Last Wednesday, The Help (an adaptation of Kathyrn Stockett’s novel that stars Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, and Bryce Dallas Howard) arrived in theaters and did fairly well by landing in second place with $26 million in box-office receipts. Of course, neither the book nor the movie are entirely accurate depictions of the subject matter (the lives of black domestic workers serving white households in 1950s Mississippi) at hand; to be fair, however, the story doesn’t even slightly pretend to be a cumulative historical presentation of the Civil Rights Era by any stretch. Still, it’s bound to ruffle feathers that the book features a young, privileged white girl in her efforts to gather up the stories of the black maids in her town. While the movie does take great pains to reframe the story as being more about the two main black characters, Abileen and Minny, instead of having the white girl “save” them, it’s still not exactly cinematic history in the works. Even if, essentially, The Help was only meant to be a summery beach read, I can definitely see why certain black stereotypes presented in both the book and the movie would upset the Association of Black Women Historians, and they have penned a letter as such:

On behalf of the Association of Black Women Historians (ABWH), this statement provides historical context to address widespread stereotyping presented in both the film and novel version of The Help. The book has sold over three million copies, and heavy promotion of the movie will ensure its success at the box office. Despite efforts to market the book and the film as a progressive story of triumph over racial injustice, The Help distorts, ignores, and trivializes the experiences of black domestic workers. We are specifically concerned about the representations of black life and the lack of attention given to sexual harassment and civil rights activism.

During the 1960s, the era covered in The Help, legal segregation and economic inequalities limited black women’s employment opportunities. Up to 90 per cent of working black women in the South labored as domestic servants in white homes. The Help’s representation of these women is a disappointing resurrection of Mammy–a mythical stereotype of black women who were compelled, either by slavery or segregation, to serve white families. Portrayed as asexual, loyal, and contented caretakers of whites, the caricature of Mammy allowed mainstream America to ignore the systemic racism that bound black women to back-breaking, low paying jobs where employers routinely exploited them. The popularity of this most recent iteration is troubling because it reveals a contemporary nostalgia for the days when a black woman could only hope to clean the White House rather than reside in it.

Both versions of The Help also misrepresent African American speech and culture. Set in the South, the appropriate regional accent gives way to a child-like, over-exaggerated “black” dialect. In the film, for example, the primary character, Aibileen, reassures a young white child that, “You is smat, you is kind, you is important.” In the book, black women refer to the Lord as the “Law,” an irreverent depiction of black vernacular. For centuries, black women and men have drawn strength from their community institutions. The black family, in particular provided support and the validation of personhood necessary to stand against adversity. We do not recognize the black community described in The Help where most of the black male characters are depicted as drunkards, abusive, or absent. Such distorted images are misleading and do not represent the historical realities of black masculinity and manhood.

Furthermore, African American domestic workers often suffered sexual harassment as well as physical and verbal abuse in the homes of white employers. For example, a recently discovered letter written by Civil Rights activist Rosa Parks indicates that she, like many black domestic workers, lived under the threat and sometimes reality of sexual assault. The film, on the other hand, makes light of black women’s fears and vulnerabilities turning them into moments of comic relief.

Similarly, the film is woefully silent on the rich and vibrant history of black Civil Rights activists in Mississippi. Granted, the assassination of Medgar Evers, the first Mississippi based field secretary of the NAACP, gets some attention. However, Evers’ assassination sends Jackson’s black community frantically scurrying into the streets in utter chaos and disorganized confusion–a far cry from the courage demonstrated by the black men and women who continued his fight. Portraying the most dangerous racists in 1960s Mississippi as a group of attractive, well dressed, society women, while ignoring the reign of terror perpetuated by the Ku Klux Klan and the White Citizens Council, limits racial injustice to individual acts of meanness.

We respect the stellar performances of the African American actresses in this film. Indeed, this statement is in no way a criticism of their talent. It is, however, an attempt to provide context for this popular rendition of black life in the Jim Crow South. In the end, The Help is not a story about the millions of hardworking and dignified black women who labored in white homes to support their families and communities. Rather, it is the coming-of-age story of a white protagonist, who uses myths about the lives of black women to make sense of her own. The Association of Black Women Historians finds it unacceptable for either this book or this film to strip black women’s lives of historical accuracy for the sake of entertainment.

