Lack of Progress in Minority Casting Is as Maddening as Ever

May, 27, 2009 2:46 pm | On #

Last November the New York Times, which never gets a story wrong, ran a piece about a potential "Obama Effect" in television casting.

 

That is to say, as America had elected a person of color president, fake liberal Hollywood might just catch up and start casting people of color in lead roles in dramatic series.

 

The operative words: lead roles, dramatic series. TV's always been fairly friendly to people of color in lead roles in sitcoms, and has had little problem garnishing its ensemble shows with minorities like delicious sprinkles around the icy white frosting of prime time television.

 

But lead roles, dramatic series...?

 

...

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Yes, 'Obsessed' is the Most Significant Film of the Decade

April, 24, 2009 11:47 am | On #Beyonce Knowles, Obsessed

In some other, alt Spock-with-a-beard universe, the new movie “Obsessed” would be as little as its producers wish it to be: an elongated, filmed catfight targeted toward young men who'll willing hand over their hard earned pay in hopes of witnessing the female leads rip each others’ shirts off.
 
But we don't live in an alt universe. We live in our universe. And in our universe, “Obsessed” is the most significant film of the decade.
 
It stars Idris Elba whose secretary, Ali Larter, overreacts to some mild on-the-job flirtation, and things escalate from there between Larter and Elba's wife played by Beyoncé Knowles. A perfectly fine little bit of been there/done that "crazy woman goes crazy for some other woman's man" programmer.

“Fatal Attraction” and “Play Misty for Me.”...

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John Ridley is an Emmy Award-winning commentator and writer for Esquire and Time magazines as well as a contributor to CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and NPR. He is the author of seven published novels and numerous screenplays and the Founding Editor of That Minority Thing, a nonpartisan website that provides news and opinions in support of a wide range of voices, including ethnic, racial, religious, disabled, gender, and sexual minorities.

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