Author: Todd Leopold

(CNN) — “Spotlight” grabbed the limelight at Sunday’s 88th Academy Awards.

“Mad Max: Fury Road” may have won more honors, leading all films with six. “The Revenant” won some major prizes, including the first Oscar for actor Leonardo DiCaprio.

But when the last award of the evening was read, it was the little film about Boston Globe investigative reporters digging into a sex abuse scandal involving Catholic priests that was left standing.

“This film gave a voice to survivors,” producer Michael Sugar said. “And this film amplifies that voice, which we hope will become a choir that will resonate all the way to the Vatican.”

It was one of just two awards “Spotlight” took home. The film also won for Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer’s original screenplay.

But until that moment, it looked like “Revenant,” about a vengeful trapper in the 1820s, was going to go all the way.

Alejandro González Iñárritu notched his second straight Oscar in the directing category; he’s the first person to pull off that feat since Joseph L. Mankiewicz in 1949-50. The film’s Emmanuel Lubezki also kept a streak going, winning his third straight Oscar for cinematography.

But the big story was DiCaprio, who finally won an Oscar with his fifth acting nomination.

After taking some time to thank Iñárritu, co-star Tom Hardy and director Martin Scorsese, among others, DiCaprio put in a plug for environmentalism.

“Climate change is real. It is happening right now; we needed to go to the tip of South America to find snow. … It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species,” he said. “We need to support leaders around the world who speak for indigenous people, for humanity, the voices who have been drowned out by the politics of greed. Do not take this planet for granted. … I do not take this night for granted. Thank you.”

Some shockers

Though most awards were expected, given the expertise of close-watching Oscar handicappers these days, the night wasn’t without its shockers.

Mark Rylance won best supporting actor for his performance as a Soviet agent in “Bridge of Spies.”

The category included Sylvester Stallone, who was widely believed to be the front-runner for his performance as Rocky Balboa in “Creed” — 39 years after he first played the role in “Rocky.”

“Writing’s on the Wall,” Sam Smith’s song from the James Bond film “Spectre,” won best song — an announcement that came not long after Lady Gaga brought the house down with a performance of her nominated song, ” ‘Til It Happens to You.”

After a streak of technical awards to “Mad Max,” “Ex Machina” won for visual effects.

Ennio Morricone, the legendary composer of such film scores as “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and “The Untouchables,” finally won an Oscar, his first in six nominations. It was for Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight.”

And, in perhaps the biggest shock of all, the show was rather brisk, lasting just over 3½ hours. That’s actually longer than some shows of recent years, including the 2011 show with James Franco and Anne Hathaway, but given the program’s propensity for pushing four hours, it’s not something to be taken for granted.

Rock comes out hard

Perhaps that was at least partly due to the host, the no-holds-barred Chris Rock.

Rock wasted no time in taking on #OscarsSoWhite and diversity issues that had been in the news since the nominations were announced in mid-January.

After the obligatory montage of the year’s movies, Rock came out and said he’d counted at least 15 black people in the video — and, just like that, he was off.

“If they nominated hosts, I wouldn’t even get this job,” he said. “You’d be watching Neil Patrick Harris right now.”

Noting the lack of black nominees through most of Oscar history, he pointed out that in the ’60s, “black people did not protest because we had real things to protest at the time. We were too busy being raped and lynched to worry about best cinematography.”

And “In Memoriam,” the yearly segment of people who had passed away in the previous year, would get an addition, Rock said.

“In the In Memoriam package, it’s just going to be black people shot by the cops on the way to the movies.”

Some of his lines earned gasps from the audience, and the New York Daily News believed he had gone too far.

But his stint appeared to have gone well overall.

Rock went back to the Magic Johnson Theaters in Compton to ask African-American moviegoers about the year’s nominated films. Almost none of the patrons had seen them.

And he even helped his daughter sell Girl Scout cookies.

Beating the bear

In the other major awards, Brie Larson won best actress for her performance in “Room,” and Alicia Vikander won best supporting actress for her work in “The Danish Girl.”

“Inside Out” won best animated feature.

In recent weeks, it appeared that “The Revenant” would top them all. The film featured gripping photography and DiCaprio’s intense performance and made a set piece of a vicious bear attack. It had won some major prizes, including the Directors Guild prize for Iñárritu, and the Motion Picture Academy rarely splits honors between director and picture.

