So What Are the Cosby Kids Up to Today?

In the 1980s, Thursday nights belonged to "The Cosby Show". Heathcliff and Claire Huxtable and their crew of kids were the talk of the entertainment world. I saw that little Rudy (Keshia Knight Pulliam) was developing a reality show and wondered what was going on in their lives. And this is what the Cosby Kids are up to today.

Keshia Knight Pulliam (Rudy): She was the youngest for the majority of the time. She's back in the public eye on a couple of fronts. She had a role in Tyler Perry's latest flick and she is starring in a new reality show, "Keshia and Kaseem." The show is airing on Oxygen and will follow the lives of the actress and her live-in boyfriend, entrepreneur Kaseem Penn.

Raven-Symoné (Olivia): She was the new cute kid who the producers brought in when Rudy reached her awkward tween years. Of all the kids, she has had the biggest post-Cosby career, starring in numerous films and her own TV show: "That's So Raven."

Lisa Bonet (Denise): She starred in the Cosby Show spin-off “A Different World.” She may be best known for her role opposite Robert DeNiro in the controversial movie "Angel Heart." Bonet also made news when she and husband, Jason Momoa, named their child Nakoa-Wolf Manakauapo Namakaeha Momoa.

Malcolm-Jamal Warner (Theo): He is both an actor and a singer. The Emmy-nominee has starred in his own sitcom, "Malcolm and Eddie," the Showtime hit "Dexter," and the poorly received 2008 romantic comedy, "Fool's Gold". He's also released a few CDs; including "The Miles Long Mixtape."

Tempestt Bledsoe (Vanessa): She had the unappreciated task of playing the annoying middle child. Still, she went on to host her own short-lived talk show, and also appeared on the third season of "Celebrity Fit Club." She is also developing a reality show with her boyfriend called "Househusbands." What’s up with all this watching people’s daily unreality, who watches this stuff anyway?

Sabrina LeBeauf (Sondra): The eldest Cosby kid was probably the least popular. She does however, continue to act and has her own interior design company. And in trivia alert: she beat out Whitney Houston for the role of Sondra.

Angela Bassett Stars in Tyler Perry’s Meet The Browns

Angela Bassett stars as Brenda, a single mother living in inner city Chicago who has been struggling for years to make ends meet and keep her three kids off the street. But when she is laid off with no warning, she starts losing hope for the first time - until a letter arrives announcing the death of a father she's never met. Desperate for any kind of help, Brenda takes her family to Georgia for the funeral. But nothing could have prepared her for the Browns, her father's fun-loving, tactless small town Southern family. Brenda struggles to get to know the family she never knew existed...and finds a brand new romance that just might change her life. The story is adapted by Tyler Perry from his stage play "Meet the Browns." Perry will portray Madea and Uncle Joe in a small cameo role. Other cast members include: Rick Fox, Lance Gross, David Mann, Tamela J. Mann, Sofia Vergara, Jenifer Lewis, Margaret Avery, Irma P. Hall and Frankie Faison.

Angela Bassett has built her career around playing some of the most celebrated real-life, pioneering Black women of the twentieth century. She was Oscar-nominated and won both the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture-Comedy/Musical and the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Motion Picture for her star-making performance as Tina Turner/Anna Mae Bullock in What's Love Got to Do with It. She won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for her work as the late-Dr. Betty Shabazz (widow of the slain civil rights pioneer Malcolm X) in Spike Lee's Malcolm X. She would later play Dr. Shabazz in a cameo appearance in Mario Van Peebles' Panther. She delivered the only three-dimensional performance in the 1992 ABC miniseries about The Jackson Five and their family, The Jacksons: An American Dream. In 1999, she played Janet Williams--the principal of the school where Roberta Guaspari taught in Music of the Heart. She was also in the running to play Dorothy Dandridge, until Halle Berry beat her to the punch with HBO's Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. Her first and only Emmy nomination to date was for her lead role in The Rosa Parks Story. Angela Bassett turned down the role of Leticia Musgrove in Monster's Ball because she did not want to perform nude.

