Vivica A. Fox vs. Vanessa L. Williams
Battle Of The Scandal-Ridden Second-Tier Leading Ladies Of Colour

Examining the (occasionally intersecting) careers of Vanessa L. Williams and Vivica A. Fox is interesting if you know anything about their lives offscreen. Like, the fact that Williams first became famous as a disgraced Miss America, deposed when it was discovered that, in her pre-pageant days, she had simulated lesbian sex acts in a nude photo shoot. (Less well known is that this is also how Edith Wharton first became famous.) The fact of Williams's naughty nudies makes her retroactively seem a tiny bit intriguing, even if her film roles lately are all straight out of the town of Blandsville in the state of Boringsippi. And yet, when she managed to triumph over her scandalous past to launch the fairly successful recording career that provided the springboard for her acting career, Williams seemed set on choosing roles without any edge -- like the salsa dancer in the forgotten chick flick Dance With Me; the strong (read: one-dimensional) black woman in Shaft (and others); or pop-cultural relics in static period pieces like Bye Bye Birdie. The closest Williams ever gets to edge is when she plays tight-assed bitches, as in A Diva's Christmas Carol or Soul Food (co-starring Fox as her younger sister). Williams has apparently worked very hard to erase every trace of the nude-lesbian-posing supahfreak she used to be, which is fine, except she's gone so far in the opposite direction and made herself a dull prude instead -- at least onscreen.

Fox hasn't any single scandal in her private life to rival Williams's, but there are many wee ones that add up to kind of an unsavory offscreen persona. For one thing, she's gradually turning into the African-American Sally Kirkland, showing up for any gala premiere that will have her. For another, she seems to keep getting bigger and bigger breast implants. And finally, she dated 50 Cent and, now that they've broken up, can't help herself from going on talk shows and bitching about what mean songs he's been writing about her in the wake of their failed relationship, like, lady? He's 50 Cent. The man has a bullet hole. In his face. Did you really, really expect him to maintain a chivalrous silence about you after you ditched him? Girl, please. But Fox, unlike Williams, doesn't shy away from roles that have some similarities to her real-life identity. Which is our euphemistic way of saying that if you need someone to play a ghetto diva, Fox will do it. Just how low are her standards? Two words: Booty Call. Two more: Juwanna Mann. Two more? Okay: Kill Bill. (We kid! But not really. That movie is not good.)

But even as Fox busts out her chickenhead accent and airbrushed nail tips in every other role, the ones she alternates those with suggest her deep yearning to perceived as a classy, smart (and not just street-smart) woman, like her fancy physician on City of Angels, or her educator in Teaching Mrs. Tingle. It's like she's torn between trashy parts that are easy for her to play, given her actual circumstances, and parts that speak to the woman she aspires to embody in her real life. A woman named Vanessa L. Williams, who has a squeaky-clean image and gets to endorse toothpaste and Radio Shack and not get excoriated in X-rated hip-hop. Keep working on it, Vivica! You'll get there!

Advantage: She totally won't. The advantage here goes to the woman who never fucked Fiddy.