But “Spotlight,” which had been quietly collecting honors of its own, came through on deadline.

The 88th Academy Awards aired from Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre.

(CNN) — Natalie Cole, the Grammy-winning singer who had hits with such songs as “This Will Be” and “Our Love” and recorded “Unforgettable … With Love,” a best-selling album of songs made famous by her late father, Nat King Cole, died Thursday evening.

She was 65.

Cole’s death was confirmed by publicist Maureen O’Connor.

Notables were quick to express their condolences.

“#NatalieCole, sister beloved & of substance and sound. May her soul rest in peace,” tweeted the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Born in 1950, Cole grew up among musical royalty. Her father was one of the most accomplished singers and jazz musicians of the postwar era, and her mother, Maria Hawkins Cole, was a singer for Duke Ellington. Their house, in Los Angeles’ upscale Hancock Park neighborhood, was a regular spot for her parents’ colleagues.

“I remember meeting Peggy Lee, Danny Thomas, Lena Horne, Dorothy Dandridge, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and so many others at parties,” she told The Wall Street Journal in 2014.

Tony Bennett, who also knew many of the legends of that era, expressed his sadness on Instagram on Friday.

“I am deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Natalie Cole, as I have cherished the long friendship I had with her, her father Nat, and the family over the years,” he wrote.

At age 6, Cole sang with her father on a Christmas album, and she was performing by the time she was 11. Nat King Cole died in 1965, when she was 15, a loss that “crushed” her, she said.

“Dad had been everything to me,” she told the WSJ.

After college in Massachusetts, Cole embarked on her own career. In 1975, she had a massive hit with “This Will Be” from her album “Inseparable,” which showed off her tremendous pipes — she earned comparisons to Aretha Franklin — and command of a range of styles. The work won her a Grammy for best new artist.

She followed that with other hits, including “I’ve Got Love on My Mind,” “Our Love” and “Someone That I Used to Love.”

But failing sales and personal problems sidetracked Cole’s career. She had done heroin in the early ’70s, she told the Houston Chronicle, and then got hooked on cocaine. Her mother even filed for conservatorship in 1982.

A rehab stint in 1983 turned her life around, she said.

“Somehow, at some point halfway through those 30 days, I went from not wanting to be there to being afraid to leave. I was starting to get it,” she said.

Cole began a comeback in the late ’80s that was capped by 1991’s “Unforgettable … With Love,” an album that — thanks to the wonder of technology — included a duet with her father on one of his biggest hits, “Unforgettable.” (On another song, “Route 66,” she was accompanied on piano by another member of her family, her uncle Ike Cole.)

For years, she had declined to perform her father’s works in concert; now, an album of those recordings won six Grammys, including the big three: song of the year, record of the year and album of the year.

She won another Grammy for 2008’s “Still Unforgettable,” which included a variety of American standards.

In 2008, Cole started suffering from kidney problems due to hepatitis C, which she attributed to her past drug issues. Despite chemotherapy, both kidneys failed, and in 2009, she went public with a request for a kidney donation.

Even then, despite her struggles, she was a determined performer.

“I have been on dialysis in Istanbul, Milan, Indonesia, Manila, London. It’s — it’s amazing,” Cole told CNN in 2009.

She received a directed donation of a kidney from a deceased donor in May 2009.

Cole maintained her recording and performing career, most recently recording an album in Spanish, “Natalie Cole in Español.” She also appeared as a judge on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and guested on some “Real Housewives” programs.

Cole was married three times. She divorced her third husband, Kenneth Dupree, in 2004.

CNN’s Paul Vercammen and Cheri Mossburg contributed to this story.

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(CNN) — Mariah Carey finally got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame — and it was accompanied by some big news.

Among the guests paying tribute to Carey, 45, on Wednesday was “Empire” creator Lee Daniels, who said fans should look for the singer in the hit show’s second season.

“Watch her on ‘Empire,’ you guys. She’s coming on ‘Empire,’ ” Daniels told the assembled crowd, according to news reports.

However, The Hollywood Reporter said that no deal is in place for Carey, and Fox — which airs “Empire” — declined to comment.

Daniels directed Carey in “Precious” and “Lee Daniels’ The Butler.”

