A few weeks ago, I posted about the uproar over Vanity Fair ‘s lily-white “New Hollywood” cover . Like many bloggers, I noted that Gaby Sidibe, one of the season’s bona fide, young, breakout stars could have been included on the cover, but wasn’t. Sidibe talked to Access Hollywood about the controversy , and her response was sad and sobering:
“Was I satisfied [about being included in a photo inside the magazine]? Yeah, well… I mean, I come from a world where I’m not on covers and I’m not in magazines at all,” Gabourey said. “And so I was happy to be in the magazine.”“At first I thought, ‘Hmm, should I be there?” she continued, about the cover shoot. “Then I very quickly got over it. I think if I were a part of that shoot I would have felt a little left out anyway … I would have felt a little like… whether or not I should have been there,” she told Shaun.Sidibe then said, very graciously, that it didn’t matter and she was “excited to be mentioned anywhere,” and that she’s happy with the way she looks. But how sad is the idea that, if she had been asked to participate-if Vanity Fair had shown some subversive gumption-she wouldn’t have felt proud and happy and equal to the other lovely women on the cover?
