Sanaa Lathan: The Bold, The Black & The Beautiful

By Karu F. Daniels, BlackVoices.com



Sanaa Lathan is a woman in love -- with her skin ... her people ... and her beau.

The Tony Award nominated actress seemed inseparable from her current boyfriend, Adewale Ogunleye, during yesterday's premiere of the new documentary, 'Skin Stories,' at New Orleans' Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.

"He's just a great guy," the bronze beauty beamed backstage when probed about her tall, dark and strapping companion. "He's a Nigerian prince," she excitedly gushed to BlackVoices.com about Ogunleye, 30, who most football aficionados will know played with the Miami Dolphins for five seasons and is currently with the Chicago Bears.

The always camera-ready baller blushed at the public display of affection and playfully brushed off the notion that he should've been featured in the film, which asks people of color on four continents "How do you honor your skin?"Lathan, last seen in the Sean 'Diddy' Combs-produced tele-film adaptation of the Broadway classic, 'A Raisin in the Sun,' narrates 'Skin Stories, which was set against local, social and cultural backdrops and presented by Vaseline skincare products.

"I'm so inspired by this project because it sends out a message that our skin is beautiful," the Yale Drama School graduate (and daughter of groundbreaking TV producer Stan Lathan). "We haven't had that message since the whole 'Black Is Beautiful' thing of the 1960s."

"I thought it was a positive, uplifting message and I really do use the brand," she added.

"So where do you use Vaseline?" I asked – causing media handlers' mouths to drop open and even Ogunleye to chuckle.

"You know what, I do use it on my feet," Lathan said, after briefly digesting the question. "When you put socks on and you sleep with socks and the next day you wake up, your feet are like babies'," she continued. "Or you can use it on your lips, your elbows or your knees so you're not ashy."

Nice save.

Lathan, 36, will next been seen in 'Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys,' opening on Sept. 12 and starring Alfre Woodard, Taraji P. Henson, Rockmond Dunbar and Kathy Bates.

"I play a bad, bad girl in it," she commented about the role – somewhat a departure from her previous works in 'Love & Basketball' and 'Brown Sugar.' "It's a great cast. It's just drama. It's all about what family, money and love does to people. And I play a scandalous beeyotch."

Another film on the horizon is a "small film" titled 'Wonderful World' with Mathew Broderick, she said is about "about how a man goes from cynicism to hope."

As for the 2008 Essence Festival, which 'Skin Stories,' officially debuted at, Lathan admitted to being in awe of it all: "I've never been to the 'Essence Festival' and I'm excited to see all of the black people."