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Celebrities
and politics: idiot savants or just idiots?
I
don't know about you, but I never tire of
hearing celebrities make stupid political
statements. Whether it be a musician, an
actor or a director, hearing the often ill-thought-out
and horribly-formulated arguments that Hollywood's
elite frequently utter always brings a tear
to my eye and a flutter to my heart. You
see, it is clear that celebrities don't
know much about whatever political topic
they dare to open their mouths about, and
when they do, hilarious gaffes are expected
to occur.
One
great place to hear these celebrity faux
pas is HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher,"
which is basically an uncensored version
of Maher's cancelled ABC show, "Politically
Correct," where he talks politics with
a panel of celebrity and pop-culture icons.
Last Friday's episode starred funnyman Richard
Belzer, who is currently on NBC's "Law
& Order: S.V.U.," and is a frequent
Republican basher. After making the
absurd comment that not all wars
are rooted in politics, he was asked to
name a war that was not politically motivated.
Incredulously, Belzer replied, "World
War II." Unable to elaborate on his
non sequitur, he hunkered back down into
the depths of his chair. More importantly,
however, it is now clear to me why Belzer
is a comedian: with comments like those,
there wasn't a dry eye in the house.
Sean
Penn is no stranger to political comments.
While the following was not quite a political
statement, it demonstrates Penn's lack of
humor and need to kiss ass for acceptance
in Hollywood. At the Academy Awards in January,
host Chris Rock made a joke about the seemingly
omniscient actor Jude Law. "Who is
Jude Law," Rock opined in an obviously
sarcastic lead-in: "Why is
he in every movie I have seen in the last
four years? He's in everything!" This
jibe apparently angered Penn, who, when
presenting the Best Actress award clarified
that Law is one of the "finest actors"
of our time. In a related story, Penn will
be starring alongside Law in an as-yet-untitled
film where he is set to play Jude's bitch.
Spicoli, what happened to you?
Even
rapper (read "wigger") Eminem
has gotten in on the uttering of silly political
statements. His latest release, "Encore,"
got loads of attention for a song entitled
"Mosh," where Marshall Mathers
takes aim at President George W. Bush, the
war in Iraq and other pressing issues.
In
one verse, Eminem states the following gem:
"Let the president answer on high anarchy
/ Strap him with an AK-47, let him go /
Fight his own war / Let him impress daddy
that way / No more blood for oil, we got
our battles to fight on our own soil."
Aside
from the tired and oft-used "this is
Bush's daddy's war" argument, one particular
assertion in that stanza is quite ponderous:
if this war was really all about oil, then
why are oil prices skyrocketing? Furthermore,
we do have battles to fight on our own soil.
The last time I checked, terrorists aren't
going to wait for us to be ready for them;
they'll attack us whenever they want. With
the recent successes in Iraq and in surrounding
countries that are now denouncing terrorism
in droves and even considering democracy,
Eminem's asinine comments now seem to be
more fallacious than ever.
Here's
a suggestion to celebrities: why don't you
leave the political talk to professionals
like myself? When celebrities make nonsensical
statements that are just plain wrong, they
are, in actuality, screwing themselves by
alienating fans that might disagree with
them. Apparently they don't see the danger
in that. On second thought, celebrities,
please, keep making imbecilic political
statements; after all, Americans do need
continuous amusement.
Gerry
Wachovsky is a senior broadcast journalism
major at CSULB and the Diversions editor
of the Daily Forty-Niner.
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