Thandie Newton Rips Vogue's Lacking Diversity

Someone apparently thinks that Hollywood and the fashion world paint with the same bland pallette.

Actress Thandie Newton made it clear to Pride Magazine recently that despite having graced more than a few fashion magazines' respective covers, it's a damn shame that no one that shares her skin color has ever graced the mother of them all, Vogue.

She's appeared (by her own admission) four Harper's Bazaar covers and four InStyle covers, but calls it "preposterous" not only that she's never earned a cover of her own, but that she feels the fashion-journalism pinaccle severely underestimates black women.

Just as laughable, to her? The fact that few understand her beef with the publication.

"People say to me, I mean literally, people have said to me, 'What have you got against Vogue that you don't want to be on their cover?' And I just laugh," she said. "[Vogue] don't feel the need to represent because it doesn't make any sense to them."

Why doesn't it make sense to Vogue? Well, Newton explained that - kind of.

"It's just baffling to me, but as usual America will dictate the ways things go and a magazine like Vogue will just follow America," she added.

That's a great place to start dissecting this vague, unsubstantive, slightly malinformed statement.

First of all, Vogue has international editions, as well, in countries like Italy and England that probably don't make nearly the fuss over America's perceived value of blacks as Americans do, because that's not part of their history. In fact, in 1966, it was British Vogue that became the first publication in the line to feature a black woman when Donyale Luna graced the cover. If she's going to get so up-in-arms about it, maybe she should be reminded that there's a good chance this probably can't be pinned entirely on American attitudes, since it's not an exclusively American magazine.

Next, let's play "One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other": Halle Berry . . . Beyonce . . . Michelle Obama . . . Oprah . . . Thandie Newton.

Which of these names, in the great hierarchy of fame, seems a little out-of-place? Oscar-winner . . . Grammy-winner . . . first black First Lady . . . legendarily omnipresent television personality, producer, actress and businesswoman . . . .Thandie Newton. She's had a long, award-winning career, but not the kind that necessarily compares with the others.

It's Vogue, Pumpkin. The Creme de la Creme of famous, beautiful faces make the cover, along with the biggest of the big power-brokers. But then again, it's clear that Newton masks her resentment of not having ascended Hollywood's ladder with the race card. Keep in mind, the same woman can also be quoted as saying she was "bitter" that she had to compete with other black actresses like Berry for leading roles.

Then again, Newton has also been quoted in Stella Magazine as saying she "hates it" when she's recognized by others, and that she can't remember the films that have featured her. But everybody else should absolutely care about her body of work, and heap the world's most recognizable fashion magazine's accolades upon her.

So let's just make this more clear: if this delusional half-wit doesn't somehow understand that there's this gulf of an achievement gap between the other black women who have appeared on Vogue covers and her, then it's somehow an indication of nefarious American racial politics at play and not at all the fact that nine out of 10 people asked probably couldn't name six Thandie Newton films, or even probably pick her out of a lineup.

Well, I'll help with that: she currently stars in the film "Retreat" alongside Cillian Murphy and Jamie Bell, as well as a West End production of "Death And The Maiden."