My imaginary lover, Joel McHale, is doing the talk show circuit to promote the fourth season premiere of Community. It’s on tonight at 8pm on NBC and as I mentioned yesterday, I have not been paid or even mildly encouraged to promote the show. (A PR person from Hulu did send us something on Community so I’ll shoot them a link of thanks, but it’s not like NBC is trying much.) Joel, on the other hand, is busting his cute butt and I’m enjoying seeing so much of it/him. He was on The Late Show last night, where he told some funny self-deprecating stories about how dangerous his childhood was. (You can watch that video here. Joel comes on at 20 minutes in.) As for Community’s fate, Joel explained that it’s going to air finally but will not seem topical considering that there are several holiday episodes that will be shown much too late:

On how Community got shafted by NBC
There was talk us going 26 episodes but we did 13. We were supposed to start on October 19th but they pushed it to February 7th, so our Halloween episode is going to be awesome, and wait till we roll out Thanksgiving and Christmas.

[From The Late Show]

Joel went on to explain some of the more bizarre plot points they’ve covered, like the two paintgun war episodes, the secret trampoline guarded by a former Nazi, the monkey in the air ducts and the puppy parade. That show is so incredible and clever, and my favorite episode remains the video game one, Digital Estate Planning. (“Troy and Abed shooting lava!“)

On the Late Show, Joel didn’t cover much that was controversial – he didn’t even mention that the air duct monkey is named “Annie’s Boobs”! I guess he figured that would be too obscure for a wider audience. On Howard Stern he let loose a little, though, and gave some insider information on how Chevy Chase left the show, after having dropped the N Word in protest of his character’s racism. We already heard all about that when it happened, but it was interesting to get Joel’s take:

On Chevy Chase leaving the show
He didn’t want to be there.

When I would try to [talk to Chevy] he would just try to fight me. He physically wanted to fight me.

On Chevy using the N word
You shouldn’t just be throwing that around… It was one of those things on set where he used it. When he said it I was like “we are now at defcon 1.”

He was protesting his character’s racism. He didn’t like the way that his character Pierce was going.

He had also said in the past, he said that Richard Pryor said it was ok for him to call him that. He literally, he used that!

[From Video on Howard Stern's site]

So Chevy Chase used the N word because Richard Prior, who died about seven years ago, told him that it was ok for him to call him that. He is so out of touch. Anyway I’m not sure if Chevy is even going to be on this season, I assume he is for a few episodes at least as they’ve long since wrapped filming. This is likely the end for Community, considering that they’ve also canned their show runner (who was incidentally in a public spat with Chevy as well). I’ll enjoy every episode and I’ll also watch the hell out of Joel McHale during his press circuit. He looks so sexy in this clip from Howard Stern (below), just chilling on the couch in all black with those kick ass boots. Oh and Joel is going to be on The View this morning too! I’ll be sure to watch it.

Joel and his lucky wife at a SAG party:

Photo credit: WENN.com

This is one of the funniest Lindsay Lohan stories ever. It’s just random enough to be true, too. The woman who was the recipient of Lindsay’s crack-fist is named Tiffany Eve Mitchell, and she is this blonde woman that I referenced yesterday. Tiffany is a “well-know psychic” apparently (LOL) and she said that when Lindsay Lohan walked into the club, she had a “premonition” (LOL). That premonition was not that she was about to get punched in the face by a crackhead, by the way. We still don’t know what the premonition was. But whatever it was, Tiffany felt the need to walk over to Lindsay and offer her a free reading (LOL). Lindsay was all “OMG you f—king Gypsies I HATE YOU EAT MY FISTS.” Pretty much.

The victim in the Lindsay Lohan nightclub fight tells TMZ … Lohan hurled a racial slur at her moments before the brawl … calling her a “f**king Gypsy.”

TMZ spoke with Tiffany Mitchell — a well-known psychic who was at the club Avenue with a friend Wednesday night when Lohan walked in.

