TV Guide’s editor-in-chief Debra Birnbaum was in no mood for apologizes as she responded to actress Taraji P. Henson take on the TV Guide cover snub. Oscar nominated actress Henson is one of three leads on CBS’ new drama series Person of Interest. When a TV Guide cover was released Ms. Henson was noticeably missing and she voiced her disappointment on Facebook;
WOW!!!! TV Guide is NOT including me on the cover with my cast members……..I am the female lead of a 3 member cast and I’m not included on the cover!!!!!! Do you see the shit I have to deal with in this business…..I cram to understand!!!!”
Too Fab caught up with TV Guide’s editor-in-chief Debra Birnbaum who strongly defended her decision,
“I made an editorial decision to do a story about the relationship between the two male characters on ‘Person of Interest’ and that’s who I was going to put on the cover. That has been my decision all along, ever since I saw the pilot. We’re certainly fans of Taraji Henson and her storyline on the show was never intended to be the focus of our cover story. I don’t know where there was a misunderstanding about this, but it’s been clear to everyone from the start. I don’t make decisions on who is put and not put on the cover based on race or gender.”
So to get this straight, Person of Interest is a brand NEW show yet TV Guide found it necessary to already exclude one of it’s LEAD characters?? This is their audience’s first introduction to the series and it’s characters and TV Guide purposely thwarted it to suit two out of the three leads. This isn’t an all-star ensemble where you must narrow it down to tell the story. There are ONLY three lead characters!
And secondly, Taraji hinted at gender but never mentioned race..so it’s interesting to see both included in her response. While we maintain that Taraji should take this up with CBS if she’s really mad about it – but Birnbaum’s response shows she is just as guilty as CBS.
What do you think – did Taraji overreact? What about Birnham’s response?
