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Paula Patton Makes The Cut On “White-Washed” Vanity Fair Cover [PHOTO]

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Vanity Fair magazine has released its annual Hollywood issue, profiling a dozen or so up-and-coming actresses, and – just like every other year – all the actresses of any color were pushed to the side. Literally. The cover is tri-fold, featuring one “power” panel – the one you’ll actually see on newsstands – and two foldout panels. Rooney Mara (of Girl With The Dragon Tattoo ), Mia Wasikowska, Jennifer Lawrence and Jessica Chastain landed the coveted “power” panel. Black actress Adepero Oduye (of Pariah ) is featured on the second foldout alongside Elizabeth Olsen (the third famous sister) and Shailene Woodley. And finally, on the last foldout is Mission: Impossible star Paula Patton next to Felicity Jones, Lily Collins and Brit Marling. The magazine has done this almost every year. In the past, Zoe Saldana, Rashida Jones, Rosario Dawson, Kerry Washington, Jada Pinkett Smith, Jennifer Lopez, Angela Bassett, Will Smith, Samuel L. Jackson and Don Cheadle have all been pushed “to the right” so as not to be seen on newsstands, probably in hopes that a “white-washed” cover will result in more sales. See ‘em all here. We would waste our breath on this subject matter, but we did that back in 2010: Vanity Fair’s Young Hollywood Issue Features No Women Of Color See the whole cover below: RELATED LINKS: Gabourey Sidibe Doesn’t Mind Exclusion From Vanity Fair Cover Zoe Saldana: NYLON Magazine’s First Cover Girl Of Color In 7 Years!

Paula Patton Makes The Cut On “White-Washed” Vanity Fair Cover [PHOTO]

Race Matters… Vanity Fair Tucks Away Their Tokens In Yet Another Hollywood Issue Epic Fail!

What is wrong with this picture? When are the wanksters at Vanity Fair going to learn ??? Yeah yeah, we noticed that “at least” you included some black folks this year, but we’re not stupid. That cover folds up, tucking our black beauties Paula Patton and Adepero Oduye (who won raves from critics for her role in the indie film “Pariah”) out of sight and out of mind. We still haven’t gotten over the sting of 2010, when blacks were shut out completely. The magazine was ripped apart when that happened, and last year they tried to rectify the situation by putting Anthony Mackie and Rashida Jones on the cover. But they two were tucked away, marginalized between the inside margins. You’d think they’d have learned by now BECAUSE they’ve been doing this for over 20 years — hiding the black folks on the far right panel. Don’t believe us? Continue for lots of evidence…

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Race Matters… Vanity Fair Tucks Away Their Tokens In Yet Another Hollywood Issue Epic Fail!

