THIS WEEK’S RECAP…
Superstar of the Week: Anne Hathaway
Last week, actress Anne Hathaway received a Best Supporting Actress nomination from the Screen Actors Guild for her performance in Les Misérables. While at the New York premiere for the film, Hathaway definitely gave people something to talk about besides her performance in the film thanks to a little wardrobe malfunction.
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| What? You thought I'd post the uncensored version? Google it, people. |
Exiting her limousine, Hathaway’s dress shifted slightly with the slit in the gown reaching a position where she unknowingly flashed photographers as she exited the vehicle. Choosing to go “commando” for the event, Anne Hathaway gave everyone a nice tease. Instead of getting angry about paparazzi selling the image for tons of money, Hathaway took the paparazzi to task for their lack of respect and class by not deleting the embarrassing image. Then, she went on as if nothing happened. Anne Hathaway handled the situation with the class and dignity expected from one of the classiest ladies in Hollywood today. Congrats to Anne on the award nomination and the awesome candid image.
Jerk of the Week: Rob Parker
Years ago, ESPN First Take was one of the premiere sports talk shows on television. Skip Bayless was the loud, brash, often controversial panelist who appeared frequently with other columnists, commentators, and analysts while hosts Jay Crawford and Dana Jacobson ran the show. However, like most every great ESPN show, someone higher up screwed with the successful format and ESPN First Take became the Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith Go Race Baiting Show. On the December 13th episode, Rob Parker joined Bayless and Smith for the broadcast and went on a rant that shook even Bayless and Smith.
A day earlier, Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III said that he wanted to be defined by his work ethic and not his skin color when asked about being an African-American quarterback in the NFL. Parker, an African-American in his own right, seemed to take offense to RGIII’s statement denouncing the issue of race with the following statements:
“For me personally, just me, this throws up a red flag. What I keep hearing, and I don’t know who’s asking the questions, but we’ve heard a couple of times now of a black guy kind of distancing himself away from black people.”
“I understand the whole story of I just want to be the best. Nobody’s out on the field saying to themselves ‘I want to be the best black quarterback.’ You’re just playing football, right? You want to be the best. You want to throw the most touchdowns and have the most yards and win the most games. But time and time we keep hearing this, so it just makes me wonder deeper about him.”
“And I’ve talked to some people down in Washington D.C., friends of mine who are around and at some of the press conferences, people I’ve known for a long time. But my question, which is just a straight honest question. Is he a brother, or is he a cornball brother?”
After that last statement, Skip Bayless and show host Cari Champion both attempted to have Parker explain his comments in what essentially allowed Parker to dig himself into a deeper hole. Parker explained his “cornball brother” remark when he said, “He’s not real. Okay, he’s black. He kind of does the thing, but he’s not really down with the cause. He’s not one of us. He’s kind of black but he’s not really, like, the guy you want to hang out with because he’s off to something else.” When Champion, an African-American female asked why this mattered, Parker added, “Well because that’s just how I want to find out about him. I don’t know because I keep hearing these things. We all know he has a white fiancée. There was all this talk about how he’s a Republican, which, I don’t really care, there’s no information at all. I’m just trying to dig deeper into why he has an issue because we did find out with Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods was like, ‘I’ve got black skin but don’t call me black.’”
In the aftermath of this incredibly stupid and racist rant by Parker, ESPN suspended Parker indefinitely from all television broadcasts and online media publications. Personally, I believe Parker should lose his job for this. However, considering that this was just an ordinary day on the Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith Go Race Baiting Hour, I expect Parker to get his own show out of this matter. More importantly though, this matter made me look at how far ESPN has fallen in the last six months with regards to their television content and how racially motivated the discussions are now from the majority of their on-air commentators. Michael Wilbon turned me off Pardon the Interruption years ago because of his constant use of the race card. JA Adande lost credibility with me through his ignorance and racial bias on Around the Horn. However, that was two people out of a roster of dozens of hosts and analyst. Now, for every Michelle Beadle or Dana Jacobson who left or Jay Crawford who moved to a show (SportsCenter) where his opinion is not expressed, Michael Wilbon, Skip Bayless, and Stephen A. Smith gained more clout while Jemele Hill’s star rose as she played the race card as if she would get a free Quizno’s sub after every six uses. Unless you watch SportsCenter or an NFL or MLB broadcast, ESPN shows nothing but programming dedicated to racially-based debating about issues far from sports-related.
Rob Parker crossed the line last week. However, as much as I would like to blame Rob Parker alone for making such a racial-charged and hate-filled remark about a man trying to fight the notion that race matters, this is not his fault alone. It is as much ESPN’s fault for encouraging this behavior, as it is Parker’s for encouraging racism in the first place. It is horrible when you bash a persona of another race because of their skin color. However, to bash a member of your own race? That is beyond disgusting.
Babe of the Week: Jennifer Lawrence
A Melancholy Happy Trails to…
- Ravi Shankar, 92 - Indian musician (December 11th)
- Jenni Rivera, 43 - American-born Mexican banta and norteño singer (December 9th)
- Jerry Brown, 25 - American football player for the Dallas Cowboys (December 8th)
- Mike Boyette, 71 - American professional wrestling best known for a 197 match losing streak in Bill Watts’ UWF (December 6th)
- Dave Brubeck, 91 - American jazz pianist (December 5th)
- Rick Majerus, 64 - American college basketball coach best known for stints at the University of Utah and St. Louis University (December 1st)
- Buddy Roberts, 67 - American professional wrestler best known as one of the Fabulous Freebirds (November 29th)
- Hector Camacho, 50 - Puerto Rican boxer (November 24th)
- Larry Hagman, 81 - American actor best known as JR Ewing on Dallas and Major Nelson on I Dream of Jeannie (November 23rd)
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