The first person is Susan Sarandon. Sarandon’s been a thorn politically for decades, siding with Ralph Nader during the 2000 election, but she’s ramped up her awfulness recently. She’s also openly-confrontational, using people’s histories against them. I won’t claim I haven’t had bad political takes myself, that wouldn’t be honest, but the number of “This you?” responses she’s used to deflect are a worrying since no one sane has denied they were flawed.
When October 7th, 2023 occurred, and many celebrities were expressing condolences, Sarandon was confronted for her stance on the ensuing war. Initially dodgy about it, Sarandon stated in a pro-Palestinian rally in November of 2023 that Jews were “getting a taste of what it feels like to be a Muslim [in The US]”. Never mind the tone-deaf nature of that remark, or that it was Islamophobic, disregarding Jewish safety was the final straw for many Jews and Muslims, with criticism coming from both groups. Sarandon was also dropped from her talent agency afterward. It’s hard to feel bad, given her remarks since.
What’s frustrating is that, honestly, it didn’t have to be this way. Sarandon’s a public figure, and she’s most-likely worked with Jews. To go and defame the entire community feels like a slap to the face, especially since she’s so talented. She’s also an Oscar-nominated actress, and this level of prestige has now gone to waste. Was it worth it? I doubt it, but I’m also biased.
Moving on, there’s John Cusack. Cusack’s been in the limelight before for Antisemitic remarks, even sharing a cartoon implying Jews were suppressing freedom of speech. I remember confronting him on Twitter, to which he was shockingly rude. But I digress. Cusack apologized for the cartoon, but that wouldn’t be the last time he’d put his foot in his mouth.
Cusack became more brazen with Israel’s incursion in Gaza. Ignoring my personal thoughts there, which I won’t reiterate, Cusack has made several snipes at Israel and Jews since then. However, it wasn’t until this July when Cusack shared an image linking Anthony Blinken to Jeffrey Epstein that everything came to a head. The image also labelled Epstein as a Mossad agent, suggesting he was bending The US to Israel’s will. Oh dear.
As expected, Cusack quickly deleted the image and apologized. However, I have to wonder if he was sincere, or if he got caught and felt shame. If it’s the latter, I have no sympathy for him. He may be talented, even if I prefer his sister, but that’s no excuse for Antisemitism. Especially if it links a member of Joe Biden’s cabinet to Jeffrey Epstein.
Finally, there’s Guy Pearce. Pearce has been outspoken on Palestinian rights before, which itself isn’t an issue. He’s even worn Palestinian iconography on his clothing, which also doesn’t bother me. But it’s his remarks that’ve ranked him alongside Susan Sarandon and John Cusack. And they came about following-you guessed it-October 7th, 2023.
A few weeks ago, Pearce shared his disgust in Israelis for their treatment of Palestinians. While there are ongoing tensions there, particularly in the settlements, the unfair generalization was enough to get him in hot water. And then there was him sharing an Instagram post claiming that Jews manipulated casinos and pornography so as to distract from societal woes. Yikes!
While no stranger to courting controversy, what makes Pearce’s situation unique is that he not only apologized, but also has taken a social media hiatus. Considering social media brings out the worst in people, this is a start, as Pearce has a reputation to uphold. However, like with John Cusack, I’m unsure if his apology only happened because he got caught, or if he’s actually sincere. It’s not uncommon for celebrities to make tone-deaf statements, receive backlash, apologize and then go radio silent to “reflect”. I only hope that Pearce, whose remarks did serious damage, is being genuine here.
The question I have is “What now?”. How can Hollywood prevent incidents like this from happening, especially with October 7th’s aftermath forcing the Antisemitic genie out of its bottle? One such answer has been Universal/Paramount’s blacklist, where celebrities accused of Antisemitism are no longer allowed to work there. That might sound tempting, but the blacklist’s criteria is too general and has little room for nuance. Also, a scorched earth policy doesn’t seem reasonable for something so delicate.
Perhaps the solution is to tackle this at its root. That sounds patronizing, but Antisemitism is a learned behaviour tied to “in group, out group”. It need not be perpetuated, and re-education’s the perfect way to stop it. But perhaps I’m being naïve, and this is a deeper problem that can’t be so easily fixed. In the meantime, I only that hope more celebrities don’t “out themselves”.
But if everything fails, at least you have three celebrities to watch out for…right?
No comments:
Post a Comment