[From 40 Acres.com via ONTD]

Does the association have a legitimate point? Probably so, but I still don’t feel that the book’s author meant for her work to have any serious implications other than possibly opening the eyes of a few readers. It’s a tough one to call, really. Overall, I don’t find either the book or the movie to be overly offensive towards blacks, but my opinion in this matter doesn’t hold much credence for the simple fact that I’m not black. While the dialect used both in the book and the film is an obvious problem, it’s also rather vindicating that the heroes in this story are the black domestic workers. Yes, the book is about racism, but I don’t know if we should go so far as to label it racist in and of itself. Thoughts?

Movie stills courtesy of AllMoviePhoto

It’s already sort-of known that Paris Hilton is a racist. (I say sort-of because a lot of people have forgotten it.) In one of the videos unearthed by that “Paris Exposed” site in 2007, Paris is shown dancing at a party or club with her sister, Nicky, and making an awkward reference to their skills by saying “we’re like two n-words.” (You can watch the video here.) On that tape, she also calls a guy the anti-gay f word and calls some girl she doesn’t like a “f’cking hoodlum whore, broke, poor bitch from like Compton. Public school bitch.” It’s dumb, racist and bigoted, but I guess we can’t expect much more from this girl. A new book has come out by Neil Strauss dishing on some of the things he’s witnessed interviewing the rich and famous. He details an interview with Paris Hilton in 1999, when she was just 18 and bragged about getting a boob job at 14 (but supposedly being made to take them out by her mom) and how she rejected a hook up with Vin Diesel because she thought he was black. She was of age, but Vin Diesel is 13 years older than she is and would have been 31 at the time.

HILTON: I went out with that guy last night.
Which guy?
HILTON (points to an actor in Saving Private Ryan): We were making out, but then we went somewhere where it was bright and I saw that he was black and made an excuse and left. I can’t stand black guys. I would never touch one. It’s gross. (pauses). Does that guy look black to you?
How black does a guy have to be?
HILTON: One percent is enough for me.

[From LA Weekly via The Superficial]

I’m sure Diesel didn’t want to catch the herp either, but maybe Paris hadn’t contracted it at that point. (Doubtful.) So not only is she a racist fool, she’s also dumb enough to turn down a hook up with Vin Diesel because he looks possibly black. It boggles the mind that someone could be that bigoted. Chances are that most of her family members are raging racists too. Dumb bitch had to learn it somewhere.

Paris is shown on 3/1, and on 3/18/11 with her high BFF, Brooke Mueller. She’s not looking pregnant anymore, thank God. Credit: WENN.com. Vin Diesel is shown on 11/4/10 in Rio. Credit: Fame Pictures

Last Thursday night, John Galliano was arrested and held briefly for assault and anti-Semitic hate speech in Paris. Eyewitnesses and victims claimed that Galliano had said various crap about Asians, Jews and handbags, but Galliano’s rep pulled a Lohan and crack-denied all of that junk. Well… it turns out that Galliano really is a total dirt bag racist/anti-Semite. Shocking, I know. I shall call this “The Full Gibson”:

Drunk off his ass. For real. He’s slurring and making little drunk bitchfaces. Not that being drunk excuses saying “I love Hitler.” I mean, Mel Gibson didn’t even say that!

John Galliano’s troubles may have multiplied over the weekend as a second complaint of alleged anti-Semitism was formally lodged against Dior’s chief designer – and a bombshell video surfaced showing the designer declaring: “I love Hitler.”

On Friday, Galliano was suspended by Dior following his overnight arrest on charges of assault and making anti-Semitic and racial remarks to a couple during a reputed sparring match in the Paris café La Perle.

The undated video obtained and posted online by Britain’s Sun is said to have been filmed in the same café but not on the same evening as Galliano’s arrest.

In the cell-phone video, the designer, appearing to be seated at a bar, is seen insulting people. Slurring his words, he tells them, “People like you would be dead. Your mothers, your forefathers, would all be f—ing gassed.”

During the Thursday night incident that led to arrest of Galliano, 50, and prompted a police probe, the designer allegedly assaulted a woman, pulled her hair and told her she had “a dirty Jew face.” He also reportedly hurled racial slurs at her companion, who is of partial Asian ethnicity.

