Dear Gossips,

This is my favourite photo of the week: it’s Lucy Liu with her ma, Cecilia. It was taken on Wednesday, a big day. Because that was the day Lucy became just the second Asian-American woman to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 

During her remarks, Lucy paid tribute to Anna May Wong, the first woman with a star on the Walk of Fame. Anna May received her star in 1960, when the Walk of Fame first launched. So it’s taken ALMOST 60 YEARS for another Asian woman to join her there. 

“When I moved to Los Angeles, I actually lived on Vine Street, so it’s thrilling to have Anna May Wong, who is the first Asian-American actress, as my neighbor. A hundred years ago, she was a pioneer while enduring racism, marginalization and exclusion,” Liu said in her speech. “We could actually start our own little Chinatown right here.”

Anna May Wong was not cast in the film adaptation of Pearl S Buck’s The Good Earth, released in 1937. It’s the story of a Chinese family but MGM didn’t want Chinese people playing the Chinese characters. So Luise Rainer ended up with the role of O-Lan instead…and f-cking won an Oscar for it. If you can bear to watch, here’s the trailer for the film.

Lucy is developing an anthology series called Unsung Heroes– each season will focus on female trailblazers, pioneers in their time. Guess who the first season is about? Anna May Wong. As Lucy said at the Walk of Fame on Wednesday: 

“Sometimes people talk about my mainstream successes as groundbreaking for an Asian, but Asians have been making movies for a long time. They just weren’t making them here because we weren’t yet invited to the table. I was lucky that trailblazers, like Anna May Wong and Bruce Lee, came before me. If my body of work somehow helped bridge the gap between stereotypical roles, first given to Anna May, and mainstream success today, I am thrilled to have been part of that process.”

Wednesday also happened to be the first day of Asian Pacific Heritage Month in the United States and Asian Heritage Month in Canada.
  
Here is Lucy Liu, with her girls Drew, Cameron D, and Demi. I love that they all showed up for her. Next year marks the 20th anniversary of Charlie’s Angels 2000. The new Charlie’s Angels, directed by Elizabeth Banks, comes out this fall. Do you think… there will be a few cameos? 

Have a great weekend!

Yours in gossip,

Lainey