Get the chip off your shoulder about being bl2000ack. Stop looking to be offended for the whole damn race. Grow up already. Your attitude will not get you far.

"the woman made that remark in '86, which is damn near 30 yrs. ago now!!"
I wouldn't give a damn if it was 300 years ago. It was STILL a racist remark that offended many black people. You're just a fan girl, blinded by senseless devotion and sham idolatry. Sad.

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I'm sorry but, this is a stupid topic that's neither here nor there. First of all, the woman made that remark in '86, which is damn near 30 yrs. ago now!!! Secondly, yes I'm black myself but, I wasn't offended given that I know her story about what a abusive, psychopathic piece of garbage her father really was. Her story about being physically and emotionally abused by him is well documented in her book, "Blame It On Vanity". Therefore, I took her comment as nothing more than a slam @ him. Finally, her career didn't end because of some stupid "public outrage" in the black community over her comment. It's also well-known that she chose to leave Hollywood after her brush with death from a cocaine overdose! Also, two years after she made that comment, she starred along side Carl Weathers in "Action Jackson" which the black community, particularly black dudes supported her in. "Action Jackson" was her biggest accomplishment in her career so, please get your story straight and for God sakequit let go of a comment that the woman unwittingly made damn near 30 yrs. ago! I have great respect for Ms. Denise Matthews. She's a very good person who is very strong in her Christian faith so, nonsense hearsay like this is just unwarranted.

"@LateNightCable, I agree 100%!"
then you should change your name from "amanda m dunn" to "amanda is dumb"! LOL

@LateNightCable, I agree 100%!

@LateNightCable
I'm just old enough to remember reading that quote from Vanity in Jet. The bottom line is not that she could say what she wanted to about her own father, but why in the hell would she even say something like that about him in the first placecomparing your own father to a gorilla because he's black,AND you're black on top of that? Hell,yeah, that's racistyou said you weren't black, so of course you're not understanding why.
"Try being less black, and more human." WTF???!!???
Another clueless non-black person saying something stupid and ignorant when it comes to race AGAIN. I'm a black human being-one does NOT mutually exclude the otherI don't have to be "less" of ANY damn thing,let alone black. "Agree with her sentiment"? What damn sentiment are you talking abouththat anybody black looks like a gorilla just because they're black? FYI, there's an old racist stereotype of black people being referred to "gorillas" because we were considered less than human when we were slavesthat's where that comes from,and THAT'S why black folks (me included) found it offensive as hellespecially coming from a BLACK woman who should have known better. I basically think her career faltered, not just because she was a drug addict, but because she was never all that talented to begin withto be fair, I've only seen two of her films (Action Jackson & The Last Dragon) but frankly, she was never all that great a singer either (even though I have to admit, I still love "Nasty Girls" to this dayit was a huge hit back in the early '80's.) I did read years later that she'd left show biz, gotten saved, and found a new life as a ministerthat was cool to find out.

@DivingIntheBlue, women DO get the raw deal. Don't you read the news? It's not so bad here, compared to other countries but it is still traveling a bit backwards in the USA.
http://www.cgonzales.net
&
http://www.drxcreatures.com

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@LateNightCable
"Excuses and victim complex"? a part of black culture? You obviously don't know a damn thing about black culture (or black people for that matter) except for what negative stereotypes you're seen on TV about us (which were mainly created by white people,BTW.) WTF does that have to do with Vanity and why the hell do white people ALWAYS bring that s*** up even when it dosen't have a damn thing to do with the topic at hand, and especially when the topic is about a black person? Seriously, I'm tired of you armchair racist know-it-alls purporting to tell black people what's always wrong with us, as if we don't already know about it and have been dealing with our problems ourselves. Just shut the hell up and get out of here with that bulls***. Do you really believe that all 38 million black people in this country just sit around having what you call an "excuse and victim complex"? Hell, no, we beep don't. We work,pay taxes, go to school, retire, laugh,play, go vote, and eat just like anybody else on the planet.
Quit getting your stereotypes about black people from TV/hip-hop videos and go out and talk to a REAL black person about our culture. Nothing complex about what happened to Vanityby the time she turned Christian, she didn't have much of a career left, and had probably burned some bridges due to her drug usethat more than likely happened right there. Also, quit making judgemental silly comments on other peoples' cultures that you don't know ANYTHING about. Thank you.

