ABC hiring Fil-Am talents to make up for ‘Desperate Housewives’

WASHINGTON — Hiring Filipino on-camera and behind-camera talents, incorporating dialogues and plot lines to popular ABC-TV shows depicting the contributions of Filipino Americans in the nation’s healthcare system, and including healthcare, arts and advocacy experts as guests in news programs. These are some of the actions the network will take as restitution for the racial slur in a dialogue in a recent “Desperate Housewives" episode, as well as in implementing its diversity policy. The program, which usually draws 20 million Sunday viewers, had one character remarking about fake Philippine medical diplomas. Dr. Fred Quevedo, representing the Association of Philippine Practicing Physicians, stressed the vital role the Philippine medical profession plays in the U.S, noting 80 per cent of doctors and nurses in the nation’s hospitals are Filipino Americans. Steve McPherson, president of ABC primetime entertainment, met with community leaders in the network’s office in Burbank, California last week. McPherson even suggested a plotline for “Boston Legal," about a Filipino American lawyer suing the government for the injustice to Filipino World War II veterans. He requested leaders to send him background materials on this issue. This is not expected to happen overnight, considering the writers’ strike, but community leaders hailed the relationship-building efforts targeted at Filipino Americans. McPherson has won recognition from the Directors Guild of America for his “outstanding commitment to and leadership in the hiring of women and ethnic minorities." He made a commitment to continue building on the relationship with the Filipino American community. In a phone interview Saturday," Jon Melegrito said ABC had asked them “to produce a database, an outreach brochure for ABC/Disney programs containing a talent pool of Filipino American actors, actresses, interns, technicians, and behind-the-camera show runners, such as stage managers, casting identifiers, even scriptwriters, directors and producers." Melegrito is the communications director of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA), based in this U.S. capital. He is forming a task force to produce the brochure. McPherson said ABC-TV would fund the brochure project. Melegrito said the task force would include Wilma Consul, formerly of the National Public Radio (NPR), UC-Berkeley Prof. Oscar Pena-randa, among others.The first meeting on the talent showcase will take place in February or March next year in Los Angeles and New York, Melegrito added. Melegrito said this has prompted California-based community activist Vida Benavides to propose that the community must start a talent pool program. “We can complain all we want to Disney/ABC and other media organizations," she said, “but if our community does not back it up with supporting and promoting the next generation of writers, authors, actors, artists, dancers, choreographers, producers and film/studio talent, then who is going to do that for us?" In his email to the community, Melegrito wrote: “Mc-Pherson acknowledged the ‘Domestic Housewives’ racial slur was ‘a terrible mistake’ and ‘should not have happened.’McPherson also assured the group that scriptwriter Marc Cherry and their Standards and Practices Department, “and everyone who needed to be talked to were talked to," to prevent racial slurs from taking place again. Others present at the meeting were NaFFAA Vice Chair Rozita Lee, NaFFAA Executive Director Armando Heredia, and Karen Narasaki, president of the Asian American Justice Center, who arranged the meeting. Melegrito said NaFFAA would work with AAJC and other organizations to form as Asian Pacific American Media Coalition to monitor top networks – ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox. The goal: To level the playing field, with Asian Americans getting better career opportunities and longer screen time. - Philippine News