Posted on 03/22/2002 9:29:29 AM PST by real saxophonist
Of Oscars and oppression
Gorgeous, rich, superstar Halle Berry's whining about being a victim of racism makes a mockery of the real thing, writes CNN and Fox News commentator Betsy Hart.
By BETSY HART
I hope that actress Halle Berry wins the Oscar for "Best Actress" for her portrayal of Leticia the waitress in "Monster's Ball" at the annual Hollywood love-fest on Sunday. Because then maybe, just maybe, she'll stop whining.
Berry whines a lot. She's a wealthy, gorgeous, powerful star, she happens to be black and, she whines, she's a victim of Hollywood racism.
I should be such a victim of discrimination.
I wish Berry were kidding, but she's not. (Nor is she the first black star to complain about racism in the company town.) But there she was being interviewed by the New York Times, the article nicely accompanied by a photo of Berry seductively posing in a well filled-out tank top, low rise hip-hugger pants, and an oh-so pouty expression.
She talks about the terrible discrimination she's encountered, including, sniff sniff (you can almost hear the crack in her voice), the time she couldn't play a lover to a leading man because the director didn't want to "go black" with the woman's part.
Does that then mean that every time Berry does land a leading role -- which is every time she lands a role, which is a lot -- some director was racist because he didn't want to "go white" with her part?
Or what if I were to go out for one of those "leading lady" roles and the director said, "ahem, no offense Mrs. Hart, really we think you're terrific and all, but we were sort of looking for a drop-dead gorgeous cover-model type." (Like, say, Halle Berry.) Does that make me a "victim" of discrimination?
Berry says she's "enraged" at the racism that permeates her life but she's determined to "rise above it all." I know we're supposed to be really impressed, but . . . rise above what? A handful of unbelievably lucky and talented people get top parts in movies. So Berry doesn't always get her pick of the screenplays. Pretty much everybody else in America never gets his or her pick of screenplays.
By her rationale, doesn't that make almost everybody else but Berry a victim?
(By the way, according to the Times, Berry was prom queen and class president at her Cleveland high school. I guess if you are going to be a victim, do it big-time.)
Berry also said that in her part in an upcoming Bond movie, she is not a "'typical Bond Girl. . .Her character, Jinx, she says, is the physical and intellectual equal of James Bond."' (This from a woman who was recently paid a reported extra $500,000 to bare her breasts in a film.) If she honestly believes such spin, then she is a victim -- of her own dopiness.
Or maybe not. Berry's "poor-little-rich-talented-gorgeous-woe-is-me" act happened to appear just as the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences were voting on whether or not to give her the nod for the Oscar. The article appeared a little more than a week before their ballots were due back, March 19. And by all accounts, this year in Hollywood the typically cut-throat, manipulative "Oscar campaigns" are really on a tear.
In other words, it can't hurt to remind voting members of the Academy in a high-profile Times puff piece that giving Halle the golden statue would be the first time it's gone to a black woman for best actress.
But whether or not Berry is playing the race card her notion that she's been a victim of racism makes a mockery of the real thing. And the idea that the mainstream press could buy into the nonsense of her victimhood status makes the mockery worse.
Seen another way it forces one to ask, if Berry is a victim of racism even though she's more successful, powerful, and wealthy than most whites in America could ever dream of being, then can any black anywhere avoid being a victim of racism? And if such is the case, and unfortunately some black leaders maintain that it is, then don't the very concepts of "discrimination" and "racism" in our culture today become virtually meaningless?
The answer, unfortunately, is yes, as perfectly exemplified by Berry's whining.
It may be, in the end, that Berry is so determined to be a victim that in a way she is. A victim of herself. I suppose even a golden statue won't be able to fix that.
Betsy Hart is a CNN and the Fox News commentator.
I now learn she is a whiner, who plays the race card in a bid to win an oscar.
What a disappointment. Haile, shut the hell up.
Her arms are no bigger then my little finger and where suppose to believe that her character,"Jinx", is the physical equal of James Bond? So it appears she's not even the intellectual equal of James Bond. She's not even the intellectual equal of the ignorant audience that would go see this pc clap trap.
What a shame. Got the looks, got the brains. Now she just needs some cheese to go with the whine.
yeesh.
Most actors are spectacularly dumb, and here's another one.
(Was she one of the orcs maybe?)
God Save America (Please)
She's Halle on Wheels!
And I'm tired of these over eager guilty-white-liberal news anchors and movie critics trying to prove how much they're for "Denzel and Halle" winning the Oscar. It's almost like they're scolding and warning the Acadamy voters before hand "that if they don't vote for Denzel and Halle it will be a travesty of racial injustice" as they hysterically campaign for the cause of poor, discriminated against and underpriveleged Halle Berry and Denzel Washington.
1.Bill Cosby - Most successful man on TV
2.Oprah Winfrey - Most successful woman on TV
Halle, shut your taterhole!
To his credit, Denzel didn't whine a bit about being nominated so many times before and not getting the Oscar until now because of his race.
Interesting that two black Oscars were awarded in the George W. Bush era, not the era of the "first black president."
Last year, the Oscars were all about being gay, this year, about being black. What next?
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