In his Thursday interview with Good Morning America, Empire actor Jussie Smollett struck back at those who have doubted his story of an alleged hate crime attack in Chicago.
Throughout his chat with Robin Roberts, Smollett described his frustration with those who’ve criticized him and taken a skeptical view of his attack. At one point he suggested that his doubters might have a racial agenda, saying they wouldn’t be so disbelieving if his attackers were minorities.
“It feels like if I had said it was a Muslim or a Mexican or someone black (who attacked me), I feel like the doubters would have supported me a lot much more, a lot more and that says a lot about the place that we are in our country right now.”
As Smollett defended his reluctance to share his phone records with the police, he grumbled about “inaccurate, false statements” that have been spread about the attack, citing one which claimed that he said his attackers wore MAGA hats. Smollett explained that this was a false add-on to what he said earlier in the interview about how his attacker supposed yelled pro-Donald Trump slogans during the assault.
“I never said that. I didn’t need to add anything like that,” Smollett said. “They called me a f*ggot, they called me a n*gger. There’s no which way you cut it. I don’t need some MAGA hat as the cherry on top of some racist sundae.”
Smollett continued to bash other “ridiculous” false narratives about the attack, he said that he could’ve been targeted because “I come really, really hard against 45. I don’t hold my tongue.” Smollett said he was appreciative that the president condemned the “horrible” attack on him, but as for the perpetrators, “I could only go off their words.”
“Who says ‘This is MAGA country,’ ties a noose around your neck, and pours bleach on you and this is just a friendly fight?”
This proves you can make jokes about Gay’s and stay in Hollywood.
Comedian and A-list actor Kevin Hart announced early Friday morning that he “made the choice to step down” from hosting the 91st Academy Awards amid a backlash over the resurfacing of previous gay jokes and tweets.
“I have made the choice to step down from hosting this year’s Oscar’s….this is because I do not want to be a distraction on a night that should be celebrated by so many amazing talented artists,” Kevin Hart tweeted. “I sincerely apologize to the LGBTQ community for my insensitive words from my past.”
I have made the choice to step down from hosting this year’s Oscar’s….this is because I do not want to be a distraction on a night that should be celebrated by so many amazing talented artists. I sincerely apologize to the LGBTQ community for my insensitive words from my past.
“I’m sorry that I hurt people.. I am evolving and want to continue to do so. My goal is to bring people together not tear us apart. Much love & appreciation to the Academy,” the Night School star added. “I hope we can meet again.”
I’m sorry that I hurt people.. I am evolving and want to continue to do so. My goal is to bring people together not tear us apart.Much love & appreciation to the Academy.I hope we can meet again.
Hart’s response to criticism over earlier tweets deemed homophobic by some on Thursday further inflamed a backlash to the comedian two days after he was named host of the upcoming Academy Awards.
On Thursday, Hart wrote on Instagram that critics should “stop being negative” after years-old tweets surfaced in which he used gay slurs. In an accompanying video, a shirtless Hart lounging in bed warily said he wasn’t going to “let the craziness frustrate me.”
“I’m almost 40 years old. If you don’t believe that people change, grow, evolve? I don’t know what to tell you,” said Hart, who added, in all-caps: “I love everybody.”
Hart has since deleted some of the anti-gay tweets, mostly dated from 2009-2011. But they had already been screen-captured and been shared online. In 2011, he wrote in a since-deleted tweet: “Yo if my son comes home & try’s 2 play with my daughters doll house I’m going 2 break it over his head & say n my voice ’stop that’s gay.”
Hart’s attitudes about homosexuality were also a well-known part of his stand-up act. In the 2010 special Seriously Funny, he said “one of my biggest fears is my son growing up and being gay.”
“Keep in mind, I’m not homophobic, I have nothing against gay people, do what you want to do, but me, being a heterosexual male, if I can prevent my son from being gay, I will,” Hart said.
GLAAD, the advocacy group for LGBTQ rights, said Thursday that it has reached out to Oscars broadcaster ABC, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts, and Sciences and Hart’s management to “discuss Kevin’s anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and record.”
Comedian and actor Billy Eichner was among those on social media who were disappointed with Hart’s response.
“This is not good. A simple, authentic apology showing any bit of understanding or remorse would have been so simple,” Eichner said. “Like I tweeted a few weeks ago, Hollywood still has a real problem with gay men. On the surface it may not look like it. Underneath, it’s far more complicated.”
This is not good. A simple, authentic apology showing any bit of understanding or remorse would have been so simple. Like I tweeted a few weeks ago, Hollywood still has a real problem with gay men. On the surface it may not look like it. Underneath, it’s far more complicated.
The film academy on Tuesday announced Hart as host to its February ceremony. Representatives for the academy and for ABC didn’t respond to messages Thursday.