Over the weekend, a second police complaint was lodged against Galliano, when a 48-year old woman came forward, asserting he had subjected her to a similar tirade at the same locale on Oct. 9. Several eyewitnesses from this earlier episode have confirmed to PEOPLE the authenticity of her charge.

On Monday afternoon, police in Paris’s third arrondisement (municipal district), where the incidents allegedly occurred, convened a hearing to draw together all the parties and their attorneys.

Though none of those allegedly on the receiving end of Galliano’s outbursts are, in fact, Jewish, under French law the making of anti-Semitic remarks qualifies as “incitement to racial prejudice,” a criminal offense that potentially carries a sentence of up to six months in prison.

[From People]

Okay, so this looks bad. This is the kind of “holy crap” moment where you’re going through your mind’s fashion files to think about which celebrity women always wear Galliano for Dior, and whether or not they too are horrible drunk anti-Semites. That’s where it’s going next – people are going to look at some of the major celebrities who have worked with Galliano over the years, and those celebrities are going to be asked, “Did you know Galliano was so horrible?” Imagine asking Nicole Kidman that. Or Charlize. Or Marion Cotillard.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

John Galliano is the new Mel Gibson. Only French English, and fancy, with a pirate mustache. Just FYI, in case you don’t know who John Galliano is – he’s the chief designer for the house of Christian Dior. He’s responsible for so many of the most exquisitely detailed gowns of the past two decades – like this one, one of my all-time favorites. But anyway…according to multiple sources, Galliano had some kind of Mel Gibson-esque breakdown in Paris last night when he started screaming at a couple outside of a café. He was screaming some anti-Semitic stuff, which kind of makes me wonder what is French for “oven-dodger” (one of Mel’s favorites, as told by Winona Ryder).

Designer John Galliano, who helms Christian Dior’s house, was briefly arrested in Paris on Thursday night for alleged assault and making anti-Semitic remarks, the AFP reports.

The incident occurred at a cafe in the Marais district where Galliano started yelling at a couple. A police source told the AFP, “For the moment we don’t know what led him to address the couple. We don’t yet know if they knew each other or not.”

Another police source told the Telegraph, “Witnesses said [Galliano] swore heavily, using anti-Jewish insults, before attacking a couple. Both have provided witness statements, as have a number of other people at the bar, including staff.”

Galliano was then taken back to the police station for a sobriety test and was determined to be slightly over the legal limit. According to Reuters, police accompanied him home and filed no charges, and, “One policeman said the outburst was prompted by stress ahead of fashion week, which starts next Monday and at which Dior’s show is always in the spotlight.”

Galliano was also in the spotlight this week after being announced as Kate Moss’ wedding dressmaker.

[From HuffPo]

I always forget that in some parts of the world, hate speech is against the law. So… is John Galliano some kind of horrible anti-Semite and no one has ever realized it before? Was he just drunk? Exhausted? Eh. I hate using alcohol or exhaustion as excuses for this kind of stupidity. You know what happens when I drink? I never make racial slurs. You know what happens when I’m really tired and stressed out? I never make racial slurs. So… is this just some isolated incident or are we going to find out that one of the most important designers in the world is a flaming anti-Semite?

Photos courtesy of WENN.

These are new photos of Charlie Sheen, back at work yesterday. I guess we’re just supposed to pretend that Charlie’s coked-out rampage was just a minor blip? Sure. Ugh… look at him smiling. Like he locks naked hookers in his closet every day (he probably does). Speaking of, Radar is back to claiming that Charlie Sheen’s “date” for his Monday evening, drunken, coked-out freakout was, in fact, a hooker. In addition to being a porn star, I guess. She does it for money, AND she does it on camera. Sources tell Radar that Charlie was paying this Capri Anderson chick $12,000 for the night… which seems about right, I guess? Too much? I’ll admit, I have no idea what the going rates are, but for $12,000 cash, my guess is that many women who touch the Sheen Dong. Also: Radar reports that Charlie’s drunken, Coked-out shenanigans were even worse than previously thought. The story they tell about the restaurant is sad, but apparently Charlie did find some inspiration from Mel Gibson’s tirades, and Charlie was dropping the N-word like a fiend too:

Charlie Sheen was found naked with cocaine all over his face in a restaurant bathroom the night he flipped out and was taken to a New York hospital! RadarOnline.com has obtained new details from Sheen’s wild Monday night that ended with him under psychiatric evaluation on Tuesday.

