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No doubt by now most of you are aware that the Day of Silence is April 25th (and the “Day of (un)Truth” follows on the 28th). Lance Bass, formerly of *NSYNC, has contributed his time to this wonderful PSA for the DOS.
Speaking of walk-outs (and we were):
Artie Lange walks off the Howard Stern ShowHoward Stern Show fixture Artie Lange walked out of the studio after an argument and subsequent outburst at his personal assistant on the air.
Lange, who became a part of the show’s daily routine in October of 2001, was spotted disputing with his assistant in the hallways off the air. When it was brought up to Stern, he asked the assistant [”Teddy Microphone”] to come into the studio and discuss the situation on the air. …
As the argument continued, Lange became enraged and physically lashed out at Teddy, but the physical confrontation was apparently defused by other members in the studio.
When Lange returned, he said Teddy would be “dead” had he reached him and he would be in jail. …
Stern apparently dressed him down (good for you, Howard), and ultimately, Lange “offered his resignation,” which Stern accepted.
Just before Lange left he told Stern: “I’m not a good person … I gotta leave … I love you”
More on the mess that is Artie Lange:
Artie Lange: When the Heroin Goes In, the Truth Comes Out
In case you weren’t convinced that Artie Lange is a hopelessly terminal jerk…
This is shaping up to be a good day. Now if only Michael Savage Weiner would leave the airwaves and never return, it would be a great day.
On Jay Leno making another homophobic crack, then apologizing for it, then canceling himself out by whining about those mean ol’ homos getting mad at him, here’s Melissa McEwan at Shakesville:
Well, after apologizing last week for asking Tonight Show guest Ryan Phillippe to give the camera his “gayest look,” Jay Leno spoke with KMXB radio in Las Vegas about the controversy on Friday and swiftly undermined any value his apology had with a series of pathetic excuses and justifications. …Aside from undermining his own apology with the tired non-apology “if I offended anybody,” he completely misses the overall point about how that kind of humor facilitates intolerance, offering “I never made fun of gay rights or even gay marriage,” as if making fun of being gay isn’t a bigger problem. See, if the premise weren’t that merely being gay is somehow intrinsically funny, the joke would be “give me your best soap opera look,” not “give me your gayest look,” or even “gayest soap opera look” as Leno is now trying to reframe it. Who does he thinks laughs at a joke like that — people who aren’t homophobic? Yeesh.
Then, after casting us as oversensitive hysterics in the classic self-defense maneuver of insensitive and obtuse idiots everywhere, he gets to the best part in which he obliquely accuses us of deliberately misrepresenting what happened on the show to gin up outrage. I mean, I really wonder where, exactly, Jay read at “the blog” that he went on an anti-gay tirade — because not only does it not say that anywhere, or anything close to it, it also includes video of the actual exchange, so no one would have to rely on our subjective interpretation of it.
I believe that’s called projection, Shakers.
Bill Press on Randi Rhodes, and the generally revolting behavior of Barack Obama supporters:
…Randi went over the line in calling Hillary Clinton “a big f***ing whore.” Sure, she’s got a right to say it. But it was not right to say it, especially not right for someone who represents Air America and all of progressive radio.Unfortunately, as I’ve learned on my radio show, too many Obama supporters don’t understand that in order to love Barack Obama, you don’t have to hate Hillary Clinton. They don’t think it’s good enough to build up Barack Obama. They think it’s necessary to destroy Hillary Clinton, too.
And that’s just wrong. Being passionately and enthusiastically for Barack Obama doesn’t mean you have to say ugly things against Hillary Clinton. In fact, it’s counter-intuitive. In politics, it’s much more effective to be FOR somebody, than to be against somebody.
