That Oscar thing in LA? I’d rather be in Joburg
● Staying in on a Monday night is my idea of bliss — but it’s hard to turn down an invitation to break bread with a Tony Award winner and certified Disney legend.
And when you find out that the Hollywood star in question could have been traipsing the Oscar red carpet instead, you can’t help but feel extra special.
Certainly, the exclusive dinner that Black Entertainment Television hosted for actress Anika Noni Rose was one of those memorable nights that leave you smiling.
Anika plays the lead on the channel’s varsity-set drama The Quad and was in the Hollywood musical Dreamgirls; she won her Tony for her role in Caroline, or Change, and you might recognise her voice as Princess Tiana in the animated Disney film The Princess and the Frog.
This, though, is no lady with royal airs — she’s warm, down to earth and encourages us all to come up and say “hi” as she enters the function room at that plush locale, the Saxon Hotel in Joburg’s northern suburbs.
Chatting to the actress, who brought along her mom, Claudia Rose, I point out that, as a member of the US Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, she could have been at the Oscars the previous night in Los Angeles instead.
“I didn’t have to be there — I’m not nominated,” she answers.
So rather than sitting down with 3 300 stars in the Dolby Theatre, Anika joined just 30 of us for what MC Jason Goliath called “like a family dinner – almost an intimate wedding”.
So, who cracked the nod? A sprinkling of broadcast heavies like BET International VP Ava Hall and MultiChoice’s Aletta Alberts, Joburg Tourism’s Lumka Dlomo (who surprised me by wearing a Fundudzi dress I designed for her a couple of years ago) and TV presenters Nandi Madida, Jesse Suntele and Kim Jayde Robinson.
Entertainment came in the form of jazz guitarist Kunle Ayo (who led us in wishing Claudia, who turned 69 the day before, happy birthday), while dinner included a cured beef with walnuts and tomato salad starter, baby chicken with aubergine and mozzarella bake for mains, and a creamy choc parfait/hazelnut biscuit dessert.