Riding high on her 2009 movies Star Trek and Avatar, Zoe Saldana is white hot these days, so we have a special Saldana edition of CelebWatch. Yesterday she used some of that cache to help efforts with the Haiti relief, and also talked a bit about her future with Trek (and Avatar). Zoe has also recently been getting some ‘snub’ buzz too. All that plus some new Zoe photo shoot images!
Zoe helps Haiti + happy to be employed by Trek and Avatar
Last night Zoe Saldana co-hosted the Have a Heart Haiti fundraiser with Emilie Hirsh and Michelle Rodriguez. While there she talked with E! about her upcoming work, saying (with a laugh):
I mean, I’m just grateful that between Star Trek II and Avatar II, I’m employed.
Although the Star Trek sequel is set for Summer 2012, Avatar appears further off, but Zoe noted.
Jim [Cameron] has proven once again that even though he takes a decade between his projects, he promises to deliver you the most amazing adventure ever
Zoe tells the crowd "Give whatever you can, but f—ing give something, I know we can do it!"
Money from the event went to the One Race Foundation’s ‘Operation Baby Formula’ to help feed kids in Haiti (visit the site to donate).
And here is a PSA that Zoe did for Haiti for the Red Cross
Zoe snubbed by Academy? — and Vanity Fair?
This week we have reported on the ‘snub buzz’ for the Star Trek movie not getting a best picture nomination from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, but Trek isn’t alone. There has also been some talk that Zoe Saldana has been ignored this awards season for her work in Avatar, possibly due to a prejudice. No, not a racial thing, but a bias for ‘real’ people. Some feel that the new motion capture technology is keeping the award shows from recognizing the work of Saldana and others. Even though Avatar picked up nine Oscar nominations, producer Jon Landau expressed his feelings about the lack of recognition:
I’m very disappointed. I think that her (Zoe’s) performance in the movie is extraordinary . Eric Stoltz wins a nomination for ‘The Mask,’ where he’s wearing prosthetics. What we created was the 21st century version of prosthetics. It is Zoe’s performance that you see up on the screen.
And that isn’t the only snub buzz for Zoe this week. A number of people in the media have noticed something on the latest cover of Vanity Fair touting "The New Hollywood", can you spot it?
Carey Mulligan, Kristen Stewart, Abbie Cornish, Mia Wasikowska, Amanda Seyfried, Rebecca Hall, Emma Stone, Evan Rachel Wood, and Anna Kendrick
Many feel that Vanity Fair has a monochromatic view of ‘New Hollywood’ and excluded up and coming actresses of color. E! asks "Where are……stars like Gabby Sidibe or Zoe Saldana?". Gossiponthis says "[Zoe] doesn’t make the “New Hollywood” list? Something doesn’t seem right here." Australia’s ABC says "the obvious choice to replace some of the sallow starlets would be Avatar’s Zoe Saldana" Click here for more articles on Vanity Fair’s cover and lack of Saldana and other non-Caucasian actresses.
Zoe spotting in Mexico
Finally, Zoe was recently spotted in Mexico on a photo shoot, wearing a variety of bikinis. Check out the photos at PopSugar and DailyMail.
Zoe cooling off at photo shoot in Mexico
The only reason I can think of (apart from a very blinkered world view) is that they consider Zoe to already be streets (or light years) ahead of those other girls because she was in 2 of the biggest grossing films last year and she’s also apart of another franchise like the “Pirates of the Carribbean” films.
I hope that is the reason… that’s she’s too good for the list.
Too bad she was only in the first PotC… :-(
1.
Yeah, I agree with you, Zoe’s not an up and comer, she’s arrived. Everywhere you turn there’s another movie she’s in.
To me, one of the wonderful things about the Star Trek world is that it is more accepting and embracing of diversity than our real one!
I love that Vanity Fair has suddenly become blind to anything but white.
Zoe is a babe an all but I have to admit to finding TOS Nichelle hotter. I know that just sounds like I’m being fussy!
“Zoe spotting in Mexico”
I read that completely differently :O
She’s such a babe.
6
Have to admit that’s been my thought all through the process of the last few years also.
6. & 9. Yeah, Season 1 TOS Uhura was amazingly good looking.
