The magazine's "New Hollywood" issue comes under fire for something critics say is glaringly absent

One thing magazines love to do is call dibs on who will be the new "It" celebrities in the year to come. Sometimes they pick stars whose careers are destined to take off, occasionally they make incredible calls with near-nobodies who later become A-listers, and usually the majority of their picks fade into oblivion. While we'd like to think celeb bible Vanity Fair puts a great deal of thought and planning into its annual "New Hollywood" issue, this year the editors really limited their scope when it came to choosing the next big stars. (Or perhaps they overemphasized the "Fair"? ) Every woman on its new cover is extremely thin and very, very white. Unless Vanity Fair considers one redhead to be diversity, we feel the need to cry foul.

The cover of the March issue features Abbie Cornish, Kristen Stewart, Carey Mulligan, Amanda Seyfried, Rebecca Hall, Mia Wasikowska, Emma Stone, Evan Rachel Wood, and Anna Kendrick. Many, if not all of these women have good reason to grace the Vanity Fair cover, and to be a part of what they have dubbed "the fresh faces of 2010." Evan Rachel Wood has garnered critical acclaim since her Golden Globe-nominated performance in 2003's "Thirteen" as well as loads of media attention from her highly publicized romance with rocker Marilyn Manson. Kristen Stewart was catapulted to fame by the mega-successful "Twilight" franchise and will star as Joan Jett in the upcoming film, "The Runaways," while Amanda Seyfried's career was put in motion after her role in 2008's "Mamma Mia!" But WAIT: Vanity Fair already had both Stewart and Seyfried on an August 2008 cover touting "Hollywood's New Wave." And this was also a white-girl-only cover. Were there no promising young actors of color who could have been featured in either issue?


Though it's true, Young Hollywood is predominantly Caucasian, we can think of a slew of non-white, non-rail thin actors who made a splash this year (Gabourey Sidibe from "Precious" anyone?). In the accompanying article, Vanity Fair writer Evgenia Peretz calls out the young cover stars by their best attributes: "downy-soft cheeks," "button nose," "patrician looks and celebrated pedigree," "dewy, wide-eyed loveliness," "Ivory-soap-girl features." Roles for black, Asian, and Latin actors are scarce in Hollywood, but surely Sidibe, Zoe Saldana of "Avatar" and "Star Trek," and Freida Pinto of "Slumdog Millionaire" are having their moment. Vanity Fair may have been looking for the most promising batch of talent for their issue, but they should have been looking for a diverse group of women as well.

We reached out to Vanity Fair for comment, but as of publishing time they did not respond.
[Vanity Fair][Huff Post][Jezebel]
Related: vanity fair, magazines, hollywood, diversity, actors

banks said:

yes but WTF!

SSDD

They're also skinny as fuck. Eat you bitches.

A cast of vampires

death by ----->

Now I know why you fuck guys..lol

i had a mini argument about something very similar today with a friend - who i now look at differently

she considered my displeasure of seeing next to NO images in magazines of women I could relate to as racist, or closed minded.

Now, she didn't say it to my face, she jokingly asked if I was racist, and then later took to her facebook (the mature way to go) to declare that she wished that more people were "open minded".

I've given up discussing it any further. It is what it is.

sammij said:

Well yeah because you know whites are the most oppressed people on the planet!

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

i'm sayin

i kinda laughed, and she seemed annoyed... i left it alone, but it really left me sour afterwards

WAAAA!!!


so fucking what.

Cuddles said:

Precious should be layin up across 4 of those girls laps.

When this is something Vanity Fair has done regularly in the past, does it count as a controversy?

I agree though, Gabourey and Zoe and others should've been in the picture too.

yeah, well there's not one fucking penis in that picture either and i'm pissed about that, so black people can get in line behind me!

why is this a controversy? since when are people of color considered to be in the Vanity Fair Demographic? Now the "no penis" part um yeah I can see that because I knew a lot of guys, albeit all gay, who read vanity fair like it was a bible. But even when I read it I knew I wasn't in the demographic so I wasn't looking for "me"

sammij said:

I am glad you realized how dumb this person was before it was too late. I really don't read magazines all that much, the ones that I glance at because my daughter has them, look to be pretty diverse, but I did get her a subscription to Essence recently because I got tired of seeing teen vogue in my house and felt the need for a little more balance.

butterfli25 said:

the #1 demographic for Vanity Fair is 40 year old queens. if they want to stay in business in these troubled times for the print industry, they should have had a bunch of shirtless 20 year old boys on the cover for the "new hollywood" issue with 60 year old divas from film and music (you know, Cher, Sophia Loren, etc.) standing with one high heel on their chest as if they'd just conquered them.

come on, it's simple!

The comments below the article are sad

http://shine.yahoo.com/ch...1#comments

johnart said:

That's what I'm sayin'.

ummm... zoe saldana?

errant said:

and hopefully, asians, mexicans, samoans, indians and etc. can also get in line.

johnart said:

You know???

All these Jack Vettriano looking heffas up in here, they need a touch of Bottero up in the mix to shake things up!

I wonder how much Vanity paid Huffington to print this "scandal"?

The writers/editors are either totally racist, or, thought like this:

I haven't seen Precious yet, but based on reviews, I can understand Gabby is a good actress. However, does anyone believe she is going to have any future movie roles? She's been seriously typecast, and except for Tyler Perry, I don't see anyone casting her in another lead role unless her appearance changes. And this has nothing to do with her being Black.

Zoe Saldana is not as young as the ones in the photo, so maybe that's why she was exempt.

And, they most likely forgot about the girl from Slumdog Millionaire.

So, besides them, what other "minority" actresses the same age as these women featured are "New Hollywood?" The only one I can think of is Zoe Kravitz, but since her film(s) hasn't been released yet, I guess they weren't aware of her.

^ Im going to be honest and taken to task for it, but lets be real fat doesnt play in hollywood. plain n simple.

maki horikita japanese age 17
selena gomez mexican age 17

jurnee smollett african american (bi-racial) age 23


all have played rolls in american movies and television
[Edited 2/3/10 8:31am]

lafleurdove said:


[/quote]



is THAT the little girl that used to play whoeever the fuck on whatever the fuck show that was?!?!?!

how old is she now?

well we used to have Halle Berry, Lucy Lui... etc...

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

SirPsycho said:

is THAT the little girl that used to play whoeever the fuck on whatever the fuck show that was?!?!?!

how old is she now? [/quote]





She was in Eve's Bayou,Cosby,Wanda at Large & The Great Debaters...she's 23
[Edited 2/3/10 9:17am]

ThreadCula said:

lawd... all i need is one "happen to bump into you awkward moment"...(damn)
[Edited 2/3/10 9:18am]