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Poet Maya Angelou threw a party in the backyard of her Winston-Salem, N.C. home on Thursday to celebrate her 82nd birthday, which included tributes from such celebrity attendees as filmmaker Lee Daniels and rapper-turned-actor Common. According to the Associated Press, about 100 guests gathered in her newly refurbished backyard garden to mark the occasion (her birthday was April 4) and to express what Angelou has meant to them personally. “She inspires me to tell the truth,” said Daniels, the Oscar-nominated director of “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Lee Sapphire.” “Her voice can’t be any more powerful. And she inspires me to do better work, to dig deeper in my soul and do better work.” Common, currently starring in the film “Just Wright,” said he first discovered Angelou’s poetry in the fifth grade on the South Side of Chicago, when her poem “Still I Rise” touched his soul. “It was always something that I could reference to at times when I was feeling down or doubting myself,” he told AP. “I just thought of that phrase, ‘Still I Rise.’ And it still resonates with me.” The party was sponsored by Lowe’s, the North Carolina-based home improvement store chain, and Harpo Radio, where Angelou has a radio show. Guests gathered under a tent with yellow and white drapes covering the tables. Sporting a pink pantsuit, a printed top and a mauve hat, along with fuzzy socks that helped her walk, Angelou Country stars Naomi Judd and Martina McBride sang “Happy Birthday to You.” Angelou’s next project, a cookbook titled “Great Food All Day Long,” is scheduled to be published later this year. The recipes are based on the idea of eating small amounts of food during the day, a way of eating that she said helped her lose 40 pounds over the last two years.
The Academy Awards category for best director has historically been two things: white and male. This year, the five nominees are a slightly more diverse crowd.
Kathryn Bigelow (“The Hurt Locker”) is only the fourth woman to be nominated. If she wins, she’ll be the first woman to ever take home a directing Oscar.
Lee Daniels (“Precious: Based on the Novel `Push’ by Sapphire”) is only the second black filmmaker to be nominated for best director in the 81-year-history of the Academy Awards. John Singleton, in 1992 for “Boys N the Hood,” was the first.
Bigelow and Daniels would be enough to make the category a fascinating one, but it also bears the intrigue of former spouses being nominated against each other (“Avatar” director James Cameron is Bigelow’s ex-husband), the possibility of the youngest ever best director winner in 32-year-old Jason Reitman (“Up in the Air”) and a quiet, soft-spoken fellow by the name of Quentin Tarantino (“Inglourious Basterds”).