Along with Daniels, Carey’s guests included her twin 4-year-olds, Monroe and Moroccan. Their antics, including hugs, lap-climbing and yawning, sometimes threatened to upstage their Grammy-winning mother.

But Carey, 45, kept a smile on her face the whole time and was obviously pleased with the honor.

“Oh, my God, this is so overwhelming,” she said.

The singer is one of the best-selling musical artists of all time, with more than 200 million records sold, according to her website. Eighteen of her singles have hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart.

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Riley B. King, the legendary guitarist known as B.B. King, whose velvety voice and economical, expressive style brought blues from the margins to the mainstream, died Thursday night.

CNN Video

B.B. King reflects on his career

He was 89.

His daughter, Patty King, said he died in Las Vegas, where he announced two weeks ago that he was in home hospice care after suffering from dehydration.

King of the blues

The Mississippi native’s reign as “king of the blues” lasted more than six decades and straddled two centuries, influencing a generation of rock and blues musicians, from Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan to Sheryl Crow and John Mayer.

His life was the subject of the documentary “B.B. King: The Life of Riley” and the inspiration for the the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center, which opened in Mississippi in 2008.

King’s enduring legacy came from his refusal to slow down even after cementing his status as an American music icon.

Even with a long list of honors to his name — a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, a Presidential Medal of Freedom — he maintained a relentless touring schedule well into his 80s.

Throughout his career, King evolved with the times to incorporate contemporary trends and influences without straying from his Delta blues roots. Whether he was sharing the stage with U2 on “When Loves Comes to Town” — a scene memorialized in the 1988 concert film “Rattle and Hum” — or playing in the East Room of the White House with Buddy Guy, Mick Jagger, Jeff Beck and others, King’s single-string guitar notes trilled with an unmistakable vibrato from his hollow-bodied Gibson affectionately known as Lucille.

Slowing down

King finally started showing signs of his age last year after decades of living with Type II diabetes.

A shaky show in St. Louis prompted his reps to issue an apology for “a performance that did not match Mr. King’s usual standard of excellence.” He fell ill in October after a show at Chicago’s House of Blues due to dehydration and exhaustion, prompting a rare cancellation of the remainder of his tour.

He was hospitalized for dehydration in April in Las Vegas, a long way from his modest roots as the son of a sharecropper.

King was born on September 16, 1925, on a cotton plantation between Indianola and what is now Itta Bena, Mississippi. He sang with church choirs as a child and learned basic guitar chords from his uncle, a preacher. In his youth, he played on street corners for dimes, saying he earned more in one night singing on the corner than he did in one week working in the cotton field.

Beale Street Blues Boy

He enlisted in the Army during World War II but was released because he drove a tractor, an essential homefront occupation.

In 1947, he hitchhiked to Memphis, Tennessee, home to a thriving music scene that supported aspiring black performers. He stayed with his cousin Bukka White, one of the most celebrated blues performers of his time, who schooled King further in the art of the blues.

King took the Beale Street Blues Boy, or BB for short, as a disc jockey for radio station WDIA-AM Memphis.

He got his first big break in 1948 by performing on Sonny Boy Williamson’s radio program out of West Memphis, leading to steady engagements at the Sixteenth Avenue Grill in West Memphis and a 10-minute spot on WDIA.

As “King’s Spot” grew in popularity on WDIA, King shortened “Beale Street Blues Boy” to “Blues Boy King” and eventually B.B. King.

His ascent continued in 1949 with his first recordings, “Miss Martha King/Take a Swing with Me” and “How Do You Feel When Your Baby Packs Up and Goes/I’ve Got the Blues.” His first hit record “Three O’Clock Blues” was released in 1951 and stayed on the top of the charts for four months.

Beloved Lucille

It was during this era that King first named his beloved guitar Lucille. In the mid-1950s, King was performing at a dance in Twist, Arkansas, when a few fans became unruly and started a fire. King ran out, forgetting his guitar, and risked his life to go back and get it.

He later found out that two men fighting over a woman named Lucille knocked over a kerosene heater that started the fire. He named the guitar Lucille, “to remind myself never to do anything that foolish.”

King used various models of Gibson guitars over the years and named them each Lucille. In the 1980s, Gibson officially dropped the model number ES-355 on the guitar King used, and it became a custom-made signature model named Lucille, manufactured exclusively for the “King of the Blues.”

