Just look at her, she wants me.
Posted on 11/09/2006 9:12:02 AM PST by meg88
Thursday, 11/09/06 'Call me' ad actress says 'it was just a job'
The bare-shouldered blonde whose appearance in a political ad helped sink Democrat Harold Ford Jr. says she isn't very political, and didn't know who "Harold" was when she said, "Call me."
"I don't involve myself in politics. I stick to my job," said Johanna Goldsmith, an Austin, Texas, actress. "For me, it was just a job like any other."
Goldsmith's ad in the U.S. Senate race in Tennessee touched off a national political and racial firestorm.
She had promised to keep quiet until after the election, and she spoke to The Tennessean by telephone Wednesday.
Although the ad has been criticized for playing into racial fears of a black man dating a white woman, Goldsmith said she saw no such message. Goldsmith, who has Mexican heritage, said she has “dated all nationalities” and didn’t see the ad as racist.
Tammy Thompson, a Texas radio personality who also appeared in the ad, agreed.
"I live with undertones of racism all the time," said Thompson, who is African-American. "But I also have to think of it as, 'Everything is not racism.' We as black people have a tendency to be a little sensitive because of what our ancestors went through and what we continue to go through today."
Thompson said the actors didn't have a script and were thrown lines to repeat as they stood in front of the camera. They shot Oct. 15 in Dallas and a week later the ad aired.
In the commercial, Goldsmith plays a flirtatious blond who says she met Ford at a Playboy party — a reference to his attendance at a Playboy-sponsored Super Bowl party in Jacksonville, Fla., last year. The ad, filmed in a man-on-the-street-style, featured other questionable characters who said they backed Ford.
Some pundits and politicians speculated that the ad, paid for by the Republican National Committee, helped put Republican Bob Corker over the top.
The first poll — a Bloomberg survey — that showed Corker leading by more than a percentage point was conducted in the days just after the "call me" ad aired, and Ford was never consistently ahead in the polls again.
"It clearly had an effect. After the ad ran, that's when the polls started changing — Corker for the better and Ford for the worse," said David Bositis, senior political analyst at the Joint Center of Political and Economic Studies, a nonprofit black think tank.
The fact that 30 short seconds caused such an uproar — and landed Goldsmith's picture all over prime-time television news channels and the front page of major print publications such as Time magazine and The New York Times — surprised her, she said.
A Spanish translator for a Texas doctors association, Goldsmith said, “I don’t just play the bimbos, I play the young mom, too.
“I love children and comedy.”
As the spot was criticized as tacky and latently racist, calls started pouring in alerting Goldsmith to her newfound fame, she said. A friend from Australia even called to tell her she'd made the cover of a major magazine in Melbourne.
Two days after the election, Goldsmith is trying to catch up on the back-and-forth over the ad. She recorded some of the news broadcasts and plans to watch them this weekend.
Linda McAlister, Goldsmith's agent, said people of all political hues signed on to the commercial, produced by Dallas-based company Scott Howell & Co., because the script was funny. McAlister said she was surprised people took the ad so seriously.
"That's what's been so hilarious about the whole thing," she said. "We've been looking at each other like, 'You are good. You sold it!' "
True, and the real racism gets lost in all this 'everything is racist' attitudes because people begin to believe that everything is some kind of ploy. I get frustrated and angry that so many who really suffer racist actions against them have their experiences relegated to a 'oh just another one of those'
LOL.....I saw the ad and thought Ford was lighter skinned than the actress!
What a stupid comment. If it wasn't to be taken seriously, then why was it run. That election was too close not to run ads that would cause concern among some core group of people.
Thanks. Said tongue in cheek - a more serious response is at post 3.
thanks
According to Sigmund Freud, projection is a psychological defense mechanism whereby one "projects" one's own undesirable thoughts, motivations, desires, feelings — basically parts of oneself — onto someone else (usually another person, but psychological projection onto animals, inanimate objects — even religious constructs — also occurs). The principle of projection is well-established in psychology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_projection
thanks
I never understood the uproar.
I see an ad like that and I think "At least he's straight, and will keep his hands off the Pages"
Just look at her, she wants me.
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LOL!
Hey babe. Call me.
Racism is far more prevalent than most whites believe... and far less prevalent than most blacks believe.
As a black woman who is currently attending a racially diverse college, I have to say I TOTALLY AGREE WITH THAT STATMENT! I have a girlfriend who blames racism if it rains on her new hairdo. I hate to say it, but the truth is most black people are racially sensitive. It is hard not to be.
that 80 year old pervert is what was offensive to voters
Hefner is creepy, isn't he. If I was that close to death I'd be in church every day, not running with some girls I pay to be my "girlfriends"
"Pretty lady. Harold will probably give her a call, for real!"
Whats her number again?
and a very light skinned Mexican to boot...
And Ford looks like he is awash in white blood with his light skin and eyes. I don't see a problem with the ad other than him hanging out with scandalous people, their race is not of importance
Didn't Harold lie about being at the Playboy party to begin with?
I heard him say he wasn't there, then I heard him say something like "I'm a single man, so I like pretty girls". I say, if you are going to try to come across as a conservative Christian candidate, you may want to stay out of a Playboy party. You might catch something that only Jesus can cure.
Sorry Freepers, but I don't know too many single guys who would turn down an invite to a Playboy Superbowl party. Who really cares, especially at this point? At least it appears he's a red-blooded heterosexual male and not some boy-loving closet case. I'd take Ford over my two Dem-wit Senators any day.
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