Oscars snub Mary J. Blige in best actress category

The Academy Awards promised to be an unforgettable night for Mary J. Blige.

Blige performed “Mighty River,” the Oscar-nominated song she co-wrote with Raphael Saadiq and Taura Stinson for the movie Mudbound at the top of Sunday night’s 90th Academy Awards. She was also nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category for her haunting performance in the Dee Rees-directed drama. 

In our own Issa Rae way we were rooting for Mary J. Blige to take home the best supporting actress statue for her riveting performance in the movie Mudbound, but instead Allison Janney won for I Tonya.

Mary J. Blige was up against another one of our faves Octavia Spencer, who if she had won for her role in The Shape of Water, would have become the first black woman to win multiple Oscars. The other nominees included Laurie Metcalf for LadyBird, Lesley Manville for Phantom Thread, and frontrunner Allison Janney.  

–Black child called racial slur and spat on by firefighter at Hooters–

This is still a night to remember for Mary J. Blige who made history as the first person nominated for both an acting performance and song in the same year in the Oscar’s 90-year history.

MJB also received her star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, earlier this year along with a Golden Globes nod.

The role of a lifetime

Mary J. Blige, who described herself as “addicted to lashes” had to leave her glamorous wigs and makeup behind to strip down for her portrayal of a sharecropper’s wife in Jim Crow Mississippi in Mudbound. And the performance changed her perspective.

“I’m Mary J. Blige. I mean, like, this is what I do. I wear wigs, I wear bob wigs, and I had to completely strip down to my own natural hair texture, which I’ve always been afraid of,” she told New York Magazine. “Dee [Rees] stripped me down all the way to what I truly am, and people were complimenting me. People were saying how beautiful I was. I didn’t know I was that beautiful for real. You understand what I’m saying? I didn’t know that.”

–President Trump says Rep. Maxine Waters needs ‘an IQ test’ at Gridiron dinner, she responds—

As for what’s next, Mary J. is reportedly teaming up with Netflix for a series called The Umbrella Academy.

The live action series from Universal Cable Prods is based on the graphic novels of the same name by Gerard Way and illustrated by Gabriel Bá.

The graphic novels follow the Umbrella Academy, a dysfunctional superhero family, trying to solve the mystery of their father’s murder. Luther (Tom Hopper), Diego (David Castañeda), Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman), Vanya (Ellen Page), Klaus (Robert Sheehan) and Number Five (Aidan Gallagher) must all overcome their differences, and it doesn’t always work.

As for Blige, she has signed a one-year contract to be a series regular as Cha-Cha, a hitwoman who can travel through time to come after her targets.

According to Deadline, Cha-Cha considers herself a “pain artist” and loves not only the kill but the torture of her targets. She has a reputation for sadism and only cares about her partner, Hazel. Even her employers have her ire, because of their reliance on bureaucracy.