Editor’s Note: Whether on screen or off, Hollywood can always be counted on to keep us entertained. This is especially true when it comes to politics. Join us each week as we shine the spotlight on Tinsel Town’s A-listers and their wacky and sometimes inspiring takes on today’s current events.
Tinsel Town was all agog after President Donald Trump caught Coronavirus. Like leftist politicians, these glittery folks couldn’t wait to take stabs at the president.
Trump Bash
Bess Levin’s piece in Vanity Fair — titled “’Steroid-Induced Psychosis’: Donald Trump Follows Up Sunday Night Joyride With Extra-Crazy Monday (Even for Him)” with the subtitle “The president is on a bender” — opened with a paragraph (or, rather, long sentence!) dedicated to sensationalism and name-calling:
“Capping off an insane weekend in which the White House got caught in its cover-up re: when Donald Trump tested positive for COVID-19, if he was ever put on supplemental oxygen, and how serious his case is, the president of the United States decided the best thing to do while sick with a highly contagious disease was to force his Secret Service detail to drive him around Walter Reed National Military Medical Center so he could wave to his fans like the Queen of England, if the queen was an unhinged lunatic hell-bent on infecting as many people as possible with a disease that has killed more than 209,000 in the U.S. alone.”
Apparently, the agents assigned to Trump’s detail already had been exposed and wore double protection, according to the president’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. However, that little tidbit didn’t sit well with naysayers and only reinforced the negative opinions.
The late-night hosts couldn’t wait to get their digs in, either. The Daily Show host Trevor Noah condemned the president for not wearing a mask:
“Turns out while you spent the last seven months hugging your grandma through a giant condom, Trump and his friends are having no mask cocktail receptions indoors, where the guest of honor is COVID-19. And now, at least 30 people in Trump’s circle have tested positive for COVID-19.”
The Late Show host Stephen Colbert attacked the Rose Garden event, calling it “The Infest Wing,” in reference to the political drama The West Wing. He then criticized Trump’s tweet saying not to let fear of the Coronavirus dominate your lives, stating the Surgeon General ought to change its warning to “Don’t let cancer dominate your lungs; smoking is cool because my lung transplant was successful.”
Late Night host Seth Meyers took it a step further, suggesting it was another trick to try to win re-election. He highlighted ways that Trump had “denied reality” since the beginning of the pandemic just so that the president would be able to get a conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court “to help them steal the election and destroy Obamacare.”
Social media sites also had their hands full, because they possess superior knowledge on all factual information, deleting the president’s tweets. Trump recently sent a tweet that said, “Flu season is coming Up! Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu. Are we going to close down our Country? No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with COVID, in most populations far less lethal!!!” Facebook completely removed the post. Twitter tagged it as a violation of its rules, claiming it was misleading and potentially harmful COVID information but adding, “However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.”
Um, okay. That’s about as clear as mud.
And then these guys: MeidasTouch. Ben, Brett, and Jordan Meiselas were frustrated after Trump refused to condemn white supremacists during the Sept. 29 presidential debate. The three brothers decided to produce anti-Trump videos, which went viral and pretty much accelerated them into a super PAC. “The ultimate goal is to get Trump out,” Brett said. “It’s an existential crisis for our country to have this guy in office. We’ve also been very adamant about flipping the Senate blue.”
The brothers are originally from Long Island. Brett is an Emmy-winning video editor who also worked on The Ellen DeGeneres Show; Ben is an entertainment and civil rights litigator who has several clients, including Colin Kaepernick; and Colin is a marketing supervisor. The three have produced the type of videos the left loves to eat up, and HollyWeird is gobbling up the messages as well.
Cheers and Jeers
Sometimes, HollyWeird players make headlines for silly or bizarre happenings, so here is a collection of newsworthy doings — honorable and dishonorable — by the tenants of Tinsel Town.
Friends to Have All-Black Cast
It seems the Black Lives Matter movement that has spread into Hollywood is focusing on redoing fan-favorite sitcoms with all-black characters. Liberty Nation reported on how the iconic Golden Girls got an all-black-cast makeover, and now Friends will as well. The group of actors re-enacting “The One Where No One’s Ready” episode from the sitcom aims to spotlight and show support for Michelle Obama’s “When We All Vote” initiative.
Uzo Aduba (Orange Is the New Black) will play Lisa Kudrow’s character, Phoebe; Ryan Bathe (This Is Us) will take over Jennifer Aniston’s Rachel; Courtney Cox’s character, Monica, will be portrayed by Aisha Hinds (Neo Ned); Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us) will read the part of David Schwimmer’s Ross; Matt LeBlanc’s character, Joey, will be played by Kendrick Sampson (How to Get Away With Murder); and Jeremy Pope (Hollywood, Scandalous!) will take over as Matthew Perry’s Chandler.
“We’ve selected popular four-quadrant shows to attract a wide cross-section of potential voters,” said Bathe in a statement. “We’re thrilled to see how many people have embraced the series and are actively motivated to get out the vote this November.”
Plus-Size Cinderella
The fairy godmother has outdone herself, literally, with Cinderella’s new plus-size makeover. If the Shoe Fits, written by Julie Murphy, is one of the latest projects to stem from Disney Publishing’s desire to entertain adult audiences who enjoy classic fairy tales but want a more contemporary theme.
Cindy (Cinderella) has just graduated with a degree in shoe design and is working for her stepmother, an executive producer for the reality show Before Midnight. The plump heroine volunteers to go on the show, hoping it will give her career a jump-start, but, as the book’s description says, “Turns out being the only plus size woman on a reality dating competition makes a splash, and soon Cindy becomes a positivity icon for women everywhere.”
Tune in next week to see what else Tinseltown has planned.
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Read more from Kelli Ballard.