In 1974 she began to consider acting as a career choice after an 11th-grade class trip to Washington, DC during which she saw actor James Earl Jones perform in a Kennedy Center production of the play "Of Mice and Men". With the assistance of an academic scholarship, she received a B.A. degree in African-American studies from Yale University in 1980. In 1983, she earned a Master of Fine Arts Degree from the Yale School of Drama. It was at Yale that Angela met her husband, Courtney B. Vance, an '86 graduate of the Drama school. Soon after graduating from Yale, she appeared in her first film Doubletake in 1985. However she is more recognized for her role in the F/X TV series in 1986. I first saw her in the TV series "Tour of Duty" as Lieutenant Camilla Patterson. But it was not until 1990 that a spate of TV roles brought her notice. Her breakthrough role wasn’t until 1993, when she earned widespread recognition for her portrayal of Tina Turner in What’s Love Got to Do With It. Angela Bassett had never seen Tina Turner perform before taking the role. Captivating, gifted, and sensational, Angela Bassett's presence has been felt in theaters, stages, and television screens throughout the world. A native of New York City, New York, Bassett & her sister D'nette grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida with their mother Betty. As a single mother & social worker, Betty stressed the importance of education for her children. Angela and her husband, Courtney B. Vance, became the parents of twins, Bronwyn Golden and Slater Josiah, on January 27, 2006 in California through a surrogate. Other memorial roles played by Angela Bassett include: Akeelah and the Bee, Ruby's Bucket of Blood, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Waiting to Exhale, and Boyz n the Hood.

NAACP Image Awards

Actor Hill Harper, winner of the NAACP Image Award for his role on CSI: NY, expressed my sentiments exactly (The Nubian Epistle focus: presenting positive images of Black people without bringing others down) when he stated, It's called an Image Award and I believe they're not just looking at acting, but they're looking at the image you portray and how you live your life. I'm very proud to win it, because I try to lift up and break stereotypes about the African-American male, and I'm proud of my work. It's not just about acting."

Other winners included Actor Denzel Washington, who won for his roll in the movie The Great Debaters, which won for best movie. He said, "I'm happy for everybody up here," who also directed the film. "I'm very grateful for this award and particularly just happy that some of these young people got recognized. Denzel sported a shaved head, for his upcoming movie, The Taking of Pelham 123. The Great Debaters also produced other winners including younger actors Jurnee Smollett and Denzel Whitaker. Alicia Keys won four awards in the music category -- album, song, music video and female artist.

Senator Barack Obama didn't earn any trophies at this year's NAACP Image Awards, but he was a winner even though his name was not mentioned. Many stars such as actor/director Tyler Perry just dropped campaign catch phases such as “Yes we can.” Perry, whose House of Payne TV series picked up three awards and is known for playing multiple characters, joked, "I'm voting three times: one as myself, one as Madea and one as Joe." House of Payne's additional wins were for its stars LaVan Davis and Lance Gross.

Hill Harper, who is a member of Senator Obama campaign finance committee, revealed, "Barack Obama and I have known each other for 20 years. We went to Harvard Law School together." The timing of the writers strike was perfect for Harper to hit the campaign trail in support of Obama; he's due back on the set the day after the March 4 primaries. Other winners were less partial to a specific candidate, but did point to politics:

Stevie Wonder, inducted into the NAACP Hall of Fame, used his time onstage to praise the 99-year-old organization, saying "it's through this organization that we now have two (presidential) candidates, one a female and the other an African-American. … I say let them both win so that we can have a strong, united people of the United States. I'm very, very excited about the possibility." Ugly Betty's Vanessa Williams, supporting actress in a comedy series winner, said: "This is such an exciting time in our lives. We can all feel the change happening and we all have the power. Vote." And Regina Taylor, who won an acting award for her role on CBS' The Unit, said the trophy was a great honor, partly because "when we're looking at the news and seeing a woman running for president and a Black man running for president, you have to look back and see how we got here, and the NAACP is the organization that was in the center of it."

Special honors went to veteran Oscar-nominated actress Ruby Dee and to singer Aretha Franklin. Aretha said she had attended the NAACP ceremony since the early days, "when the sets were falling down and cue cards were being written in the wings just before the artists walked on stage," she said. "This is the icing on the cake for me."

Obama-related works actually did win awards: a TVOne interview and a biography by David Mendell.