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06/10/2008: "Is Hollywood Whitewashing Ethnic Roles?"

In the new movie "Stuck," which opened last week, actress Mena Suvari plays a young woman named Brandi, who, after a night of partying, strikes a homeless man with her car, sending him through her windshield, and leaves him to die.

The plot is based on the real-life story of Texas woman Chante Mallard, who, at age 27, was convicted of murder and evidence tampering, and given 50-year and 10-year concurrent sentences after she hit Gregory Biggs and left him to die stuck in her windshield.

Mallard is African-American. Suvari, the blonde, blue-eyed beauty from "American Beauty" and the "American Pie" movies, is not. But she does wear cornrows to play the role of Brandi.

[ The race of a criminal is highly relevant if we are to spot trends and learn to avoid trouble. This casting is done exactly to prevent any such conclusions. ]

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=4991235&page=1