Lucy Liu, Padma Lakshmi among those honored by Gold House

Lucy Liu, left, and Padma Lakshmi among the most impactful honorees.

Actress Lucy Liu and culinary hostess Padma Lakshmi  are among the Asian Americans being honored during May, Asian American Heritage Month.

Gold House's gala honoring the 100 most impactful Asian Pacific changemakers in culture and society over the past year is one of the highlights of AAPI Heritage Month. The  annual Gold Gala is taking place this May 11 at the Music Center in downtown Los Angeles.

"Gold House and Gold Gala have become the beacon for the Asian Pacific community to unite, invest in, and celebrate our inventiveness and impact, says ashion designer Prabal Gurung, Gold House creative director. 

"This year, I've focused on making Gold Gala look truly global while feeling local, balancing the breadth of our expansive diaspora with its bold, unified heart. From the organic and towering arboreal growths to our centerpiece spheres that shape us-the sun, the moon, our Earth-we envisage a new, more holistic, more centered world that enables all of us to bloom." 

The Gold Gala, the annual gathering of top Asian Pacific and multicultural leaders, will convene over 600 guests to celebrate the 2024 A100 List (to be announced on May 1, 2024) - the 100 most impactful Asian Pacific changemakers in culture and society over the past year - with on-stage presentations to special honorees, including Lucy Liu, Bang Si-Hyuk, Cynthia Erivo, Hoa Xuande, Hello Kitty, Karan Johar, Padma Lakshmi, Saweetie, Valkyrae, the creator and cast of Beef, Maui first responders, and Olympic gold medalists.

The Gold Gala will close with a multi-song performance from award-winning artist and 2023 A100 honoree Saweetie, a Filipino American.

Special honors to be presented at the Gold Gala include:

• In recognition of their lifetime achievements, the Gold Legend Honor will be presented to Bang Si-Hyuk, founder and chairman of HYBE; producer and director Karan Johar; actress, artist, advocate, director, and producer Lucy Liu; and producer, television host, food expert, and New York Times best-selling author Padma Lakshmi.

• The cast and creators of Beef, historic winner for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards, will be honored with the Gold Icon Honor for its groundbreaking representation of the Asian American experience.

• Multi-platinum-selling recording artist and entrepreneur Saweetie will receive the first-ever Billboard Gold Music Honor, recognizing boundary-pushing musical accomplishments that redefine cultural narratives.

• Grammy, Emmy, Tony-winning and Oscar-nominated actress, singer, songwriter and producer Cynthia Erivo, who will star in Wicked later this year, will receive the Gold Ally Honor for her award-winning work to advance inclusive representation in front of and behind the camera.

• Honorees of the A1 Honor, recognizing the most impactful in their field over the past year, including content creator and streamer Valkyrae for Gaming and Sports and the Maui First Responders for Social Impact.

• Hello Kitty will receive the Gold Generation Award for her 50th anniversary, a testament to her ability to connect generations of people all over the world, while sharing her positive message of friendship and kindness, over the last five decades.

• Hoa Xuande, star of the new smash hit on Max, The Sympathizer, will be honored with the New Gold Honor for a rising leader who will redefine canon for the Asian Pacific community.

• Olympic Gold Medalist snowboarder Chloe Kim, Olympic Gold Medalist figure skater and New York Times best-selling author Kristi Yamaguchi, the most decorated Winter Olympian Apolo Anton Ohno, Olympic Bronze Medalist ice dancers Maia and Alex Shibutani, and Paralympian Scout Bassett will unite onstage for a special moment to celebrate the USA's newly awarded 2022 Team Skating Gold Medal, including the Asian Americans on the US skating team from the Beijing Winter Olympics Nathan Chen, Vincent Zhou, Madison Chock, and Evan Bates.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me at Threads.net/eduardodiok, @DioknoEd on Twitter or at the  blog Views From the Edge.

#StopAsianHate Voices From Asian America: AAPI entertainers talk activism efforts & giving back

Should entertainers use their platforms to express their personal views outside the realm of acting and performing? 

