While Dakota Fanning failed to capitalize last night on her honorary blackness, Seven Pounds co-stars Will Smith and Rosario Dawson indeed felt the sweet if transitory kiss of NAACP Image Awards validation.

The dubious potboiler earned the stars both of the night's top acting prizes, while The Secret Life of Bees outmaneuvered that, Cadillac Records, The Family That Preys and Miracle at St. Anna for the evening's Best Picture award. Bees's Jennifer Hudson won Supporting Actress in addition to three music prizes, including Best Album and New Artist. Event co-host Tyler Perry failed miserably on the film side while claiming four TV awards for his House of Payne series.

Shocker of the night: Jenny Lumet — snubbed by both the WGA and Oscars for the multiethnic utopian melodrama of Rachel Getting Married — won the evening's Best Original Screenplay hardware. Though consider adding an asterisk: It didn't have to face the formidable, jellyfish-aided denouement of Seven Pounds. Recount!