Carol Lloyd on Rhodes’ suspension, and the larger issue of playground bullies (a.k.a. Obama supporters):
With progressive pundits like Randi Rhodes, who needs wingnuts? …Thursday Air America Radio announced that Rhodes had been suspended because of the comments, so good for it. Yet such suspensions won’t offer but a drop in the bucket against our wasteland of media vitriol. Forget sex and violence; I think playground cruelty is the source of the most obscenity. Have you seen the outdoor ad campaign for the new romantic comedy “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”? The black-and-white billboards proclaim: “I’m So Over You, Sarah Marshall,” “You Suck Sarah Marshall,” “My Mother Always Hated You, Sarah Marshall,” and “You Do Look Fat in Those Jeans, Sarah Marshall.” It’s the first time I’ve wanted to shield my daughter’s eyes from a spectacle in the city.
Ironically, the person who has been most articulate about the current mean streak in American culture is Barack Obama, Rhodes’ apparent favorite. But as someone who also favors the senator from Illinois, I’ve become increasingly queasy about the tone some of his supporters are willing to take. At a recent brunch, I heard a sweet elderly woman wearing an Obama button talk about “just hating” Hillary Clinton. …
As ad hominem insult has become normative political speech, professional bloviators like Rhodes seem to have to go farther each day to retain their “edge.” Still, why does Rhodes need to be so misogynist when she’s carving up her victims with her tongue?
Taking self-proclaimed progressives to the woodshed: Earl Ofari Hutchinson, who really ticks me off, because he’s a right-winger, and he’s making sense, and he’s not ripping up either candidate to do it (unlike — guess who? — the Obama supporters):
The objection here is not that progressives shouldn’t level a reasoned, principled, and critical dissection of Clinton positions. There are legitimate policy issues and positions to take her to task on. Unfortunately, that got tossed and Clinton’s left side critics have found it much easier, and more fun, to engage in juvenile delinquent wolf ticket selling. They then pivot and froth, fume, and rail at Fox for doing the same thing. And Heaven forbid if anyone dare utter any criticism of Obama. That’s deemed treasonous and the name calling kicks in with a vengeance against the offender.The reasons for the juvenile delinquent name calling by Rhodes and company boil down to this. Clinton initially backed the Iraq war and refused to apologize for it or claims as Obama wrongly does that he was an outspoken anti-war guy from day one. Two, she supposedly is a back room, deal-making, opportunist Democrat who has been a shill for big money, corporate donors.
Her greatest sin, though, is that she pig headedly stands in the way of the coronation of Obama. A subtext to that is that by blocking the supposed inevitable, she, not Obama, is tearing the guts out of the Democratic Party and is making it that much harder for Obama to coast into the White House. Putting aside for a moment this wishful thinking fantasy land knock, nowhere, and I mean nowhere, have I seen the progressive Hillary baiters itemize exactly what they think they’ll get out of an Obama White House that will be radically different than what they’ll get from any other top Democrat who’s backed by big money corporate interests, pockets money through the back door from corporate special interest lobbyists, is lauded by defense industry top brass, hailed by centrist Democratic Senators and governors, and fawned over by hard nosed GOP conservatives, headed by former Bush political strategist Karl Rove, as Obama is. Tell me? …
The desperation of progressives to get someone in the White House who will quickly reverse the monumental damage of Bush’s policies is understandable. If progressives would simply stick to challenging Obama and Clinton to speak out boldly and clearly about their stance on Supreme court appointments, criminal justice reform, immigration, failing public schools, the HIV/AIDS crisis, and a specific plan for ending the Iraq War, among other seldom heard discussed policy issues then there would be no argument that both need to be hammered for ducking and dodging these thorny issues. But that’s far different than acting like 13 year olds and shouting out vile names at one candidate and only one candidate.
In case you missed it, the highly irritating Jay Leno made yet another in a long line of stupid, homophobic remarks the other night, then apologized for saying such a “dumb thing” (but not for any of the other countless stupid, homophobic remarks he’s made over the years).
Since then, Leno has demonstrated, again, that he never, ever learns.
Per towleroad, “Last Friday, Jay Leno spoke with KMXB radio in Las Vegas about the ‘gayest look’ controversy.”
You can listen to the audio and read towleroad’s transcript at the link — but this is the part that got us:
Leno: “To me I never made fun of gay rights or even gay marriage. Do what you want to do. But to me — fashion, lifestyle, hair, you know that kind of stuff — you’re a comic. Thats what you do.”