30 Grammy nominations

In the ’50s and ’60s, King was a peripatetic figure, idolized by musicians and R&B fans, known for putting on some of the best live shows around. By the late ’50s, he was traveling in a chauffeur-driven Cadillac accompanied by a custom Greyhound bus, called Big Red, which housed his band.

Even after his bluesier R&B became less commercial — he observed that “they (once) called guys like me rhythm and blues, so somewhere along the line, I guess I lost my rhythm” — he still maintained a following, this time among white musicians.

Eric Clapton was a fan. Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac modeled his sound on King’s. John Lennon said he “wanted to play guitar like B.B. King.”

In 1967, his changing fan base was enough to get him booked in San Francisco’s Fillmore Auditorium.

“We used to play the Fillmore all the time, but it was then about 90% black,” he told PBS. “But this time … it was long-haired white people, men and women, sitting body to body going up to the door. I told my road manager, ‘I think they booked us in the wrong place.’ “

He received a standing ovation. He returned to the Fillmore several more times.

In 1970, he won his first Grammy for his trademark song, “The Thrill is Gone.” That same year, he debuted an all-blues show at Carnegie Hall and appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

Over the years, he racked up 30 Grammy nominations and 15 wins, including two in 2000: one along with Eric Clapton for Best Traditional Blues Album for “Riding with the King” and another with Dr. John for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for “Is You Is, or Is You Ain’t (My Baby).”

His last was in February 2009 for Best Traditional Blues Album for “One Kind Favor” (2008).

CNN’s Tina Burnside contributed to this report.

(CNN) — Bobbi Kristina Brown, the daughter of Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston, has “global and irreversible brain damage,” according to her grandmother.

Though the 22-year-old is no longer in a medically induced coma, she remains unresponsive, Cissy Houston said in a statement Monday after visiting her granddaughter.

“Meeting with the doctors and understanding that she can live in this condition for a lifetime truly saddens me,” Houston said. “We can only trust in God for a miracle at this time.”

Houston’s statement matched that from a source with knowledge of Brown’s condition, who told CNN on Monday that she remained in the same neurological state she has been in for nearly three months.

She does not respond to visitors or familiar voices, and her eyes do not follow a person around the room, the source told CNN. She also has a tracheostomy in her throat, the source said.

The reports come two days after Brown’s father, Bobby Brown, said his daughter’s condition had improved.

“I can say today, Bobbi is awake. She’s watching me,” Brown told the audience at Dallas’ Verizon Theatre.

The audience cheered.

In a statement Monday, an attorney for the Brown family said that Bobbi Kristina Brown’s condition has improved but that the kind of life she will lead remains to be seen.

“Doctors have indicated that she will have a long life,” attorney Christopher Brown said. “However, Bobbi Kristina is presently embarking on a rehabilitation process, and the quality of her life will not be known for years to come.”

Bobby Brown was in an “emotional state” on stage when he made the remarks about his daughter being awake, according to the statement.

“She has made it out of ICU, opened her eyes and started a rehabilitation that will be long and hard,” said Bobby Brown’s wife, Alicia Etheredge-Brown.

Bobbi Kristina Brown was found unresponsive in a bathtub at her home in the Atlanta suburb of Roswell, Georgia, on January 31. The extent of her injuries is not known.

She was placed in a medically induced coma in early February.

That month, doctors at Emory University Hospital removed her breathing tube, allowing Brown to be ventilated through a hole in her throat.

At the time, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta said the procedure suggested that she would need to be on such support for “weeks and months to come.”

After being treated at an Atlanta-area hospital for several weeks, she was moved to a rehabilitation facility in mid-March, a source close to the family told CNN at the time.

Police have said they are treating Brown’s case as a criminal investigation.

Whitney Houston died in 2012. She was also found in a bathtub. A coroner ruled her death an accidental drowning, with heart disease and cocaine use listed as contributing factors.

CNN’s Sunny Hostin, Marylynn Ryan, Melissa Gray and Lisa Respers France contributed to this article.

CNN — The Grammys may have taken a slow, piecemeal route in issuing nominations Friday, but Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Sam Smith and U2 were very much up to speed.

Beyonce led all nominees with six Grammy nods, giving her a total of 53 for her career. That cements her place as the most-nominated female artist in history, the Recording Academy — which presents the Grammys — observed in a news release.

