Dear Gossips,

Shonda Rhimes is underrated. People fall on their knees for the Matt Weiners and the Vince Gilligans but Shonda Rhimes? Duana posted about Shonda not too long ago in a piece called How To Get Away With An Empire – click here for a refresher. I posted about her amazing Dartmouth commencement speech in the summer – click here for a refresher.

THIS WOMAN.

But for all This Woman has done, she still doesn’t get the kind of love reserved for the heavy hitters, the men behind shows like Mad Men and Breaking Bad. So the New York Times tried to give her some. By praising her for reclaiming the Angry Black Woman.

WTF?

People have been talking about Alessandra Stanley’s article all weekend. It was criticised in Vulture, in Salon, pretty much everywhere for being lazy, offensive, patronising…YES. All those things.

But what’s most disturbing to me is the idea that Stanley would have filed this piece with a lot of pride. She wasn’t cackling over her laptop when she was typing this out, the evil racist knowingly spewing out her ignorant bullsh-t. No. Not at all. That would be the devil you know.

What’s scary is that she thought she was doing Shonda Rhimes a favour. She thought her words were complimentary. She actually believed that she was gifting Shonda Rhimes with her approval. It’s the racism version of a wolf in sheep's clothing, in many ways much more dangerous than a man in a white pointy-hooded robe with the eyes cut out. At least with that guy you can identify him right away. At least with that guy you can arm yourself in advance. It’s not as easy to defend yourself against a stereotype that’s shoved in your face by the New York Times, the paper of record. How the f-ck did this get past the editorial board at the New York Times? And since it did, what does it say about the braintrust over at the New York Times???

Here are Viola Davis, Kerry Washington, and Ellen Pompeo this weekend promoting ABC’s Thursday night lineup. As previously mentioned – click here for a refresher -- I’ve been waiting all summer for How To Get Away With Murder. Only 3 more sleeps!

Yours in gossip,

Lainey