The word from PR land today (actually, from The Wrap, our favorite industry site): Jennifer Lopez has been cast alongside Cameron Diaz in an “adaptation”–more like an “inspired by-ation”–of the classic parenting book, What to Expect When You’re Expecting. Now, why is this important?
It’s important because it isn’t important…and that’s good news.
Y’see, we don’t usually cover casting news. There are plenty of other web sites and TV shows that do that, and frankly we think it’s kind of silly. Half of the casting news is wishful thinking… to begin with; the other half is about movies or TV shows that are years away from release; by the time it actually happens you’ve either forgotten that first bit of buzz way back when, or the person we announced isn’t actually in that movie at all anymore. It happens.
But sometimes casting news tells us something about what’s happening, trendily speaking, in the wider world of entertainment. And this Lopez news is an example of that.
Look at it this way: a major movie starring two people named “Lopez” and “Diaz” would have been huge news even a dozen years ago–back when there were very, very few Latinos out where you could see them, and plenty with a Latino heritage who were actually keeping that a secret. Back when the only brown skins you saw were maids, illegal immigrants, gangbangers, and South American drug lords (or the strung-out wives of South American drug lords).
Admittedly, What to Expect…is not like to be a triumph of American film making; it certainly hasn’t got a Latino plot or hook to be seen, and both Ms. Diaz and Lopez will probably be playing blandly Europeanated characters (i.e., Lopez in The Wedding Planner or The Back-up Plan; Diaz in…well, everything she ever made.)
But that’s exactly the point. Latinas can now be cast in movies where ethnicity is not an issue. They don’t have to pretend to be a Donaldson instead of Diaz, or Lawrence instead of Lopez. And people don’t care anymore–not for movies like this. They just want good, and when they look at women like Cameron and Jennifer, they don’t see LATINA, they see LIKEABLE, or FUN, or FUNNY or HOT.
There need to be a lot more movies and TV shows that celebrate the Latino culture, no question about it. But there’s a great benefit to just being there, being part of the wider American culture, and taking on roles in projects that not so long ago were quietly, coldly labeled WHITES ONLY.
So that’s why we did the casting news this once. Just this once.
