The legendary actress Lena Horne passed away last night at New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center following a long illness. She was 92.
I wasn’t a Lena Horne fan (she was way before my time), but what I remember most about her (actually, the only thing I remember about her) was back in 2004 when she threw a fit after hearing that Janet Jackson would play her in a made-for TV biopic based on her life.
Horne got ABC’s top brass on the phone and she loudly demanded that they drop Janet, who earlier that year had exposed her breast in a near career-ending publicity stunt that she has never fully recovered from. The network initially resisted Horne’s request, but Janet gracefully backed out of the plum role to spare herself any further embarrassment.
Here’s what Janet (or whoever updates her Twitter page) had to say about the great lady’s passing:
There’s one more ‘Word’ after the break!
Dream Hampton is the former Editor-in-chief of The Source magazine and was the top contributing writer to VIBE magazine.
