National screenwriter to speak at film showing

She lost her job over network television's first interracial kiss. In 1977, nurse Valerie Grant, an African-American character on the soap opera "Days of Our Lives," kissed Richard, a white character, causing a deluge of criticism from angry viewers. \nTina Andrews, the actress who played Valerie, not only lost her role on the series, but had ice water dumped over her by an upset fan in a restaurant, she said in an interview with DeNeen L. Brown in The Washington Post in February.\nThe Black Film Center/Archive and the department of Afro-American studies has brought Andrews to campus for several special events. Monday night, Andrews was the guest of a reception by the Sisters of the Yam at the African American Cultural Center. Tonight, Andrews will be present for a screening of "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" and a question and answer session after the film. She has also been lecturing in several classes in the department.\nEven after her experience on "Days of Our Lives," Andrews did not turn her back on interracial relationships. She decided to research one of the older -- and more high-profile -- interracial couples, President Thomas Jefferson and his slave, Sally Hemings. Her 15 years of research, including interviewing Hemings' descendants, resulted in the critically acclaimed miniseries "Sally Hemings: An American Scandal," which aired earlier this year on CBS.\n"Based as much as she could on history, the rest on literary license, Andrews' movie is sure to add to the Jefferson controversy as it raises fundamental questions: How can you own a sibling? How can you own a lover? How can you love someone who owns you?" wrote Brown of the miniseries.\nAndrews wrote the screenplay for the Warner Brothers film "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?," which tells the story of the three wives of teen idol Frankie Lymon and their court battle over his estate.\n"The studio picked (the idea) up in 24 hours and said, 'Yes, let's make this movie immediately,'" Andrews said in a 1998 interview with Jet.\nShe has appeared on television in "Roots" and "The Brady Bunch," during her early career as an actress, and was the writer and co-executive producer for the recent CBS miniseries "Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis."\n"(Andrews) is an interesting new voice in screenwriting," said Audrey T. McCluskey, associate professor of Afro-American studies and the director of the Black Film Center/Archive. "She is very much up and coming."\nMcCluskey said, in a time when many screenwriters are men, it is a breakthrough that Andrews was asked to work on the Jackie Onassis miniseries. She is also working on a project about Coretta Scott King, wife of the late activist Martin Luther King Jr.\nAndrews' screenplay for "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" is part of the curriculum for a course on black cinema, McCluskey said. Andrews will be speaking in the class, as well as McCluskey's course, Black Women in The Diaspora, and in a course on early black writing.\n"Why Do Fools Fall in Love" will be shown at 7 p.m. in Ballantine Hall Room 109. The event is free, and a question and answer session will follow the film.