Newsweek: Raven Symone lacks paparazzi "because she is African-American"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8683265/site/newsweek/



Aug. 1 issue - Celebrities gripe about the press all the time, but Raven Symone's hard-luck story was a new one on us: the actress says that at her 19th-birthday party last year, only a single paparazzo showed up. "It was so sad," she says with a laugh. "I mean, I was dressed up and ready to party and not one flash went off. My mom is always telling me not to leave the house with my sweats and T shirts that might have jam from breakfast on them. But I know they don't even know who I am."

Anyone who's stood in line at a supermarket knows who Paris, Jessica, Mary-Kate, Ashley, Hilary and Lindsay are. Too many late nights and too little body fat, a surfeit of fast cash and a bare minimum of clothing have made them tabloid princesses. So why aren't the tabs on a first-name basis with Raven? And why isn't she being hounded by aging men with cameras? This bubbly young Disney star once played the 3-year-old Olivia on "The Cosby Show." (All she remembers is the smell of soul food and cigar smoke.) She has a top-rated cable-TV series ("That's So Raven"), two successful CDs and merchandise with her smiling face in every mall across the country. Still, that face rarely graces the covers of teen, fashion or entertainment magazines, and news of her love life, her shopping habits or how much weight she's gained or lost seems to get no farther than her dressing room.

Could it be—we're just taking a wild guess here—because Symone is African-American, not even close to a size 2 and prefers sweats and T shirts to Dolce Gabbana? "It's understood that African-American celebrities aren't the big deal their white counterparts are in magazines," says Bill Jones, a photographer who regularly shoots celebrities for Ebony, Jet and Essence magazines. "Half of the celebrity photographers I know that aren't black couldn't tell a black celeb if it wasn't Will Smith or Halle Berry. They only know the obvious ones. And even then, there's not a whole lot of interest."

But while she may not be stalked by Jones's colleagues, Symone has a shrewd sense of her girl-next-door appeal. "My fans know I love my cheese grits with shrimp, and I'm not giving them up to be a size 2," she says. "They know I wear a weave to make my hair look right and I don't always look glamorous all the time. I don't even worry about that type of stuff that much. You're not going to see me with clothes that just let everything hang out. And it's not because of my size, but because it's just not me. I think that's what parents like about our show." Symone is also shrewd enough to worry about another kind of overexposure—in the media. "I sort of feel that it's good I'm not all over the place," she says, "because I don't want people to get tired of me. I don't want them rolling their eyes whenever they see me. I'm in it for the long haul."

[MissMillie]

1. She's not ignored because she's black

She's ignored because she's a good girl who keeps her clothes on... which makes her, in newspeak, boring.

[crispini]

2. Yes, she also sounds sensible.

For example, not anorexic. Also boring to the tabs.

[sniffa]

3. i thought it was because she had no taLent

[Tyrone Slothrop]

4. I'm sure that's it

After all, Paris Hilton and the Olsen twins are three of the nation's top talents.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

15. No, she's talented on an Eddie Murphy kind of level.

She's fantastic, and hilarious. Just watch her show. She's very funny.
It's Paris and the Olsens that don't have talent for anything more than anorexia, drinking, smoking, and really bad fashion choices.
Duckie

[Love Bug]

5. She's too nice

If she were thin and dressed like L'il Kim she'd get plenty of attention.

I've seen her show -- it's cute, benign Disney stuff. Pretty harmless.

[Orsino]

6. Could it be becasue the paprazzi...

...take one look at her name, and assume she's a porn star and has already exposed more than they could hope to sell?

Or could it be that they checked her resume, and correctly concluded that almost no one would care?

Or could it be that her pretentious shift to the single name Raven has failed to distinguish her from the horde of one-named poseurs?

Or it could be the talent thing. I hate to bust on an Atlantan, but as a child actress on Cosby she was particularly awful, on a show that had jumped the shark before her arrival.

[Shell Beau]

7. She also isn't nearly as well known as the others.

But ask Will Smith, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Denzel Washington, Oprah Winfrey, Halle Berry, P. Diddy, Beyonce, Janet Jackson, etc, etc, etc. about the paparazzi.

[miss_kitty]

8. who?

:shrug:

[Shell Beau]

9. My point exactly. She isn't very well known.

[Lisa0825]

10. I love Raven:-)

Her show isn't on cable, BTW, it's on a network, though I don't remember which one. I don't have cable, and I watch her on Saturdays. I think she's adorable, and I love that she's not scrawny. Her show is funny, and usually has a good message too. Great show for preteens, teens, and those of us in our second (or third) adolescence.

[cmkramer]

13. It is on cable

It's on The Disney Channel. I believe ABC has reruns of it on Saturday mornings. It's a cute show for kids and tweens.

[Divameow77]

11. Why is she complaining?

She should be grateful that she's not hounded, hopefully her career will be long-lasting.

[WeRQ4U]

12. I think it's because her show sucks

And she's annoying to watch. Besides, aren't there hordes of african-american celebrities with plenty of PR hubub around them?

[SmileyBoy]

14. It's cause she's not a whore.

Who wants to stalk around a decent girl??

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

16. Hmm

I really think it's just because her show really isn't that interesting to watch. And her music is terrible.

:shrug:

[Rabrrrrrr]

17. It's because she's not interesting and her career is irrelevant

and no one relly cares, except maybe a handful of people. Not enough to excite the papparazzi to go take pictures of her.

Nothing to do with skin color - everything to do with popularity and relevance.