Tiffany tells us … she had a premonition about Lohan and approached her inside the club to offer her a free reading … but Lohan turned her down saying, “Give me my space.”

As she walked away, Tiffany’s friend says she heard Lohan call her a “f**king Gypsy” … and it set her off.

We’re told the friend went ballistic — unloading a bunch of insults back at Lohan … calling her a “whore” and telling her “Liz & Dick sucked.”

At that point, Lohan lost her cool and socked the psychic in the eye … and all hell broke loose inside the club. Lohan was eventually arrested for assault.

Tiffany’s husband tells TMZ, “We are not Gypsies. That has nothing to do with our religion … it was a racist comment.”

He adds, “Just because your career went down the drain and your new movie sucks, you can’t go around beating people up.”

As for the connection to Max from “The Wanted” — we’re told Tiffany DID have a convo with the heartthrob earlier in the evening … but it was just a friendly conversation and Lindsay had nothing to be jealous about.

[From TMZ]

Only Lindsay Lohan would be, like, offensively prejudiced against the Roma or Romani community. Only Lindsay Lohan would be grossly offended by an offer of a free reading, and respond with an ethnic slur and a crack punch. She is ridiculous. What did the Roma ever do to Lindsay?

To add to the hilarity, Lindsay has a new lawyer and he is probably already thinking “FML.” His name is Mark Heller, and he was sent out to give a statement to E! News. Poor Mr. Heller had the sad duty of trying to convince us that the Cracken was not under the influence of anything!! LOL. Heller says:

“I can tell you when I was with her this morning; she was in great condition,” attorney Mark Heller tells E! News. “She was certainly not intoxicated, certainly not under the influence of drugs. She was clear [and] lucid, her eyes were clear. No alcohol involvement whatsoever on this occasion.”

However, Heller said he didn’t ask LiLo if she had been drinking or doing drugs at any point during the evening. “It wasn’t even brought up,” he said, adding, “She was perfectly appropriate. And the police made note of that.”

Lohan is set to face formal charges at a Jan. 7 arraignment, but Heller believes he’ll prove her innocence before then.

“We are going to be working very earnestly to establish that no charges should even be lodged,” he said. “[The police] have already made arrangements to get the video from the…club, which hopefully will reveal some exonerating information. After that, they could just walk away from the case and decline to even prosecute.”

Asked how the Liz & Dick star is doing right now, Heller said, “She’s sleeping. She was up all night long and went through a very rough ordeal.”

[From E! News]

This poor bastard. Godspeed, dude. Especially considering that even TMZ is calling the Cracken out on her drinking now – TMZ says LL’s “drinking problem has returned with a vengeance — sources close to the actress tell TMZ, she’s been boozing heavily for months now … as much as TWO LITERS of vodka a day.” She’s started (?) drinking in the morning and she just boozes all day long, which is what happened the night she was arrested – she had been drinking for most of the day and night. Lindsay’s “friends” have given up trying to help her because… you know, she’s a sloppy, violent drunk and they don’t want to deal with the crack fists of doom.

Also: E! News compiled a lovely timeline of all of Lindsay’s arrests and legal shenanigans and court dates. It’s epic.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.

You know how No Doubt has a new album (Push and Shove), their first one in years and years? Well, the band just released their second (I think?) music video from their new album, for the single “Looking Hot”. And the music video is a HOT mess. I should admit that I only watched the video for the first time knowing that it was racially charged and controversial, so I have I don’t really know if I would have watched it without that knowledge and thought that it was okay. Probably not. It’s pretty bad. The music video features… I guess it’s supposed to be like the old Wild West? And Gwen Stefani is like a Native American princess and she’s tied up and singing about how she’s looking hot, and the rest of the dudes in the band are Native Americans or cowboys or something…? As I said, it’s a mess. Here’s the video (I’m including some different versions to see what might get pulled…?):

No Doubt – Looking Hot (Official video) from Flochjan on Vimeo.