I'm not black, but I am aware of the excuses and victim complex that are a part of black culture. You don't have to be one of them to see that. I don't know why you seem to think her career ended because of a comment on Joan Rivers. Perhaps you were offended for the brothas and would think that's what did it, but it's likely more complex than that. After she turned Christian, she wanted nothing to do with her former career. There are many singers who've had shorter careers, and never said anything controversial. What about the other members of Vanity 6, you ever hear about them anymore?
I can see you would take money for anything, and can't understand why somebody else wouldn't. But she obviously felt strongly enough about it that she doesn't. We'll leave it at that.
" Cristal, Beluga, Wolfgang Puck It's a f#@k house."

'Have you seen what she's like today, since becoming a born again Christian in the mid-90's? She's married to Jesus and is a complete evangelical. In that context, it's not so hard to understand why she would refuse even money. No doubt what she would consider dirty money at that."
Royalties from record sales are not "dirty money;" they're legitimate funds, and no one is going to refuse money issued to them. For her say that she voluntarily refused money is just total bulls@t. And the reason why she's an5b4 evangelical is because there isn't anything else for her to do. Since her entertainment career folded, there isn't anywhere else she can go.
Yes, she did sign with A%M and Griffin records. But it was after Motown let her go, largely because of her sagging record sales. However, her lackluster record sales continued with the two other record labelslargely attributed to her lack of appeal after making her crass remark and she was subsequently dropped.
And yes she did date both Prince and a former Oakland Raider, but she obviously became involved with Prince to get a recording deal and married the football player AFTER she hit rock bottom and could no longer financially support herself. I guess brothers ceased being "gorillas" when she found herself in a situation where she had to depend on someone to make it.
"you're assumption is correct, I'm not black."
And therein most likely explains a lot, and why it's probably something you don't understand. But we will let it rest at that. Peace out.

Have you seen what she's like today, since becoming a born again Christian in the mid-90's? She's married to Jesus and is a complete evangelical. In that context, it's not so hard to understand why she would refuse even money. No doubt what she would consider dirty money at that.
I think of her as a multi-faceted all around media celebrity back then. If she wasn't making headlines - and money for singing, it was for something else, like a movie or something. As for the repercussions of her comment, she signed with A&M and then Geffen Records around that time, and was working with top people on a third album two years after those comments were made. It was unreleased, but she also made music for the soundtrack of Action Jackson, which she also starred in. Those aren't the signs of someone who blew her career with a simple comment. Blew cocaine maybe, but not her career. She associated with plenty of black people professionally and personally - Prince is black, and she was even briefly married to an LA Raider in 1995, a black guy. They appeared on the cover of Jet magazine ab68s I recall. I know this, and you're assumption is correct, I'm not black.
" Cristal, Beluga, Wolfgang Puck It's a f#@k house."

I find it hard to believe that Vanityor any other human being"refuses" royalties, which in effect is money.
I'll take your word regarding the '84 Donnie Simpson interview, but it's irrelevant any way because it's before the fact. Sorry for assuming that you were female, but I assume that you're not black. This would most likely explain why it may be hard for you to understand why black people would have become enraged after someone impliedon national TV no lessthat all black men are gorillas.
Yes, I agree that success in the music industry for most is short term, but believe me, attitudes toward Vanity changed dramatically after she made this crass, poor taste remark, which resulted in a considerably decrease in both airplay of her music and the sale of her records.
All I'm doing here is spouting facts.
"Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results"
-Albert Einstein

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Her career as Vanity ended on her own terms. Due to her drug problems and ultimately her personal decision to step away from it. Nowadays, she wants nothing to do with all that.
Yeah, right. Vanity just voluntarily walked away from a lucrative career in the entertainment industry and forfeit the opportunity to make a ton of money, as if she had somewhere else better to go. And you really believe that, huh? If you do, then that alone speaks volumes.
She had an interview with Donnie Simpson (a black guy) on Video Soul in 1984. When referencing her African gorilla fur coat said "can't get more black that that. As far as the "racist comment" on Joan Rivers - or more accurately, her honest observations, she can say what she wants about her own father. And hey, if the shoe fits Many people in society would agree with her sentiment.
Sweetheart I doubt it very seriously if most people, particularly black folks, would concur that al111cl black people are gorillas, which was actually her point. I don't know anything about this '84 Donnie Simpson interview, but I can tell you in no uncertain terms that Donnie, like many people at the time, was incensed over the racist remark Vanity made on the Joan Rivers Show, two years later in '86.
But you're obviously a Vanity fan girl, so blinded by hero worship that you don't want to accept facts in your blind devotion to her. Therefore, I'm not going to waste my time.
You got enemies? Good. It indicates that you stood up for something, sometime in your life
Sir Winston Churchill