The last one came with album of the year, which was named Friday night on a concert special, “A Very Grammy Christmas.” Beyonce’s self-titled release of late last year made the list, along with Beck’s “Morning Phase,” Sam Smith’s “In the Lonely Hour,” Pharrell’s “Girl” and Ed Sheeran’s “X.”

Beyonce’s other nominations are for best R&B performance, best R&B song, best urban contemporary album, best surround-sound album and best music film.

Newcomer Smith equaled Beyonce with six nominations. His nominations were in the big three — album record and song of the year — as well as best new artist, best pop solo performance and best pop vocal album. “Stay with Me” was picked for both record and song of the year.

And Swift? Though her album “1989” came out too late to qualify for the Grammys, her single “Shake It Off” did well. It was nominated for song and record of the year. Swift also received a third nomination, for pop solo performance.

The other record of the year nominees are “Fancy” by Iggy Azalea featuring Charli XCX, “Chandelier” by Sia and “All About That Bass” by Meagan Trainor.

Song of the year nominations — a songwriter’s honor — went to “All About That Bass,” “Chandelier,” “Shake It Off,” “Stay with Me” and Hozier’s “Take Me to Church.”

Smith’s competition in the new artist category includes Azalea, Haim, Bastille and Brandy Clark.

The old guard, U2, wasn’t to be denied. Its album “Songs of Innocence” received a nod for best rock album, giving the band 46 nominations — a record for a group.

Even Miley Cyrus got into the act. She received her first Grammy nomination ever for her album “Bangerz,” which was nominated for best pop vocal album.

The Grammys tried something new this year. Instead of releasing all the nominations at once, the Recording Academy put them out in dribs and drabs: a handful on CBS’s “This Morning” and most of the others on Twitter, some through artist accounts.

Naturally, the idea earned some criticism.

“This just seems … odd for such a major show,” wrote the Washington Post’s Emily Yahr.

Nevertheless, the musicians have been appreciative.

“Grammy nom and my album multiply has sold 3 million worldwide as of this morning. Good start to the day, thanks for all the support and love,” tweeted Ed Sheeran, who was nominated for best pop vocal album.

The 57th annual Grammy Awards will air February 8 on CBS.

(CNN) — Celeste Ng may want to prepare for a deluge of attention from the literary set. Her debut novel, “Everything I Never Told You,” just topped Amazon’s list of the 100 best books of the year.

“We loved it,” said Amazon editorial director Sara Nelson. “This book is a gem. It’s beautifully written, it’s pitch-perfect. … It’s a bit of a sleeper, but a beautiful one.”

“Everything I Never Told You,” which was released in late June, concerns an Asian-American family in Ohio. Their star student daughter Lydia has just died, found in the bottom of a nearby lake, and the family is torn apart trying to figure out what happened.

In a rave review, The New York Times Book Review praised the book’s freshness.

“If we know this story, we haven’t seen it yet in American fiction, not until now,” wrote Alexander Chee.

There are a number of well-known authors on Amazon’s list — Stephen King’s newest, “Revival,” came in at No. 6, and David Mitchell’s long-awaited “The Bone Clocks” was No. 14 — but Nelson recognizes that singling out Ng could make her book a best-seller as well.

“It’s thrilling to see that picking a book like this can actually make a difference, that people now will know about it who did not know about it before,” Nelson said.

The selection was made by six people on Amazon’s editorial team who lobbied one another furiously but tried not to let outside forces — including reviews from major literary publications — influence their choices, Nelson said. The site picks best books monthly, so with those winners, as well as others on their radar, the group started with about 150 choices.

Nelson added that business politics are also kept away from the process. Amazon has been involved in a months-long dispute with Hachette, a major publishing firm that owns such imprints as Little, Brown and Grand Central Publishing.

“No one has said anything to me, ever, about choosing by publisher, even amidst this Hachette business,” Nelson said. “Nobody called me up and said, ‘You’re in trouble, you put Hachette’s books on this list.'”

She added that she keeps an open mind. There are a number of titles on the list, including “The Bone Clocks,” Jodi Picoult’s “Leaving Time” and Lena Dunham’s “Not That Kind of Girl,” that have earned their share of brickbats from critics. Some choices are unanimous, Nelson said, and others benefit from some strong votes.