So, obviously, the Native American community had some stuff to say. Stuff like “Damn, y’all. RACIST.” Those complaints led to either YouTube pulling the video on its own, or No Doubt asking for the video to be removed. No Doubt also issued a statement about the mess:

“Being hurtful to anyone is simply not who we are. As a multi-racial band our foundation is built upon both diversity and consideration for other cultures. Our intention with our new video was never to offend, hurt or trivialize Native American people, their culture or their history. Although we consulted with Native American friends and Native American studies experts at the University of California, we realize now that we have offended people. This is of great concern to us and we are removing the video immediately. The music that inspired us when we started the band, and the community of friends, family, and fans that surrounds us was built upon respect, unity and inclusiveness. We sincerely apologize to the Native American community and anyone else offended by this video.”

[Band statement via Hollywood Life]

So… do you think that the band just did the music video without thinking at any point, “Hey, is this racist? Will this offend Native Americans?” I kind of think that’s exactly what happened. I think a bunch of 40-something rock stars just thought it would be cool and sexy to play “Cowboys & Indians” as adults. Ugh.

Screencaps from the video, additional photos by WENN.

This story saddens me on several levels. The main thing is that it reminds me that “Community” still has no release date. It also reminds me that the showrunner and creator, Dan Harmon, was fired, perhaps in no small part to his public feud with one of the main stars, Chevy Chase. In April, we heard a leaked voicemail from Chevy chewing out Harmon, calling him an “alcoholic” and a “fat sh*t” and telling him to “suck my c*ck.” Apparently Harmon criticized Chevy in a speech at the season three wrap party, and told Chevy, in front of Chevy’s wife and daughter, to F off. So Chevy was responding to that incident.

In this latest rant, Chevy, who plays wet wipes mogul Pierce Hawthorne, apparently got annoyed at what a bumbling bigot his character is, so he yelled something like “what’s next, am I going to say the word n*****?” He is said to have apologized immediately, but the damage was already done. This is a tale of a guy who plays a raging racist on television actually behaving like one offscreen. He doesn’t even have the excuse of being mad at Harmon, since he’s out of the picture now.

Chevy Chase caught some major flack for using the “N-word” on the set of NBC show “Community” Friday, but the outspoken actor has since apologized for his verbal outburst, insisting that his rant was not directed at any of his African-American cast members.

Chase, 69, reportedly used the offensive word to air his frustrations about his character’s increasingly bigoted views.

According to TMZ, the actor was unhappy with the kind of dialogue he was being presented with, and angrily suggested that he might be next told to call Donald Glover’s character Troy or Yvette Nicole Brown’s character Shirley the “N-word.”

TV Line reports that production of the show was briefly halted before Chase apologized for his outburst.

The former “Saturday Night Live” comedian also “apologized immediately” to his “Community” costars.

Chase made headlines earlier this year for his hot-headed spats with show creator Dan Harmon.

In April, Chase called Harmon “fat” and “an alcoholic” in a leaked voicemail after the showrunner roasted the actor for walking off the set during the filming of some crucial scenes.
“I don’t get talked to like that by anyone. Certainly not in front of my wife and daughter you goddamn a–,” Chase ranted in the voicemail. “I’ve got nothing to say to you, except you can s–k my c–k. Is that clear?”

Harmon was later dismissed from the show.

“Community” was originally set to premiere last Friday, Oct. 19, but NBC has since rescheduled its premiere for an undetermined date.