“Before Charlie flipped out at the hotel and police were called he was wasted at the restaurant,” one source with knowledge of the situation told RadarOnline.com. “He was snorting cocaine and drinking vodka. He was also drinking wine. And he was wasted.”

Charlie has been out of rehab for only two months. He has battled crack addiction and alcoholism but as RadarOnline.com reported exclusively he has been out of control, doing cocaine for the past several weeks. Sheen was at Daniel restaurant in New York with porn star Capri Anderson, whose real name is Christina Walsh. Anderson was working as an “escort” and charged the Two and a Half Men star $12,000 for the night, as RadarOnline.com reported exclusively.

“At the restaurant Charlie, his assistant and two male friends, with all their escorts were in a private room. Charlie was wasted,” the source said. “At one point he convinced Capri to go to the bathroom with him. When they got into the bathroom he started snorting cocaine and then took off his pants. Charlie wanted to have sex with Capri and tried but she stopped him and demanded her $12,000. He didn’t have the money on him so she left him in the bathroom!”

Capri returned to the table and even though it was a private room, waiters and busboys were coming in and out of the room and noticed the commotion. Charlie’s assistant got nervous when he didn’t come back and asked Capri where he was. She told him and the assistant went to the bathroom to get Charlie.

“When the assistant opened the door, there was Charlie standing there naked with cocaine all over his face! He was delusional and just completely lost. Totally out of it.”

Sheen was so delusional later that he trashed his hotel room after smoking cocaine and when cops came to the hotel, he was naked. But he almost never made it to the hotel.

“The assistant helped Charlie get dressed in the bathroom, “ the source said. “Charlie was out of it. Gone. Just wasted. At that point the assistant steered him out of there and back to the hotel and the rest of the party came along.”

Charlie Sheen was so high from snorting and smoking cocaine that he was screaming the ‘N’ word during his crazed rant at a New York hotel early Tuesday morning as he went berserk, RadarOnline.com is reporting exclusively. The Two and a Half Men star was “out of his mind” according to one source connected to the situation.

“He was punching the walls of the hotel room and going crazy and shouting ‘n**ger, n**ger, n**ger for no reason at all,” the source told RadarOnline.com. “It was absolutely bizarre. At this point the porn star he was with locked herself in the bathroom. What happened in that hotel room is worse than what anyone knows – and people already know a lot of awful things!”

[From Radar]

Wow, alcohol, cocaine, prostitution and racism? Charlie was just so mad that everyone was concentrating on Mel Gibson! I’ll say this for Mel – at least he never hired a hooker? Eh? No, he just screamed abuses until his girlfriend would blow him. Or, as Charlie would say, “A Sunday in 2002.” Here’s my question, CBS: Why doesn’t Charlie Sheen’s contract have some kind of morals code that you can invoke? Is it because you know he’s Charlie Sheen?

Photos courtesy of Fame.

Will.I.Am showed up at the MTV Video Awards’ pre-show in “blackface.” Sort of. Is it weird that when I saw these photos, my first reaction wasn’t “I’m so offended” but actually “Oh, I bet he was going for a consistent fashion statement – black jacket, black makeup, it makes the glasses pop.” Do you think Will did it without really knowing he would offend people? That he was just going for a “look” rather than a political statement? Or do you think he knew what he was doing and was trying to get attention? Eh.

Will.I.am has caused controversy by attending 2010 MTV Video Music Awards in an “all black everything” ensemble. The Black Eyed Peas star wore black outfit from head to toe, literally, with his face painted dark.

Apparently learning that his choice of fashion style has offended some people, will.i.am quickly wrote on his Twitter to downplay the issue. He started his self-defense, “1st. just because I where all black including head mask as expression and emphasize my outfit, it shouldn’t be looked at as racial…”

“Let go of the past. there are far more important things 2 bark about. (Jobs, health, education) not a black man wearing all black everything,” he continued. “Are you guys serious? my outfit set ‘black people back 100 yrs’ choose your twits wisely. no education sets people back, no jobs, bad health.”

While some people slammed will.i.am, Lil Duval took it as a comedy. “I think will i am took a dip in the oil spill for that performance,” he posted on his own page, referring to the rapper’s “Check It Out” performance with Nicki Minaj. Duval later on added, “I’m a comedian people so if u get upset u look real stupid.”

