CTFD: Right-wing Outrage Over the Casting of Jane Fonda As Nancy Reagan

According to an article in The Hollywood Reporter, two-time Oscar winner Jane Fonda will portray Nancy Reagan in the upcoming bio The Butler. The film is a biopic of Eugene Allen, a butler who served in the White House from 1952 to 1986. Because the film will cover a long time period, Fonda's role will be a supporting one.

The casting of a liberal icon to play the wife of the most popular conservative president in U.S. history has gotten some people on the right in an uproar. In various spots on the Internet, conservatives have voiced their outrage. Below are some of the comments left on Michelle Malkin's Twitter curation site Twitchy:

"What a Slap in the face to Nancy Reagan, I for one will not pay to see this Hollywood Trashing of a Great Lady How Sick."

"A Liberal playing a Conservative. How F***ed is that."

"Liberal activist???  You mean liberal traitor!  America's Tokyo Rose.  She should be in jail with her comrade kerry."

You can read more by going to the Twitchy link I included earlier.

All I can say is ctfd! Should performers only portray people who share their political beliefs?! It's called acting for a reason.

For those who are still upset over Fonda's July 1972 trip to Hanoi, she's already apologized more than once. Since Fonda can't hop into a customized DeLorean and change what she did 40 years ago, I don't know what else she can do. 

If the right-wing really wants to get revenge on those evil liberals who have the audacity to besmirch the reputation of Nancy Reagan by casting Jane Fonda to play her, they should make their own film and cast either Janine Turner or our favorite "Politichick" Victoria Jackson in the role of Hillary Clinton. I'll bet those two could use the acting gig. Here's an idea! Turner and Jackson can go head-to-head in a real-life "Celebrity Deathmatch" to determine who gets the role. However, Jackson isn't allowed to pluck her prized ukelele or sing with that golden throat of hers because doing so would give her an unfair advantage.

Please Take A Moment To Vote In the Two Jeremy Lin Polls ... Thank You

Please note that this post is "future dated" because it's poll-related. For posts which were written after this one, but have their actual date attached to them, please scroll down. Thank you.

Ever since "Linsanity" took the world by storm, I've been planning on writing a post about the man who inspired the term... New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin. As of this writing, the New York Knicks are 8-1 since February 4 (the date Lin began playing substantial minutes for them). The superb numbers Lin has put up in his first eight NBA starts had the crew on NBA Sunday comparing his stats to the first 8 pro starts of Hall of Fame point guards Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Isiah Thomas, and John Stockton.

Lin's success hasn't gone unnoticed by the non-sports media either, receiving coverage on regular newscasts, inspiring jokes by late night TV hosts, as well as a skit on the 2/18 edition of SNL. The meteoric rise of Jeremy Lin and the way his success has captured the imagination of sports fans and non-fans alike is a combination we don't see too often in sports. The other similar instances in my lifetime that come to mind are Mark "The Bird" Fidrych and William "The Refrigerator" Perry.

Jeremy Lin's "out-of-nowhere" success is all the more amazing given his previous "underdog" status:

• Despite being named first-team All-State and Northern California Division II Player of the Year during his senior year in high school, Lin failed to receive any college athletic scholarship offers. He wound up attending Harvard (which like other Ivy League schools, does not offer athletic scholarships)

• Although he had a successful hoops career at Harvard, Lin was undrafted in the 2010 NBA Draft

• After his first year, he was waived by the Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets in the preseason before joining the Knicks early in the 2011-2012 season. 

• The Knicks considered releasing Lin before his contract became guaranteed on February 10 so they could sign a new player.

Because Lin is one of the few Asian Americans in NBA history, his phenomenal success has brought the often uncomfortable subject of race into the conversation. On Lin's Wikipedia page, there already is a section on the racial issues that have come up before and after Lin's rise to prominence in the NBA.

Two of the stories which have arisen in the wake of "Linsanity" are the subject of the two poll questions I've posted. One involves whether or not the Jeremy Lin hype is caused by race. The question first arose after heavyweight boxer Floyd Mayweather wrote the following on his Twitter page, "Jeremy Lin is a good player but all the hype is because he's Asian. Black players do what he does every night and don't get the same praise."

The other poll deals with ESPN firing one employee and suspending another over the use of the term "chink in the armor" in relation to Lin.  On the night of February 18, Anthony Federico posted the following headline on ESPN’s mobile website: "Chink in the Armor: Jeremy Lin's 9 Turnovers Cost Knicks in Streak-Snapping Loss to Hornets." By Sunday afternoon, Federico was cut loose by ESPN. Also on 2/18, ESPNews television personality Max Bretos posed the following question about Lin live on the air: "If there is a chink in the armor, where can he improve his game?" As a result, Bretos was given a 30-day suspension.

After voting in the polls, please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section of this post. In the clip below, the panel of ESPN First Take discuss the role that race plays in the Jeremy Lin hype.

Cross Post By Sandy About Bill Maher's Tweeted Response to Kim Kardashian

The following was originally posted by Sandy (one of the contributors to Diversity Ink) on his blog Best Seat In the House on 7/8/11. He was kind enough to let me feature it over here as well.

Maher Comes Out With Race-Based Attack On Kim Kardashian

 Bill Maher was at his predictable worst as he used Twitter as a platform to issue what was, by his standards, a fairly standard distasteful attack of Kim Kardashian. One sort of expects that Maher will say tasteless things, but then there are comments that are even bad for his standards (such as his standards are).

It started when Kardashian Tweeted this in response to the verdict in the case of Casey Anthony (you can look it up on your own if you don't know about it):

“WHAT!!!!???!!!! CASEY ANTHONY FOUND NOT GUILTY!!!I am speechless!!!”

Maher, smelling blood in the water, responded as he Tweeted the following:

“Kim Kardashian is upset with Casey Anthony verdict? Ur father defended O.J.! Starting the Kardashian tradition of getting black men off.”

A few thoughts about the original comment and the response went through my head:

1. He has probably been looking for an opportunity to unload this kind of comment on the Kardashian women.

2. He perhaps has some underlying issues with the Kardashians and their relationships with black people.

3. He is tired of seeing the Kardashians with guys like Reggie Bush, Lamar Odom, etc... Maybe he wants to see them getting off more guys like Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki and Bill Mah ... nevermind

4. His comment smacks of racism (not that he cares one bit about what anyone things of him ... good, bad or indifferent ... this is how he makes his money).

Posted by Sandy Gholston at 8:42 PM on July 18, 2011.

 

I don't think Bill Maher's comments were racist. The tweet made me laugh out loud because his use of the term "get off" is a clever play on words. In order to be funny, humor usually has some basis in the truth. After all, Kim's father (the late Robert Kardashian) did help in getting O.J. off and Kim has a history of dating black men. Also, if Maher has a problem with the Kardashian sisters dating black men, he's being hypocritical because he has dated black women in the past.

Do you think Bill Maher's response to Kim Kardashian's tweet was racist?