THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 27, 1994 TAG: 9407260049
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LARRY BONKO
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines
BOY, ARE FOX Broadcasting and producer Aaron Spelling ever happy to see Haitian-born Garcelle Beauvais start work tonight at 9 on ``Models Inc.''
Fox has been feeling heat from the Rev. Jesse Jackson and other leaders in the African-American community since the network recently canceled four shows featuring black casts - ``South Central,'' ``Roc,'' ``In Living Color'' and ``Sinbad.''
Spelling was criticized in the past for not including minorities in his hit series ``Beverly Hills, 90210.'' And he took some knocks when he dropped the only African-American actress (Vanessa Williams) just as ``Melrose Place'' was becoming a guilty pleasure for millions of viewers.
In recent interviews and speeches, Jackson has been swinging away at what he calls ``patterns of exclusion'' in the television industry. Walking ever so elegantly into this simmering controversy is Beauvais, a high-fashion model in real life who (surprise!) will play a high-fashion model on the Fox show.
Maybe you've seen her soaring cheekbones in the pages of Ebony and Essence magazines.
On ``Models Inc.,'' she plays Cynthia Nichols - a Princeton graduate. Tonight you'll see her ask Linda Gray, who plays the head of the Models Inc. agency, for a job in a profession that isn't exactly overrun by Princeton grads.
Beauvais said in her life off TV she never found time to enroll in college, what with beginning a modeling career in her teens. She was introduced to the nation's TV critics in a fashion show staged during a California sunset in an elegant setting - a restored Spanish villa in Encino.
Beauvais, gowned in white for her coming-out party, asked a Fox publicist if the reflecting pool out back was the pool in which Joan Collins and Linda Evans made a splash on ``Dynasty.'' It was indeed the very same fancy bathtub.
Beauvais appeared perfectly cool as the fuss about not having more African-American shows on TV - there are no black dramas on the schedule - heated up with Jackson's recent comments. Jackson is talking boycotts.
While stopping short of rallying around the Jackson call to end the ``patterns of exclusion'' or else, Beauvais did say this:
``If given the opportunity, I can do anything and play any role that any other actresses can play. It has been tough for us to get work in television in the past. We're doing better now.''
Fox executives, including Fox Entertainment Group president Sandy Grushow, were stung by Jackson's criticism after ``Roc'' and the three other shows did not make the fall schedule. ``We have probably programmed more shows featuring African-Americans than the three other networks combined. As for `Roc,' that show was given a fair opportunity to make it, airing 50 times in what we call the hammock between `In Living Color' and `Married. . . With Children.' The truth is that `Roc' just didn't work,'' said Grushow.
Grushow suggested that Jackson and Fox's critics in the NAACP hold their remarks until they see the network's fall schedule. Two new shows, ``New York Undercover,'' and a science-fiction hour, ``M.A.N.T.I.S.,'' feature black actors. In ``New York Undercover,'' a black and Hispanic share top billing.
That show's producer, Dick Wolf, told the TV writers that he was outraged when he heard Jackson light out after Fox. ``His comments were out of line,'' said Wolf. ``It was laughable for him to go after Fox because Fox has been catering to a younger, hipper, urban viewership for years. Fox is the only network that would program a show like `New York Undercover.' ''
He criticized the three other networks for refusing to do what Fox will do this upcoming TV season - give an hour of prime time to a drama, ``New York Undercover,'' which explores the lives of blacks on and off the job.
Wolf refers to the sitcoms with African-American casts as minstrel shows. ``Do you honestly think that `The Fresh Prince of Bel Air' presents a real picture of life among black Americans?''
Wolf, the producer of ``Law & Order,'' cast Malik Yoba and Michael DeLorenzo as tough, hip New York City detectives who talk street talk - the dialogue is so hip that many of the TV critics here to preview the show needed Yoba to serve as interpreter.
A sample: ``Yo, Money, wassup?''
In ``M.A.N.T.I.S,'' Carl Lumbly has a role that no other black actor, or actor of any color, played on TV before: He's a paraplegic biophysicist who invents an ``exoskeleton'' that gives him the use of his legs again as well as great speed, strength and agility. Black America is about to have a superhero in prime time.
Lumbly doesn't think it's a good idea for Jackson or anyone else to label shows as black, white, Asian or whatever. He suggests the colorblind approach. ``I don't walk around saying I'm a black actor. It has been my experience in television and in life to try to avoid stereotyping.''
Tonight is the night when tall and lovely Garcelle Beauvais becomes a member of ``Models Inc.'' on Fox. The network insists that when she tried out for the role - Beauvais won out over many other actresses by auditioning three times - she was selected not because she is black, but because she is perfect for the part.
Maybe that stereotyping thing Lumbly talks about is finally passe in Hollywood. MEMO: Television Columnist Larry Bonko is attending the twice-yearly press
tour in Los Angeles. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
FOX BROADCASTING CO.
Garcelle Beauvais: ``I can do anything and play any role that any
other actresses can play.''
by CNB