Why the hell, not? As citizens of this country, they have the same rights that all American have. They're entitled to their views if you believe in the Constitution's First Amendment that guarantees Freedom of Speech.

Movies and television help shape American culture and the way we see ourselves. Progress is occurring, but so much more needs to be done to include AAPI actors and representation onscreen. 

First up, on a Zoom call, Daniel Dae Kim, George Takei, Olivia Munn, Dianne Doan, Hari Kondabolu, and Chloe Bennet sat down with EW on Sunday March, 14th 2021 to speak about their experiences as Asian artists and the rise in attacks against Asians during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We can't really address the racism that's happening towards Asian Americans without addressing the racism that is happening towards African Americans, our Latinx brothers and sisters," states Bennett, the Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. actress.

Below, Ken Jeong, takes a break from his usual comedic nature and gets serious on Late Night.

Unfortunately, "It's going to get worse before it gets better," says the New York-born actress Lucy Liu (below) as she is interviewed by CNN's Erin Burnett.

Margaret Cho, puts the current wave of violence towards Asians in the context of American history. "In the industry I work in, we have a distorted view of Asian Americans," she says.

The more we shift away from the single Eurocentric world view, the better we will be as a country. 

The more we see Americans as more than White, the more we can accept citizens who don't conform to the American self-mage.

Lucy Liu's star next to Anna May Wong's on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.

SCREEN CAPTURE / YOUTUBE

Actress Lucy Liu touches her newly unveiled star in Hollywood's Walk of Fame.

By Mimi Chen

ASAM NEWS

Lucy Liu received her Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in a ceremony Wednesday (May 1). She noted that when she first arrived in Hollywood, she lived not too far from the vicinity of the ceremony.

During her speech, Liu said that many people have described her “mainstream successes” as “groundbreaking for an Asian.” However, she noted that many have come before her.

“Asians have been making movies for a long time.” she said, “They just weren’t making them (in Hollywood) because we weren’t yet invited to the table. If my body of work somehow helped bridge the gap between the stereotypical roles first given to Anna May and mainstream success today, I am thrilled to be part of that process.”

SCREEN CAPTURE / YOUTUBE

Lucy Liu points to her sidewalk star of Anna May Wong next to her star.

Now, her star is next to the star of Anna May Wong, the first Asian American actress to be honored with a star.

Several people came to honor Liu. Her brother and sister were in attendance as well as her three-year-old son Rockwell who entertained the crowd with his presence. Other notable attendees included David Kelly, the creator of Ally McBeal who cast Liu as Ling Woo in the series and actress Rhea Perlman. Perlman said she considered Liu not only a close friend but also a part of her ‘family.’

Fans were especially pleased to see a reunion of fellow co-stars from her the Charlie’s Angels’ movie, Demi Moore, Cameron Diaz, and Drew Barrymore. Moore described Liu as not only a “smart badass” but also a “deep loving soul with a damned good sense of humor.”

Watch the entire ceremony below:

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Lucy Liu to get sidewalk star

CBS

Lucy Liu stars in Elementary, which will launch its final season next month

ASAM NEWS

Actress Lucy Liu will be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame May 1, launching Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Resonate reports Liu’s star will be only the second Asian American actress to receive the honor. Her star will be alongside the star of pioneer Chinese American actress Anna May Wong at Hollywood and Vine. Wong is the first Chinese American actress on the silver screen.

According to the Calgary Herald, Liu is the 2662nd star to be honored on the Walk of Fame. Liu stars in the long-running CBS series Elementary which will debut its final season in four weeks.

Liu, 50, was first introduced to American audiences as the beautiful, but ruthless attorney in Ally McBeal. She is also known for such hit films as Kill Bill, Charlie’s Angels and Kung Fu Panda.

The Hollywood Reporter says Liu will also star in Why Women Kill on CBS All Access in September. It is produced by Marc Cherry of Desperate Housewives fame. It is described as a dark comedic drama about three women from different eras-a 1960’s housewife, a 1980s socialite and a lawyer in 2018. Each has to deal with infidelity in their marriage.

