We always knew that President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama had street cred in Hollywood. The flock of actors and actresses who helped the Obamas win the White House again included Beyonce, Jay Z, Eva Longoria, Lena Dunham, George Clooney, and Katy Perry. That’s just some of the glitterati from Hollywood’s “A”, “B”, and “D” lists.
Like so many Thoughtful Women readers, my nose was out of joint when the First Lady of the United States (FLOTUS) introduced the Oscar for Best Picture. Clad in her own Hollywood glitter, Michelle Obama stood before the cameras in the Diplomatic Room of the White House, flanked by her own personnel military attaches. There she was in all her glory, as if she were nominated for Best Actress.
This was a breakthrough moment for the White House and its inhabitants, but it was an enormous mistake which diminishes the role of the First Lady.
Not even Ronald Reagan (Hollywood’s own President who headed the Screen Actor’s Guild union in 1947) presented an Oscar. And unlike the Obamas, Reagan was real Hollywood royalty.
So why now? Who on earth thought that it would be a good idea for the First Lady to do this?
Rumors are that Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg made a special White House pilgrimage to Washington to make the “ask” of the First Lady. Like so many in Hollywood, he helped to funnel millions to re-elect Obama.
President and Mrs. Obama have been treated by the mainstream media and Hollywood like a King and a Queen.
Is it because he is the first Black President?
Is it because his vision of government control and redistribution of wealth reminds Hollywood celebrities of all those places they threaten to flee to if they don’t get their way?
Is it because of her efforts to tackle obesity?
Whatever the case, this star-struck mutual admiration between liberals in Hollywood and a pro-government White House is nothing new. Hollywood gravitates towards Democrats and liberals and shuns Republicans and conservatives.
Take Clint Eastwood. Rarely has there been as gifted an actor or director who has seen Hollywood’s wrath so vividly. (For the record, Trouble With the Curve was a great movie).
In recent memory, former President Bill Clinton and former Vice President “Al-jezzera” Gore had Hollywood moguls in their back pockets.
Gore won a Grammy for “Best Spoken Performance” for An Inconvenient Truth. (Sort of hilarious considering that Gore was known as a “stiff” throughout his career as the U.S. Senator from Tennessee).
President Clinton appeared last month at the Golden Globe Awards to introduce the great film, Lincoln.
But those appearances were made by a former President and a former Vice President.
The move by the First Lady was yet another repeat of the Obama “campaign” in action. It was ill advised. You had your Inauguration and your celebration. Now its time to get to work.
What Americans want to see is serious talk about what payroll taxes do to working families, acknowledgement that we have a spending problem, pro-active ways to avoid sequester and budget turmoil, and support for small business owners who are doing their best under adverse economic circumstances to survive.
Americans don’t need more nods to the Hollywood elite. Mrs. Obama should have declined this gracious offer and focused her efforts on healing a divided America. This stunt diminished the Office of the First Lady and makes the White House drama seem a little too much like television.
by
No comments:
Post a Comment