We'll have to wait a little while for the full video, which is more fun than the cover but it's always exciting to see THR's roundtable covers nonetheless. Like Vanity Fair's "Hollywood Issue" -- less thrilling than it once was for a myriad of reasons -- it's a tradition that is both great fun for its glamour and personality and highly aggravating for its exclusions and repetitions and limited world view... just like, HEYYYY, the Oscars themselves!
By now you know the drill. First an image. Then the thoughts that come to mind without self-censorhip after the jump...
• So very blonde (we'll get to the 'so white' part later). What would we do without Charlotte Rampling and Carey Mulligan? Thanks for being... uh... non-blonde. Couldn't they find a ginger (*surveys awards season landscape -never mind*) or someone with black hair? There were at least a couple of options for black hair.
• "What would we do without Charlotte Rampling?" is actually an all purpose useful question, removed from the context of this cover and awards season entirely.
• WHERE IS LILY TOMLIN? The fact that they've revealed that they chose this group in September makes her absence especially galling since that was the peak of Grandma's popularity! Paired with the absence of Cate's onscreen love Rooney Mara this is especially heternormative of them. It's like "here are eight beautiful women touching each other - NO HOMO"
• The absence of Alicia Vikander, the year's unquestionable "it" girl, is kind of a shock.
• Brie Larson, scene aka cover stealer. Go Brie. Remember that scene in The Player where Cher shows up to a black and white party in dazzling bright red? That.
• I love Room but this is also justice for (or momentum from) Short Term 12. That said I don't quite buy the "she's going to win the Oscar" feeling that a lot of people have. I'm not there yet. Hope to be but...
• How do you gather eight spectacularly charismatic movie stars, a few of them bonafide legends at that, and make a photo this boring? Try harder THR.
• This alternate photo is slightly better just because there's more angles / poses. And Helen Mirren & Carey Mulligan's ensembles pop in a much more major way. Red heels for Dame Helen, that minx.
• It's weird that Dame Helen was included. TBH I thought she was phoning that shit in in Woman in Gold. Yikes. But maybe they included her for Trumbo, sight unseen?
• How weird would it have been to be the director of this shoot? "Kate, cuddle with Fonda a bit. Ms Fonda, drape your manicured fingers on Brie's jacket. Winslet's knee compels you -- TOUCH IT, CATE, TOUCH IT!"
• Bet you anything they had to explain to Jennifer Lawrence who Charlotte Rampling is. Oh the humanity. (Sigh)
• Have none of these women ever worked together? I'm drawing a blank if they have. Actresses don't get to work together enough since films are so male-dominant.
• OK, so the elephant in the room. Everyone's mad that this is an all white cover. THR anticipated the outrage and published this explanation. As every loyal reader knows TFE has championed many actresses of color over the years and we wish the movies were diverse. But I gotta tell you... personally, I'm sick of the messenger being shot with the public outrage each awards season. It's neither THR's fault nor The Academy's fault that actors of color aren't getting the kind of roles that generally result in Oscar buzz. It's a systemic problem in the halls of power in Hollywood, with the executives, directors, suits, producers, casting directors, agencies, and even possibly some of the stars (who have co-star approval) and so on. In fact, when actors of color get the quality roles in Oscar-accessible pictures, they tend to get nominated.
For example, I know some people are griping that Kitana Kiki Rodriguez & Mya Taylor of Tangerine weren't featured. And yes they are great great fun in Tangerine... but let's be real. They are not A listers, legends, former nominees/winners, or frontrunning contenders and you usually have to be at least one of those four things to land covers like this. Do we wish these covers would be scrappier and less A-list focused in their choices? Sure. But at least they're consistent. Oprah, Viola, Octavia fit into at least one of those categories and they were on the panels in their years. This situation is much different than the Vanity Fair Hollywood issue situations of yore where actors of color would be excluded for no particular reason (since it wasn't specifically about any type of thing like "Oscar buzz") or hidden on the back fold of the cover.
Thus we propose a scrappier indie buzz cover. If only TFE were a print magazine.
Our cover would look like this. (Fold out, natch) It would sell 10 copies max but who cares! Think of the conversation that would erupt in a room with these women. And Yes, Todd Haynes also gets to be there because a room of actresses talking deserves a genius actressexual as moderator.