REVIEW: A Luminous Lead Performance and Sensitive Filmmaking Drive Pariah

On the bus home from a night out at a lesbian club, Fort Greene teenager Alike (Adepero Oduye) swaps her tomboyish outfit for earrings and a pink t-shirt, something clearly not of her own choosing, something selected to appease her mother. Alike is 17 and closeted, at least at home. Her mom Audrey (Kim Wayans) is uptight, religious and almost quivers with the effort of seeing her daughter as she wants her to be and not as she actually is. While Alike’s closer to her father Arthur (Charles Parnell), a cop, he’s chosen to step back from the tensions at home and in his marriage. Liking boys and makeup comes naturally to her younger sister Sharonda (Shamika Cotton) — our heroine is alone in her own personal form of camouflage, trying to blend into the background wherever she goes. What sets writer/director Dee Rees’s sensitive feature debut Pariah (expanded from her 2007 short of the same name) apart from the standard coming out story is that Alike is just as much an outsider at the club as at home, adrift and uncomfortable while her more outgoing best friend Laura (Pernell Walker) picks up girls on the dance floor. She hasn’t found the place in which she feels she can be herself. Alike knows that she’s gay, but her understanding and acceptance of that fact doesn’t mean she knows where she fits, in the scene or out of it — she doesn’t easily fall into the divisions of butch and femme, and she doesn’t seems to do any better at school, where she’s a good student in whose writing a teacher has taken a special interest, but other dangles outside the established social groups. Pariah is a coming of age story that’s uncommonly aware of just how heartbreakingly important the trappings of fashion, of music choices, of hobbies are when you’re young — they’re symbols of everything you think you are or aspire to be, even as they’re woefully inadequate shortcuts to establishing your identity. Alike’s journey take place in a larger landscape of shifting identities — just as the lesbian community isn’t a monolithic entity, neither is the black neighborhood in which the majority of the action is set. Her family has worked its way into the middle class, and Audrey’s consciousness of this achievement informs her stiffness around the coworkers she clearly feels she’s a cut above and her overall fussy propriety. It’s this sense of the type of people with whom her family belongs that leads her to insist Alike hang out with the daughter of an acquaintance from church, Bina (Aasha Davis), as if enough time in each other’s proximity would make a friendship inevitable. Alike begrudgingly walks to school with Bina and hangs out with her on the weekends, and finds a connection with the girl she never expected, one that blossoms into a possible romance when Bina gives our heroine her first kiss. Bina’s the opposite of Alike in many ways, bold where the latter is shy, but also uncertain where she’s fully decided, and the halting tenderness with which their relationship builds is tinged with the knowledge that Bina is probably going to break her heart. Pariah wouldn’t work without Oduye’s luminous performance, capturing the emotional nuances of a character not prone to letting her emotions show. She makes Alike’s vulnerabilities clear through her defenses — Alike’s convinced she has the world fooled, but isn’t anywhere near as in control as she’d like to believe. It’s a lovely, subtle portrayal that’s deservedly been getting a lot of attention for Oduye, who originated the role in Rees’s short and who may also be familiar as the grocery store clerk Louis C.K. awkwardly follows home to try to ask out in the first season of Louie . It’s a performance that good enough to smooth over the fact that the film’s gears grind as it arrives at an ending that feels neat, with Alike finally confronting her parents and encountering the results we’ve been primed to expect from the outset. Pariah is a small story of a painful, formative era in its protagonist’s life, and it sometimes feels roughly hewn to fit into an arc it doesn’t necessarily need. It’s the intimate, unforced details — an exchange between Arthur and his friends at a store, the way Laura chooses to shut Alike out after feeling betrayed by her new relationship — that speak volumes more than the film’s obvious butterfly metaphor, and that attest to a filmmaker and actress worth keeping an eye on. Follow Alison Willmore on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .

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REVIEW: A Luminous Lead Performance and Sensitive Filmmaking Drive Pariah

Kim Wayans: “We All Know And Love Gay People” [EXCLUSIVE]

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We all know that “tomboyish” sister or  the  eternal bachelor uncle who’s lived with the same male “roommate” for decades.  Filmmaker Dee Rees tackles one of the  hush-hush topics in our famlilies with her feature debut, Pariah .  The film is a lovely coming-of-age story about Alike, a bright and talented student ( Adepero Oduye ), who is coming to terms with her sexuality. Kim Wayans plays Alike’s mother Audrey, who is losing her grip on her marriage and just might be in denial about who her daughter really is. Rees, Wayans, and Oduye stopped The Urban Daily to share their reasons why “Pariah” is one of the most topical movies of our time  and how it can bridge the gap between the LGBT and African-American communities. RELATED POSTS: “Pariah” And “The Help” Lead 2012 Black Reel Awards Nominations Exclusive PARIAH Clip: “You’re Wearing That To Church?” “PARIAH” Star Makes Hollywood’s NextGen 2011 List

Kim Wayans: “We All Know And Love Gay People” [EXCLUSIVE]

Spike Lee attends the PARIAH premiere with the rest of the Cast & Crew.

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Spike Lee, Dee Rees, Adepero Oduye, Kim Wayans, Nekisa Cooper and Wilson Cruz attend the premiere of PARIAH in New York. Spike was Executive Producer on the film, which was the feature debut of writer/director Dee Rees. Follow Hollywood.TV on Facebook @ facebook.com

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Spike Lee attends the PARIAH premiere with the rest of the Cast & Crew.