Will Smith is pretty perceptive. From MSN’s gossip column (one of my guilty pleasures. Also, it looks like that link will expire as soon as new news comes around. How paleolithic of Microsoft):
Meanwhile, in other Diaz news, Will Smith believes the American public isn’t ready to see him lock lips with the “Charlie’s Angels” star, whom he apparently eyed for his leading lady in “Hitch” (the part went to Eva Mendes).
“How are you not going to consider Cameron Diaz?” he’s quoted as saying in the London Mirror. “But Hollywood is nervous about a black man kissing a white woman on screen. That becomes massive news in the US. Outside America, it’s no big deal. But in the US, it’s still a racial issue. Ironically, Hollywood is happy to do it if the film is about racism. But they won’t simply do it and ignore it.”
This reminds me of the Friendly Hostility furor that recently erupted across the webcomics community. (For what it’s worth, I thought the newsbox was cute.)
Oh, well. Maybe someday we Americans will get over ourselves.