Apparently Octavia Spencer and Sherri Shepherd have been confused for each other so many times that Spencer took to Twitter this week to clear things up once and for all.
From Clutch magazine:
On Thursday’s episode of The View, Sherri Shepherd explained how many fellow celebrities, including Bo Derek and John Corbett, mistakenly congratulated her for her role in The Help and wished her luck with her Best Supporting Actress nomination.
Octavia Spencer took to Twitter on Thursday to remind her fellow actors to think for a second before confusing her with that black lady from The View (who is not Whoopi Goldberg)
Subsequent tweets from the Oscar winner and Community‘s Yvette Nicole Brown show that the problem is more widespread than just Octavia and Sherri …
Read all the tweets at Clutch magazine (apparently people even told Shepherd she was great in Precious!).
Advertisement
To be fair, it's likely some quirk of the human mind (check out this study on the "other race effect") rather than conscious disregard for the individual qualities of black women that's to blame. But that doesn't mean it's not frustrating. Anyone who has ever been repeatedly confused with the only other black person in a particular environment (even when they look nothing like you) can probably relate.
Will it take a critical mass of black women in Hollywood before people stop calling them by one another's name? And — come on, admit it — are there some celebs you just can't keep straight?
Read more at Clutch magazine.
Like The Root on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.