Awarding wining actress S. (Sweet) Epatha Merkerson was on The Wendy Williams Show today. She said her unusual name was given to her by her father who said it was the name of the grade school teacher who was influential in keeping him in school, while her mother said it’s the name of his old girlfriend.
At the 2006 Emmys she had an embarrassing moment trying to find the acceptance speech she had written and put in her cleavage. She was having hot flashes and had put the note in her bra, she went to get the note, but it had moved and wasn’t there which is what looked weird on stage during prior to her commencing with her acceptance speech. She said when she took off the dress; she found the note stuck to her skin.
On the note she said she thanked her divorce lawyer, “Yeah that man saved me a lot of money.” When asked how long she was married, she said, “Too long.” She is best known for her role as NYPD Lieutenant Anita Van Buren from 1993 to 2010 on the long-running NBC police procedural drama series Law & Order.
She appeared in 390 episodes of the series, more than any other cast member, which makes her the longest running African American on a prime time TV show. “We shall over come someday.” She said her character, Lieutenant Anita Van Buren wears a wig.
While discussing the audition process, she said, “When I first when to meet Dick, NBC said we’ve seen her hair natural too much.” She said she felt the character’s hair wouldn’t be a big, it would be coiffed and Dick laughed. She said she makes money from residuals.
Unbeknownst to many people, she was the mail lady on Pee Wee’s playhouse. She said she went in for an audition, and met Paul Rueben, who plays Pee-wee Herman, who looked like a 1960’s reject when she came in the room. They did the audition and got along beautifully. She said, “I got the role and from that day on we’ve been fast friends, because he can make me laugh. I love him, we are the best of friends.” She also said she was laughing so hard during the taping that she had to look at the plate instead of him to keep her composure.
Epatha who has no kids, is divorced and currently not dating, is the star of Find Our Missing on TV1. This is an innovative project because there is no national forum to get the stories out for the families of missing people of color, to jar peoples’ memories if they had seen something that connects the links to ensure the closure of so many open cases of missing minorities. It’s unfortunate, but reality is, when white children go missing, that’s when Amber Alerts and everything else works in synergy and there is a national focus to assist in their return and the crime perpetrator’s capture, but when black people go missing they stay missing…
The first show is about Monica Renee Bowie who was kidnapped on July 5 from the parking lot of the Berkshires at Lenox Park Apartments in DeKalb County, Georgia, but from toddler to adults black people go missing and their families need to know what happened to their loved ones. They are currently on the third episode. The show’s main aim is to receive tips from the public and has partnered with The Black and Missing Foundation www.blackandmissinginc.com another organization that addresses the same issue.
Watch Find Our Missing which airs Wednesday nights at 9PM on TV One or visit www.tvone.tv/shows/find-our-missing or for black and missing stories, visit www.blackandmissinginc.com/stories/
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