Nancy De Los Santos was a winner who kept winding up in no-win situations.
After coming to Los Angeles eight years ago, De Los Santos won six writing competitions sponsored by Hollywood film and television studios. The awards entitled her to join programs for aspiring minority writers.
But at the end of her tour in each program, she was shown the door, with no assignments or jobs following her.
"It was embarrassing," De Los Santos recalled. "I would think, if I keep winning the prizes in these competitions, why hasn't something hit?"
It wasn't until director Gregory Nava made her associate producer last year on his film "Mi Familia" that De Los Santos finally felt she had made good on her aspirations.
"The only way I am here is because of other Latinos," De Los Santos said bluntly.
Increasingly, minorities and women are working in Hollywood, but the upswing is not the direct result of a dedication to affirmative action within the entertainment industry. More often, they are looking to each other and a supportive network of those who are already successful and sensitive to promoting diversity to give them the needed leg up. Even with that, most will point out that it is still a rough road for them simply because of who they are.
Women Make Biggest Gains
Despite a smattering of writing, directing and executive training programs for minorities at production companies, studios and networks, expanding diversity is not much of a motivator in hiring and promotion in Hollywood, according to dozens of interviews with minorities and women who work in television and movies.
"If we understand affirmative action to be addressing the wrongs and ills that have been done previous to a certain point, has Hollywood particularly been a part of initiating that change? I don't think so," said actor Danny Glover, best known for the "Lethal Weapon" movies. "In a very methodical way, they have not. They have not been a part of initiating that change from the outset and don't continue to be."
In films, black directors, actors and writers have made significant strides in recent years, but the most powerful jobs--those of the studio executives and producers who give the go-ahead to projects--largely remain the domain of white males. Latinos have achieved some success in directing and screenwriting but are substantially underrepresented in most other filmmaking positions.
Women have made the greatest gains of all when it comes to movie making. Sherry Lansing, the head of Paramount Studios, is among Hollywood's most powerful figures and increasingly, women are joining the elite of their professions as actresses, producers and directors.
The record in television is similar, with the exception of Latinos, who are largely invisible both in front of and behind the camera.
Gil Avila, executive administrator of affirmative action for the Screen Actors Guild, said, "Affirmative action is definitely not a priority with the entertainment industry."
It was not always that way.
In 1968, after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission held a series of hearings on the status of minorities in Hollywood, the Department of Justice ordered film and television studios to develop and implement minority training programs and provide improved career opportunities for a five-year period. Subsequently, the doors were opened for hundreds of minorities to break into the entertainment industry in all kinds of jobs, Avila said.
But federal monitoring of the industry ceased after 1975, and the few affirmative action training programs that remain are purely voluntary. Economics is the rationale given by studios and networks for phasing out most of them.
"I think a lot of it is probably due to economic constraints, but it also takes some degree of altruism," said Zara Buggs Taylor, who administers employment diversity at the Writers Guild.
Of 2,057 entertainment companies contracting with the guild, just 12 have writing programs aimed at minorities, a number that Taylor called "ridiculously low."
Programs Are No Loss, Some Say
Among the programs axed was a workshop for television comedy writing established 20 years ago at Warners Bros. to provide access to "disadvantaged" writers. Both the studio and the Writers Guild considered it a success since 67% of its graduates were employed in the industry within six months, Taylor said. One black graduate, Winfred Hervey, became an Emmy winner for "Golden Girls" and created her own NBC show, "In the House."
The program was cut in April for cost reasons, said Gus Blackman, its administrator. "I was told the choice was to keep the workshop or keep some employees in place," Blackman said.
Some minorities suggest that the demise of such programs is no loss. They contend that the training actually makes the situation worse by ghettoizing them or consigning them to entry-level wages.
