I first stumbled across Ain't It Cool News a few years ago when I was researching a couple of U.K. university admissions tests — the BMAT and the LNAT. Unfortunately, I had my acronyms wrong. So instead of finding information about the BioMedical Admissions Test, I learned about the Butt-Numb-a-Thon, an annual 24-hour film festival/birthday party for Ain't It Cool's Harry Knowles. Since then, I've been a casual reader of Ain't It Cool News — a movie-geek site maintained mostly by and for male movie-geeks.

The site is a great source of movie news, rumors and gossip, and I usually find something interesting when I check it out every week or so. Today, I stumbled across the unexpected — an interview with Loretta Devine.

Loretta Devine is not a typical interview subject for a fanboy site. In fact, the interviewer, Capone, opens with this acknowledgment:

“Now before you start freaking out on me, I'm well aware that Loretta Devine might seem like a strange choice for an interview subject on this site, but quite frankly I don't care. I love this woman to death, and I'm not afraid to throw you guys a curve ball every once and a while. There is something about Devine's presence in a film or TV show that just makes me feel good about life. She's a solid acting talent, she can sing like an angel, and just about one of the sweetest people you could ever meet.”

And I agree with Capone. (Although I don't actually know if she's sweet in person. But I'll bet she is.)

Loretta Devine is one of those actresses you may or may not know by name, but you've definitely seen her somewhere. And probably a whole lot of somewheres. She's rarely the lead, but she has a prolific film, TV and stage résumé. Probably her best known role is Glo in the movie Waiting to Exhale. … continue reading