via Colorlines.com/NOW

This should not come at a shock for anyone because Vanity Fair has moved actors and models of color to the sides of pages for decades but here it is anyway: the March “Hollywood Issue” cover put an all white cast of actresses on the cover and saved the two black actress featured for the back cover.

This is Vanity Fair’s 18th Hollywood Issue and they’ve done thing with both males and female actors for more than a decade.

So I thought Vanity Fair could use some ideas of what a more inclusive cover could like: (click to enlarge)

From left to right: “Awkward Black Girl’s” Issa Rae; “The Good Wife’s” Archie Panjabi, Hawaii 5-0’s Grace Park; America Ferrera, “Gun Hill Road’s” Harmony Santana; “Pariah’s” Adepero Oduye; Gabourey Sidibe; Kim Wayans. On the last page to the right, added in there is Naya Rivera from “Glee”; Mindy Kaling from “The Office” and Maggie Q from “Nikita.”

Below is the original cover of Vanity Fair’s March issue:

Read more at Colorlines.com/now

Lee Evans broke records at the 1968 Summer Olympics but today he’s in a San Francisco hospital with a brain tumor and no health insurance. 

Evans, 63, has a large tumor in the pituitary gland area of his brain, according to an email circulated to Olympians from the Mexico City Games. 

It was 43 years ago that millions of people around the world saw two African-American men––Tommie Smith and John Carlos––raise their fists in the air in a Black Power salute during the pledge of allegiance at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico. The next day Evans wore a black beret symbolic of the militant Black Panther Party on the podium after winning first place in the 400 meters.

Below The Nation provides more specifics on Evans’ current condition:

But the situation is made far worse by the fact that Lee Evans, after four decades teaching and coaching at schools ranging from the University of South Alabama to Nigeria, doesn’t have health insurance. This has meant, according to Lee’s sister, Rosemary, that he has been terribly mistreated during his hospitalization. Rosemary said to me, “I heard his doctor in the hall and I heard him say he wished [Lee] had been transferred somewhere else because he didn’t have insurance….  Lee is in intense pain. Not even morphine is helping. He hasn’t eaten in several days, yet there was no IV in his arm when I first went into his room. He’s lying in his filth and nothing is happening. If family members aren’t vigilant… If we aren’t vigilant, I don’t know what would happen.”

Below are two ways you can help immidiately:

1. Donate through PayPal. bit.ly/w53dkz

2. Checks can be sent to Rosemary Evans; 46096 Valeria Ave; Dos Palos 93620.

Yes, it exist! There’s a Tumblr for all of Clair Huxtable’s best looks!

Visit CLAIR HUXTABLE: MOM STYLE ICON for more of Mrs. Huxtables’s best ready-to-wear best looks.

Hours before the show aired, Roots drummer Questlove told his Twitter followers to keep their ears pricked during Tuesday morning’s show.

“Aight late night walkon song devotees: you love it when we snark: this next one takes the cake. ask around cause i aint tweeting title,” he tweeted.

…and then Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann strode to the couch smiling and waving to the crowd while The Roots covered Fishbone’s “Lyin’ Ass Bitch.”

Questlove told the Wall Street Journal the decision was a “spur of the moment” thing. “The performance was a tongue-in-cheek and spur of the moment decision. The show was not aware of it and I feel bad if her feelings were hurt. That was not my intention.”

The original song from Fishbone’s 1985 EP is below:

JR

What, you thought Jennifer Lopez visited the hood from time to time?

In a commercial for the car company Fiat, Lopez is seen driving around New York City’s poorest borough, the Bronx, but it turns out she never left a Los Angeles sound stage for the commercial.

 ”This is my world. This place inspires me.” Lopez says in the commercial’s voiceover as she drives around the streets of the Bronx in a $16,000 Fiat 500 Cabrio. “They may be just streets to you, but to me they’re a playground.”

A playground she doesn’t visit much. The Smoking Gun reports:

Instead, the role of “Jenny from the Block” was played by a body double, according to two sources familiar with the commercial production. While the Lopez lookalike was actually behind the wheel in the Bronx, Lopez herself was in Los Angeles, where she was filmed inside a Fiat 500.

The shots of the actress were artfully merged to make it appear that she was tooling around New York City’s poorest borough. Big Block, a Los Angeles digital production studio, was hired to merge live action footage with computer-generated imagery to make it appear as if Lopez was in the Bronx.

The ruse tricked scores of media outlets—from The Wall Street Journal to automotive blogs—who reported that a centerpiece of the Lopez/Fiat partnership was the production of a 60-second commercial titled “My World,” which Fiat began running last month on network and cable TV outlets.

The Bronx contains one of the five poorest Congressional Districts in the U.S., the 16th, but its wide variety of neighborhoods also includes the affluent Riverdale and Country Club.

JR

Snooki is making up for all the skin lightening in the beauty and entertainment industry. She was on Jimmy Kimmel last night and she’s totally 57 shades darker.

Also, she had no idea who J.K. Rowling and Maya Angelous are.

“I don’t know who that is,” she said.

Check out Colorlines.com’s more recent coverage on skin lightening.

-JR

Now if only they can make one of these starring Herman Cain. Stuff the ice chest!

On Thursday night, Beyoncé premiered her eagerly anticipated “Countdown” video. In the new fan favorite, the pop diva does a bit of time travel back to the sixties.

Most people will recognize the video’s references to Audrey Hepburn in “Funny Face” and the monochromatic scenes from Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.” But there’s a quick one that’s a bit more historically significant — and easy to miss.

About 32 seconds into the video Beyoncé references the famous eye make-up and eye-between-the-fingers pose of Donyale Luna, the Detroit native who became the first African-American model to appear on the cover of a Vogue’s March 1966 British issue.

“Countdown” is Beyoncé’s third single from her fourth solo album “4.” The track samples Boyz II Men’s 1991 R&B single “Uhh Ahh.” The video was directed by Adria Petty, who also directed Beyoncé’s “Sweet Dreams.”

Colorlines.com