Good morning to everyone. My allergies are really bothering me today--I can barely see out of my right eye--and I have to prepare for another wonderful day at that toxic place I call work.
What a wonderful day I have ahead of me!
As I often do, I think about topics for this column during off moments, like on the weekend when I am reading the newspaper and eating breakfast.
One story popped out at me this weekend, and while it is just one of a number of similar stories--and I hadn't really planned to talk about this subject--I feel that I must go against my better judgment, and write about a topic that I really don't want to get into.
Singer/Actress Jennifer Holliday pulled out of performing at this Friday's inauguration because she basically said it would make her look bad in front of many members of her audience.
She stated that since so many people in her audience are gay, LGBT, and people of color, she simply could not perform at this gala, because she would be insulting her audience, the audience that she feels made her into the star she is today.
Look, this is America, and she can do what she wants.
But coupled with the Meryl Streep fiasco at the Golden Globes, don't you think that Hollywood--which preaches inclusion in every breath it takes--is showing what a bunch of hypocrites they really are? Don't you think with recent actions, where many personalities refuse to appear and/or perform at the inauguration, that they, themselves, are preaching exclusion, since performers are pulling out because they worry about their careers if they appear and/or perform?
I just found it so hilarious when Streep took to the stage to accept her award, and in all her bangles, baubles and beads and pricey gown, told the audience and the worldwide audience that was viewing that the side that won the presidential election--she never mentioned the president-elect by name--preached everything that everyone should be against, and that we should not support such a president.
Yes, in all her baubles, bangles and beads.
And her brethren sit there, like robots, and sit at the edges of their seats for every syllable this person says, as if she was quoting from scripture, rather than talking down to not only these fools, but the worldwide audience, she herself spreading distrust and hate with every word she said.
Hollywood has a problem with Donald Trump, and it goes way beyond what they think he stands for.
I do believe that they, in their positions looking down from the ivory towers that success has afforded them, feel betrayed by this guy, who they, at least at one time, thought was one of their own.
Trump has been a ubiquitous presence on the national and Hollywood scene for more than 40 years. He has hobnobbed with the high and mighty, he has been an A-list celebrity, and he was seemingly one of the so-called "elite" in this country for many years, fully accepted by the Hollywood community as one of their own.
Then things abruptly changed. Trump--who has actually appeared on a number of TV shows as himself over the years, including "The Jeffersons"--has his own political reawakening, and felt so strongly about his beliefs, that this kid from Queens, New York, decided to believe what we were all taught as kids, that anybody in this great land can become president, and he decided to do just that.
Sure, many in Hollywood--and us common folk too--thought this was all a joke, but he kept running, and running and running, and based on his beliefs--which were more down to earth than a lot of people thought they could be, including those in Hollywood--he was able to catch the ear of those in the American public who have felt left out during the past eight years.
And he had the nerve to run against another elitist, one who was fully embraced by Hollywood, Hillary Clinton.
Hollywood felt completely betrayed by Trump, because even though they thought he was one of them, he was actually, even with his fortune, not a member of their exclusive club. He spoke to the grassroots, the people that the Hollywood elite could never speak to, only speak down to.
And now he is going to be president on January 20, and well, they feel as betrayed as all heck about this, and have pretty much decided to blackball any of their own who will appear and/or perform at the gala festivities during the inauguration.
This is inclusion?
Yes, the Hollywood crowd is really showing their true colors about this, how phony they really are, and how entitled they truly feel that they are.
I will repeat again what I have already said time and time again.
I am not a Trump lover, but I felt that under the circumstances, he was the candidate that I supported against four more years of Obama, which I do feel we would have gotten with Clinton at the helm.
That would have been four more years of feeling left out, of feeling that my voice wasn't being heard.
Trump is not perfect. Sometimes he puts his emotions before his brain. But he is generally a good man, and the right person to run our country right now, even if he only fulfills a quarter of the promises he made during the campaign.
People tend to forget--or do so purposely--that during the real estate fall during the early to mid 1990s, Trump was just about the only major American real estate figure to actually invest in the United States.
When foreign investors were buying up half of Manhattan and its landmarks, Trump invested his money in America, keeping his dollars on our soil.
That alone does not make him a great man, but it adds to his legacy of putting America first. Sure, he invested his money elsewhere, too, but he put enough money into the U.S. when his fellow real estate magnates were selling off their assets to those with tons of money abroad.
The latest actions by Hollywood show that they do, in fact, talk out of two sides of their mouths, preaching inclusion, yet creating an environment and atmosphere where any of their brethren who decide to take a different tack has to worry about their futures.