There have been list like this by Vanity Fair before and look where most of them are.
Zoe, agreed, is light years ahead of these gals.
Way to go Zoe!
Do any of the committee members have a thing against Star Trek?
“Carey Mulligan, Kristen Stewart, Abbie Cornish, Mia Wasikowska, Amanda Seyfried, Rebecca Hall, Emma Stone, Evan Rachel Wood, and Anna Kendrick”
LOL! They want Zoe Saldana on that list? Are they out of their minds? She’s beyond “new talent” lists. What’s she now… like triple-A? I mean, she’s the female lead in the biggest blockbuster of all times. She literally saves the film from total boredom. An up-and-coming talent? What?
The media does so love to throw around hot charged words like “snub”.
I think Zoe may be a victim of a type of snobbery that raised its ugly head in the early days of television: That acting on television was somehow considered an inferior form of the art. Of course, back then, Hollywood actually felt threatened by the emerging medium and actively fanned the flames of that snobbishness to the point where I could see how it could be perceived as a genuine snub.
The problem with actors dissing this acting in AVATAR is that, for it to make any kind of sense, their pov of what they do has to be extremely narcissistic. They have to believe that what the celluloid captures of their performance is simply because they emerge from the shower freshly cleansed and simply act what we see onto the film. They don’t look good up there because they have benefit of a makeup crew, costuming crew, lighting crew, sound crew, photography crew, etc. No, they are naked out there and we, the audience, perceive them has being appropriately costumed, in the proper setting, etc. because they merely sell it with a skill worthy of The Emperor’s new tailors.
I find Landau’s equating it to prosthetics an apt comparison.
What else do you expect from hollywood ? The land of ‘fake-ness’.
13 is absolutely right.
How do we know Zoe wasn’t just too busy? She may not QUITE be Hollywood A-list, though she is in our books (i.e. she’s def Rigel IV A-list), but she’s above those women and well on her way.
Vanity Fair? They still print that?
Oh well, at least it’s well named. It’s all about Vanity. And it’s only for the Fair-Skinned.
Soooooooooooooooo, WHERE IS NAACP on this? WHERE is LA RAZA? Where’s Jon Stewart? WHERE ARE ALL THE Diversity Nazis on the Liberal Leftwing Side now, eh? Those Hollywood types that are all lefter than left…. Where’s AL SHARPTON AND JESSE JACKSON? And many trekmovie posters who’ll Bash Bush at a moment’s notice? Where’s George Clooney (other than asking for all their phone numbers)? It’s okay to be concerned about non-whites in Darfur, but dare we EVER see any non-whites in Hollywood. After all, Hollywood is part of Occupied Aztlán, taken illegally in an unprovoked war by Anglos on the peace-loving peoples of the Mexican province of Alta California!
Meh.
Is just me, or does she seems to be too skinny.
Zoe’s (gorgeous) looks aside, her performances in both Trek and Avatar were more than capable. I think she is destined for real greatness.
Right wing rants. Meh.
I think Zoe Saldana is beyond this list too. I’ve never heard of any of these women, though admittedly I’ve been in China for half a decade and am a bit out of the pop culture loop.
It is striking though how these women are not just white, they are ultra-white, like they were bleached for the cover shoot.
Zoe, Zoe, Zoe!!! I much prefer ZoeWatch to ShatWatch – haha! Agree with that comment about the pics. Way too white bread! Reminds me of Cheers, where the only people of color ever on that show were extras sitting in the out of focus areas of the bar.
BTW, I’d like to know more about that actress who told McCoy to sit down and shut up. That spitfire was REALLY my cup of tea! : D
#21 – I agree!! She needs to return. Maybe even spar with Bones again as a Security Officer.
#14: “The media does so love to throw around hot charged words like “snub”.”
People seem to eat it up with a spoon, though. *sigh*
#6 – Totally with you. Nichelle was way better looking.
Forget whether Zoe was “snubbed”. The cover alone is alarming in that out of 9 young rising actresses in Hollywood, they are all lily white. Zoe is not the only black actress who should be included in such a list, so it is unlikely a personal jab at her. But I would seriously question why there are no women of other ethnicities represented on the cover from Hollywood’s up and comers.
