Hello everybody, welcome. Will Smith and his former co-star from “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” Janet Hubert, finally make up after years of beefing, and the actress and singer Naturi Naughton gets shaded by her former group member, Keeley Williams. I’m going to get into both of these entertainment topics, starting with Will Smith and Janet Hubert’s reunion.
Now, “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” is having a 30th-anniversary special on HBO Max, and most of the actors and actresses on the show are going to be at the reunion, including Janet Hubert, who played the original character of Aunt Vivian. Now, this comes as a surprise because Janet Hubert bumped heads with the lead actor on the show, Will Smith, and they have been feuding for years. So, to see them reunite is really a pleasant surprise.
Just to give you all a backstory on Janet and Will’s history: Back in the day, Janet and Will did bump heads behind the scenes because their personalities did not jell well. Janet was very no-nonsense when it came to her role because she was serious about her craft, and she didn’t play around a lot. However, Will Smith was more playful and carefree when they weren’t filming, and this did create some type of weird energy between Will and Janet, and they did end up bumping heads a few times.
Another issue was the money issue. Janet felt like the whole cast should have gotten a pay increase because of the success of the show. However, Janet said that Will didn’t really advocate for them, and that was a problem. Another blow to Janet was when the executives tried to cut her scene shorter and also decrease her salary. Janet always felt like Will Smith had an influence on that decision, and that was really the source of their contention. Later on, Janet was kicked off the show and replaced with another actress named Daphne Reed, who some people refer to as the “light-skinned Aunt Viv.” And this was kind of an issue as well because most fans of the show loved when Janet was on there. They loved the dark-skinned Aunt Viv because she had more of a presence on the show, but she was replaced by an actress who looked nothing like her, and the network made it very obvious too. They made it obvious that Janet was replaceable, and because Janet was labeled as “difficult,” it affected her standing in Hollywood.
Janet did blame Will for being part of the reason why she was cut from the show. So, for years, Janet had a gripe with Will, and even four years ago when Will’s wife Jada was trying to boycott the Oscars for their lack of diversity, Janet actually slammed both Jada and Will and basically called them out for affecting Black actors like her.
So, Will and Janet had a rocky history, but it is great to see Will and Janet sit down together after almost 30 years of feuding. Will Smith posted about this on his Instagram page, and it got a lot of fans excited. So, I think it’s great to see Will and Janet set their differences aside. Life’s too short to be feuding forever, so this is great. And I also think this is great publicity for Will Smith and Janet Hubert, and it’s also great publicity for the reunion special, and I’m definitely going to tune in and watch the special.
Naturi and Kiely.
Now onto the next topic I want to talk about, another feud that seems to never end, and it’s the feud between Naturi Naughton and her former group member Keeley Williams. Now, I’ve talked about this several times on my channel before, and quite honestly, I’m tired. I’m tired of talking about this, but I’ll give you all a very, very brief backstory.
Naturi and Keeley, along with Adrienne Bailon Houghton, were in a girl group together called 3LW back in the day, this was in the early 2000s, but the group came to a bitter end when Naturi exposed the group. She said that Keeley attacked her with a hot plate of KFC food. Not only that, she accused the managers of the group, who happened to be Keeley’s relatives, of colorism. She implied that they were colorists and they mistreated her, and in her lawsuit, it even alleged that they tried to pimp Naturi out. They wanted her to date a rapper from the Saint Lunatics to seal a deal to go on tour with them, and Naturi refused to do it, and this allegedly upset the managers.
Naturi did end up leaving the group after being mistreated by them, and since then, she’s had a successful acting career. She starred on the hit show “Power,” and she’s now currently on the show “Power Book II: Ghost,” and she’s also trying to get back into music again. She just promoted her upcoming album on People.com, and she did briefly talk about her history with 3LW in her interview with People.com.
And I didn’t see anything wrong with what she said at all. She was just recalling her time in 3LW, and she has talked about this story before. 3LW is always going to be a part of her story because this is how she got into the entertainment industry, and she’s doing music again. So, obviously, when she does interviews, people are going to bring up the time when she was in 3LW, and naturally, she’s going to talk about it because she has every right to. This is her story.
However, her former group member Keeley has a problem with her talking about her breakup with 3LW. Keeley responded to Naturi’s recent interview with People and posted a meme on Instagram saying, “I can’t believe you’re still bitter.” And in her caption, she said, “I said what I said.” And someone said, “Everyone deals with their traumas differently. You can’t bully someone out of theirs.” And Keeley said, “But telling the same story over and over about a rumor every time you have something coming out is cathartic, no?”
Keeley also shaded Naturi by posting an old video that Naturi did when she went solo. She recorded a song called “Haterade,” which was directed to all her haters like Keeley. And Keeley, being as petty as she wanna be, posted this on Instagram and said, “Where was Team Tasha when this gem was dropped? See, she already addressed her pain years ago. You weren’t paying attention because she didn’t have a hit show. But you see how nice I am? I showed you something new. So go support your girl’s music. It’s a bop, am I right?”
Now, I know good and well Keeley is not trying to throw shade when she released that tragic song. Spectacular, the thick-flit spectacular, the set was spectacular. That song is terrible. So she definitely tried it. And when The Shade Room reposted it, somebody under the comments said, “Girl, go sit the duck down, fam.” And Naturi responded and said, “Hahaha, hilarious.” And for those who don’t get it, they’re making fun of Keeley’s lisp because Keeley used to sing with a lisp.
My Thoughts.
But this whole feud is just as tired as the feud between Will and Janet. It’s so tired, and I don’t understand why Keeley feels the need to respond every time Naturi mentions 3LW. Naturi didn’t even say anything all that bad when she did her interview with People. She just recalled her time in 3LW, and of course, the media ran with the headline about her getting kicked out. But she also talked about the good times she had in the group as well, and honestly, I don’t see anything wrong with her talking about 3LW because this is a part of her story.
So when interviewers bring this up, she’s going to speak on it, and I think she has every right to because right now, Naturi is trying to do music again, and for the longest time, it’s been difficult for her to get back into the music industry because a lot of people don’t know that she was blackballed after leaving 3LW. So this is why her split from 3LW is always going to be an important part of her story because she had to overcome a lot to get to where she is today.
Actually, when I was in 3LW, I feel like they tried to blackball me in the industry then because I wanted to get back in the record business. And when I was, you know, pushed out of that group, I was kind of put in this box where nobody could sign me, nobody could touch me, you know, the producers and the managers that I worked with in 3LW definitely tried to blackball me. That’s actually exactly what I felt. So I’ve never been blackballed in Hollywood as an actress because I recreated myself, but in the record business, coming out of 3LW, it took a long time to really reshape and remold myself because I was, you know, the girl who was in 3LW or left the group or got kicked out of the group and all the drama that was around that. I felt like some of that did try to blackball me as far as being in the record business, getting a deal, continuing with my music. But I knew that when people try to blackball you and it’s not based in truth, it can’t really live and they can’t really survive.
I know that’s right, and I’m glad that Naturi overcame what she went through in 3LW because it was a tough time for her, and she was only a teenager around that time. And this is something that could have crippled her, but she didn’t allow it to stop her. She continued to pursue her dreams, and she was able to overcome all the obstacles that were in her way. And I do think it is an inspiring story.