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Glamour Women of the Year 2002: Oral Lee Brown


To celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of Glamour’s Women of the Year awards, we are delving back into our archives to highlight some of the incredible women we have honored over the last three decades.

In January, we’ve cast the spotlight on activism – and the incredible Oral Lee Brown. Today, when you think about activism, you might conjure up Greta Thunberg, for example – and a WOTY recipient in 2019 – or the #womensmarch or the powerful Black Lives Matter movement. But sometimes, the actions of one person alone, even in the smallest of communities, can leave an also indelible mark.

In our December 2002 issue, Oral Lee Brown was photographed with five of the kids she was putting through college. 

1987 was the year that Oral Lee Brown met an eight-year-old girl on the street in Oakland, California. The girl asked for a quarter – Oral Lee Brown responded with the question: why aren’t you in school? The little girl shrugged.

Unable to shake her encounter, the real estate agent made up her mind to help Oakland’s at-risk children. That year, she adopted an entire first-grade class at Brookfield Elementary School, promising to pay for their college education if they graduated high school.

Oral Lee Brown accepts a Minerva Award on day 3 of Maria Shriver's Women's Conference 2010
Oral Lee Brown accepting a Minerva Award at Maria Shriver’s Women’s Conference 2010.Dr. Billy Ingram/Wire Image

She saved $10,000 a year from a $45,000 a year salary – and through careful investments and local fundraising events managed to grow her pot for the kids to over $1million dollars. 19 of the 23 children graduated. Oral Lee came through on her promise and sent them to college.

That was in 2002. Since then, she established the Oral Lee Brown Foundation, which has, to date, supported 136 students from low-income families. She offers mentoring, tutoring and financial bursaries and in 2005 established a Saturday school, where they could take children from all grades, rather than just first.

Oral Lee Brown at the 2002 Glamour Women of the Year Awards.
Oral Lee Brown at the 2002 Glamour Women of the Year Awards. Matthew Peyton/Getty Images

There have now been eight phases of her official first-graders’ program. Phase 5 kids graduated high school in 2017 and are now attending colleges, while the children in Phase 6, 7 and 8 are in high school, middle school and elementary school respectively.
The actions of one woman sparked a movement that has continued to have an enormous impact on the long-term futures of some of the most at-risk children in Oakland, California.

www.oralleebrownfoundation.org



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Erin Lee Carr Released Two Documentaries and a Book in the Past Six Months. Here's How She Did It


It’s my personality to take on more things. I was already working on another gymnastics film when that story broke, so I knew I needed to include Larry Nassar.

Do you remember where you were when you first heard about Michelle Carter?

I’m always researching things that are crime and Internet related—that’s basically my sweet spot—and so I think it was a Washington Post headline and it had the text, “It’s now or never,” that Michelle Carter sent to Conrad Roy [her boyfriend]. And those small words strung together led me to the bigger story. I immediately started reaching out to people involved with the case.

How is writing a book similar to or different from writing a documentary?

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Filmmaking is collaborative and writing is lonely. I was alone with my thoughts, day after day. I’d written short pieces before but nothing of the order of 75,000 words.

Your dad’s memoir, The Night of the Gun, told the story of his own life from the perspective of a reporter. Did you approach All That You Leave Behind the same way?

I had emails and text messages and voicemails that have a timestamp and could tell me the time and place and help with my memory, but I chose not to continue the same reporting style as The Night of the Gun, one, because I didn’t want to do a repeat and, two, because my dad is an incredible investigative reporter and I knew if I tried to do anything like that, wouldn’t be successful. I always use the present tense to describe him since he’s part of my every day. I involve him in my life and think about him all the time.

The book is a roadmap through your grief and struggles with addiction. What was it like to write about such personal subjects layered on top of losing your dad?

When we talk about early recovery, there’s this thought of, “Don’t talk about it, you can’t write about this until you’re 5, ten, fifteen years in to make sure it’s real.” To mention your sobriety is to break the rules. But given that my father was the one who said, “You have a problem,” I thought it made a lot of sense to include in the book. I knew I was going to be writing about things that were pretty embarrassing, and I didn’t want anyone who’s paying me large sums of money to do a documentary to wonder if I’m trustworthy. So I checked in with some of my dad’s creative consiglieres and I said, “Am I going to hurt my chances of continuing the job I love?” The answer was no. Luckily we live in a society that values honesty and recovery.

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What’s the hardest interview you’ve ever done?



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Jamie Lee Curtis Can't Help Bragging About Halloween's Record-Breaking Opening Weekend


Almost exactly 40 years after she made her film debut as Laurie Strode in 1978’s Halloween, Jamie Lee Curtis is still unbelievably proud to be a member of the Strode family.

On Sunday, as the film’s 2018 sequel of the same name wrapped up a record-smashing opening weekend at the box office, Curtis shared her excitement about the film’s debut on Instagram. “OK. I’m going to go for one BOAST post,” she captioned a photo of her standing next to Judy Greer and Andi Matichak, who play her daughter and granddaughter, respectively, in the new horror film.

“Biggest horror movie opening with a female lead. Biggest movie opening with a female lead over 55. Second biggest horror movie opening ever. Second biggest October movie opening ever. Biggest Halloween opening ever. Couldn’t be prouder of ALL who made this creative experiment have such a thrilling result!” Curtis continued, adding, “#womengetthingsdone #threetallwomen #threestrodewomen #strodestrong #timesup.”

The post earned tons of supportive comments from many of Curtis’s past costars. “Yes queen,” Emma Roberts wrote. “CONGRATULATIONS,” Abigail Breslin added, while Niecy Nash commented, “Congrats my Queen!!!” alongside plenty of red heart emojis.