Actresses Demi Moore and Rhea Perlman will also take part in the May 1 ceremonies to honor their friend.

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Will your favorite AAPI actor be coming back on TV next season?

When 'Fresh Off the Boat introduced the Huang family three years ago, who knew it would become the longest running show featuring an Asian American theme.

LAST WEEK was a mixed bag of good-news, bad-news for AAPI TV fans and for the casts of these shows that star or feature AAPI actors.

GOOD NEWS: Fresh Off the Boat got renewed for a fourth season. Every year the sitcom is renewed it breaks a record for the longest-running TV show featuring an AAPI theme. We get to hang out with the Huang family as they continue to assimilate and at the same time retain their identity as an Asian/American family.

BAD NEWS: Dr. Ken, starring Ken Jeong and loosely based on his real life as a physician turned comedic actor, was cancelled after two seasons. 

GOOD NEWS: 2 Broke Girls, was finally cancelled after six seasons. The show featured one, Han Lee played by Matthew Moy, of the worst stereotypes of Asian/American men on TV today: sexually unappealing, effeminate, socially awkward, thick thick accent.

BAD NEWS: 2 Broke Girls will stick around for quite a while in reruns.

Matthew Moy tweeted out this picture of the cast in their final bow and a series of black hearts.

GOOD NEWS: Even though it receives one of he lowest ratings in the CW Network shows, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend got a third season. The romantic musical comedy co-stars Vincent Rodriguez III and ocassionally features his Filipino/American family and his hip Filipino/American priest will be around for another.

BAD NEWS: The Vanessa Hudgens vehicle Powerless, a midseason replacement sitcom for NBC, flamed out and won't be back next year.

GOOD NEWS: Priyanka Chopra, the lead in Quantico, will return as FBI agent Alex Parrish. There was some doubt if there would be a third season since the show's ratings dipped this year compared to its first year.

BAD NEWS: The TV version of Rush Hour couldn't match the Jackie Chan-Chris Tucker chemistry from the movies though Jon Foo and Justin Hines gave it their best shot, their onscreen chemistry fizzled.

GOOD NEWS: Elementary, the updated Sherlock Holmes detective series starring Lucy Liu as Dr. Watson was on the bubble all week. At the last minute, CBS renewed it for a sixth season.

BAD NEWS: Pretty Little Liars is in its seventh and final season. The gang will graduate from the long-running series. That means saying goodbye to Emily Fields played by Shay Mitchell. Watch her say her tearful farewell.

Shay Mitchell

MORE GOOD NEWS:  

• Agents of SHIELD, starring Ming Na Wen and Chloe Bennet in two action-filled heroic roles;
• Hawaii 5-0 with Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park playing prominent members of the core group of actors, and a whole host of AAPI actors who play Hawaii residents. 
• Into the Badlands starring Daniel Wu as THE hero and Aramis Knight as his protege was confirmed for a third season by AMC; 
• Scorpion with Elyes Gabel and Jadyn Wong will be back for a fourth season on CBS.
• AMC's Humans which introduced us to the Gemma Chan, whose portrayal of a beautiful robot is anything but wooden,
• Designated Survivor, whose return was questionable, just made the cut, which is good news for fans of Maggie Q and Kal Penn. (Earlier versions of this blog misidentified Kal Penn. It has been corrected - editor.)
• Code Black, starring handsome leading man Reza Jaffrey, will be back to operate the L.A. emergency room,
• The Magicians with Arjun Gupta won't disappear. It will return to the Syfy channel for its third season,
• Superstore returns with the wonderful cast of off-beat store clerks including Nico Santos and Nicole Bloom along with regulars Kaliko Kauahi and Jon Miyahara.
• The Good Place gets a second season in which Manny Jacinto plays a Filipino who shatters Asian stereotypes,
• The OA, a surprise hit for Netflix, gives fans a chance to discover Jason Perea whose role should be expanded in the second season, 
• The Man in the High Castle, that tells an alternate history in which Germany and Japan won WWII, has a whole bunch of Asian/American cast members led by veteran actors Joel de la Fuente and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa,
• Riverdale loses breakout star Ross Butler, who played key character Reggie, but in its second season he'll be replaced by another Asian/American hunk Charles Melton,
• 13 Reasons Why will have a second season even though the 13 tapes have been heard. That will hopefull give us a chance to explore the back stories of the Asian/American characters played by Ross Butler and Michele Selene Ang.

