Surprise, minorities: Hollywood doesn't like casting us as leads in films, even if that means completely shifting around facts to accommodate white actors.

Although director Spike Lee just dressed down the wizened Clint Eastwood for not including black extras in his WWII dramas, a new ABC News article takes issue with the way Hollywood consistently uses whites to fill major roles written for blacks, Hispanics and Asians. To wit:

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…

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.

Also recently manipulated to remove minorities was 21, the story of an MIT "whiz kid" who went to Vegas and made a killing counting cards. In reality, the student is Asian American, but a white Englishman was cast to play him.

To get an explanation about why minority actors and actresses are being neglected in favor of whites, do what you do every time you have a question about this really demented world: follow the money:

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Getting Oprah to shill your goods is “the gold standard” in marketing and PR. So how come an industry built on busting through the clutter of consumer pitches doesn’t quite understand the Oprah machine? That’s the only reason we could find for AdAge’s expose on the matter. Or maybe top-ranking publicists do get the Oprah/Harpo juggernaut, and this primer on landing your book, lotion, or motor vehicle on her talk show, magazine, or satellite radio program is a waste of copy. But perhaps not.

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Former Republican Congressman JC Watts — who stepped out of politics to run his business, later becoming a correspondent on Fox News and CNN — says CNN and Fox News just don't cover black topics like they could. But that's old news. The new news is that Watts is planning on launching a Black News Network sometime in 2009. No word on who is launching it with him or how he's doing it, but experts estimate it would cost about $100 million to launch a news network and six months to staff it. Comcast has already agreed to carry the channel in Philly, DC, Baltimore, Atlanta, Chicago, and Detroit, most of which have majority-black populations. As nice as this seems, how exactly will a black news network with a staunch Republican at the helm really turn out? Only time will tell, but I'd be happy to take guesses on who will be the O'Reillys, Olbermanns, and Matthews of the new network. [NYP]

OUT WITH THE OLD… About 25 million homes have at least one television set that won't work in nine months, when the our nation's over-the-air TV goes digital. Out of those homes, about 10 million are "completely unready" for the switch, despite a government campaign and "marketing blitz." Blacks and Hispanics "stand to lose a disproportionately high share of access, and extra televisions in kitchens and bedrooms will be more likely to go dark, potentially cutting into the number of people viewing early morning and late-night television." Expect this access gap to get fixed pretty quickly, since the drop in viewership will mess with network execs' money. And they can't have that. [NYT]

Black Enterprise named Oprah Winfrey's Harpo the company of the year in its June issue. In the mag, Oprah talks about her "winning formula." Don't get your hopes up — the No. 1 ingredient is probably, "being Oprah Winfrey."

Randy Jackson has a knack for business, dawg. Word on the street is he's cornering the market on eyeglasses for men with abnormally big heads. His line, which was probably born out of his own lifelong difficulties finding a pair of glasses that didn't dig into his temples, is apparently "flying off the shelves." Says a "retail spokesperson," "The line launched two months ago, and they've been totally overwhelmed with requests. It's hard for men with large heads to get eyeglasses to fit right, so the Randy Jackson line really filled a void. They are so in demand that the only prescription frames harder to get right now are Chanel." No word on whether he's going to expand his line to include glasses for women with big heads and men with extremely tiny faces.

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Barack Obama, Bob Johnson, and Clarence Thomas might not ever really want to be in the same room together, but they can't help it if they're on the same list. For the 45th year in a row, Ebony put together a grand list of the most influential black Americans. It contains the usual and unusual suspects, a whole lot of people I have never heard of, most major black elected officials, and some up and comers. Check out a select sample after the jump.

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Jay-Z has shocked and excited the music industry with his new, innovative deal with concert promoters Live Nation, which is currently handling his "Heart of the City" tour with Mary J. Blige. If you haven't heard the details, Live Nation and Jay are working out a deal worth $150 million, which includes financing for his new label, the Carter Music Group, fees for his current tour, and a $10 million advance for a minimum of three albums in the next ten years. When his last album is due in 10 years, Jay-Z will be 48 years old. Are there are any other rappers out there with the longevity and business acumen to inspire a longterm deal of this magnitude? After the jump, we take a look at some of the more popular rappers and/or moguls in the game and examine whether they have this sort of business deal in their futures… or just think they should.