According to Box Office Mojo, in its opening weekend, Halloween raked in $77.5 million in the U.S., plus another $14.3 million internationally. That $91.8 million total does indeed set all the records Curtis mentioned in her post. Per The Hollywood Reporter, the biggest horror movie opening came courtesy of 2017’s It, which garnered a whopping $123.4 million in its first few days in theaters. The biggest October opening, meanwhile, goes to Venom, which premiered just a few weeks before Halloween to an $80 million opening.

Beyond just financial success, Halloween has also been praised by many critics. The movie is already “certified fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes, with 80 percent positive reviews, and it has a respectable B+ rating on Cinemascore. Of course, we here at Glamour have also praised the film, noting that it’s strongest as a “tribute to the many ironies of the mother-daughter relationship.”

Related: Here’s Every New Scary Movie and TV Show Hitting Netflix Before Halloween



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Kathie Lee Gifford Says 'No Person Is Perfect' and Calls for Forgiveness for Matt Lauer


Yesterday, Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb opened the Today show on a somber (and shocked) note as they announced the firing of their co-host Matt Lauer over sexual misconduct accusations. Guthrie was obviously distressed by the news but also expressed her heartbreak for the woman who had come forward. “This is a sad morning at Today and NBC News,” Guthrie said. “As I’m sure you can understand, we are devastated. I’m heartbroken for Matt. He is my dear, dear colleague. And I’m heartbroken for the brave colleague who came forward to tell her story and any other women who have their own stories to tell.”

She added: “This reckoning that so many organizations have been going through is important, it’s long overdue, and it must result in workplaces where all women—all people—feel safe and respected.” Hotb concurred.

As the day, and the show, went on, her other co-hosts weighed in with Al Roker saying he was “still processing” while the newest addition to Today, Megyn Kelly, said that this one hit close to home but, “”But when this happens what we don’t see is the pain on the faces of those who found the courage to come forward, and it’s a terrifying thing to do. We are in the middle of a sea change in this country. An empowerment revolution,” Kelly added. “As painful as this moment is for so many here at NBC today, at CBS earlier this month, at Fox News over the last year, in Hollywood this fall, it is a sign of progress. Of women finding their voices, their courage and of the erosion of a shameful power imbalance that has been in place for far too long.”

But it’s Kathie Lee Gifford’s comments that are drawing fire from both men and women on Twitter. Gifford, who is always quite open about her Christian faith, commented that she had been praying for Lauer. But it was what came next that has everyone in an uproar:

“I’m grappling with, should I even share something? But I guess I
really should. I don’t feel that Matt has betrayed us in any way at
all but when I found out that my husband had betrayed me, you question
your own judgment. You say, ‘Was everything a lie?’ And I think we
have to very much fight against that, that the man we know and adored
was the man we loved and adored and continue to. I texted him this
morning and said ‘I adore you and no person is perfect in this world.’
Nobody is. We’ve all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, is
what scripture says. And what we need now is forgiveness and mercy for
one another. And We don’t need taunts and we don’t need ugliness. We
have enough of that in the world.” She continued by sending her love
and God’s blessing to the person who came forward, to Matt, his
children, his wife saying the one thing she’s sure of in her life is
the only God can heal it.”

The betrayal she’s referring to is the infidelity of her late husband, Frank Gifford. And while it’s all well and good that she chose to forgive him, the situation between Lauer and his accusers is not the same thing. Not to mention that sweeping the multiple accusations quickly aside with a nobody’s perfect, let’s all just get along mentality is a disservice to the women who suffered at his hand.

Twitter, as you might imagine, was not having it.

Here’s hoping Gifford can read the room a little better when she hits the air at 10 a.m. Thursday.





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Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee Took a Knee on the Floor of the House to Protest Donald Trump


PHOTO: Bill Clark/Getty Images

After Donald Trump spent the weekend insulting NFL players who protest racial injustice and police brutality by kneeling during the national anthem, anger and frustration over the President’s remarks rocketed throughout the country—even reaching the floors of Congress.

Yes, on Monday evening Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee stood before the House of Representatives and criticized Trump for his recent comments. In case you missed it, the controversy started last Friday when Trump brought up the NFL player protests during a campaign rally in Alabama. ” “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now—out, he’s fired,” he told the crowd before spending the weekend (and well into Monday) tweeting about this issue.

“There is no basis in the First Amendment that says you cannot kneel on the national anthem or in front of the flag,” Jackson Lee said. “There is no regulation that says that these young men cannot stand against the dishonoring of their mothers by you calling them, ‘fire the son of a b,’ You tell me which of those children’s mothers are a son of a b. That is racism. You cannot deny it, you cannot run for it, and I kneel in honor of them.”

The Texas Democrat then dropped down on one knee to show solidarity with the NFL players—and forcefully reproach the President.

“I kneel in front of the flag and on this floor. I kneel in honor of the First Amendment,” Jackson Lee continued. “I kneel because the flag is a symbol for freedom. I kneel because I’m going to stand against racism. I kneel because I will stand with those young men, and I’ll stand with our soldiers, and I’ll stand with America because I kneel.”

Jackson Lee is not the only member of Congress to speak out against Trump’s recent outburst. Fellow Congressional Black Caucus member John Lewis (D-Ga.) shared a similar sentiment on Twitter, saying that the NFL players are following “a long tradition.”

Related: MLK’s Daughter Had the Perfect Response to Critics of the NFL National Anthem Protests



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