Blackface first gained popularity during the 19th century and typically promotes racist stereotypes toward African Americans. Earlier this year, Estelle also came under fire for using black paint to cover her body and face in “Freak” music video. At that time, she responded to the controversy, saying “I’m black, so how do I do blackface? Missy [Elliott] did the same thing [with her video]. She’s a B***h. I refuse to defend it, I didn’t put any white ring around my mouth – never that.”

[From Ace Showbiz]

Yes, I can see how some people would be offended, and I understand that point of view. But I can totally see how Will would do it just thinking about the fashion and styling aspect of it, and how he’s not making a comment about race whatsoever. Eh. Also, does blackface always equal racism? Even when it’s done to make political or fashion statements? Weird.

Here’s Will.I.am performing with Nicki Minaj on the pre-show:

This story comes via Gawker, and it’s slightly complicated because there’s some back-and-forth and some history to it. Basically, British singer and former Smiths front-man Morrissey is a racist douche. What’s interesting is that he has no plans to apologize for being a racist douche, or for his sketchy history of racist comments, and that his fans probably still love him.

So, in an interview with this weekend’s Guardian Magazine (UK), Morrissey began talking about animal rights (he’s a big animal rights guy), and how pissed he was that China still has a pretty terrible animal rights record. This is part of what he said:

Morrissey, a vegetarian and animal rights advocate who last year abandoned the stage at the Coachella festival in California because of the smell of cooking meat, described the treatment of animals in China as “absolutely horrific”, referring to recent news stories about animals in Chinese circuses and zoos. He told interviewer Simon Armitage: “Did you see the thing on the news about their treatment of animals and animal welfare? Absolutely horrific. You can’t help but feel that the Chinese are a subspecies.”

[From The Guardian]

That’s right, a “subspecies.” This is not Morrissey’s first brush with race-tingled comments:

In 1992 NME Magazine accused Morrissey of “flirting with disaster” and racist imagery after wrapping himself in the union flag while on stage in Finsbury Park, north London.

In the same year, the singer, now 51, was quoted in Q Magazine stating that he did not want to be “horrible or pessimistic” but he didn’t “really think, for instance, black people and white people will ever really get on or like each other. I don’t really think they ever will.” While in 1994 he told Select magazine that the National Front should be given a clear voice or platform in order for them to be “less of a threat”.

The war of words with NME continued in 2007 after Morrissey, who lived in Rome at the time, was quoted in an interview with the magazine apparently criticising levels of immigration after being asked if he would ever consider moving back to England. “With the issue of immigration, it’s very difficult because, although I don’t have anything against people from other countries, the higher the influx into England the more the British identity disappears,” he said. “If you walk through Knightsbridge on any bland day of the week you won’t hear an English accent. You’ll hear every accent under the sun apart from the British accent.”

At another point in the interview he stated: “England is a memory now. The gates are flooded and anybody can have access to England and join in.”

[From The Guardian]

During those past incidents, Morrissey apologized or revamped his comments, claiming he was misunderstood or misquoted, or that he didn’t really mean anything. In 2008, he even donated about $40,000 to Love Music Hate Racism as a way to apologize for the comments about England. That organization, LMHR, is now bashing Morrissey for the “subspecies” comment.

A spokesman for Love Music Hate Racism, which received a donation of £28,000 from the singer in 2008 after his apparently anti-immigration comments made in music magazine NME convulsed the media, said it would be unable to accept support from Morrissey again if he did not rescind or dispute today’s comments.

“It really is just crude racism,” said Martin Smith. “When you start using language like ‘subspecies’, you are entering into dark and murky water. I don’t think we would, or could, ask him to come back after that.”

[From The Guardian]

And Morrissey doesn’t seem to be in a mood to retract the “subspecies” comment either. The interviewer notes that “I thought at the time it was a dangerous thing to say into a tape recorder. He must have known it would make waves, he’s not daft. But he’s provocative and theatrical, and it was one of dozens of dramatic pronouncements. I’m not an apologist for that kind of remark, and couldn’t ignore it. But clearly, when it comes to animal rights and animal welfare, he’s absolutely unshakable in his beliefs. In his view, if you treat an animal badly, you are less than human. I think that was his point.”

