H'wood NAACP unit makes its case

Originally published in the BPI Entertainment News Wire on January 13, 2005

Copyright 2005 BPI Communication, Inc.  



By CYNTHIA LITTLETON, The Hollywood Reporter

Five years ago this month, the NAACP led a coalition of minority advocacy groups in securing landmark diversity commitments from the Big Four broadcast networks.

During the past 18 months, the venerable civil rights organization quietly has been working to further raise its profile in the entertainment industry by establishing a Hollywood bureau, headed by producer Vicangelo Bulluck.

Bulluck, a longtime writer-producer of the NAACP's Image Awards and an executive producer of the syndicated court show "Judge Mathis," has worked behind the scenes with the major networks, studios and creative guilds on various programs and initiatives aimed at fostering more ethnic and racial diversity in all aspects of the industry.

The NAACP has had an autonomous Hollywood-based chapter for years, but the bureau headed by Bulluck is one of only two branch offices maintained by the Baltimore-based national organization, the other being in Washington.

For the first time since the bureau opened in October 2003, Bulluck offered reporters an overview of some of the industry-related initiatives the NAACP is pursuing.

"The NAACP early on recognized the power that (the entertainment) medium has in defining how minorities are perceived in our culture," Bulluck told reporters Wednesday, citing the organization's role in spearheading protests of works deemed derogatory to blacks and other minorities, ranging from 1915's "The Birth of a Nation" to the short-lived 1998 UPN comedy "The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer."

Bulluck said that awareness of diversity issues has been much improved in Hollywood since the NAACP-led coalition mounted a pressure campaign against the major networks, which was sparked by the absence of any minority actors in lead roles in the new series unveiled by the Big Four networks for the 1999-2000 television season.

At the same time, much more needs to be done to ensure that blacks, Hispanics and other minority groups have the same access to opportunity in Hollywood as whites, Bulluck said. He noted that in preparing the nominations for this year's Image Awards, the NAACP's awards committee has struggled to "scrape together" five nominees in the category of lead actress in a TV movie.

"We hear all the time from producers that they have the material (for black actresses), but unless you have Halle Berry, you can't get black stories greenlighted," Bulluck said.

The NAACP's Hollywood bureau is working with the Washington-based National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts on a series of "white paper" reports on specific aspects of the industry. Bulluck said the partners hope to have the first in a series of reports published by late summer.

Bulluck said he has reached out to Dawn Hudson, executive director of IFP/Los Angeles, to develop initiatives to open more doors in the indie film world to minorities.

Bulluck also announced a few changes in store for this year's Image Awards, set to tape March 19 and air March 25 on Fox. The ceremony will move to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion this year after several years at the Universal Amphitheatre. Nominations will be announced Wednesday during the Television Critics Assn. press tour at the Universal Hilton.