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.