Halle, Alicia & India.Arie: women stars hit awards jackpot - actress Halle Berry, singers Alicia Keys and India.Arie nominated for awards

Ebony, March, 2002

SELDOM if ever before have Black women stars made such a collective statement. From the Grammy Awards to politics (see page 148) to corporate America (see page 42) to the Hollywood awards derbies, Black women sassed, outclassed, testified and carried home the gold. Among the biggest winners of the year were two new stars--India.Arie and Alicia Keys--who ran away with the Grammy nominations, and an enduring beauty--Halle Berry--who came into her own as an actor and as her own woman.

Oscar Talk Tops Berry's Biggest Year

HALLE Berry has always been beautiful. As her film credits and celebrity continued to grow, she increasingly has gained praise for her work.

Rather than being viewed as just a beautiful face and gorgeous body, these days she also is being touted for her acting ability. In fact, as word of her performance opposite Billy Bob Thornton in the new film Monster's Ball sprinted through the media, Berry, 35, increasingly has been the subject of Oscar speculation.

Monster's Ball is a story that emphasizes family and race as well as the redemptive, ethereal power of love. Berry portrays Leticia, the widow of an executed man (Sean Combs) who struggles to rear her son, and who falls in love, unknowingly, with her husband's racist jailer. Both characters are transformed in profound ways. Audiences are transfixed by the plot, but also by a torrid nude love scene between Berry and Thornton.

Initially, director Mare Forster didn't want Berry for the part, but she convinced him she's had enough "heartbreak, hard knocks" to take on the role. "I felt a deep connection to Leticia's spirit and her heart," Berry says. "I understand what it's like to struggle and be behind the eight ball and want to achieve and be successful and make something good of your life. And I totally understand being a Black woman, especially in the industry I've chosen to be in. I can understand the struggle of wanting something so badly but not really knowing how to get where you're trying to go. And she's filled with a lot of pain, as I am. For me, the role was being able to tap into that pain to bring the character to life."

That she has done. Since the movie's limited release in December, Berry has gotten praise. She was nominated for an American Film Institute award, but lost to Sissy Spacek. She also was up for a Golden Globe Award.

This year is turning out to be a big year for the shapely, 5-foot-6 actor. Last year she won praise for her role in the $100 million box-office hit Swordfish opposite John Travolta. That followed her role in the sci-fi X-Men. She also starred with Warren Beatty in Bulworth. On Berry's crowded schedule is the follow-up to X-Men and the highly coveted female lead role in the next James Bond film.

Last year Berry created quite a sensation with her first partial nude scene in Swordfish, and she had to squash rumors that she was paid an extra $250,000 for each bared breast. Good-naturedly, she said the rumors were "totally not true," that they were started by the movie's producer. "I would sell these babies for much more money than $500,000," she said.

In Monster's Ball, Berry again delivers a steamy love scene in the buff, but this time she says she had the contractual final say. She says that if a role calls for it, she would consider baring her body again. "If I have a strong belief that it's what the character would do, then I'd use my body in any way that would best serve that character," she said.

Berry has always shown grit and heart as she immersed herself into her roles. She was quite convincing as a homeless crack addict in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever (1991) and as a drug-addicted mother in Losing Isaiah (1995). In the last decade, she's made a dozen films, including HBO's Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, for which she won Emmy, NAACP Image, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards.

In the midst of the glory, Berry was jolted back to reality after she became the subject of much scrutiny when in February 2000 she was involved in a car accident in Los Angeles. She paid $13,500 in fines and court costs and performed 200 hours of community service.

She told EBONY that the accident made her realize who her true friends are, and brought her even closer to her sweetheart, R&B singer Eric Benet. The two secretly were married in January 2001 on a California beach. "When I was too weak to stand, he would hold me up," she told EBONY of the support Benet demonstrated after the accident. "When I was too fragile to think, he'd help me figure it out. When I was too scared to face another day, he'd be my rock."

Berry continues to emphasize that she wants to have a baby. "I became very maternal almost in that moment," she says of her engagement to Benet. "I didn't just want a child. I wanted his child. Our child."

What Halle wants, she gets. Being a mother could prove to be the most challenging and rewarding role of her life.

6 Grammy Nominations And 2 American Music Awards For Alicia Keys

ALICIA Keys could see success coming, but didn't know when it would arrive. The hit album, the worlwide acclaim of her musical talents and the appreciation of her style, she thought, were all within her reach.