Oprah Throws Hawaiian Birthday Bash To Celebrate Ava DuVernay’s 50th

etcanada.com:

Oprah Winfrey sure knows how to throw a party. Oprah Daily is reporting on the epic three-day birthday bash that Winfrey threw for Ava DuVernay, celebrating the Emmy-winning director’s 50th birthday at Winfrey’s home in Maui.

In attendance were Oprah’s BFF Gayle King, Niecy Nash and Colman Domingo. As Winfrey recalled, her friendship with DuVernay began a decade ago while she was working on Lee Daniels’ “The Butler” back in 2012, when her co-star David Oyelowo recommended she check out an indie film called “Middle of Nowhere”, which DuVernay had directed. READ MORE: Oprah Winfrey And Ava DuVernay Talk Inclusion — Not ‘Diversity’ — In ‘Hollywood Reporter’ Cover Story “I then Googled who directed the movie because I had not heard of Ava DuVernay at the time,” she said. “There was this beautiful photograph of this lovely Black woman who was wearing glasses just like me.

I thought, I want to be her friend.” Winfrey was so impressed by DuVernay’s film that she threw a Mother’s Day brunch at her home, just “so I could invite her.” Then, when the two began working together on the film “Selma,” Winfrey added, she and DuVernay “actually became friends.” Speaking to all her loved ones, DuVernay said, “I could lose it, so I’m not going to.

I’m going to keep it all together and say I ask God, ‘What did I do to deserve this gathering of people coming from all the places that you did to be with me on these days?