Add Kate Beckinsale to the list of Hollywood liberals with zero tolerance for opposing views.
Here’s Miss Kate prattling on to Entertainment Weekly about watching the news during the recent election cycle:
“And I was so shocked to see people admitting to being Republican on their front lawn!”
Stay classy, Kate.
And you wonder why Hollywood has run out of true movie stars … why would the public embrace an actress who gleefully insults half her audience?
Consider Will Smith, The Only Movie Star Left. He spoke openly about supporting President-elect Barack Obama. But to my knowledge he never insulted those who didn’t pull the lever for the senator.
That’s more than a smart move to keep his audience at full strength. It shows a respect for others’ opinions.
Some of his peers should take that lesson to heart.
ALSO CHECK OUT:
What Russell Brand thinks is funny
Related posts:
I'm an award-winning journalist and film critic with more than a decade of experience in newspapers, magazines and the Web. I'm a member of both the Washington, DC Area Film Critics Association and the Denver Film Critics Society.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Some years back Sigourney Weaver commented on an entertainment show about her part in the movie “Working Girl”. The character she played was grasping, dishonest, arrogant and unjust, which Sigourney called “very Republican”. I stopped following her after that. I don’t know if it was coincidental, but her career took a downward turn soon after.
It’s exhausting, isn’t it? I’d cut actors some slack if they were very young/inexperienced … but veterans like Weaver and Beckinsale should know better.
It’s like that Pauline Kael quote when Nixon beat McGovern, “Nixon can’t have won; no one I know voted for him.”
She, like most people in show business live in their own bubble, surrounding and associating themselves only with people who share their opinions. Beckinsale probably thinks the majority of the people think like she does, I’ve no doubt everyone surrounding her thinks as she does.
Sadly another actor whom I enjoy who I’ll never be able to enjoy as much ever again.
Like Beckinsale, many in the liberal herd are British or Canadian. I´m just saying.
As for Will Smith, he did say that 9/11 was not a big deal for blacks in America - but he only said it in Germany. So yes, he is smart in that way.
It’s one thing to be isolated in one’s opinions — but to be so dismissive is downright ugly.
El Gordo — the actors from England and Canada think in lockstep, politically, to their U.S. brethren. But good point all the same!
cftoto
She hasn’t a clue that what she said crossed any type of line.
Beckinsales’s remark is a good example of how the left views conservatives. They view us as evil, so for her, I imagine proudly proclaiming to be republican would be the same as someone proudly proclaiming they’re a nazi and who thinks twice about saying something bad about nazis?
That may be true, but I won’t give her a pass for saying that all the same.
Just goes to show, beauty is only skin deep, but ,ignorance goes to the bone.
Why do so many actors and singers feel the need to go out of their way to alienate so much of the audience. You guys won, Kate. Be gracious — or at least smart — and enjoy your “New Day” with grace.
Sigh … The irony, of course, is that conservatives who enjoy popular culture have learned to be … er … tolerant of those who entertain them. They hold their nose, compartmentalize the distasteful politics (and even the insults) to the point where even Sean Penn gets accolades from right-leaning reviewers about his performance in “Milk.” The other side of the general population is unwilling to make such an effort. And those who produce and perform in the entertainment either create art that misrepresents and insults a conservative point of view, or make it a hobby to rip it in their spare time. It’s a shame.
Much of the genuine tolerance, oddly enough, comes from the right, not the left, Jim. The far right and the far left are different stories, of course, with their own rigid intolerances.
As a movie lover I compartmentalize my thoughts on a near daily basis, clinging to my passion for film while swallowing hard while my favorite actors (cough cough, John Cusack) go out of their way to call people with my views vile names)
cftoto
I wasn’t giving her a pass, merely pointing out her likely mindest.
In regards to tolerance I think the left viewing us as evil pretty much explains their lack of tolerance.
I know, Opus … that mindset just drives me nuts! A child should be more aware than Beckinsale …
Oh Kate… and you’ve been admitting to being an actress for years - right up on screen, in front of EVERYONE! I didn’t know anyone actually admitted to being an actress, especially after films like “Van Helsing” and those “Underworld” flicks.
Ha! Great response, Heidi … wish I thought of it
>>>And I was so shocked to see people admitting to being Republican on their front lawn!
Hey Kate. We aren’t approval-starved Liberals, that’s why. Thus we have no problem “admitting” to any of our principled beliefs. It’s very liberating. You should try it.
“Consider Will Smith, The Only Movie Star Left. He spoke openly about supporting President-elect Barack Obama. But to my knowledge he never insulted those who didn’t pull the lever for the senator.”
No, he just went on and on about how embarrased he was to be an American while travelling abroad because of Bush. You don’t have to be a genius to connect the dots. Between that and his “open marriage,” (aka have my cake and eat it too) I am done with him.