The upcoming film “Blind,” starring Alec Baldwin as a novelist who loses his sight in a car crash, has drawn criticism for casting an able-bodied actor as the blind lead. 
 
 The Ruderman Family Foundation, a leading organization advocating for disability rights, spoke out against the film, accusing it of “crip-face” — a comparison to blackface — in having Baldwin portray the main role. The private philanthropic group is known for advocating on behalf of casting disabled actors. 
 
 “Alec Baldwin in ‘Blind’ is just the latest example of treating disability as a costume,” Jay Ruderman, the foundation’s president, said in a statement to the L.A. Times. “We no longer find it acceptable for white actors to portray black characters. Disability as a costume needs to also become universally unacceptable.” 
 
 Last summer, the foundation released findings that reveal although those with disabilities represent almost 20% of the country’s population, 95% of disabled characters on television are played by able-bodied performers. The Ruderman Family also criticized the 2016 romantic drama “Me Before You” for casting Sam Claflin as a young banker who was left paralyzed from an accident. 
 
 The trailer for “Blind” was released Wednesday, and co-stars Demi Moore as a married socialite who cares for Baldwin’s character as part of a plea bargain. The two develop a love affair, leaving Moore’s character to choose between Baldwin’s and her husband. 
 
 The film, directed by Michael Mailer, premiered at the Woodstock Film Festival on Oct. 13. It is scheduled to release worldwide on July 14 by Vertical Entertainment. ||||| In order to promote the Paralympics, most media outlets are featuring actual Paralympians. 
 
 But Vogue Brazil decided to take things in a slightly different, more questionable direction. For their latest photo campaign to promote the games, the magazine Photoshopped two able-bodied models, Cleo Pires and Paulo Vilhena, to look like they had physical disabilities. Photo editors removed Pires' arm and Vilhena's leg to look like actual Paralympians Renate Leite and Bruna Alexandre. 
 
 Both models are reportedly ambassadors for the Brazilian Paralympics committee, and each has posted screenshots of the athletes on their personal Instagram pages. 
 
 The campaign has been loudly criticized by disability advocates and their allies for failing to include actual Paralympians. Many advocates in the community are pushing for increased representation in media, and Vogue Brazil's latest campaign felt both regressive and familiar. 
 
 Even though there are models with those very disabilities @vogue could've featured, they've modeled together too. pic.twitter.com/q7jTCJysTZ — Beth Elderkin (@BethElderkin) August 24, 2016 
 
 Still, others noted that both of the Paralympians were in the studio at the time the cover was shot, and took a photo with the models. 
 
 On her Instagram page, Paralmypian Bruna Alexandre came to the defense of the campaign: 
 
 "Personally, I have been clear that I am so proud to be part of this campaign that the magazine #Vogue began to publish the first pictures of this beautiful work. Our Ambassadors Paralympics Cleo Pires and Paulo Vilhena, helped to intensify and spread the campaign aiming to increase visibility to the Paralympic Movement and gathering the Brazilian fans to be present at the Paralympic Games Rio 2016." 
 
 People with disabilities are some of the most underrepresented in media. A 2016 study by Ruderman White Paper found that 95% percent of characters on the top 10 shows on American television do not have a character with a disability, even though one in five Americans do. 
 
 A 2012 study even found that diversity increases people's willingness to shop. 
 
 The Paralympics run from September 7-18th in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 
 
 BONUS: Corgi tea party ||||| The casting of white British actor Joseph Fiennes as Michael Jackson in an upcoming U.K. film has left fans of the late King of Pop in a state of bewilderment and shock, with many airing their grievances on social media. Fiennes will co-star as Jackson in a movie titled Elizabeth, Michael & Marlon set to premiere later this year. The film is a comedic retelling of a fabled story involving the King of Pop, Elizabeth Taylor, and Marlon Brando on a road trip from New York City to Los Angeles on Sept. 11, 2001. Acclaimed actors Stockard Channing and Brian Cox as Taylor and Brando, respectively, are so pitch-perfectly cast that neither requires much if any further explanation. But Fiennes as Jackson is a whole different story altogether. 
 
 Fiennes spoke about the bizarre project and acknowledged that playing the megastar Jackson would be “a challenge.” The Shakespeare In Love actor also discussed the tone of this bizarre comedy based on a disputed Vanity Fair story about the trio of legends who, unable to secure a flight out of New York on the day of the 9/11 attacks, took their show on the road. 
 
 “I got the script the other day,” Fiennes explained to WENN. “It’s a challenge. It’s a comedy. It doesn’t poke mean fun but it’s a story, possibly urban legend, whereby Michael, Marlon Brando, and Liz Taylor were all together the day before 9/11 doing a concert. Airspace was shut down and they couldn’t get out and Michael had the bright idea to go to hire a car and drive. 
 
 “So the three of them got in a car and drove 500 miles to Los Angeles. It took them a while because they had to stop at a lot of Burger Kings for Marlon, but they got out!” 
 
