Feckless Farrow Frets: Does Black Director Count Toward 'Diversity' Given He's British?

February 28th, 2014 2:51 PM

Reading the transcript isn't enough. Roll the video, listen carefully, and at the end you'll catch Ronan Farrow's nervous little laugh as he asks an African-American guest whether, in assessing movie-industry diversity, it "matters" that Steve McQueen, the black director whose film has been nominated for an Oscar, is British.

Such are the PC pitfalls once one wades into the bog of diversity bean-counting.  But beyond the specific subject matter, Farrow's teensy twitter suggests, as other critics have noted, as here and here, how green and unsure of himself is the young man MSNBC hopes to make a star. View the video after the jump.



Watch, listen and weigh in on Farrow's future.

 

RONAN FARROW: We're kind of seeing a sea change because we have the Vanity Fair cover this year which is predominantly black, representing the power players in Hollywood, we have for the first time a black director potentially winning Best Picture. Ah, although, do you think it matter that he's British [laughs nervously]?