“A lot of this job is being able to evangelize for the books that you love. I’ve had people on my team that love something that I’m so-so on, and sometimes they speak about it so passionately that it makes me go back and read the book,” she says. “And sometimes I agree with them and sometimes I still don’t agree with them.

“It’s a democracy,” she chuckles, “but I sort of guide a little bit.”

Get ready for another addition to the line of Disney heroines: Moana, an ocean adventurer.

“Moana,” a film about a teenage girl in “ancient Oceania,” according to the plot description, is scheduled to make its debut in late 2016.

Moana, who is described as a “born navigator,” sets out on a voyage to seek a mysterious island. Her primary companion is Maui, a demigod, and together they “traverse the open ocean on an action-packed voyage, encountering enormous sea creatures, breathtaking underworlds and ancient folklore.”

Ron Clements and John Musker (“The Little Mermaid,” “The Princess and the Frog”) are directing.

Disney has always been a place for princesses — a tendency that’s earned them some criticism over the years — but it’s hard to argue with the box office. Last year’s “Frozen” is the highest-grossing animated film of all time, and other Disney classics — including “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Little Mermaid” and “Cinderella” — have been cash cows for the studio, influencing both popular culture and the bottom line. (More “Frozen” is coming, too.)

“Moana” promises more of the modern version: beautiful, clever and adventurous, said Musker in a statement, according to the Los Angeles Times.

“Moana is indomitable, passionate and a dreamer with a unique connection to the ocean itself,” he said. “She’s the kind of character we all root for, and we can’t wait to introduce her to audiences.”

(CNN) — Call Shonda Rhimes an “angry black woman” if you want, but be prepared for the response.

A Twitter firestorm erupted Friday morning when New York Times writer Alessandra Stanley described Rhimes, the producer of ABC’s “Scandal,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and the new “How to Get Away with Murder,” by using the term “angry black woman” in a feature about her.

“When Shonda Rhimes writes her autobiography, it should be called ‘How to Get Away With Being an Angry Black Woman,’ ” Stanley wrote. The story later observed, “Ms. Rhimes has embraced the trite but persistent caricature of the Angry Black Woman, recast it in her own image and made it enviable.”

Immediately, the Internet reacted, led by a bemused Rhimes, who observed that she didn’t create “How to Get Away with Murder.”

“Confused why @nytimes critic doesn’t know identity of CREATOR of show she’s reviewing,” she tweeted in response to a tweet from Pete Nowalk, who did create the series. (Incidentally, Nowalk — a former “Grey’s” staffer — is a white male.)

Rhimes was just getting started.

“Apparently we can be ‘angry black women’ together, because I didn’t know I was one either! @petenowa #LearnSomethingNewEveryday,” she continued.

And, noting that Stanley had highlighted a rant from “Scandal’s” Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) as illustrative of Rhimes’ own perceived anger, she wondered why other rants by white characters don’t get the same attention.

“Final thing: (then I am gonna do some yoga): how come I am not ‘an angry black woman’ the many times Meredith (or Addison!) rants? @nytimes,” she tweeted.

“Grey’s” star Ellen Pompeo, who plays Meredith Grey on “Grey’s Anatomy,” agreed.

“Didn’t Meredith Grey (Medusa) and Christina Yang also terrify and intimidate medical students?” she tweeted.

Others also lit into the Times piece.

“Wow,” tweeted “Scandal’s” Joshua Malina. “Did I just read a @nytimes piece that reduced my brilliant, creative, compassionate, thoughtful, bada boss to an ‘angry black woman?'”

“So Shonda Rhimes is ‘angry black woman’ but Aaron Sorkin ‘delivers an opinionated speech’ and ‘forceful denunciation’,” posted Sarah Kendzior of “The Newsroom’s” writer and creator, who’s also fond of rants.

“Too many thoughts on the Shonda-Rhimes-Is-An-Angry-Black-Woman debacle. Mostly: REALLY, @nytimes?!” added Rachel Simon.

Stanley wondered what all the fuss was about.

“The whole point of the piece — once you read past the first 140 characters — is to praise Shonda Rhimes for pushing back so successfully on a tiresome but insidious stereotype,” she said in a statement.

CNN’s Doug Ganley contributed to this report.