 Fiennes didn’t say much, however, to address the 500-pound elephant (no, not Brando) in the room: Why was a white actor cast to play an African American entertainer? Even with Jackson’s specific physical attributes at that point in his life—he suffered from vitiligo, which causes the skin to lose its pigment—it’s not beyond reason to consider that there are qualified black actors out there that could convincingly portray Michael Jackson. One has to wonder if there is all that much consideration given to getting this “right” at all, especially when considering these industries’ inherent preference for white faces to sell. 
 
 Of course, this latest bit of questionable casting comes in the midst of a highly visible dialogue on race in mainstream cinema. The lack of diversity among this year’s Academy Award nominees has led to a revamp of the voting system and of the Academy itself, as well as a much larger conversation on opportunities in front of and behind the camera throughout the many tiers of Hollywood. 
 
 While Brits Charlotte Rampling and Michael Caine shrugged off the #OscarsSoWhite campaign (Rampling even said it was “racist against whites”), U.K. star Idris Elba recently spoke to the Houses of Parliament regarding the lack of varied opportunities for non-white actors in British entertainment and how it affected him both as a black fan and as a black actor. 
 
 “Because I never saw myself on TV, I stopped watching TV,” he said. “Instead I decided to just go out and become TV. 
 
 “There wasn’t enough imagination in the industry for me to be seen as a lead,” Elba said. “When you don’t reflect the real world, too much talent gets trashed. Thrown on the scrapheap. Talent is everywhere, opportunity isn’t. And talent can’t reach opportunity.” 
 
 Elba also shared his belief that Hollywood was far ahead of the U.K. regarding opportunities for people of color. 
 
 “I went to America because I was running out of parts,” he said. “The USA has the most famous diversity policy of all: the American Dream. I want that British dream.” 
 
 If Hollywood is the standard-bearer for opportunity, then we should all be deeply concerned about the state of diversity in the film industry. That isn’t intended to be glib, but to convey the gravity of the problem; how deeply we must go to uproot and rectify it. There is both a casual ambivalence and quiet hostility towards broadening the range of opportunities for non-white stars to truly thrive in the mainstream, and things like casting a white man to play Michael Jackson only serve as further proof that there are filmmakers who are deeply determined to tune out the cultural conversation. 
 
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 British actor and Sons of Anarchy star Charlie Hunnam was announced as the lead in the upcoming American Drug Lord, the story of Mexican-American Edgar Valdez Villarreal, who went from Texas high school football star to brutal cartel leader known as “La Barbie.” Villareal’s nickname was attributed to the fact that he had blue eyes and a fair complexion, “like a Ken doll.” 
 
 “It seems not well thought-through to be upset over casting an excellent actor to act as a character with whom he seems to share many physical resemblances,” argued producer Vincent Newman. “I suppose those offended by this would have disqualified Al Pacino from acting as Tony Montana or James Caan as Sonny Corleone. It’s acting after all, and the merit of the choice will be assessed as it is with all casting choices, on the quality and believability of his performance.” 
 
 Pacino’s famously over-the-top faux Cubano Scarface shtick isn’t exactly the best performance to cite as far as white actors tackling “ethnic” characters, but when there is already evidence of clear racial bias in which actors are even considered for roles in the first place, it should be clear why casting Fiennes as the famously pale Jackson or Hunnam as La Barbie raises questions. How many actually black or Latino actors had the opportunity to land these roles? How many producers already know from the first reading of the script that they would prefer to cast white guys who look like non-white guys as opposed to proper black/Latino leads? 
 
 These are questions that recognize how racial biases in casting, green-lighting, and marketing films are as detrimental as flagrant racist contempt. And long after awards season has passed, we’ll be left to answer these questions if we are committed to addressing the disparities that lead to white guys deciding who and what goes on screen. Joseph Fiennes as Michael Jackson is a symptom of a deeper sickness that moviemakers are only now beginning to treat. This movie won’t be the final say on this subject, but as it happens, it adds fuel to a very necessary conversation. Here’s hoping major film studios in both America and Britain pay closer attention to that conversation and do more than pay lip service to those initiating it. 
 
 And here’s hoping we don’t get a Ralph Fiennes cameo as Jermaine.
– A disability rights organization that often takes Hollywood to task for casting able-bodied actors to play the physically challenged is slamming the upcoming movie Blind. The Ruderman Family Foundation faulted Alec Baldwin's portrayal as a novelist who loses his sight in a car crash, reports the Los Angeles Times. Calling the casting of a blind character by an able-bodied actor "crip-face," President Jay Ruderman draws a direct parallel to blackface. Baldwin's casting "is just the latest example of treating disability as a costume," he says in a statement. "We no longer find it acceptable for white actors to portray black characters. Disability as a costume needs to also become universally unacceptable." Neither Baldwin nor director Michael Mailer have commented. Blind co-stars Demi Moore as a married socialite who falls for Baldwin after she begins reading to him as part of community service. Vertical Entertainment released the trailer Wednesday, notes Variety, and the film is set for release on July 14. Last July, the Ruderman foundation released a report showing that although disabled people comprise 20% of the US population, some 95% of disabled roles on TV go to able-bodied actors. Marlee Matlin later told a Ruderman-organized conference, "There is something wrong with this picture," she said, per the Times. "We as an industry keep talking about diversity … but, sadly, when we start speaking about diversity, disability seems to be left out far too often." (One very real struggle for Baldwin: Lyme disease.)