Without doing a little more research, I would not immediately place the blame solely on Vanity Fair, any more than I would blame the media for reporting only beautiful women in the Miss America pageant. The bigger problem here is who Hollywood is casting in the most successful films and which films multiracial audiences are embracing.
#20, I too was struck by how bleached these girls look, but this could easily be an artistic statement, either emphasized for a stylized look which VF is known for, or possibly making a political statement about this group. Another reason I am willing to give VF a pass, it is hardly a conservative publication, much less racist.
Best picture? Star trek?? LOL
#19 I think you said it best.
I always new Vanity Fair was racist lol
wats next for them…an article on lynching?
If any of those women is above 30, then I think she was snubbed.
If they made intentional choice of age below a certain point, I think that’s a fair choice.
The problem is that people don’t really “see” Zoe Saldana in Avatar. They only see a blue alien woman. The male lead is at least also shown as a human.
I watched Avatar in the cinema with some of my friends and no one of them knew who was “behind” the blue CGI woman.
I think that because you don’t really see the her, the Academy probably think that Zoe Saldana is interchangeable with other actresses. That if she wouldn’t be available for the sequel, it wouldn’t matter, because they could easily choose another actress with a similar build.
17. Daoud:
“Soooooooooooooooo, WHERE IS NAACP on this? WHERE is LA RAZA? Where’s Jon Stewart? WHERE ARE ALL THE Diversity Nazis on the Liberal Leftwing Side now, eh? Those Hollywood types that are all lefter than left…. Where’s AL SHARPTON AND JESSE JACKSON? And many trekmovie posters who’ll Bash Bush at a moment’s notice? Where’s George Clooney (other than asking for all their phone numbers)? It’s okay to be concerned about non-whites in Darfur, but dare we EVER see any non-whites in Hollywood. After all, Hollywood is part of Occupied Aztlán, taken illegally in an unprovoked war by Anglos on the peace-loving peoples of the Mexican province of Alta California!”
If I had written the progressive flip-side to this, I feel fairly certain that it would be censored.
Diversity Nazis? really?
17
“Hollywood is part of Occupied Aztlán, taken illegally in an unprovoked war by Anglos on the peace-loving peoples of the Mexican province of Alta California!”
dude wtf have you been smokin?
Daoud
warning for political trolling
I heard about the Vanity Fair thing!!! Made me so mad!! She and America Ferrera were supposed to be on the cover, but no, they didn’t make the cut… Hm.. Now what’s that all about? Fff. Mono-chromatic, for sure!!
That’s why its called “Vanity Fair”, folks. Pale-skinned+superficiality= Vanity Fair.
right, then… back to ZOE!! I LOVE HER!!! (heart)
Zoe is beautiful, inside and out.
Society white girls have nothing on Zoe!
I’m sure she would not feel snubbed.
wow that Vanity Fair picture is all white women hmmmmmm!
i was hoping she was going to be Jack Sparrow’s love interest in the sequel to the first Pirates, now that would have been great!
Zoe could never fill out the red skirt like NIchelle. Zoe is very pretty but Nicelle was truly beautiful. Plus I’m turned off by pretty girls with nasty mouths. Still, I enjoy watching her in the new movie.
Thats the thing- Nichelle would never swear. Too classy.
And as Uhura she had a certain aura that Zoe’s Uhura hasn’t yet demonstrated. She just come’s off as self-centred and unprofessional. I hope they put that right next time round.
40-
She seems like she’s stoned in TOS. I’m not sure I miss that Aura as fondly.
She wasn’t snubbed, she just wasn’t that good.
41 LOL Really? Goda remember it was the 60’s. A lot of LDS was being used. ;-D
Suggestions of movies and actors being snubbed is tacky and in poor taste.
How about a little class and just not go there.
Coule it be that she isn’t really that great. People look at this movie as the second coming or hate it. For me it was an ok popcorn flick that couldn’t hold a candle to the original. The actors were ok but nothing special.
Zoe Saldana is cool, she’s really pretty too
18. yes, she does seem to be a little over-skinny, let’s just hope she’s not going anorexic or something, that would suck