And Morrissey offered this statement in the wake of The Guardian’s interview: “If anyone has seen the horrific and unwatchable footage of the Chinese cat and dog trade – animals skinned alive – then they could not possibly argue in favour of China as a caring nation. There are no animal protection laws in China and this results in the worst animal abuse and cruelty on the planet. It is indefensible.”

Of course, Morrissey also had some other lovely things to say. On “people” he says, “They are problems.” On being a lonely prig, he says, “We’re all lonely, but I’d rather be lonely by myself than with a long list of duties and obligations. I think that’s why people kill themselves, really. Or at least that’s why they think, ‘Thank heaven for death.’” And on the subject of cats, he says, “Yes. Cats. I’ve had lots of cats. But also many bereavements.”

Just to be clear, and offer my own opinion: I think Morrissey’s comments are reprehensible, and the fact that he’s sticking by them is even worse. If his point was to raise awareness about the lack of animal rights in China, he failed. Morrissey and his racism are now the topic. While I understand the anger he feels as an animal rights activist, referring to one billion Chinese people as a “subspecies” is f-cking horrible, and reminiscent of ye olde racist arguments that there is a genetic/evolutionary argument to be made to defend one’s racism. Now, I prefer animals to people as well, but I don’t care enough to break up my dislike of people based into “subspecies” and “not that deplorable, also: white.”

Morrissey performing in Ireland and California in 2009. Credit: WENN.

A few days ago, I listened to the infamous “N” word rant that Dr. Laura Schlessinger spewed while on the phone with a black woman who asked for advice dealing with racist acquaintances that her white husband refused to acknowledge. (The audio is below.) I was frankly shocked that Dr. Laura was such a bigot. (Probably because I haven’t paid much attention to her up until this point, although I did remember that she’s a homophobe too.) She spewed the N word 11 times, which wasn’t directed at the caller but still sounded very hateful, and used the tired old argument that black comics and shows like The Wire use it and therefore it must be ok. She accused the caller of having a “chip on her shoulder” and told her that if she couldn’t handle some questions pertaining to how her entire race behaved that she shouldn’t have married outside of it. It was outrageous and hard to listen to.

Now Dr. Laura has told Larry King that she’s going to end her radio show when her contract is up at the end of this year. Good riddance, you old bigot. Here’s more:

“My contract is up for my radio show at the end of the year and I’ve made the decision not to do radio anymore,” Schlessinger told King, who also happens to be on his way out this year (for less incendiary reasons).

“The reason is I want to regain my First Amendment rights. I want to be able to say what’s on my mind and in my heart and what I think is helpful and useful without somebody getting angry, some special interest group deciding this is the time to silence a voice of dissent and attack affiliates, attack sponsors. I’m sort of done with that.”

She’s not retiring or quitting, she added, but rather, hopes to be “stronger and freer to say the things that I believe need to be said for people in this country.”

Schlessinger apologized for her verbal gaffe the day after it happened, admitting that she did “the wrong thing.”

“I didn’t intend to hurt people, but I did. And that makes it the wrong thing to have done…I was attempting to make a philosophical point, and I articulated the N-word all the way out—more than one time. And that was wrong. I’ll say it again—that was wrong.”

[From E! Online]

At least she admits that she was wrong, but of course it’s all about how the caller was “hypersensitive” and how “special interest groups” are impeding her “first amendment right” to spew racist epithets and tell a woman not to marry outside her race. And she’s being “attacked” for attacking someone else in the first place.

Here are a couple of the ways that Dr. Laura has been “helpful” to people in the past:

Calls being gay a “biological error”
“I’m sorry, hear it one more time perfectly clearly: If you’re gay or a lesbian, it’s a biological error that inhibits you from relating normally to the opposite sex. The fact that you are intelligent, creative and valuable is all true. The error is in your inability to relate sexually intimately, in a loving way to a member of the opposite sex it is a biological error.”

Claims more gay people are pedophiles
“Well, according to Dr. Aarden VanWeg [ph.], an expert in homosexuality and other forms of deviant sexual behavior in Holland, that although numerically there are more paedophiles that are heterosexual, percentage wise in a population, it is much greater in the homosexual community. So there is some relationship. No, not every homosexual is a paedophile. Obviously not. But it is a greater percentage, much greater.”

