Vanity Fair’s White Hollywood Issue

One of this year's biggest issues includes only two black actors.

By Jamilah King Feb 02, 2011

Looks like Vanity Fair is going along with the industry lie that all that’s good in Hollywood is white. The cover of the magazine’s 2011 Hollywood Issue features fifteen actors, and only two are of color.

Anthony Mackey and Rashida Jones are the featured actors of color. Jezebel points out that it was only a year ago that the magazine printed its "Young Hollywood" issue "with a group of thin, pretty, exclusively white women on the cover."

Of course, performers of color are doing big things in Hollywood, with or without support from the industry’s biggest studios. "Being Elmo", the story of black puppeteer Kevin Clash, was a hit at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. But it’s certainly not an easy task. Observers still say that Asian Americans are still meagerly represented behind and in front of the camera. Even Oprah, the entertainment world’s most successful black mogul, is fielding criticisms that her new network is too white. And the upcoming Oscar Awards are on track to be the whitest they’ve been in a decade.

But as Jezebel points out, the industry’s running out of excuses:

There’s absolutely no doubt that the filmmakers are out there — the Urbanworld Film Festival, the Asian American International Film Festival, the New York Latino International Film Festival and the American Indian Film Festival celebrate these movies. The recession could be to blame; when money is tight, Hollywood tends to greenlight tried and true instead of fresh and original. With remakes and "safe" movies featuring known stars, a studio can be pretty sure to turn a profit. Of course, the flood of remakes and predictable flicks are what keep a lot of us from actually going to the movies.