Skip to main content

Vanessa Williams on pageants, Hollywood and Mom


Cover of book by Helen Williams, mother of actress Vanessa Williams, and photo of Helen Williams


     Actress Vanessa Williams has made her mother proud.

     No, not the time mom walked in on the teen having sex. Or found pot in her bedroom. Or when Vanessa resigned as Miss America: Penthouse published nude photos of her, the first African-American woman to win the pageant.

     One could argue Helen Williams suffered more than most moms during her daughter's rebellious youth.

     She stood by her, though, and comes through about her own and her daughter's mistakes in their memoir, "You Have No Idea."

     Vanessa Williams, 49 and the mother of four, calls it the "quintessential mother-daughter relationship" book.

     Her mom says, "You can't go back and relive your life." So you survive setbacks and move on, they both say.

     The pair will be in St. Louis on Thursday to discuss their memories, a real-life example of what happens when a gal does win a tiara, tarnishes it, then goes on to fame anyway. They talked by phone from Los Angeles last week, where Vanessa Williams had just attended a wrap party for the final episode of her TV show, "Desperate Housewives."

     Compared with the shenanigans on that prime-time soap opera, Vanessa Williams' suburban childhood in Millwood, N.Y., was peaceful: Both parents were teachers and never fought in front of their kids. Vanessa sang, played the French horn and piano, and acted in school plays. Her brother Chris also played instruments and signed up for sports. Few African-Americans lived nearby, but Vanessa had friends and boyfriends, white and black.

     Her mom knew she had talent and, as a way to earn college money, urged her to enter a pageant. The inexperienced Vanessa won Miss Greater Syracuse in 1983, then went on to win Miss New York. Her stunning performance of "Happy Days Are Here Again" at that year's Miss America contest won her the talent division. (She took the swimsuit contest, too.)

     But she wasn't a "pageant product," she says.

     "I was a kid who had smoked pot, I was a kid who had an abortion," Williams says. "I was a kid who had lived life."

     Four years after resigning toward the end of her 1984 reign, Williams released her first album. Since then, she's appeared in movies (including "Soul Food" and "Hannah Montana") and on stage ("Into the Woods," "Kiss of the Spider Woman"). For the past six years, she has starred on the ABC shows "Ugly Betty" and "Desperate Housewives." She just shot a pilot for a supernatural drama, "666 Park Avenue," is recording a new CD and promoting "You Have No Idea."

     Asked whether there is something else she'd like to do, she says "originate a character on Broadway" and make a movie musical.

     Williams says TV audiences know little of her past, and she wanted to explain the adversity she faced (including a case of molestation and those embarrassing photos taken by predatory photographers), and how she kept working. There is probably no former Miss America who has been as successful — or as notorious.

     Most of her audience knows little about her "multifaceted career," Williams says.

     "Some people are controlled by fear," she says. "Others are risk-takers."

     Everything in the book was written to debunk assumptions and 'show how I made decisions in my life," she says.

     Along the way she had dinner with presidents, sang at the Grammys and was nominated for awards in diverse fields. She worked through pregnancies and breakups and raised her children in the town where she grew up, far from Hollywood.

     Vanessa Williams may be used to the rigors of celebrity promotion, but the book tour has left Helen Williams tired.

     "I want a nap," she says. "I know now why I was an educator."

     In the memoir, Vanessa Williams remembers Helen Williams as rarely displaying affection, and her mom divulges some of her own troubled and abusive childhood. She worried when her daughter received death threats during her reign as Miss America and when she married (and divorced) two husbands.

     Vanessa Williams says her children aren't entirely protected from racism. While Williams was staying near Nashville in 2008 to shoot the Hannah Montana movie, children at her hotel pool whispered and got out every time Williams' youngest daughter, Sasha, got in.

     "She said to me, 'Mom, it felt like that scene in "Hairspray." They didn't want to be in the pool with me.'"

     Helen Williams praises her daughter as a very caring mother, and Vanessa credits her mom for supporting her dreams to be an actor.

     As a grandmother, Helen Williams gets to spend less time on discipline and more time having fun. She recommends that mothers "be firm, but fair. And there is light at the end of the tunnel."

SOURCE: STLToday.com, 5/5/2012

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Miss USA Vice-President Max Sebrechts Accused Of Sexual Harassment

IMAGE COURTESY: MISS ACADEMY  Max Sebrechts, the husband of Crystle Stewart, President of Miss USA organization (and formerly Miss USA 2008), has been accused of sexual improprieties by several Miss USA 2021 contestants, according to a YouTube video “Miss USA Scandal?” by Natly Denise, a “truther and pop-culture enthusiast.” You can watch the entire video here: https://youtu.be/8xM2jXL6MXw On her video, Natly displays a screenshot  of an anonymous email sent to the affiliates of IMG/Endeavor including to Paula Shugart, president of the Miss Universe Organization (MUO). The email was cc’d to Crystle and Michael Hannah (franchise director of Miss USA). The author of the email claims that MUO has been sent substantial evidence of Sebrechts’ sexual predatory behavior and Shugart has known about it for a while but didn’t say anything (obviously to cover it up and to protect Crystle). Natly also displays screenshots of direct messages sent to her by former Miss USA contestants (the names hav

Trans-Identified Male Crowned “Miss Greater Derry 2023,” Takes Home Women’s Scholarship

A local beauty pageant is attracting ample mockery on social media after a trans-identified male was crowned the winner of the competition and awarded a scholarship intended for young women. Brían Nguyen , 19, was awarded the crown in the Miss Greater Derry pageant, held on November 8 in the Greater Derry area of New Hampshire. The competition is a locally-run event under the national Miss America series of pageants. In addition to winning the crown, Nguyen will receive the  Miss Greater Derry Scholarship , a financial award established to support young women. Nguyen, who is male, is a freshman at Nashua Community College majoring in Business Management. After his win, Nguyen wrote on  Facebook : “ I am ecstatic to be the FIRST transgender woman to be a Miss America local titleholder, and I hope to make everyone proud and become the first to walk the Miss America stage. I am Brían Nguyen, your Miss Greater Derry 2023 .” Nguyen had previously announced on Instagram that he has intention

First Colombian Miss Universe Luz Marina Zuluaga dies suddenly at age 77

THE FIRST COLOMBIAN to be crowned Miss Universe, a title she earned in 1958, died on Wednesday in the central city of Manizales, local media reported. She was 77. LUZ MARINA ZULUAGA  passed away at the apartment where she lived in the city's Palermo neighborhood, according to Caracol Radio, which cited family members as its source. Blu Radio said Zuluaga apparently fainted while in the company of friends at her apartment and that paramedics were unable to revive her. "It's very bad news ... that truly saddens us as well. She was not only an extraordinary (beauty) queen but also a great lady," the director of the Colombian National Beauty Pageant, Raimundo Angulo, told Blu Radio. A native of the city of Pereira, she finished first runner-up in the 1957 national contest. But after the winner was forced to resign her title because she had gotten married, Zuluaga went on to represent the Andean nation the next year at the 7th Miss Universe pageant in L