Claims gay people are “deviants”
“The debate over gay rights. Rights. Rights? For sexual deviancy, sexual behavior, there are now rights. That’s what I am worried about with the pedophilia, the bestiality and the sado-masochism. Is this all going to be rights too? To deviant sexual behavior. It is deviant sexual behavior. Why does deviant sexual behavior get rights? I don’t understand that…”

[via Stop Dr. Laura, where all quotes are sourced]

Dr. Laura also said that slain teen Matthew Shephard, who was killed in a hate crime over his orientation, could have avoided being murdered if only “he had simply gone home with his friends instead of thinking he was gonna get a little [sex].” (You can read that entire quote on this page.) Now that I’ve read more of what this woman regularly spouts, my question is why has she been given a platform for so long? I guess so many of us have been trying to ignore her, just like the caller’s husband was trying to ignore the stupid things their friends and neighbors said. Ultimately those ignorant attacking words can hurt people though, and those people needed to be called out for their behavior.

Here’s the audio of Laura’s rant, and a link to the full transcript:

Dr. Laura on ending her show. Don’t let the door hit your ass.

As many of you know, I love Dev Patel. Before I even saw Slumdog Millionaire, I loved him. I love his big ears. I love his sweet smile. And most of all, I love that he’s a British Indian actor who became acceptable as a leading man in a film that went on to become the Best Picture Oscar-winner. His career should have been rosy, right? After the success of Slumdog and the acclaim for Dev as an actor, he should be swimming in scripts. Not so much, as it turns out. Dev gave an interview to The Telegraph about the stereotypes of Asians, and how those are the only roles out there for an Asian actor:

Hollywood is institutionally racist, according to the Slumdog Millionaire star Dev Patel, who claims Asian actors are limited to roles as terrorists, taxi drivers or geeks. When the story of a boy from the Mumbai slums became the surprise hit of 2009, winning eight Oscars, it was expected that Patel’s career would take off.

However, the 20-year-old from Harrow, north-west London, has been frustrated by the lack of decent roles on offer and is currently jobless.

“Because Slumdog was such a big hit there was a lot of pressure in terms of what I did next. For my second film I wanted a role that would stretch me, but all I was getting offered were stereotypical parts like the goofy Indian sidekick,” he said.

“Asian actors tend not to be sent Hollywood scripts that are substantial or challenging. I’m likely to be offered the roles of a terrorist, cab driver and smart geek… I want to show that I have versatility. You have to remember that, before Slumdog, the last film about India that went big at the Oscars was Gandhi, as played by Ben Kingsley. The fact that me and Freida have any kind of platform in Hollywood is a big step forward.”

Freida Pinto played Patel’s love interest in Slumdog Millionaire and is now his real-life girlfriend. The Indian-born former model has had more success than Patel, winning a role in Woody Allen’s latest film.

Patel said he was hoping to overcome prejudice. “I’m buzzing with adrenaline and raring to go, but I have to be realistic. Being an Asian actor, it’s never going to be easy. Hopefully the industry is changing and the casting directors will be less focused on colour so that people like myself can get through the door.”

He was plucked from the relative obscurity of Channel 4′s teen drama, Skins, to make his film debut in Slumdog Millionaire. Directed by Danny Boyle, it became a box office phenomenon and won the best picture Oscar.

Unfortunately, the film Patel chose for his second role has been mired in accusations of racism. The Last Airbender is based on a children’s television cartoon in which the main characters are Asian. The £100 million Hollywood adaptation, released in the UK this week, has white actors playing the roles and the Asian actors – including Patel – are limited to playing baddies.

When the film premiered in the US last month, protesters demonstrated outside the cinema in Los Angeles.

The young actor still lives at home with his parents and travels on public transport. He said: “One time I was on the Tube and I picked up a free newspaper. Inside was a big article with the headlines, ‘Dev Patel, the new rising star’ along with a picture of me. This woman got on and started reading the piece. She looked up at me and did a classic double take.”

[From The Telegraph]

Aw, poor kid. I would like to tell young Dev a story. It’s a story about a wonderful actress by the name of Sarita Choudhury. Sarita is a half-Indian actress who made a big splash in her film debut, Mississippi Masala. She was the first English-speaking Indian actress to really go mainstream Hollywood as a lead role (not to mention as an interracial love interest to Denzel Washington) in a mainstream film. Sarita faced the same kind of bullsh-t Dev is discussing right here – that she would only get hired for the stereotypical “ethnic” roles. But she found a home doing diverse work in films and television, mostly in supporting and character work. Whenever she pops up on one of my shows or takes a turn in a film, I’m always happily surprised because I love her so much. But I’m also sad because I think she’s a better actress than most of the Hollywood A-list women, and she should have been a major lead actress.