Yes, Hollywood is often called Tinsel Town, and they are proving that they are as valid as Christmas tinsel on the tree after the holiday is over.
It is time that these elitists show some respect for the person who is going to be leading this country for the next four years--whether they like it or not.
Show some respect, because right now, the Hollywood elite are acting like brats.
I think, Larry, that you've totally misread the entire situation.
ReplyDeleteStarting with the gown. The Golden Globes lays for the gowns the actresses wear, and while I have no doubt Streep could afford a gown at this stage of her career, you were looking at a woman in borrowed finery lecturing a man who lives in a gilded palace. Though Streep does tell a charming story of a time before the Globes paid for the outfits, when she was still a struggling actress, and she wore what had been her wedding gown to the awards presentation.
You are not a fan of today's movies, or today's stars, and you see everything through that filter. Do you not realize how our attitudes as a society change as a result of what Hollywood presents to us? Acceptance of the LGBTQ community began with sympathetic portrayals of members of that community in film and on TV. And of acceptance of that lifestyle in members of the Hollywood community.
You call Trump a good man, and talk about his investing in NYC years ago. I remember it a bit differently. I remember how he stiffed the union that represented the construction workers who did the actual labor on his buildings, and how my then-boss came back from a deposition of Trump and said he had never met a bigger a**hole. And yes, that was the word he used. And yes, that was long before politics came into the picture.
Funny how the folks who gave us a movie star president and a tv host president want celebrities to sit down and shut up.
At least Reagan was presidential, and maintained his relationships with Hollywood despite his political positions. Though what he and Nancy did to Rock Hudson ...
Trump comes into the White House having lost the popular vote by a huge margin, with approval ratings in the toilet, with more scandals already attached to his name than were attached to Obama in his entire 8 years in office. That's what people should respect?
The hallmark of a vibrant democracy is a very loud, very vocal opposition to the party in power. I hope and pray that people continue to speak out!
People making millions dollars a year based on fake fantasies have nothing to say to me. Their finery is borrowed, owned, whatever it is, it is stuff that the average person will never get near in their lives.
ReplyDeleteThey take advantage of having a international audience in tow to make their rash generalizations. I remember the days when people like this go booed off the stage. Now it is acceptable to be making any political statement you want as long as you have the dais.
No, we do not need the Hollywood elite telling us how to think. You keep bringing up that Trump lost by a wide margin, but he managed to win the key states that he needed to win.
And you certainly don't listen at all to your vaunted president, Barack Obama, who told you to respect Trump and respect the office he is moving into.
No, I don't need Hollywood to tell me how to think. Perhaps you also sit on th edge of your seat to hear what they have to say, but their judgment really isn't anything I personally need to hear.
And, Robin, you talk nothing about the exclusionary tactics Hollywood and other factions are trying to create for those who do participate in the festivities. That is just plain, 100 percent wrong, and shows what true hypocrites these people are. This is supposed to be America, where you can speak your mind, where you have the right to go whichever direction you want to go in. Funny, millions and millions of people voted for Trump; what do you say to them, other that you believe that they were wrong in voting for him? We wanted a change from what we got for eight years, and let's at least give Trump a chance to show what he is worth, just like Obama was given. You and millions of others delved right into the media nonsense about Trump, and remember, you basically wrote right here right before the elections that you were expected a Clinton landslide. You never spoke about that, because you 1,000 percent brought into the media's take on this, not the populace's take, which was quite different. There are plenty of people to "blame" for Trump being where he is and Clinton being where she is now; I have spoken about those reasons in the past and won't go that route again. Blame them, if you need to blame anybody, but blame yourself by being taken in my the anti-Trump media.
ReplyDeletesongbird's crazy worldNovember 8, 2016 at 3:22 AM
ReplyDeleteLarry, I'm pretty sure it's not going to be thisclose, and I'm pretty sure I'll be celebrating tonight. But it will be a very interesting night.
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LarryNovember 8, 2016 at 4:05 AM
We shall see.
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songbird's crazy worldNovember 8, 2016 at 7:06 AM
He's set to lose states Mitt Romney won, his path to 270 is very, very narrow. They're going to call the election by 11:20, and there will be joy in the Javits Center.
Furthermore, these Hollywood phonies love freedom of speech and expression as long as it's their own. These fake Liberals have revealed themselves as some of the most hate filled and closed minded people you will ever want to meet, if you are ever allowed into their exclusive club.
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