Wrong, it's not as though black guys alone were keeping her career afloat. Her career as Vanity ended on her own terms. Due to her drug problems and ultimately her personal decision to step away from it. Nowadays, she wants nothing to do with all that.
She had an interview with Donnie Simpson (a black guy) on Video Soul in 1984. When referencing her African gorilla fur coat said "can't get more black that that." As far as the "racist comment" on Joan Rivers - or more accurately, her honest observations, she can say what she wants about her own father. And hey, if the shoe fits Many people in society would agree with her sentiment. And if black guys want to take a comment like that personally, well then that's their own racial hangup, not anyone else's. Try being less black, and more human.
" Cristal, Beluga, Wolfgang Puck It's a f#@k house."

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I'm too busy watching her boobs over and over on tales from the crypt. Fearnet episode 306

Glad you did. I wasnt alive back then. but that was racist self hating remark for her to say.

Excellent retort, and that is the kind of civil discourse that SHOULD occur on message boards, iMDB and elsewhere.
btw, although I went to a so-called inner city HS that was about 80% black, and thus very much into the R&B scene of that timeat the end of the day, I'm a white guy and thus will have to defer to you on this topic.
On a side note: I know of Donnie Simpson well, as he used to host Video Soul on BET and I watched it often thru the 80's.

At the risk of being redundant, I will say again that several of Vanity songs made the top 30 of both the R&B and Dance charts before '86. But the records released after that, such as "Animals" and "Undress," did not chart at all. (Please refer to the chart at the bottomhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanity_%28performer%29)
Yes, Vanity never had any major hits on Billboard, but she was quite successful on the R&B and Dance charts prior to '86. It just so happens that for the most part these two charts reflect the African-American audience. True, success for most recording artists is short-term, but the abrupt decline of sales of her records speaks volumes to the change in attitude toward her.
I know about this situation largely from personal experience, because I was in my mid 20s when she made this racist statement. The16d0 following day after she appeared on the Joan River's show, everyone I personally knew was in uproar about the remark, and Donnie Simpson (a DJ of an R&B radio station in Wash D.C. where I reside) expressed his displeasure about the remark over the air, and vowed that he would never play her records ever again. Other DJs of black radio stations across the U.S. followed suit, and this coupled with the resentment of many of the black population, myself included, caused the sales of her records to decline considerably. And it really shouldn't take a rocket scientist to understand why.
But as Jules also said in "Pulp Fiction," "This is just where you and I differ my friend." So with that said, I'll say that we'll have to just agree to disagree and let it go at that. Peace out.

You make valid pointsnow as Jules said, allow me to retort.
There were literally dozens (if not hundreds) of successful music acts from the early 80's, whose popularity "crashed" as the decade progressed. In fact, this is the "circle of life" in the music business.
So to directly tie Vanity's waning popularity to her insensitive and racially-perceived comment on a Joan Rivers talk show, again just doesn't make a compelling case to me. She was a beautiful woman who was a mediocre singer, who caught a star when she met Prince at the AMA's in the very early 80's, and parlayed that into her 15 minutes.
It is also well-known that Vanity was a serious crack addict in the mid-80's, so much so that she is now on dialysis for trashing her kidneys.
To be frank, her record sales were never "huge", so to say they declined considerably
after
her comments, is just unsupportable. Neither of her pre-comment solo albums that you referenced, got higher than #14 on the R&B charts, which as I'm sure you know at that time was a significantly smaller sub-set as far as sales went, compared to the overall Billboard sales charts.
b68

"To say that her career fizzled because she alienated her male black base of fan support, is just speculation and no basis in fact."

Here are some facts:
From the early 80s to the mid 80s, Vanity, along with her group (Vanity 6), had major hits on the R&B charts. Tunes such as "Nasty Girl" (w/ Vanity 6)topped the R&B charts, and her solo records, such as "Pretty Mess" and "Under the Influence" became major R&B hits as well during the mid 80s.
However, after she made her crass remark in late '86, her record sales declined considerably, and Motown dropped her from the label. She subsequently signed with A&M Records and then with Geffen Records, but met minimal success with both labels. Shortly thereafter, during the late 80s, her recording career came to a demise.
Yes, Vanity did have some work in Hollywood after '86, because her exotic beauty enabled her to continue to get roles. But even then her career was soon relegated to B-movies and TV guest appearances, and I doubt it very seriously if her decision to leave "Hollyweird" was voluntary.
But her musical career crashed because of her ignorant remark and deservedly so. But don't take my word for it. Do your own research.