[From The NY Daily News]

So Harmon is off, Chevy is still around, and he’s acting like a jerk and a bigot, just like Pierce. We won’t see this brilliant show again for some time. There’s one good thing to come out of this story – if they’re still pissing off Chevy, they might be trying to stay true to Harmon’s original vision. Plus, it’s promising to me that they’re still filming. I’m worried that the show will be an unfunny imitation of its former self when it finally comes back to television, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Oh and as for the premiere date, I got all excited when I saw this “Community” Halloween photo over on E! Online. It looks like Jeff is a vampire and Britta is his wench dinner. The caption on E! gave me so much hope that Community is coming back next week. They write “Joel McHale and Gillian Jacobs, “Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps!” (Thursday, Oct. 27), NBC” but that was last year’s episode and it aired in 2011. *shakes fist at sky*

Here’s a link to a video where Troy and Abed explain when Community is coming back. Basically whenever the powers that be make a decision, which hasn’t happened yet.

Update: A lot of you are commenting that you don’t find Chevy bigoted for using the word in this particular context, where he’s raging against his racist character. I have updated the title so that it’s more accurate. Personally I find it bigoted to use the word at all, when he could have said “The N Word” or something similar to get across his same point. I hear you though and hope that the title better conveys what happened.

Photo credit: Pacific Coast News, NBC

Ugh, I guess we have to talk about this. The video above is from 2008 – Ryan Lochte’s sister, Megan Lochte, made an appearance on a “late night comedy talk show” called Closing Time – apparently it’s a Maryland thing? The host of the program is a comedian named Mickey Cucchiella. More background: this interview took place shortly after Ryan Lochte and the family Lochte returned from Beijing, where Lochte had won two gold medals and two bronze medals. This video is… simply awful. I could use words like “train-wreck” and “racist” and “OMG STFU YOU IGNORANT PIECE OF TRASH” and “xenophobia,” but I fear that would not properly convey how truly terrible this video is. This video is so bad, I don’t even want to transcribe the racist slurs Megan Lochte drops over and over and over. And I really don’t want to get into how offended I was that the host barely balked, and that audience laughed. UGH.

Jezebel ran the video on Friday, and many other sites quickly picked it up and within 24 hours, Megan Lochte issued a statement about the situation:

Megan Lochte is speaking out about her controversial 2008 talk show appearance. After a video of a post-Beijing Olympics interview she did on a Maryland-based program made waves online Friday, Ryan Lochte’s sis says the offensive views she appeared to espouse weren’t hers at all, and instead were intended to provoke discussion about the nature of prejudice.

“This was not a real interview, and it in no way reflects my true feelings or persona whatsoever,” Locthe tells Us Weekly in a statement. “The intent was to make fun of the ignorance of people who actually do not have an understanding of other cultures and speak in racist ways.”

“The skit and my character were supposed to be making fun of ignorance,” the Multicultural Marketing major continues — not “any culture or class of people.”

“I do see how it was highly offensive to the viewer, but as seen by today’s widespread outrage, it clearly did increase awareness of the ignorance of those who are racist,” Lochte asserts, adding that she realizes people may still find the humor in poor taste.

“While the intent of the script was to shed light on cultural ignorance,” Lochte says, “I realize that in application it did offend people, and for that I apologize.”

[From Us Weekly]

Jezebel points out that all of the other videos from this “Closing Time” show seem to be straight-forward interviews with local celebrities, and that it doesn’t seem like the show relies on “skits” or people playing “characters”. So either Megan is telling the truth and her idea of a hilarious joke is to drop racial slurs like f—king candy, or Megan is lying and her idea of being herself is to drop racial slurs like f—king candy. I never thought I’d say this, but I think Ryan Lochte might be the brains of the Lochte family.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.

What’s with all of the anti-Indian racism lately? When did Indians become one of the “go-to” victims of racial insensitivity and outright racism? Full disclosure: I’m half-Indian. Some people think I look Indian – but I’m also consistently asked if I’m Mexican, Greek, Italian and oddly enough, German (?). I’ve been the victim of other people’s racism and at times, I’ll admit, I can be hypersensitive about racial issues. I don’t consider myself an expert on race or racism, so just take this post as what it is – one brown girl’s opinion.

On a recent episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Kim said on camera that she thinks Indian food is “so disgusting”. Chaos ensued.

