My personal opinion of Miss Tyra has taken a nosedive in the last several years. To me her self-involved talk show is only watchable via clips on The Soup and the appeal of America's Next Top Model has evaporated. But then, I'm old. These days my tastes run more towards TV Land's "She's Got the Look". I guess I just prefer that my crying model wannabes have stretch marks.
That said, I was surprised to see her name dropped with the likes of Oprah and Martha in The New York Times Magazine. Clearly she's doing something right, even if I don't quite get it.
The article itself is mildly interesting and worth a look if you are at all interested the lace-front mogul.
This bit caught my eye:
From her two shows, Banks makes an estimated $18 million a year, and her net worth is around $75 million. She owns 25 percent of “Top Model” and last fall Bankable Productions signed a deal to develop projects for Warner Brothers television. Their first project is “The Clique,” based on the national best-selling series about a group of preteen girls from the wealthy suburbs of New York. True to Banks’s practical nature, “The Clique” will be produced on a low budget and will be sold only as DVDs, avoiding the costs (and risks) of theatrical distribution.
I remember Tyra saying to Essence Magazine that she was going to use her power in the industry to create rolls for underemployed black actresses. I just wonder if that power will ever create something more exciting than cheaply produced direct-to-video movies and reality shows.
Is there any black actor or celebrity in the industry actually powerful enough to make the kind of film that I want to see? Something that's not Soul Plan or a biopic or something starring a Wayans brother or a black man in a dress?