Notes From D.R. | Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/24/opinion/24kristof.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=

Great article by Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times about a notorious Hollywood hypocrisy: for all of Tinseltown’s political liberalism, the industry is still somewhat reluctant, even in 2005, to produce films depicting interracial relationships. Things have improved recently, to be sure: Halle Berry appeared in three consecutive films in which she had white love interests (Swordfish with John Travolta, Monster’s Ball with Billy Bob Thornton, and Die Another Day with Pierce Brosnan), Angela Bassett played Robert De Niro’s girlfriend in The Score (2001), and the Julia Stiles/Sean Patrick Thomas film Save the Last Dance (which I loved when I first saw it, but which doesn’t really hold up upon subsequent viewings) grossed an unexpected $91 million in 2001. However, it wasn’t that long ago (only a dozen years, in fact) since Hollywood chickened out and made the characters played by Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts in The Pelican Brief "just friends"–despite the fact that in the John Grisham novel upon which the film was based, the two characters have a torrid affair.

Remember a few years back when David E. Kelley had Ally McBeal fall in love with a black doctor (played by Jesse L. Martin of Law and Order)? Because neither character acknowledged the fact that they weren’t of the same ethnic background, the show was criticized for "unrealistically" depicting an interracial romance in post-desegregation Boston. I thought the criticism was unwarranted–seriously, who would be interested in watching episodes showing Ally McBeal and her boyfriend being harassed, stared at, etc.? Kelley had no choice but to depict the relationship in a completely colorblind fashion–and the storyline was memorable precisely because race was not openly acknowledged as an issue. Wouldn’t it be nice to see a movie do the same thing? A simple boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl-back romantic comedy, with one character who happens to be black and one character who happens to be white. No racial jokes, no political debates, no family feuds, no eye-rolling from supporting characters. Just a plain and simple, "old-fashioned" (so to speak) romance. It’d be radical, wouldn’t it?