Heads up Kanye West: you better stick with Chinese takeout if you’re ordering in with Kim Kardashian. On Sunday night’s episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, the reality star, 31, told her family she thinks Indian food is “disgusting.”

Her offhanded remark drew criticism throughout the Twittersphere. “I think it’s good Kim Kardashian doesn’t like Indian food, because that means she won’t ever visit India and that in itself is a blessing,” one user wrote.

Said another, “Kim Kardashian and Kendall Jenner called Indian food ‘so disgusting.’ Seriously? You don’t have to like it, [but] don’t be rude.”

On Tuesday, Kardashian took to her blog to address the backlash in a post titled “Just Want to Clear Something Up.”

“In NO way was [my comment] intended as an insult to the Indian people or their culture. This is just my own personal taste,” she wrote. “There are a lot of foods I don’t like . . . I hate cilantro and peppers, and there are definitely some Armenian foods that I personally find disgusting, but that doesn’t reflect my opinions on other Armenian people or my culture.”

Explained the E! star, “My comment wasn’t intended to offend anybody. We all have our own opinions and tastes and I was simply expressing mine.”

[From Us Weekly]

Sigh… okay…is this really a thing? Kim Kardashian did NOT say “Indian food is disgusting because it’s made my Indians, who are disgusting.” She really was just stating a personal food preference. And you know what? I grew up around Indian food and some of it really is stomach-churning. My dad used to spend hours making Ghee and the horrible smell of it still haunts me. Of course, my mouth waters when I smell Indian-style garlic chicken. So… my verdict: I really don’t think Kim was being racist. She could have stated her preference in a nicer way, sure. But a gut-reaction is a gut-reaction.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

CB asked me yesterday whether or not we should cover Ashton Kutcher’s new commercial for “Popchips”. I vetoed the idea without even watching the commercial, just because my default position is “Ashton is a d-bag who doesn’t deserve attention.” Unfortunately, this PopChips ad is now a “thing.” A bad thing. In the ad, Ashton appears in various costumes, doing various bad accents, pretending it’s a dating commercial or something. One of the “costumes” involves Ashton wearing “brown-face” and doing a bad Indian accent and pretending he’s a horny Bollywood producer. Here’s the ad:

Yeah, he also does the “fey” thing when he’s in the Karl Lagerfeld get-up. So he possibly offended the gays as well as the Indians. As well as anyone of even moderate intelligence. Anyway, this ad just got pulled and now Ashton and PopChips are facing a lot of criticism:

Ashton Kutcher’s new Popchips commercials were meant to be funny and lighthearted, but one has been swiftly pulled – and an apology issued – following a grim reaction from Indian Americans.

The ad in which Ashton plays “Raj,” a Bollywood producer – complete with brownface makeup and a heavy Indian accent – has been removed from the Popchips website and other online channels amid an outcry that it is racist, reports The New York Times.

The most blistering critique came from Anil Dash, the tech entrepreneur. “I can’t imagine I have to explain this to anyone in 2012, but if you find yourself putting brown makeup on a white person in 2012 so they can do a bad ‘funny’ accent in order to sell potato chips, you are on the wrong course,” he wrote on his website.

The Two and a Half Men actor, 34, has yet to respond to the controversy. But Keith Belling, founder and CEO of Popchips, posted the following message on the company’s website: “We received a lot feedback about the dating campaign parody we launched today and appreciate everyone who took the time to share their point of view. Our team worked hard to create a light-hearted parody featuring a variety of characters that was meant to provide a few laughs. We did not intend to offend anyone. I take full responsibility and apologize to anyone we offended.”

Added a company rep: “The new Popchips worldwide dating parody featuring four characters was created to provoke a few laughs and was never intended to stereotype or offend anyone. At Popchips we embrace all types of shapes, flavors and colors, and appreciate all snackers, no matter their race or ethnicity. We hope people can enjoy this in the spirit it was intended.”