Ross Butler leaves fictional Riverdale High for Liberty High in "13 Reasons Why."

The fate of a handful of other shows, ie. Aziz Ansari's and Alan Yang's Master of None, in what has become TV's second and third rounds of programs will be decided later this year. 

Some new shows will be introduced next fall with AAPI cast members. That's exciting. Watch out for my yearly preview of the coming season - as always, from an AAPI point of view.

Based on this list, it may appear that there are a lot of AAPI actors working but in reality, it's just a drop in the bucket. Minority actors are vastly underrepresented on in the entertainment industry that includes television, according to a UCLA report on diversity in Hollywood.

The report points out minorities make up 40 percent of the U.S. population but only 13.6 percent of lead actors in theatrical films and 10.1 percent of Hollywood directors.

Darnell Hunt, the report’s lead author  said, “At the heart of it is the fact that Hollywood is simply not structured to make the most of today’s market realities.”

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Awards season means the return of the Anna Awards

Best Picture goes to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story by casting three Asian actors in prominent roles. Above, the Rogue One crew didn't include a single white male (See below).

IT'S AWARDS SEASON for the entertainment industry and once again, Asian/Americans and Pacific Islanders have mostly been overlooked for the best known awards for the Oscars, Emmy's and Tony's. 

Hence, the Anna Awards returns for its third installment. The awards below are named after Anna May Wong, a pioneer Asian/American actress who - even back then in the start of the motion picture industry - was conscious of the stereotypes Hollywood was perpetuating with its portrayal of Asian men and women and turned down roles that would reinforce those stereotypes.

This is the third year of the awards given to the performances on stage, the silver screen and on television. The categories are whimsical ones that I just made up which I get to do since I'm judge, jury and the majority vote in determining who is deserving based on their performance in 2016.

Drumroll, please ...

From left: Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen and Riz Ahmed.

Best Asian/American motion picture
For this category, we had to stretch a bit because so few movies prominently feature AAPI characters. Even though they were not in the lead, three Asian/American actors formed the core rebel team in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen and Riz Ahmed had key roles in the sci-fi storyline started by George Lucas. Outside of the fact they formed the majority of the rebel team -- they were were gay, bad ass and non-stereotypical. Although they were not the lead actors, they managed to lend unusual depth and conflict to their characters that we rarely see in these space swashbucklers. Rounding out the team of five was the lead character Jyn Ersois (British actress Felicity Jones) and Cassian Andor (Latino actor Diego Luna). A lesson to Hollywood: The fact there wasn't a white male among them did not hurt the box-office appeal as audiences flocked to the theaters to watch the latest installment of the Star Wars franchise.


Best Director

Taika Waititi on the set of The Hunt for the Wilderpeople.

Taika Waititi is a Maori whose offbeat sense of humor is well-known in his native New Zealand. He used that sense of humor with an overlay of poignancy to make a small film about human beings and relationships, The Hunt for the Wilderpeople. It is a movie that wasn't widely seen but it should be seen by any minority director who doesn't want to slip into the basketfull of ethnic stereotypes. His next film moves him from the small human drama category into the superhero realm of big budgets and big action. He'll direct Aquaman, starring fellow Polynesian actor Jason Mamoa (Game of Thrones), who is half-Hawaiian.

