Robert Duvall seems to be the odd man out on what primarily seems to be a young-Hollywood dominated cover, but the conversations in the forums are focusing more on those who are missing from the spread. “Guessing Natalie Portman’s inside the issue then?” asked honeycombchild, noting the conspicuous absence of this year’s Best Actress Oscar front-runner. “I wonder if Natalie isn’t there because she/they probably would have known she was pregnant at the time they shot the cover,” blueorchid mused. “They probably didn’t think having a pregnant actress on a ‘sexy young Hollywood’ cover would go over so well.”
Another topic of discussion has been the level of racial diversity represented on the cover. “They included two more people of color than they did last year,” noted blueorchid. Last year’s Hollywood issue received attention for its complete lack of racial diversity in featuring a cast of nine young white actresses. Mikeijames explains: “Race is relevant…because the Hollywood issue got SLAMMED last year because it had absolutely no diversity represented on the cover. Not placing Zoe Saldana on the cover last year—she did play in both box office hits Star Trek and Avatar—remains a black eye for Vanity Fair.” Perhaps the problem has its roots more in Hollywood than in the Vanity Fair offices. “In my opinion,” said KINGofVERSAILLES, “when we’re scratching our heads trying to think of people of color who should have appeared on the cover, it’s not a good thing… Deserving people should make the cover no matter what their ethnicity. There should not be people of color on the cover for the sake of having people of color on the cover, but rather because they deserved it. Which, in my opinion, the people on this year’s cover did.”
Check out the debate as it continues to evolve in the tFS forums.
Images from Vanity Fair
