Celebs Under Attack!

In what seems to be a constant stream of celebrities making discriminatory comments, I present to you the mouth-covering-incident!

During an interview on Live with Regis and Kelly with Dancing with the Stars winners Cheryl Burke and Emmitt Smith, Clay Aiken (guest co-host) was getting impatient that Kelly was hogging the interview, not allowing him to ask questions. First he tries to hint to Kelly that he wants to ask a question, and then he reaches over and covers her mouth. Gasp! Kelly gets a look of horror on her face, followed by a dramatic pause and then says “Oh, that’s a no-no.” Clay looks embarrassed and confused, and Kelly follows with “I don’t know where that hand’s been, honey.”

According to Rosie O’Donnell, speaking on The View, this is a homophobic remark. Says O’Donnell, “If that was a straight man, if that was a cute man, if that was a guy that she didn’t question his sexuality, she would have said a different thing.” Kelly defended herself by saying that Clay had been shaking hands with audience members and, because it is cold and flu season, she was concerned that she would fall sick (right…). In any case, what I find funny is that Rosie’s remarks seem offensive as well. For starters, Clay hasn’t come out with any “statement” discussing his sexual orientation (and good for him, right?), so right off the bat Rosie is making an assumption about him, which I’m sure he doesn’t appreciate whether or not it’s true. The bigger insult: she says that Clay isn’t cute! Poor guy, there’s a blow to the ego for ya.

I found a clip from the next episode (Regis is co-host) and Kelly rants for about three minutes. This time, no mention of the cold and flu season, instead she says that he was disrespectful (it's apparently bad interview technique), that there was hostility during the entire show, and that if he were sitting next to a man, he would have never put his hand over her mouth. Furthermore, "it was cold and clammy and I don't want you hand in my mouth under any circumstance unless I'm choking on a shrimp!" She's being pretty childish, I mean, who smears someone like that on television? Even though she says "If you don't have anything nice to say you shouldn't say anything," she keeps talking without anything nice to say! Oh, Kelly, grow up. Regis' face is pretty great though, I'm hoping he scolded her during the commercial break for flying off the handle like that. Watching the first clip didn't give me the impression that the comment was homophobic, but hearing Kelly retell the story arouses some suspicion. I guess I'd have to watch the whole show to really have an opinion on the matter.

Thought 1: I wonder how much blame we can put on websites such as YouTube for sensationalizing these recent celeb blunders. Personally, I hadn’t watched any television coverage of the Michael Richards Incident, but I saw a clip on YouTube. Is it possible that because these events have become more accessible (we don’t have to have a TV, or wait around for the news, to see a recap of the event) we are more likely to sensationalize the events simply because more people can see them, therefore comment on them? Mind you, I don’t think this is a bad thing, I think it’s great that people are critically discussing these events (as someone mentioned in a previous post about M.R.).
Thought 2: All this YouTube business deserves to be made into a class…