Sara Ramirez WILL play a black woman!(because she can)

"I don't understand this reference to wearing "Light Egyptian." Most Egyptians are Caucasian and those who are not usually have Sudanese or some other parentage. I personally am originally from Egypt and these type of references are offensive to us."

Please don't take offense. It's not meant as a racial slur. Most people are aware that most Egyptians are Caucasians. The remarks were meant more as bitter and flippant jokes about the racial hysteria of the U.S. in the 1950's than a reflection on Egyptian racial categories.

Lena Horn was a very light-skinned African American actress with what many considered to be Caucasoid features. She was being considered for the role of Julie, the mixed-race woman who could pass for white, in the 1950's remake of Showboat. But there was no makeup at the studios that matched her skin tone. So Max Factor was brought in to develop makeup just for her. And he named it "light Eqyptian."

He wasn't implying that Egyptains weren't Caucasian. He was implying that Lena looked white, but somehow, not European white.

But she never got to use it because the studio was terrified of a known to be black actress playing scenes as the love interest of a white actor. So Lena lost the role. And as she joked in her one woman show, they spread her makeup all over Ava Gardner.

Updated On: 7/5/05 at 09:39 PM

Interesting. I'd see it though. But I'm also a fan.

I'm still a little weirded out by the idea, but congrats to her for the job.

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She is Mexican. Of course, some Mexicans have more European (Spanish conqueror) blood in their ancestry, and some have more indigenous (native "Indian") blood. The result is a wide range of skin tones - just as most African-Americans have some caucasian ancestry mixed in over the centuries.

Or God, Mickey Rooney a Chinese man. Or Alfred Molina a Russian Jew.