Best Actor
Dev Patel in the motion picture Lion. Dev was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in the Golden Globes, which he didn't win because of the super-strong competition and he faces the same hurdles for Best Supporting Actor in the Academy Awards. I wondered about those nominations because anyone seeing the movie can clearly see that Patel was the main actor and if we were to get strict with the rules, he should have been entered in the Best Actor category. The studio, seeing the competition in that category, thought he stood a better chance (albeit, a slim one) in the supporting actor category. 

Best Actress
Lucy Liu in the TV series Elementary. She plays a smart, sassy and deep Dr. Watson to the erratic Sherlock Holmes played by Johnny Lee Hammer. Liu could have just been just another sidekick, but her Watson holds her own against Holmes and the long-running show gives Liu and the show's writers the time to portray a character with a depth rarely given to any character played by an Asian. 

Best Breakout Performance
2016 was quite a year for Riz Ahmed with roles on TV and movies it seemed that the British actor was everywhere. But it was his role in The Night Of, where he starts out as a frightened victimized student who is transformed into a tough, prison-hardened tattooed character. For his performance, he was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild award and may still get an Emmy nod for making us believe in his character as a student and as an ex-con.

Bad-ass Woman of the Year
With the presidential campaigns in 2016, along with the surge of #OscarsSoWhite in the entertainment field, actress Constance Wu stepped up and said all the things we were thinking, even, some say, it might hurt her growing career beyond her Fresh Off the Boat success. She decried the practice of white-washing that saw non-Asian actress cast in obviously Asian roles such as Scarlett Johansson in the upcoming Ghost in a Shell motion picture and Tilda Swinton in the Dr. Strange film. She was in the thick of Hillary Clinton's failed campaign for President and joining the Women's March in Washington, D.C. She is currently in negotiations for the lead role in the all-Asian cast for Crazy Rich Asians directed by John Chu.



Bad-ass Man of the Year
You would have to come up with something really spectacular to give this to anybody but Daniel Wu for his portrayal of martial artist Sunny in Into the Badlands. The Berkeley-born actor made his fame in Asia and came back to this actioned that takes place in a future dystopian America where guns don't work so inhabitants have to resort to various forms of martial arts, swords and fisticuffs.


Best Fight Scene of the Year

It stands to reason that the best fight sequence involves one of our Bad-ass winners. Since Constance Wu won on the basis of her efforts off-camera, that means Daniel Wu (no relation to Constance) was involved. The opening sequence in the premiere of Into the Badlands has one of the best choreographed fights we've since in a long time. It's not quite the breathtaking fight between Michele Yeo's and Zhang Ziyi's characters in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; or the  sword fight in Akira Kurosawa's Sanjuro when Toshiro Mifune's samurai character, Sanjuro, found himself surrounded by about a dozen other swordsmen; but, it's a really, really good fight for TV. Fight choreographer used a lot of the fantastic Kung Fu acrobatics that made him so much in demand in China and Hong Kong flicks.

Promising newcomer(s)
For the first time, we have a tie in this category with three new actors who bear watching. Brandon Perea who plays the smart student in Netflix's surprise sci-fi hit "The OA,"  is half-Puerto Rican and half-Filipino, but all American. His character is named French, who is smart, head on right, the kind of guy who could be voted Mr. Popularity on campus, everybody likes him. Despite all that could lead to being the stereotypical social snob, it turns out he's a nice, sensitive guy. He's a leader-type that doesn't have to show his abs. This unusual show kind of sneaked up on everybody and Bang!, everybody got hooked. It just got renewed for a second season.

Auli’i Cravalho, for her voice-over portrayal of Moana in the animated musical feature of the same name. We might never have seen her in person in the movie, but despite that, she gave a life and energy to the lead character who, in fact, did look a little like the Hawaiian-born actress. Look for her to sing the Oscar-nominated title song "How Far I'll Go," written by Hamilton's Lin Manuel Miranda, during the Academy Awards.

Hayden Szeto who played the unrequited love interest in the movie, Edge of 17, opposite Filipina/American Hailee Steinfeld. The role could just have been of any race but Szeto won over the director and producer. He avoided the nerdy stereotype and played his character as an all-American guy who has a crush on Hailee. Kudos to him and to the director to not succumbing to the way-too-easy portrayal of the stereotype.

