History of Blackface in early film.

A brief history of blackface just in time for Halloween

Blair L. M. Kelley

It’s Halloween again and, evidently, it’s the season for people around the world to put on blackface. Blackface first made the news this holiday season when a former Dancing with the Stars participant darkened her skin to “honor” her favorite actor from Orange is the New Black. News recently broke of a group of Italian fashion executives including designer Alessandro Dell’Acqua donning blackface, complete with jet-black skin, and distended whitened mouths and white gloves at a “Disco Africa” party.

And let’s not forget the Florida man who blackened up to portray a mortally wounded Trayvon Martin. Perhaps folks need a refresher course on why blackface is not a great idea for their next costume party.

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Homosexuality in Hollywood

GLAAD Study: Gays & Lesbians Still at the Back of Hollywood’s Movie Bus

Brent Lang

When it comes to movies, gays and lesbians are still riding in the back of the bus. Shows like "Glee" and "Will & Grace" have helped television audiences grow more comfortable with homosexuality in recent years, and great strides have taken place in the legal system, particularly in the area of marriage equality.

The picture on the big screen is grimmer. Of the 101 films released by the six leading studios in Hollywood last year, only 14 contained LGBT characters, a new study by media monitoring group GLAAD found.

And there's definitely some genre bias. Comedies proved to be the most inclusive genre when it comes to LGBT representation. Nine of the 24 comedies released by the six studios featured LGBT characters, while only three of the 34 action or science-fiction films included LGBT characters and only one out of the 21 dramas that hit screens had any LGBT representation.
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Dwarfism in Hollywood: Peter Dinklage

The rise of Peter Dinklage

Connor Harrison

List your five favourite actors, and the likelihood is that it will consist of the usual: Johnny Depp, Meryl Streep, Leonardo DiCaprio and the hundreds of other actors that grace these personal lists because of their talent or their looks. You can take a good guess most of these lists won’t contain a dwarf actor.

Before 2011, it was hard to come by a dwarf actor who didn’t have a career solely as the butt of a film’s jokes, or dressing up as some fictional creature or another. Kenny Baker, Warwick Davis and Verne Troyer are all dwarf actors who have been hired to fit these roles. And that is no criticism of their stature or their acting abilities, but rather a criticism of what the general public expect: Mini Me’s, R2-D2′s and Professor Flitwicks.

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Peter Dinklage Wins Emmy