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Because unity, love and understanding is bad news for a bottom line that demands competition amongst segregated markets, The Wall Street Journal absolutely hated the enlightening, heartfelt, unprecedented speech Senator Barack Obama gave yesterday.

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With the March 29 election that could unseat him quickly approaching, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe is taking the crazy in his country up to 11 while he still can. It was announced yesterday that Mugabe, politician in name but dictator in action, had signed into law a mandate that foreign and white-owned businesses must surrender a majority of their operations to black citizens. Neat!

Unless the Minister of State for Indigenisation and Empowerment alters the share allotment, the law would mean that several banks, mining companies and phone companies — among other foreign businesses — will have to relinquish control.

In case you don't know, this law is similar to one Hitler enacted on Jewish businesses in Germany. It's also somewhat of a progressive step for Mugabe, who used to simply slaughter whites who were richer than him. With a national history like that, it's no wonder the Police Commissioner of Zimbabwe publicly announced he wouldn't hesitate to gun down anyone perpetrating violence come election day later this month.

Currently, Zimbabwe is said to suffer from an awe-inspiring 24,000 percent inflation – which economists say is a low estimate – and an unemployment rate hovering around 80 percent.

Jay-Z, who seems to announce a new business venture every week, is teaming up with Steve Stoute to open an ad agency. The agency, called Translation Advertising, will specialize in helping marketers reach "multicultural" consumers.

Interpublic, the third largest ad agency in the country, will own 49 percent of Translation. Steve Stoute and Jay-Z, the new agency's co-chairman, own the majority stake.

Mr. Carter, in a telephone interview, said he considered his involvement in an agency “part of the natural growth” of his career.

“As an artist, you make music,” Mr. Carter said. “And if you see people who don’t know how to market your music, you get involved in it.”

Otherwise, what you want to accomplish “gets lost in translation,” he added, “no pun intended.”

Jay also recently announced he's developing a hotel chain. Doesn't he ever get tired? I mean, I know he occasionally flies to the French Riviera for a few days and lies on a yacht with Bey. I guess that's enough. [NYT]

• White women are beating black women to the boardroom, according to a new report. Gee, that information must have been so hard for researchers to acquire. [NPR]

• Oh, please. Go tell it to a community that needs more teenage pregnancy and fatherless children and grandmothers-turned-guardians, because this one ain't it. [SFC]

• See! [FWST]

• Most blacks think the NYPD cops — who shot up the car (and body) of Sean Bell as he left a strip club with his boys the night before his wedding — are guilty. I just don't understand how they could come to that conclusion. [NYDN]

• Old-school civil rights joins new-school gay rights. [QT]

Jay-Z's dwindling record sales and unsure future at Def Jam might be getting the already business-minded rapper/exec into an even more entrepreneurial state of mind. Rumor has it Jay has plans to open a chain of luxury hotels called J-Hotels.

The Def Jam president has secured a development site in Chelsea to build the 150,000 square-foot luxury hotel that will serve as the flagship for a planned expansion into other cities.

According to GlobeSt.com, the site was purchased by Jay-Z partners Charles Blaichman of CB Developers and Abram Shnay, along with son Scott Shnay, of SK Development Group in two separate transactions – the acquisition of the base site for $51 million, followed by the acquisition of the air rights for $15.4 million, totaling $66.4 million.

The J-Hotel will be located in the gallery district between 10th and 11th avenues at 510 W. 22nd St., also known as 511 W. 21st St.

I hope he knows in advance that it will probably hurt business if Memphis Bleek and Beanie Sigel are loitering in the lobby.

• Attending holiday toy giveaways sponsored by black organizations = not racist. [AP]

• Is I Am Legend just a bunch of Barack Obama propaganda disguised as a blockbuster? [FN]

• Wal-Mart's supporting more minority- and women-owned businesses. [BE]

• There's not much I can say about the new show Clash of the Choirs except that I'm thankful Kelly Rowland's getting some work. [MG]

• And today's VPT (very poor taste) Award goes to Extra TV, TMZ, and many others.