Can You Guess the Last Time Entertainment Weekly Featured a Black Actor on Its Cover?
I knew something seemed unusual when I looked at Entertainment Weekly's new cover featuring Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, and Viola Davis, three of the stars of the new film The Help. Is it the lighting? Emma Stone's curiously nondescript expression? Nope, it's that we haven't seen a black actor or actress featured on the cover in quite some time. Can you guess the last black thespian to land the cover of EW?
According to my quick search of EW's archives, the last black actor to win the cover was Jennifer Hudson in April, 2009 -- and that was for a cover story focusing on her music and family tragedy. To be fair, Michael Jackson (arguably also an actor) graced the cover by himself following his death in mid-2009 and in a preview for This Is It in October 2009, but still, we're going on two years without a black thespian featured on the magazine's front sleeve. Rashida Jones appeared as part of the Parks and Recreation ensemble on a February 2011 issue, but before Hudson, Will Smith was the last to earn the honor all to himself in December 2007, and before that Denzel Washington (with Russell Crowe) November 2007.
If the term "actor" is tripping you up, the amount of black non-actors on the cover is just as low. In the past four years, only Randy Jackson (appearing as part of the American Idol ensemble), Tyra Banks, Alicia Keys, and Usher have appeared -- along with a few tiny heads in various collage covers. Weird.
You'd think at least Oprah Winfrey would warrant a cover. Or Beyonce. Or someone who isn't Johnny Depp or Robert Pattinson or Harry Potter, who've been on more times than I cared to count. Ugh, Jack Sparrow. I remember when we got along.
• 'EW' Cover Archives [EW]
Subscribe to the new Movieline on YouTube
Comments
Psst, the last time Movieline had a black actor on their virtual cover was November 2009 http://bit.ly/od218u
Rashida Jones is black?
Movieline gets OWNED by Tim...ROFL
Point taken, but consider the sheer number of covers EW has compared to our one monthly virtual cover. I'd be happy to see more diversity everywhere.
Great answer.
FROM TIM | REPLY
POSTED 04 AUG 2011, 5:50 PM
Psst, the last time Movieline had a black actor on their virtual cover was November 2009 http://bit.ly/od218u
Considering her father is Quincy Jones, I'd say there's a distinct possibility.
I did a count of the last year's covers and EW did 30 movie covers, 11 television covers and 5 List (Best of the Year, Best of Summer, Casts Reunited etc) covers, which cover all genres. Only ONE singer appeared (Taylor Swift) and that was on a List issue. Add to that the fact that of the television issues, one was the requisite Fall TV guide, one was dedicated to Lost (almost a year after it ended!), one was to the royal wedding and one was to Charlie Sheen and it's fairly obvious EW may be an "entertainment" magazine, but it sells entertainment with a movie-based cover. (American Idol is the biggest thing on television and it only got one cover, though it gets mentioned about 80 times an issue!)
It's not EW's fault that Hollywood hasn't been creating many movies with black leads lately. (And, no, EW isn't going to put Tyler Perry on the cover every time he releases a film.) EW can, and SHOULD, be blamed for being so monotonous with it's cover selections, though. Every month it's Harry Potter or Twilight or a sequel or some friggin' superhero. The Hunger Games is barely in production and it's gotten TWO covers already! Enough with these rotating white people!
Owned! Anyone remember this? http://www.movieline.com/1996/12/
Sure, but has been said already, Movieline's virtual cover is monthly, rather than Entertainment Weekly which is, well, weekly. There have been around 20 movieline covers since a black person waas featured, over 80 for EW. See the disparity?
Well the biggest disparity would be that Entertainment Weekly isn't calling Movieline out as closest racists.
Nice one, Tim.
Pot meet Kettle.
You can take Rashida Jones off the Black List, she really doesn't represent black women, just women who are racially ambiguous.
Thank you so much for clarifying that for all of us. And I'm assuming you represent women who are total b-tches? God, I thought this whole half-breed crap died out in the '80s.
Maybe it's time we started to realize that race should be irrelevant. Besides, Nubian Griper, Rashida Jones never said she represented black women. I really don't care for people like you.
That would be nice, not seeing race (not really. I want people to know I'm black; got no reason to hide it. Nor should you not see it as it's the first apparent thing about me. It's just not ALL I am.) That being said, Rashida Jones and countless others like her are deemed raciall ambiguous because that is exactly what Hollywood refers to them as. She can be cast as anything from black to Latina (not discounting the fact that their are those who are in fact, BOTH) but also maybe even middle eastern. Many actors/actresses like her (including Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson, also half black) profit of that because their blackness doesn't immediately exclude them from roles, or because it's deemed as 'exotic'. So when someone says "racially ambiguous" it's not because they are being total B*tches. It's because they're reflecting a factual sentiment in Hollywood.
So, that means that it is good news. We can find black actor on the cover of the magazine. It means that there is not any discrimination here, right?
What is even more sad is that I cannot even remember the last time a major entertainment magazine has featured a cover with a celebrity of east asain descent (I hope to God that I am overlooking something)
Yes, she self-identifies as black.
"The thing is, I do identify with being black, and if people don’t identify me that way that’s their issue."
Taken from “A Conversation with Rashida Jones”, Women’s Health Magazine, April 2008.
When was the last time Zhang Ziyi starred in an American film? Probably then.