The ad series spoofs dating videos. In other executions, Kutcher plays a diva, a hippie and a biker. Kutcher was named “president of pop culture” for Popchips in 2010, and worked on the commercials with the ad agency Zambezi in Los Angeles.

[From People]

Throughout the past… decade or so, I’ve become kind of jaded about this kind of “racism”. While I completely see the critics’ points about “brown-face” and the racism of the stereotype, I’m mostly offended by the stupidity. That’s what bugs me: this is just stupid. This is an awful idea, and I can’t believe someone thought, “Hey, what a great idea! This will be a perfect way to promote chips! Let’s hire Ashton Kutcher and get him do an Indian minstrel show!” How f–king dumb are they?

Screencaps from the ad.

This is not one of the guys suing ABC. He hopes to be The Bachelor, though

I think it was that unfunny comic who dates hot women, what’s his name – David Spade, who recently brought up this issue in his Funny or Die Bachelor parody video, The Honest Bachelor. (TMZ also posed this question in one of their videos.) In that skit, Spade made a bunch of rude blunt comments as “The Bachelor.” It was actually pretty funny, so I should maybe revise my opinion of him. Spade quipped “Please don’t cut to a black contestant. Who am I kidding, there’s no black contestants on The Bachelor. It’s ABC, woo!” In the 10 years The Bachelor has been on the air, they’ve had occasional black contestants vying for a ring, but there’s never been a black Bachelor or Bachelorette. This issue comes up frequently, and now it’s definitely getting more press.

Two African American men are planning to sue ABC for what they claim is racial discrimination encountered during a casting call for The Bachelor in Tennessee. Both say they were pushed to the side and treated unfairly due to their race:

“The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” are about to get a thorny rose — in the form of a lawsuit.

We’re told the 2 plaintiffs — both African Americans — went to a Nashville hotel to audition for the role of bachelor. Christopher Johnson — an aspiring NFL player — claims when he arrived a producer asked him what he was doing there.

Johnson and the other plaintiff, Nathaniel Claybrooks, both say they were taken to the side of the room and left out of the normal audition process. Neither was called back, and they believe it’s because of their race.

They will be filing a class action lawsuit in federal court Wednesday AM. We’re told ABC, Warner Horizon Television, Next Entertainment, NZK Productions and creator Mike Fleiss, will all be sued.

[From TMZ]

The NY Daily News has an unintentionally hilarious quote that creator Mike Fleiss gave last year about how they’ve allegedly tried to promote diversity on these shows. He uses the word “wedge” to describe how they’ve added African American “chicks” once in a while.

“I think Ashley is 1/16th Cherokee Indian, but I cannot confirm. But that is my suspicion! We really tried, but sometimes we feel guilty of tokenism.

“Oh, we have to wedge African-American chicks in there! We always want to cast for ethnic diversity, it’s just that for whatever reason, they don’t come forward. I wish they would.”

This is Ashley Hebert, the last Bachelorette. She’s not blonde and has a Native American ancestor a few generations back so that counts, right?

I think people are ready to see a black Bachelor and/or Bachelorette and a racially diverse cast. Maybe this could even breathe more life into this vapid, tired franchise. It’s surprising to me that they haven’t even seemed to try to have more than one race on those shows. The Daily Beast had a good editorial on this a couple of years ago, and nothing has changed basically.

Here’s a successful sportscaster and former professional basketball player, Lamar Hurd, who is hoping to be the first black bachelor. He’s not one of the guys suing ABC. I got a little starry eyed watching this video, honestly. This guy has so much charisma and he looks like a male model. He’s also passionate about his nonprofit organization helping kids through basketball. Just watch him talk starting at around 3:10 and imagine you’re on a date with him. Compare Lamar to some of the total doofuses we’ve seen on The Bachelor lately. Jake, Brad and Ben all had the charm of a wet blanket and were dumb as boxes of hair.