Amber Tamblyn’s frank discussion about her feelings the night that Donald Trump was elected president are generating a lot of anger on Twitter.
A star of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movie and co-founder of the #TimesUporganization advocating for women’s equality, Tamblyn read part of her upcoming book, Era of Ignition: Coming of Age in a Time of Rage and Revolution, on Sunday at the “Feminist AF” event at Vulture Fest in L.A. The excerpt she read was about spending the night of the 2016 presidential election at the Javits Center in New York with the Hillary Clinton campaign, and her thoughts at the moment Clinton supporters were told that the presidential candidate would not be addressing the crowd.
“A dark realization swallowed me: I was going to bring a baby into this world. And not just any baby: a girl,” Tamblyn recalled. According to the Hollywood Reporter, she recalled “imagining if she should give her baby away to Canadians or Swedes.” Tamblyn’s team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
That last part, about Tamblyn’s now 18-month-old baby, drove a lot of people straight to Twitter.
’MERICA 1st@rb_leto
@WilkowMajoritynow I’ve heard everything!!! Hollywood is planning to boycott filming in Georgia and amber tamblyn says she imagines her baby growing up in Canada all these people are dilusional !!!!
11 yr old girl gets gang raped in Sweden. Then her attackers get let go. Now she faces them as they laugh at her on the way to school everyday. USA is next unless we take a STAND! Fight Mass Immigration!
PamelaR@prichvisalia
Hey- @ambertamblyn ~ Like I said in my first TW to you- you surely dodged a bullet. You and your husband shout horrid things about OUR PRESIDENT ~ WHILE SITTING COMFY IN YOUR MANSION? & “WE THE PEOPLE” (#patriots#maga) ARE SUPPOSED TO HEAR YOU? You R both hypocrites! Move to
Do us all a favor and leave the country! People like you are why people like me voted for Trump. If you can’t figure out why then you deserve the Communist life you’ll have because you just don’t get what it means to be an American. #Trump2020
@ambertamblyn nice article of how you thought you would have to give your daughter to Canada or Sweden after 2016 election. It just goes to show how irrational and unhinged some people are. If it’s that bad why did yih just take your baby and leave. Not as dramatic I guess
If you’re one of those news organizations that treated Clinton’s private emails like they were a national emergency, the solution isn’t to treat Ivanka’s private emails like they’re also a national emergency—rather, it’s to acknowledge that you kinda fucked up on Clinton.
Just Jeff@TrumpTheHaters1
Just read that Amber wrote that she thought about giving her baby to Canada after Trump won the election. Looks like someone is looking for attention. Pretty pathetic.
Tamblyn herself jumped into the fray to make a joke about a headline from an extremist website about what happened. She thanked another writer for sharing a poem called “Stay Vigilant,” adding that she “needed this.”
Although commenters didn’t pay much attention, Tamblyn’s moment at the reading included a more hopeful message too. She remembered her doctor suggesting that she deal with her anxiety about protecting her daughter by listening to a one-minute recording of the baby’s heartbeat each and every day, so she shared it with the audience.
Amber Tamblyn Believes Entertainment Is Slowly But Significantly Increasing Inclusivity
Hollywood celebrities from Judd Apatow to Kathy Griffin melted down on Twitter Thursday following the FBI concluding its seventh background check into Brett Kavanaugh that did not provide information about him being a sexual abuser.
The FBI report could not corroborate any claims of sexual misconduct made against Brett Kavanaugh. This means that Kavanaugh could soon be confirmed to the Supreme Court — and many celebrities found this just too much to handle.
1. Call your senators to demand they oppose Kavanaugh 2. Call your senators to demand they oppose Kavanaugh 3. Ask a friend to call their senators, too 4. Call your senators to demand they oppose Kavanaugh
“So many women I love are in DC today. They represent hundreds, thousands, & millions of other women. At this point, opposing Kavanaugh is not about a political party…it’s about ensuring that women-people-of every political party are safe. (1/2)” Lena Dunham tweeted, adding, “Trauma is a silent killer. I pray- truly, yes, have been praying- that our senators on both sides of the aisle recognize their own moral imperative to believe and protect survivors. #stopkavanaugh (2/2).”
So many women I love are in DC today. They represent hundreds, thousands, & millions of other women. At this point, opposing Kavanaugh is not about a political party…it’s about ensuring that women-people-of every political party are safe. (1/2)
Trauma is a silent killer. I pray- truly, yes, have been praying- that our senators on both sides of the aisle recognize their own moral imperative to believe and protect survivors. #stopkavanaugh (2/2)
Meanwhile, Michael Moore claimed that it was time for the left to “wake up and start FIGHTING.”
“5 days ago Dems & ‘liberals’ did the same old thing, claiming some empty ‘victory’ when Flake feigned ‘shame, and then foolishly placing their hopes in the FBI – THE FBI! – doing an ‘investigation.’ When is our side going to wake up and start FIGHTING? Stop hoping & start acting!” he tweeted.