Best Stage Performance
This was a tough one. There were some very good performances by a number of artists on stage this year but if I had to narrow it to just one, ... I can't ... this will have to be another tie for the duet of Darren Criss and Lena Hall for their roles in Hedwig and the Angry Inch musical traveling show. Both of the Asian/American performers received rave reviews for the lead roles in that musical about a transexual glam rocker. While Criss played the lead role most of the time, Hall had the next most important male role of Itzak, and at times, took over Criss' role during his days off. Honorable Mentions go to Daniel Dae Kim in the King and I, Ali Ewoldt in Phantom of the Opera and Philiippa Soo in Hamilton.

Best Portrayal of an Asian by a non-Asian

From left: Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton and Matt Damon don't deserve this award.

Hmmm. Lots of nominations here including Scarlett Johansson as Major in Ghost In A Shell, Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One in Dr. Strange, one can even make an argument that Matt Damon's role in The Great Wall should have been an Asian savior. Problem is, none of them deserve the "best" anything so we're leaving this category empty.

Is She, or Isn't She?
This award goes to the actor who no one would have guessed was AAPI. This year's award goes to Sharon Leal, who at first glance one would perceive to be African/American, but, it turns out, she is half Filipino. She loves her Filipino food, adobo and dinaguan, cooked by her mother. Unfortunately, her role on the CW's Supergirl is that of a Martian (Filipinos from Mars?) so she won't be able to draw on her ethnic heritage for her character.


TV show missing an Asian cast member

Asians are too rare in a setting that should have more Asian staff  since Sandra Oh, 2nd from left, exited the show.

ABC's long-running Grey's Anatomy hasn't been the same since Sandra Oh's Dr. Christina Yang left the cast. Not only did a favorite character leave a void, any urban hospital in America always has a strong presence of Asian staff as med-techs, nurses and doctors. The show is set in Seattle with a large AAPI population but you wouldn't know that watching the show. Produced by Shonda Rhimes, who has been outspoken about diversity in casting, should have an Asian character in a recurring role beyond the masked surgical nurse in the operating room.

Best Musical Performance in the Super Bowl

Well, since there is only one Super Bowl per year, it's pretty obvious the award for 2016 goes, hands down, to Bruno Mars for his performance when he and his dancers faced off with Beyonce and her Formation army of women. Mars more than held his own as the trio belted out Mars' hit "Uptown Funk." The dance-off sequence between Mars' and Beyonce's dancers was a hair-raising thriller, perhaps equalling the gym sequence between the Jets and Sharks in West Side Story. Here's a replay incase you missed it the first time.

Best Stereotype Buster
Conrad Ricamora as Oliver Hampton in How To Get Away With Murder. Well, he is a computer expert, but that's not the stereotype we're talking about. Ricamora recently won the Visibility Award for his portrayal of a gay character. Oliver is an interesting and multi-dimensional LGBTQ person of color -- a great role for the actor but also great visibility for the Asian/American and LGBTQ communities. “I will say that it’s a little ironic to be getting the Visibility Award because so much of growing up as a kid was spent trying to be invisible,” said Ricamora. “It was rough, not only being gay, but having the colored skin that I have. I was terrified that someone would see me as gay and I was also terrified that I would see myself for what I naturally was.”

Best Farewell Performance
We would be remiss if we didn't mention Steven Yeun's portrayal of Glenn Rhee as played in TV's The Walking Dead. Glenn's brutal demise at the hands of Negan and his baseball bat Lucille, was one of the most shocking and dreadful end to one of television's best Asian/American characters. Through seven seasons, Yeun was able to transform Glenn from the pizza-delivery guy to a heroic zombie killer without ever resorting to anything that hinted at the Asian male stereotype. The character of Glenn was perhaps the best nuanced, AAPI characters television has ever presented.

RELATED:

• The first awards was called the Eddies
• The 2nd awards became the Anna's because the Eddies Awards were already taken

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