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The scene: a perfectly pleasant press luncheon at the HBO offices. CHRIS ROCK is holding forth to a room of journalists about his 13 new TV shows--and sex. He says it's always good material. Having effortlessly charmed the room, he takes the last question from Tracii McGregor, an editor at The Source, a hip-hop magazine. She tells Rock that his photo in whiteface in Vanity Fair was jarring to many of her black friends and asks him what was behind it. "I'm a clown. I'm a comedian," Rock says. "Do you want me to be Dick Gregory?" Yvette Russell of Essence joins in, saying the pictures pained the average black person. Rock is not joking anymore. "It's sad that Jim Carrey can do things I'll never be able to do because of people like you," he says. "Part of me is never going to come out because of people's closed minds." Guess those preshow nerves can get to anyone.