So, my advice to Dev: keep plugging away, kid. I know it seems difficult, but it’s also about the work, right? Maybe you don’t have to be a lead actor right now, maybe you should spend a few years doing supporting work and yes, sometimes playing into stereotypes. I know it sucks. But lots of minorities have to do it, as do most of the working actresses out there. Look at Kal Penn! Or Ken Leung! They’ve turned in some “stereotype” roles, but they’ve also done some really interesting stuff with their careers (The Namesake, and Lost, respectively). Holy sh-t, Ken Leung is 40 years old?!? See, that’s another stereotype, but one you should be thankful for, Dev: you’ll never have to Botox. You’ll be 40 years old and still be getting offers to play 20-something stereotypes. Silver lining!

Header: Dev Patel on July 14, 2010. Credit: WENN.

I remember hearing a while ago that Mel Gibson’s dad was a holocaust denier and an anti-semite, as a lot of people brought that up during the comparatively mild “Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world” DUI incident. Now that we’ve heard Mel scream, rant, threaten and demand beejs for many long minutes, people are focusing again on his insane 91 year-old dad, Hutton. It’s safe to assume that Hutton heavily influenced his son’s decision to start a traditionalist Catholic Church, which does not recognize any changes in the Catholic Church made by the second Vatican Council from 1962-1965. Hutton has a bigoted inflexible belief system to go along with his conspiracy theories. (You can read more about this guy on Wikipedia.) In a recent radio interview, the old homophobic fogey went on about his hatred of the Vatican, and said “half of the people in the Vatican are queer” including Prada-loving Pope Benedict. He also spouted some conspiracy theories about The Freemasons and their influence in the Vatican.

Mel Gibson’s controversial father Hutton Gibson told RadarOnline.com on Monday that the Vatican is full of child molesters.

Gibson, 91, made his outrageous remarks to RadarOnline.com after giving a interview to a Liberty News Radio show in which he claimed half the Vatican was gay and that Pope Benedict was homosexual too.

Mel Gibson’s father, who previously stated that he did not believe the Holocaust could have happened, told RadarOnline.com: “That is correct – I stand by my statements.

“The Vatican is full of all these child molesters and that is all there is to it.”

Hutton Gibson shocked listeners on the Political Cesspool Radio Program when he claimed the Catholic Church had failed to tackle homosexuality.

He claimed that Pope Benedict was both “a homosexual” and “a slippery character” while also being involved in a Masonic conspiracy that was aiming to destroy the Catholic Church from within.

Mel Gibson’s father regularly attends his son’s alternative Catholic Church in Malibu and has so far not spoken about the actor’s alleged abusive behavior toward his former girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva.

The father of 11 has written about Traditional Catholicism in the past and been an outspoken critic of the Catholic Church over the years.

In a 2003 interview he questioned how the Nazis had disposed of six million bodies during the Holocaust and claimed that the September 11, 2001, attacks were perpetrated by remote control.

Hutton claimed that the Catholic Church isn’t fighting the repeal of Proposition 8 “because half of the people there in the Vatican are queer. They have not handled the horrible situation in the church. In fact they have fostered it because as I say they are trying to destroy the church.”

When asked by hosts of The Political Cesspool if he thought Pope Benedict was a homosexual Hutton replied, “I certainly do.

“Why else would he put up with this? He was in charge of stamping it out. And he did nothing… He’s a slippery character.”

[From Radar Online]

You can hear Mel’s dad’s remarks on Radar Online. Of course the Catholic Church and the Vatican handled the child abuse scandal abhorrently, but it takes a real extremist to call the people in the Vatican “queer” and “child molesters.” I guess we know where Mel got his very skewed beliefs along with his rage issues. I wonder if he’s mortified that his ancient dad’s incoherent thoughts are getting airtime or if he secretly co-signs his conspiracies.

In related news, the domestic violence case against Gibson is expected to be turned over to the District Attorney’s office in about two weeks. Mel missed a deposition in the case on Friday. He was reportedly out of the country fishing with two of his sons.

Hutton Gibson photo is a screenshot from a video in which he endorses Ron Paul for President.