It's worse in theatre, and it's a sore point with me, because my life is filled with various colors re my family and my friends ... but in theatre it's so lily-white and bland and not reflected in my reality, nor in the reality of the people I care about ...

I see it in films, too, but I think film is changing, slowly but surely.

i hope.

Yes, I have certainly thought about these issues. But I went ahead and wrote a script about a drag queen competing in a pageant and there are several gay and lesbian characters. It's a story I am passionate about and would want to see. But I know it's hard to get movies made these days, especially indies. Then when you look at a quirky indie comedy with alternative characters in a non-mainstream culture, I imagine it would be that much harder. And I can see how it might be hard to raise financing since people assume the target market would be small. So I don't hold any illusions, but I'd like to hope that more alternative stories make it through.

The most important point in that LATimes article is what's missing from it: the names of the multicultural actors! The only actor's name you see is Richard Jenkins.

Think of just about any blockbuster from the past and you could probably change the lead character's ethnicity without hurting the story, but what actor would you get to play that character now?

I want a producer to read my spec and say, "I gotta show this to Brad Pitt!" or Seth Rogen or Will Smith or Angelina Jolie. And since I want to make a bajillion dollars I'd probably shudder if the producer said "Souleymane Sy Savane is the only actor who can play this role!"

So as a spec writer, I won't bend over backwards to make my characters multicultural. But as consumer, I'll try to patronize these little indies and I'll hope that the list of bankable stars becomes more diverse.

Try writing an indigenous pov action genre piece set in a small pacific island that is strongly anti-nuclear. (Which is always read as anti-American.)

Concerned? More like paralysed.

Okay, how about this. Is it fair to say that movies like Slumdog Millionaire or The Whalerider, which are set in a 'foreign' country within a 'different' culture, are somehow 'okay' by Hwood standards, but movies like The Visitor or In America, where various cultural and ethnic types bump up against each other, particularly white society, that's when Hwood gets uncomfortable? Or is that just too much of damned (or wrong) generalization?

Like Joss Whedon, I try to mix it up a little. Variety truly is the spice of life.

My last project (the detective script) has a gay cop who's integral to the story, and my current project's anti-heroine is a Goa Indian. The next script will have an African-American lead (it's all about him surviving during a bitter winter, and his being highly visible against the snow makes things much worse for him).

When these eventually get picked up, I have no doubt that changes to the characters will be requested for casting purposes. But for now, why not play with some fresh faces and voices?

Scott, it's true that movies like SLUMDOG are "safe". It takes place Over There. Witnessing the uncomfortable truth about ethnic predjudice in the United States is not something we as a people do well, but it's improving.

(Kiwiwchick, you've intrigued me with your idea. I wish to know more...)

Beale hit the nail on the head when he wrote that the only color that really counts is green.

Unfortunately, it's always been that way and always will be. But the more familiar we become with other cultures, the more likely we are to pay to see something more about them.

And so it is, back to green.

Cheers, Luzid. I wish to know more myself. LOL. Work in progress...