Vanity Fair's Hollywood issue: Whiter than ever?

My old pal, producer Larry Gordon, who grew up in Belzoni, Miss., knows how much I love everything about the South, so he regularly sends me copies of his hometown newspaper, the Belzoni Banner. The paper reveals how, in Mississippi, the more things change, the more things stay the same. Mississippi schools were forced to integrate years ago, but as the local paper makes oh so clear in its photo spreads of high school graduation and homecoming queen ceremonies, in Mississippi, integration simply means that African Americans are allowed to attend the public schools while many of the white children go to private academies.

And guess what? It's not all that different in Hollywood, where there are oh so few black executives, agents, managers, producers and filmmakers. It's especially true of the movie business celebrated in Vanity Fair's 2010 Hollywood issue, which just arrived on my doorstep this week. The magazine has nine lovely actresses on the cover foldout, including Kristen Stewart, Abbie Cornish and Carey Mulligan. Want to take a wild guess as to how many of them are African American?

Inside the magazine, you can find the traditional Annie Leibovitz glamor photos of the Hollywood elite. And guess what? The people in the photos are all white, except for one photo of the three leading lights from "Precious": director Lee Daniels and stars Mo'Nique and Gabourey Sidibe. They represent the only black faces in a sea of white folk. It wouldn't have been so hard this year to put a little more chocolate into the magazine's vanilla photo spreads, because when it came to Oscar possibilities -- which is the rationale for Leibovitz's photos -- there were films like "The Blind Side" and "Invictus" that could have lent a little more color to the proceedings.

But instead, Vanity Fair simply went with the usual suspects. It's a pretty safe bet that most of the people in the photo spreads -- Meryl Streep, Jim Cameron, Julianne Moore, Quentin Tarantino -- will all be spotlighted in the pages of the magazine someday soon. But judging from the history of Hollywood hiring practices involving black actresses, Mo'Nique and Sidibe had better enjoy their moment in the sun. The odds of seeing them again in Vanity Fair are probably somewhere between slim and none.  

Comments

[LeRoy Woodson Jr.]

It is even worse than you think. When was the last time a 100% African American actress (which excludes Halle Berry and Thandie Newton) who weighed less than 150 pounds was celebrated as a potential A-list star in Hollywood? Hattie McDaniel continues to serve as the original template for what Hollywood finds acceptable for African American actresses—corpulent, boisterous the Queen Latifah/Gabourey Sidibe generation of these stars have assumed the mantle. It is very painful.

[Ayes Diyef]

"The odds of seeing them again in Vanity Fair are probably somewhere between slim and none." You kind of summed up the reason in your last line. If either of them were slim or attractive they would definitely be on the cover. I don't think it was a racist cover. They were just going for the best looking hot young actresses. They should have included Zoe Saldana though. What heavy white actresses have they featured on the cover lately?

[Sadly Predictable]

This is called manufacturing a story when one doesn't exist by playing the tired race card. Lame.

[Johnny]

This is last week's news, but whatev. Why focus on the dearth of blacks only? There are legit up and coming ingenues like Freida Pinto who could use some shine too. When people of color (other than white) focus only on themselves, it's short-sighted.

[Supercat]

Instead of complaning all the time why don't black people take the first step and put a Chinese actress on the cover of Ebony magazine? You change more hearts by setting a good example rather than nagging all the time.

[Gmo]

So much for diversity....

[javi]

ummm....Supercat...so the fact that african-americans had to create their own magazine to highlight black actors/actresses doesn't mean anything to you?
it's a black magazine....what would putting a chinese person on the cover accomplish....and it's obvious that you have probably never picked up and issue of Ebony....because their covers have been pretty diverse over the years........
once again....black folk had to create their own magazine so that they would have a venue to read about people like them....maybe if Vanity Fair had more black people within it's pages....a magazine like Ebony would never have been created.....ummmmm....just a thought Supercat.....

[Carol]

Now the LAT, if it really wants to focus on The Company Town, needs to do an investigative report, expose, something more than 200 words, about nepotism in Hollywood. This is what keeps it largely white, three generations now of nepotism.

There is also a dearth of women in high positions. Hollywood needs to be pressed, by journalists, about why the men in power refuse to let women into the ranks.

[lisa davis]

Does anyone really care what a magazine cover says about Hollywood?

[JD]

Patrick, thanks for calling out those right wing racists at Vanity Fair. I always suspected Graydon Cater was in the pocket of the Republicans!