I do not know exactly when it happened, but Keke Palmer became certainly one of African Americans’ favorite people. Maybe it was while playing lie detector segment for Vanity Fair she, like lots of us, couldn’t recognize Dick Cheney in a photograph and gave us certainly one of the best sound bites of all time. Or possibly that is once we all realized how human she was as she handled a family situation that was made public. The possibilities are countless because I feel like Keke Palmer has been in my life without end, despite the fact that I’m 14 years older than her. I used to be actually years old today after I discovered that as of this writing she is just 31 – and I even have never felt older.

Recently beloved artist he went on, “Club Shay Shay” to speak about her life, profession and every little thing else under the sun, likely to promote her just-released book “Master of Me: The Secret to Controlling Your Narrative.” During a conversation about dating (which Keke was mainly flexing, roughly), she mentioned that she became a millionaire at the age of 12 and that got me considering: what was she doing at age 12 that made her a millionaire? The second query, in fact, is: what did I do at the age of 12 that made me a millionaire? The answer definitely involved riding the bike out of the garage and seeing if I could land it without breaking the bike or any bones.

NO. At age 12, I used to be introducing my parents to latest and revolutionary ways to take care of disappointment.

Anyway, my curiosity about how she managed to turn out to be a millionaire at the age of 12 (which would have been 2005) made me check her IMDB credits and yes, it coincided along with her breakout role as Akeelah Anderson within the film , “Akeelah and the Bee”, a movie I still love to this present day. I watch it every time it’s on and have even decided to dedicate an episode to the podcast “Dear Culture” for the movie. I actually attribute to Keke Palmer that I do know the word “prestidigitation” (though I do not know what it means), but most significantly, I do know the word “pulchritude”, which comes from Latin and means “Beautiful” which means beautiful.

I am unable to say this strongly enough: if it weren’t for this movie, I might never have learned this word, and if Keke Palmer made a million dollars for me to learn this word, she was underpaid. The variety of times I threw the word “pulchritude” at people, it should be illegal. I do not even use the word “beautiful” anymore; I only refer to my wife as “pulchritudinous”. Because she is. And there’s just one person I can thank for that: Akeelah Anderson. And Akeelah Anderson is Keke Palmer.

Thank you Keke Palmer for helping me expand my horizons and vocabulary. And for ensuring I all the time and without end know how to spell “pulchritude.”

There was a point in my life when I was a supporter of Christina Milian. I bought all of her albums when it was time to go to the shop and spend physical money on such endeavors. I was convinced it was her song from 2004 “Whatever You Want” featuring Joe Budden was a hit that catapulted her to the highest, if only the label would really get behind it. I had many conversations with friends during which I confessed my love for her as a person and my appreciation for her art. To know me in the start was to know the way I handled Christina Milian. I’m sure I’ve watched her movie “Love Don’t Cost” more times than Christian and Nick Cannon ever did.

So you’ll be able to imagine my delight (possibly not, but sway with me) when I noticed that Christina Milian had entered the Hallmark movie market on Netflix as a leading lady, starting with the 2019 movies “Falling Love for an Inn” where her heroine wins an inn in New Zealand and finds love. Then it was 2021 “Escape to Love” where her character is a pop star who has to sing at her ex’s resort wedding… and finds love. Listen, because I love love and Christina Milian, I am committed to this era of her life.

I was lucky when I turned on Netflix a few weeks ago and watched a movie called “Meet Me Next Christmas” starring Christina Milian and Devale Ellis and something like Kofi Siriboe.

I love Christmas movies. First of all, I love a good romantic comedy, and most Christmas movies are romantic comedies. I especially love black romantic comedies because, you recognize, I’m black and they sometimes star people I know since the Black Hollywood actor base is not very large. Plus, Christmas movies are frequently so sweet; they are frequently family friendly, and with love in the air, hope and the promise of joy are never far-off. Christmas movies are stuffed with good things, and I like good things. I principally watch all of the Christmas movies that come out on all of the streaming services, like “Meet Me Next Christmas.”

“Meet Me Next Christmas” is the story of Layla (Milian) who tries to go home to her boyfriend for Christmas, but meets James (Siriboe) in an airport lounge. they hit and he fired. They conform to meet on the Pentatonix concert NEXT Christmas in the event that they are each single. Plus, Pentatonix… is hilarious in this movie. Anyway, a 12 months later, single Layla is trying to seek out tickets to Pentatonix in hopes of meeting James, who will bring their legendary meeting full circle and begin essentially the most epic love story of all time. But to get a ticket to the sold-out Christmas show at Rockefeller Center, he has to make use of the concierge. Teddy (Ellis) enters. Shenanigans ensue.

I won’t spoil the movie because, again, I like good things and I guess you do too. But let me inform you. In this movie there may be comedy, there may be love and there may be the promise of affection. It has essentially the most random antics, Poughkeepsie and, most significantly, Christina Milian, who is actually great in these kinds of movies. I cannot say this enough: I would watch a marathon of Christina Milian in Hallmark-adjacent movies. She just has that something that makes romantic comedies work.

Devale Ellis can also be great in this movie. Let me inform you, Devale could have a serious profession ahead of him in this romantic comedy. He seems down-to-earth and likable enough to play the male romantic role. And it’s funny. I cannot pretend to know a ton about his film and TV profession; I watched “Zatima” and a few episodes of “Sistas”, but let’s just say the fabric didn’t quite let it…cook. I’ve seen him here and there, but I hope he gets more probabilities to play a number of the leads. I’m not saying his role as Teddy in this movie was an Oscar-worthy performance, but you recognize what, it worked and I thought he must have added a little more bite to the most important character’s energy.

Look, most Christmas movies are a lot of crap, and “Meet Me Next Christmas” is just the best amount of fluff with equal parts ballyhoo. You know where the movie goes. There are not any surprises in the ending. But I don’t think Christmas movies needs to be as twisty as “The Sixth Sense”; Christmas movies are comfort food that could be played in the foreground or background while the family sits and drinks hot chocolate (or wine for the adults in the room). This movie is great for that. Maybe I’m biased because I expressed my honest attitude towards all the pieces related to Christina Milian. But I liked this movie enough to observe it multiple times, not because I missed things the primary time, but since it was charming enough and had enough “shudder, why not” moments that I now got into it to my annual canon of holiday viewing. If you watch this, it’d do the identical for you. It has all the pieces I need for Christmas.

And do you recognize what meaning?

We’ll all… get together next Christmas to observe it together… again? NO?

I’ll see you.