Hey, Leno, I’ve got a little newsflash for you: You put your foot in it again.
First, you called homosexuality a “lifestyle.” What, do I have to have “Being gay is not a ‘lifestyle’ — it’s my LIFE” tattooed across my forehead?
Second — and worse — you equated being gay with such meaningless crap as “fashion” and “hair” and “that kind of stuff.”
Jiminy Christmas on a trailer hitch, Leno, the stupidity that flows out of your big yap when you go off-script is astounding. Sadly, you don’t even know how offensive you’re being. That makes your nice, neat, canned apology utterly worthless. Until you learn why your words are hurtful, there’s no point in your going through the motions.
Next:
Leno: “Well, apparently ‘gayest look’ offended somebody and, you know.
“Somebody”? How about a whole lot of somebodys? Last I checked, the Web site in your honor had ten pages of folks giving you their “gayest look,” with 50 people per page (you can find my partner Buffy and me on page ten)… so at least 500 of us not at all shy about telliing you what we really think were, indeed, offended.
(Hmm, I wonder how many people who can’t be bothered to make such a statement we represent? I know that a single letter of complaint, or praise, to a single TV or radio station represents a whole bunch of viewers/listeners who feel the same way, yet won’t bother to write.)
Finally:
Leno: “But what happens in these things is it then builds to — I would read the blog, ‘I didn’t see Jay Leno’s anti-gay tirade but I heard he went on and on!’ So it’s one of these things where it just builds and builds and you go look, I’m a comic.”
I saw it. You weren’t funny. You were offensive.
And where you could have left bad enough alone, let your original apology stand and moved on, you’re compounding the insult by making light of your offense, and using your occupation as an excuse for your bad behavior.
You just canceled out any good intentions on your part. If you had any.
This is the story from My Gayest Look:
The word from Leno: “In talking about Ryan’s first role, I realize that what I said came out wrong. I certainly didn’t mean any malice. I agree it was a dumb thing to say, and I apologize.”Fantastic. That takes some guts. But will it last until the next easy assumption comes along?
Until then, we’ll hold Jay’s feet to the fire. Our response these past few days has been overwhelming, but we will post each and every pic that was submitted.
. . .So, back to the site:
On Thursday, March 20, 2008, Jay Leno welcomed as his guest on The Tonight Show the actor Ryan Phillippe, who, early in his career, played a gay character on the daily soap One Life to Live. During the interview, Leno hounded Phillippe, telling him to look into the camera, pretend it was his “gay lover…Billy Bob,” who “has just ridden in shirtless from Wyoming” (still milking the Brokeback jokes), and give it his “gayest look.”
. . .
Jeff—who, in 2006, famously penned a letter to Jay Leno about his homophobic humor—completed another missive, in which he included a photographic sign-off (at left) of his “gayest look.” Melissa—who was similarly agitated in 2006—then offered up her “gayest look” (also at left), and soon her readers began to send in their gayest looks—and an avalanche began. Simultaneously, writer Dan Savage suggested to Jeff that he collect people’s “gayest looks,” and that, folks, is called synchronicity. Forces were joined.
And while we’re being a bit cheeky about all this, our message is dead serious: A 2005 study by GLSEN found that 90% of LGBTQ teens had been harassed or assaulted during the previous year. They were three times as likely as non-LGBTQ students to say that they do not feel safe at school and remain at increased risk for bullying, assault, and suicide. That doesn’t happen in a void. Gay jokes are not harmless; they contribute to a culture in which institutionalized homophobia has tragic consequences. We want Jay Leno to know that we, LGBTQ people and their allies, are not amused.
So now it’s your turn! Send us your “gayest look” for Jay here .
Now here are our Gayest Looks for Leno. Mine first, then Sapphocrat’s.
Now get to work, snap a picture and submit your Gayest Look!
…now we learn that the insuferable lout enjoys mocking people who have Down’s Syndrome.
Buffy has the story.
