Vanity Fair magazine finally recognizes notable black celebrities on its 20th Annual ‘Hollywood’ cover. The cover, beautifully photographed by Annie Leibovitz, features black stars who are not quite household names in mainstream America, but their faces are easily recognizable. The three-panel foldout cover features Oscar nominees Julia Roberts (August: Osage County), Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave), Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club), and Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave), as well as Idris Elba (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom), George Clooney (Gravity), Michael B. Jordan (Fruitvale Station), Naomie Harris (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom), Brie Larson (Short Term 12), Chadwick Boseman (42), Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street), and Léa Seydoux (Blue Is the Warmest Color). What? No Sandra Bullock?
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This cover must have been a challenge for Leibovitz because light and dark complexions in the same photo requires complex lighting set ups.
Vanity Fair rankled critics last year by cutting black actors out of its 2013 ‘Hollywood’ issue.
It’s a Vanity Fair magazine tale as old as time. All year long the men and women of Hollywood, many of them people of color, work hard to produce award worthy projects. Then Vanity Fair comes along to choose the cream of the crop for their annual Hollywood Issue. The list reads like a very well-known ‘who’s who,’ featuring the likes of Halle Berry, Ben Affleck and more, yet when it comes to the cover it seems only the cream of a certain color make the cut.
They try to appease the darker half with a spot on the cover’s gatefold (the part that folds into the magazine), but we all know that being seen on the actual cover, the one that will be seen on newsstands across the globe, is the only section that carries real weight. So once again, Vanity Fair dims the light that is Hollywood’s colored actors and actresses for another year and we are left to wonder, again … what the hell is the deal? Source
