C.J.: Actress/activist brings HIV/AIDS awareness play here

Sheryl Lee Ralph, Broadway's original "Dreamgirl," will preach the all-caps truth tonight at Shiloh Temple Church about the AIDS crisis.

Ralph brings "Sometimes I Cry," her one-woman play about the loves, lives and losses of women living with HIV/AIDS to the Broadway Avenue church at 7 p.m.

"Right now, sex is turning us out. I NEED TO KNOW why BLACK and BROWN folks CONTINUE to be major league infected by this disease," said Ralph, who shouted all the words. "I need to know why folks between 15 and 24, who have been hearing about AIDS their WHOLE LIFE, since kindergarten, why are they taking a major hit with this disease now? WHY? What message are they not GETTING? That's why I created 'Sometime I Cry.' We need a new slant on this disease."

The piece will have that Sheryl Lee Ralph energy because, "I wrote it, I direct it, I produce it, I act it. I do it all. I'm Tyler Perryesque," she said with a throaty laugh.

A longer interview with Ralph is available at startribune.com/cj.

A real Sweet 16 Do not expect the obnoxiousness that has become de rigueur on "My Super Sweet 16," when Sheryl Lee Ralph's son, Etienne, is featured on the MTV show.

"He wrote them and suggested that MTV change the way they portray teenagers in America because right about now we were all looking stupid," Ralph told me. "They asked how he would do his party different and he said, I would party with a purpose. He did a whole AIDS benefit and adopted a young orphan in South Africa."

Good works are rare on that show, a horrifying platform for rich kids behaving atrociously, or as Sally Kohn wrote on commondreams.org, "Have you seen this show? It's like a great big warning sign about the level that inequality has reached in America today."

She laughed at Josh dig By not deviating from her script, Scarlett Johansson skirted the Josh Hartnett question beautifully.

Johansson, who was Esquire mag's "2006 Sexist Woman Alive," and Kal Penn of the Fox series "House," dropped by Sweeney's in St. Paul on Monday to glitz up a Minnesota Young Progressive Majority caucus training session.

As you may know, Johansson dated Hartnett, the Twin Cities heartthrob who is a movie star if not quite an actor.

You could tell it was almost over with him when Johansson called him a "boy" in the October Allure magazine. Before that, though, there were those amusing paparazzi shots of Johansson, in all her bikini-clad pulchritude, atop Hartnett's shoulders as they romped on a Jamaican holiday. After they broke up, NYC gossips suggested that Hartnett required two women, in a bathroom stall at Mama's Bar, to assuage his broken heart. Sniff, sniff.

At any rate, as Johansson awaited her introduction at Sweeney's by Rep. John Lesch, DFL-St. Paul, I tapped her on the shoulder and asked if she'd been here before. "I have been to Minnesota before," she said.

Completing their celebrity surrogate duties for presidential hopeful Barack Obama, Johansson and Penn exited the back of Sweeney's, where they took photos with fans. As Johansson walked by, I told Lesch that I got in my trick Hartnett question, which got an answer I assumed meant, while she was dating Hartnett. "I have been to Minnesota before," Johansson said again.

But not with Hartnett? I asked, seeking clarification.

"I have been to Minnesota before," Johansson said with a small laugh this time.

Then I told Johansson that I've opined how unfortunate it is that her acting ability didn't rub off on Hartnett.

"Oh ...," she said, catching her laughter about the barb. That was clearly a comment for which she didn't have a scripted response, thus the instant urge to retract her laugh.

Business and pleasure Word is that Minnesota sisters Kim and Linda Renk were seated in the front row of the Badgley Mischka show at Fashion Week in NYC.

They are too humble to tout their success, but the founders of Sequin, a jewelry company that designs for Badgley Mischka, have built quite a business in a highly competitive industry. The Renks seemed to know everybody at the fashion show, considering all of the hugging, kissing and greeting going on.

C.J. is at 612.332.TIPS or cj@startribune.com. E-mailers, please state a subject -- "Hello" doesn't count. Attachments are not opened, so don't even try. More of her attitude can be seen on Fox 9 Thursday mornings.