'For Colored Girls' a big winner at Image Awards

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — “For Colored Girls” was a big winner at the NAACP Image Awards, taking the best picture, director and supporting-actress prizes.

Based on the award-winning play “for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf,” the film earned honors for director Tyler Perry and supporting actress Kimberly Elise on Friday night.

One of Perry’s TV shows, “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne,” also won outstanding comedy series, while David Mann, the star of Perry’s other TV show, “Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns,” won best actor in a comedy series. Vanessa Williams won the TV comedy actress prize for “Desperate Housewives.”

Halle Berry won best actress in a motion picture for “Frankie & Alice” — and was surprised to have Prince hand her the award — while the movie itself won for outstanding independent picture. Denzel Washington won the movie actor prize for “The Book of Eli.”

On the music side, winners included Usher (outstanding male artist), Mary J. Blige (outstanding female artist), Alicia Keys (outstanding music video for “Un-thinkable (I’m Ready)”) and Fantasia (outstanding song for “Bittersweet”).

Among the book winners, Terry McMillan’s “Getting to Happy” was named the outstanding fictional literary work, while Michelle Alexander won the top non-fiction prize for “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.” Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice earned the award for outstanding literary work for youth or teens with “Condoleezza Rice: A Memoir of My Extraordinary, Ordinary Family and Me.”

Presented by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a leading civil rights group, the Image Awards celebrates outstanding achievements by people of color in film, television, music and literature, as well as individuals or groups who promote social justice.

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Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.