5 days ago Dems & “liberals” did the same old thing, claiming some empty “victory” when Flake feigned “shame, and then foolishly placing their hopes in the FBI – THE FBI! – doing an “investigation.” When is our side going to wake up and start FIGHTING? Stop hoping & start acting!
Both houses of Congress.The White House.Almost every corporate boardroom.Country clubs and business organizations. Most churches. Over half of white people, a majority of old white people. Virtually every square foot of rural America.
Dear @JeffFlake@lisamurkowski and @SenatorCollins. An investigation that fails to investigate will NOT provide you with political cover. If you vote for this man you are telling EVERY survivor who comes forward that your career is more important than justice. We won’t forget.
Donald Trump says it’s “a very scary time for young men in America.”Gee, I didn’t know so many of them were being assaulted and then mocked about it by their president.
It’s almost as if moderate GOP senators knew in advance that the FBI investigation would be stymied and useless, but the fact that one happened would give them the political cover to vote yes.
Georgetown professor Michael Eric Dyson went on a rant against the president and even suggested that Hillary Clinton won the election during his eulogy at Aretha Franklin’s funeral on Friday.
“Then this orange apparition had the nerve to say she worked for him. You lugubrious leach, you dopey doppelgänger of deceit and deviance, you lethal liar, you dimwitted dictator, you foolish fascist,” Dyson continued. “She [didn’t] work for you, she worked above you. She worked beyond you. Get your preposition right. Then he [has] the nerve to say he’s going to grab it. That’s not what Aretha Franklin said. I’m going to give you something that you can feel.”
MARTHA MACCALLUM’S BURNING QUESTION ON LOUIS Farrakhan AT ARETHA FRANKLIN FUNERAL — ‘WHAT WAS HE DOING THERE?’
Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum on Friday wondered what “unapologetic anti-Semite” Louis Farrakhan was “doing up there” in such a prominent position at Aretha Franklin’s funeral.
The Fox News host told her panel that, despite the “amazing” performances of stars like Jennifer Hudson and Gladys Knight, she was “distracted by Louis Farrakhan who was in every single shot.”
“What was he doing there?” she asked the panel.
Liberal economist Kylie Patterson acknowledged the “mixed” history of Farrakhan but also noted both Franklin’s and Farrakhan’s involvement in the “liberation movement.”
“This is her funeral,” Patterson said. “I mean, it’s her choice, who she wants there, how she wants people sitting.”
“I just wonder how much jockeying there was for prime position,” MacCallum asked. “I saw that he was kind of pushing his website and all of this on Twitter. And I thought, ‘Gee, that’s kind of a little bit unfortunate’ that it was distracting in that way. He, you know, has said awful things about Jewish people, about white people, about gay people and I thought it was never the message that I heard in Aretha Franklin’s music.”
James Gunn, the powerhouse writer/director behind Marvel’s lucrative Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, was fired by the Walt Disney company Friday.
“The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James’ Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio’s values, and we have severed our business relationship with him,” Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn said in a statement.
Disney owns Marvel, which means Gunn will not only not be writing or directing Guardians of the Galaxy 3, he is out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe period.
According the Hollywood Reporter, a far-left entertainment site, the now-disgraced Gunn had already begun writing the Guardians 3 script. Shooting was scheduled to begin this fall in Atlanta.
While the establishment media and entertainment media all but ignored the story (probably hoping they could save the Trump-hating Gunn), Twitter sleuths online, the Daily Caller, and (to its credit) TheWrap, all dug up and covered explosive tweets written by Gunn over the past decade — tweets that “joked” about committing child rape, along with disparaging jokes about Mexicans, AIDS, the Holocaust, and rape in general.
One of the more disturbing finds was Gunn bragging about a movie titled 100 Pubescent Girls Touch Themselves that he apparently embedded on his personal website. In an apparent panic, Gunn took his website down Thursday night, but the Wayback Machine reveals that he received the video from a man who was later convicted of pedophilia. In the most vulgar way imaginable, Gunn bragged that the movie gave him an orgasm.
Gunn is a huge loss to the Marvel machine. He had just earned an executive producer credit on Avengers: Infinity War, and was seen as integral to Marvel’s expanding universe, even beyond Guardians.
Gunn was also famous for his Twitter account, which enjoys over a half-million followers. Using this verified account (which vanished for a time on Friday, but is back up now), the far-left Gunn loved to signal his own virtue, regularly blasted President Trump, and Trump supporters.
Gunn issued an apology for his disturbing Tweets Thursday night, but that apology did not and could not explain everything away, especially his sexual fascination with a movie titled 100 Pubescent Girls Touch Themselves andhis association with a convicted pedophile.