Vanity Fair unveils 2014 Hollywood Issue featuring biggest display of diversity in its cover history

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Julia Roberts poses with (fromt lef) Chiwetel Ejiofor, Idris Elba and George Clooney on the March cover of Vanity Fair

Vanity Fair released a sneak peek of its 20th annual Hollywood Issue on Monday, and it may be the most groundbreaking one yet.
The magazine has apparently taken steps toward emphasizing the diversity of Hollywood. For the first time since it began putting out the annual special in 1995, six of the 12 celebrated thespians gracing the 2014 cover are not white.
The magazine has come under fire in the past for an apparent lack of diversity. Just a few years ago, as Buzzfeed has pointed out, a 2010 the cover featured nine actresses — all white, thin and under 40 years old.
Over the years the annual selection has included one or two minority actors -- such as Angela Bassett in 1995, and Lucy Liu and Salma Hayek in 2004 -- but this year’s edition shows how expansive the African-American film scope has grown across several genres.

Annie Leibovitz exclusively for Vanity Fair

(From left): Chiwetel Ejiofor, Julia Roberts, Idris Elba, George Clooney, Michael B. Jordan, Jared Leto, Lupita Nyong’o, Naomie Harris, Brie Larson, Chadwick Boseman, Margot Robbie and Léa Seydoux.

Among those featured on the three-panel foldout are many of Hollywood’s most heralded actors of the past year, including Oscar nominees Julia Roberts, for “August: Osage County,” Jared Leto, who is the front-runner in his Best Supporting Actor category for “Dallas Buyers Club,” and Chiwetel Ejiofor and Lupita Nyong'o from “12 Years A Slave.”
The other prominently featured actors - Michael B. Jordan from notable Oscars snub “Fruitvale Station,” Idris Elba, who played Nelson Mandela in “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom,” George Clooney, and “42” star Chadwick Boseman, and actresses Brie Larson of indie darling “Short Term 12,” Elba’s “Mandela” costar Naomi Harris, “Wolf of Wall Street” leading lady Margot Robbie and Léa Seydoux, of “Blue Is the Warmest Color,” have all received critical acclaim on the festival circuit for their various films -- whether at Cannes, Sundance or others