The last three bachelors. I don’t get it. Jake was at least hot, but he turned out to be a total creep.

Paula Deen and her brother are being sued by the former general manager of a restuarant they owned in Savannah, Georgia for sexual harassment and hostile working conditions. The woman worked at “Uncle Bubba’s Seafood and Oyster House” from 2005-2010, and claims in a lawsuit that during that time she was subjected to repeated sexual harassment from Deen’s brother, Bubba Hiers. She also details the work environment that she endured, including racist conditions that were demeaning and unfair to employees under her management. Lisa Jackson, who is white, claims that black workers were forced to use a separate bathroom in the back of the establishment, and that they were also forced to enter the restaurant from the back. It’s unclear how much involvement Paula Deen had with the restaurant’s day to day activities, or even whether she knew that black workers were being treated this way, but the lawsuit states that she was present at some management meetings. It also tells a disturbing story of Paula using the N word as a kind of lame joke.

In one example, Jackson states that she was appointed by Deen to handle the catering and staff for Bubba’s wedding in 2007, and she asked Deen what the servers should wear: “Well what I would really like is a bunch of little n***ers to wear long-sleeve white shirts, black shorts and black bow ties, you know in the Shirley Temple days, they used to tap dance around,” Jackson alleges Deen told her. “Now, that would be a true Southern wedding wouldn’t it? But we can’t do that because the media would be on me about that.”

Another alleged racist incident listed in the lawsuit: “In the presence of Ms. Jackson and Uncle Bubba’s restaurant manager and a vendor, Bubba Hiers stated they should send President Obama to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico so he could n***er-rig it.”

---

At Uncle Bubba’s restaurant, African-American staff persons are required to use the back entrance for all purposes, including picking up their checks. They were prohibited from using the front entrace.

African-American staff persons at Uncle Bubba’s restaurant are required to use one restroom that is in the back of the restaurant and is not the customer restroom. White staff was allowed to use the customer bathroom.

African-American staff persons stationed at the back of Uncle Bubba’s restaurant are not allowed to go to the front of the restaurant.

[From Radar Online and PDF of lawsuit]

The lawsuit is available as a PDF through Radar Online. There’s also more information on their website about the lawsuit. It’s pretty damning, and makes Paula’s brother out to be a drunken ass who regularly distributed porn in the office, and was emotionally and physically abusive to women and minorities. What’s more is that women were allegedly paid less than men in lower positions than they were in the restaurant. The lawsuit might of course be exaggerated or embellished for effect, but it paints a very bleak picture of the working conditions there.

We may soon see if these complaints are limited to just one disgruntled employee or if it’s true that it was really this bad. The lawyer for Lisa Jackson told Radar that they have an “enormous amount of evidence of misconduct.” He admitted that he doesn’t have “an army of witnesses,” but added that “they’re there and in due time… We do have employees who have left the Paula Deen family of business and will be testifying. But many out of fear will not come forward until we subpoena them to come forward.” As for how much Paula knows about her brother’s behavior, the lawyer claims that she’s aware of it and hasn’t put her foot down. He words the racist allegations vaguely, though. “Much of the conduct comes from Bubba, but Paula has knowledge of it and she knows the workplace is full of sexual harassment and she knows the racial discrimination that’s filed in the lawsuit. And by doing nothing about it, she enables him to continue the behavior.” He also adds that Paula’s company finally hired an HR person in 2011 for their organization, which has over 500 employees.

Paula has reportedly dropped two dress sizes since going on a healthier diet to control her diabetes. She came under fire last month for delaying the announcement of her diabetes for three years, during which time she continued to cook and endorse unhealthy food.

Paula is shown in the purple below in October, and in black in more recent photos from February 26. She appears to have something stuck on the side of her face. The man with her is her husband, Michael Groover. Also, bonus pic of chef Robert Irvine’s abs. Credit: WENN.com

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