Refresh your memory re Lange’s previous jerkdom.
In the latest in a long history of stupid, homophobic “jokes,” unfunny “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno asked guest Ryan Phillippe: “Can you give me, like — say that camera is your gay lover …”
And then, notes People — where you can see a video of the incident:
Despite Phillippe’s instant discomfort, Leno went on to say, “Can you give me your ‘gayest look’? Say that camera is Billy Bob — Billy Bob has just ridden in shirtless from Wyoming.”“Wow,” replied Phillippe, 33. “That is so something I don’t want to do. Are you just going to embarrass me tonight, or … ?”
“No,” said Leno. “I got more stuff. This is the least of it.”
The least of it? No, just the latest of it.
Leno has long been compelled to take cheap shots at the gay community. Typical: Back in 2001 (in a double homophobic-sexist crack), he opined that if Popeye and Bluto find Olive Oyl attractive, they must be gay.
When Brokeback Mountain hit movie screens, Leno went utterly berserk with the anti-gay cracks, night after night after night.
And those are just the first two incidents that come to mind right now.
In 2006, Leno was taken to task by Avenue Q playwright Jeff Whitty:
When you think of gay people, it’s funny. They’re funny folks. They wear leather. They like Judy Garland. They like disco music. They’re sort of like Stepin Fetchit as channeled by Richard Simmons.Gay people, to you, are great material.
Mr. Leno, let me share with you my view of gay people:
When I think of gay people, I think of the gay news anchor who took a tire iron to the head several times when he was vacationing in St. Martin. I think of my friend who was visiting Hamburger Mary’s, a gay restaurant in Las Vegas, when a bigot threw a smoke bomb filled with toxic chemicals into the restaurant, leaving the staff and gay clientele coughing, puking, and running in terror. I think of visiting my gay friends at their house in the country, sitting outside for dinner, and hearing, within hundreds of feet of where we sat, taunting voices yelling “Faggots.” I think of hugging my boyfriend goodbye for the day on 8th Avenue in Manhattan and being mocked and taunted by passing high school students.
When I think of gay people, I think of suicide. I think of a countless list of people who took their own lives because the world was so toxically hostile to them. Because of the deathly climate of the closet, we will never be able to count them. You think gay people are great material. I think of a silent holocaust that continues to this day. I think of a silent holocaust that is perpetuated by people like you, who seek to minimize us and make fun of us and who I suspect really, fundamentally wish we would just go away.
When I think of gay people, I think of a brave group that has made tremendous contributions to society, in arts, letters, science, philosophy, and politics. I think of some of the most hilarious people I know. I think of a group that has served as a cultural guardian for an ungrateful and ignorant America.
I think of a group of people who have undergone a brave act of inventing themselves. Every single out-of-the-closet gay person has had to say, “I am not part of mainstream society.” Mr. Leno, that takes bigger balls than stepping out in front of TV-watching America every night. I daresay I suspect it takes bigger balls to come out of the closet than anything you have ever done in your life.
I know you know gay people, Mr. Leno. Are they just jokes to you, to be snickered at behind their backs? Despite the angry tenor of my letter, I suspect you’re a better man than that. I don’t bother writing letters to the “God Hates Fags” people, or Donald Wildmon, or the pope. But I think you can do better. I know it’s The Tonight Show, not a White House press conference, but you reach a lot of people.
In a CNN interview (which you can watch at the link above), it was noted that Whitty’s letter caught Leno’s “attention” — but did anything change?
Nope. Last year, Leno was tickled by “the gay bomb.” As recently as late February, Leno did a “Jaywalking” segment in San Francisco, in which he stopped people on the street, asked them questions, and had his studio audience guess whether they were gay or straight. Watch the video.
And now…
And now, Leno has apologized — for, as Hecklerspray so aptly puts it, being an unfunny tool:
Of course, Jay Leno is absolutely right to apologise to his offended viewers. As others have commented, Jay Leno wouldn’t have dreamt of asking Ryan Phillippe to pull his blackest face or his Jewiest face, would he?
