“Jungle Fever,” “Losing Isaiah.”) The same blaccent.

    Whatever she was supposed to be in “Bulworth”? THE SAME ONE.

    I think a lot of people have made her into this avatar for black women in Hollywood, which is problematic on a lot of levels. But it seems to color people’s perceptions of her, and maybe inflates folks’ opinions of her abilities.

  • rakia

    G.D.: have you ever liked her in a role?

  • ladyfresshh

    sorry g.d. but she is

    it doesn’t say sexiest actress alive, nor comedian, nor writer
    nor any other qualifications are in the title except for woman
    note this is esquire’s opinion, a male magazine’s viewpoint on womankind, so it’s not that serious

    i agree that they could have found another black woman celebrity but halle is a mainstay, a surefire winner in magazine sales so it’s an old card trick but a good one

  • rakia: i’ve never seen her be so good that a movie wouldn’t work without her. she’s passable most of the time, and pretty bad the rest.

    part of that could be the parts she takes. it’s not like she’s been in a lot of good movies.

  • LF: i frankly don’t care who ‘wins’ the dumb (and sorta sexist) title. I was just taking issue with the notion that she was an ‘outstanding actress.’

  • ladyfresshh

    well…she is an oscar winner…

    *ducks & runs*

  • lf: so is Renee Zellweger.

  • Hey G.D., I feel you and I’m not gonna argue about “Losing Isaiah, “BAPS, “Strictly Business,” or another one of those throwaway films.

    She’s definitely been in a few clunkers – hey, black actresses gotta eat too. And Halle is not gonna make anyone forget about Angela Bassett or, hell, even Lisa Nicole Carson.

    But if a key qualification for sexiness is “a desire to jump on them,” then she definitely meets my standard. Not to mention, she’s pulled off a few successful movie productions and has been decent in a handful of films.