Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Celebrity Apartheid Week: The Meltdown

When you put your professional and personal life on the forefront, having your every move and word subject to scrutiny when you would rather be left alone becomes a very public curse. It is a by-product of the fame they so desperately want so what are the celebrities to complain about? Words cannot express how not sorry I feel for anyone who has to labour under that burden (for lack of a better word). Prostituting one's personal relationships for all to see, giving your nanny-raised offspring horrible names they will eventually have to change and thinking that because you are a celebrity, your political opinion somehow matters are all symptoms of the attention-grabbing child who never grew up. Each victory and defeat is covered twenty-four hours a day for a watchful audience whose favours can shift on a dime.

And what schadenfreude fun they must have!


Was Alec Baldwin shouty and mean again?

Baldwin’s attack didn’t just end at Palmeri. Baldwin then turned to the photographer and proceeded to call him “a coon,” “crackhead” and “drug dealer.” According to the New York Post, the photographer is a retired detective with the NYPD’s Organized Crime Control Bureau and yes, he is black.

Intellectually, I know I shouldn't be baffled as to why Alec Baldwin's career has not tanked the way some others have. Screaming at one's daughter and calling a photographer any number of racist epithets are fine if you are on the correct side of the political fence. Hell, even your co-stars can afford to be as boorish and rude. YOU'VE EARNED IT, right?

Now one must ask if anyone else had done this, how forgiving would one be? Is it that being a total sack of aggravation is now no longer a faux pas or does one have to be on a certain rung of the social ladder? Probably the latter but I wouldn't be surprised if it's the former. For some reason, appearing on-screen elevates one to the point where anything is permissible. No wonder everyone and his dog is appearing on the most mundane form of pornography there is- the reality TV show. He is hoping to beat some speeding tickets later on. Fame must be a great way to grease some palms.


But being famous doesn't always guarantee a foot in the door:

According to the Louisville Eccentric Observer, after receiving the results of the poll, which The Hill has learned was conducted for the committee by Fred Yang, who formerly worked for Gov. Steve Beshear (D), the DSCC is "reevaluating" their initial "all-in" support for Judd, as it showed Kentucky Secretary of State Allison Lundergan Grimes (D) might be a stronger contender against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)
 Judd's potential challenge to McConnell has picked up steam in recent weeks, as she's met with donors in Kentucky, the DSCC and, reports indicate, Democratic leaders in Washington.

But Democrats in Kentucky remain skeptical of her candidacy, concerned that she could cost them a winnable race due to her liberal political leanings and connections to Obama, which could be toxic in a state that voted for GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney by more than 60 percent in 2012.

It might be because she is totally mad:

On her decision not to have kids with her husband: “It’s unconscionable to breed, with the number of children who are starving to death in impoverished countries.”
- On her comparing mountaintop removal to the Rwandan genocide: “President Clinton has repeatedly said doing nothing during the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 is the single greatest regret of the Presidency. Yet here at home, there is full blown environmental genocide and collapse happening, and we are doing nothing. Naturally, I accept that I set myself up for ridicule for using such strong terms, or perhaps outrage from human victims of slaughter.”
- On fathers giving daughters away at weddings: “To this day, a common vestige of male dominion over a woman’s reproductive status is her father ‘giving’ away her away to her husband at their wedding, and the ongoing practice of women giving up their last names in order to assume the name of their husband’s families, into which they have effectively been traded.”
- On the coal industry, which employees thousands of Kentuckians: “The era of coal plant is over, unacceptable,” she tweeted in October.
- On how Christianity “legitimizes” male power over women: “Patriarchal religions, of which Christianity is one, gives us a God that is like a man, a God presented and discussed exclusively in male imagery, which legitimizes and seals male power. It is the intention to dominate, even if the intention to dominate is nowhere visible.”
- On men: “Throughout history, men have tried to control the means of reproduction, which means trying to control woman. This president is a modern day Attila the Hun.”

You can't make stuff like that up. You just can't. Indeed, her statements should give rise to Feminist Studies Apartheid Week. How much pseudo-intellectual babble can you force out of your mouth before choking on the words?

That these celebrities put themselves out there hoping just one- just one- person would notice that they are not nutty @$$holes is the real kicker. Someone has noticed but if it is any comfort, your Hollywood brethren are not that far behind you.


Also:

Just two photos of Mitt Romney celebrating his 66th birthday with a Diet Coke and party hat



Notice that Adele has not been asked to sing for him. Oh well- many happy returns.


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