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Welcome to today’s episode of Lincoln Brown’s Hollywood Update! We lead off our tinsel town news with a story about The View. As an aside, I haven’t watched The View since Joy Behar’s ridiculous comment about nurses wearing “doctor’s stethoscopes.” Let’s be honest — you don’t have to look too far to find a group of angry, out-of-touch people kvetching over cups of coffee every morning. Those kinds of people come in all sorts of shapes, colors, and political leanings. It’s been done. Next pitch, please.
According to the New York Post, Whoopi Goldberg and company recently weighed in on Amazon’s Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones prequels. And of course, they were upset about race.
Some fans have taken issue with the casting, prompting Goldberg to say, “Are you telling me black people can’t be fake people, too?… I don’t know if there’s, like, a hobbit club, I don’t know if there are gonna be protests. But, people: What is wrong with y’all?” Sunny Hostin chimed in with, “What I think is fascinating is, like, dragons are okay, fire-breathing dragons, and people with white hair that are born like that when they’re little, and violet eyes, but the black people in it is just a bridge too far for these folks.” And of course, Behar immediately pronounced it “racism.”
Amazon reportedly blocked reviews of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power for 72 hours to prevent “review bombing.” Were there racist reviews? It’s possible. Ask the people who moderate the comment sections here at PJ Media and they will tell you there are plenty of basement dwellers out there who get their rocks off posting garbage for the sake of doing so. Lately, there’s been a trend of trolls hanging out on comment and review sections, either trying to bait conservatives or pretending to be conservatives and seeing what kind of outrage they can create. And who knows? Someone out there may have taken the bait. Of course, it’s easier than ever to trigger accusations of the “r” word, even if it was never intended. Just ask the folks at BYU.
While I’m a lifelong fan of LOTR, I don’t have time to camp out in front of the TV watching Amazon. People give Amazon way too much money as it is. From what I’ve read, the majority of the complaints have been about unimaginative storytelling and boring characters, which would be a writing problem. Others have been critical of Amazon trying to squeeze the franchise for money.
As to race? Tolkien based Middle Earth on ancient Nordic, Anglo-Saxon, and Western European legends, and the characters reflect the race of those countries. One must ask if Amazon decided to make an equity statement just for the sake of it, and waited for Tolkien purists to comment on breaking with canon. Then, of course, someone can yell racism, and any objectors are relegated to hiding under a rock. Suppose someone decided to reboot Black Panther but with a white man in the lead. The accusations of appropriation, colonization, and yes, racism would register on the Richter scale, and people would be right to be angry. We need heroes of all colors, sexes, and races, and there is no reason to water down black characters, Asian characters, Hispanic characters, or for that matter, white characters.
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Personally, I see the whole thing as just another sign that Hollywood has become boring and creatively bankrupt and prefers to do remakes, reboots, and rebrandings, rather than take the time to write new stories, create new characters, and build new worlds.
Goldberg wrapped up with the comment, “All of y’all who have problems because there are black hobbits? Get a job! Go find yourself, because you are focused on the wrong stuff.” Strong words from someone who built her brand on Star Trek: The Next Generation, a franchise whose fans have long been lampooned as needing to “get a life.”
In the interest of full disclosure, I am a Star Trek fan. A big one. I had the Star Trek Encyclopedia and the schematics for the Enterprise-D, and I even attended several conventions. ST:TNG got me through a very tough time in my life, and I not only watched the first runs but caught every rerun for years after.
For those not in the know: Within the series, Goldberg played a mysterious character called Guinan, who ostensibly ran the ship’s bar and offered sage advice to crew members who were struggling with personal and professional problems. Guinan was apparently thousands of years old and may have possessed something akin to supernatural powers. She was a fan favorite, and I always wanted to sit down with her over a beer, or whatever they drink in the 24th Century. In an episode called “I, Borg,” Guinan, with her years of wisdom, is forced to confront her justifiable animosity against a member of the Borg, an all-consuming alien race that destroyed her planet and people. She has to re-examine her feelings as she gets to know the alien as a person and then come to terms with those feelings. The irony here is that the Left, despite what it may believe about itself, has become the Borg. You must think as they think, do they do, and say what they say. One wonders what the actual Guinan would say to Whoopi, if she were to drop by Ten Forward.
The problem with Hollywood is that these people cannot remember a time when they were regular folks. They are surrounded by sycophants, publicists, and fans who tell them how wonderful they are, and they often come to believe they are as wise and brilliant as the characters they have portrayed and that their thoughts carry the weight of the Word of God. Fantasy and reality are permanently blurred and they are no longer at home in the real world.
By contrast, Fox News has the story of a young man, a left-leaning TikToker who decided to visit a Trump rally. He told Peter Doocy that he was surprised that he experienced incredible kindness and that attendees wanted to talk and even be friends with him. He told Doocy, “We’re just trying to find common ground between humans…And I think at the end of the day, humans have a lot more common ground than we’re led to believe. If you can start those conversations, you can actually understand where that common ground is.”
So Whoopi, if you want to sit down over an IPA, Saurian Brandy, or even a Romulan Ale and talk to a conservative, I’m buying.
In other entertainment news, Tucker Carlson is still probably trying to stop laughing over the fact that actress Jennifer Lawrence has nightmares about him. Talk about living rent-free in someone’s head — Carlson is probably picking out carpet and window treatments at this point. Twenty bucks says Lawrence has never even seen Carlson’s show but knows that his is a good name to throw out for emotional capital from the Twitter mob.
Lawrence got some flack over the interview with Variety during which she made the comment. Also noteworthy in the story from The Daily Wire, Lawrence said she had tried to “forgive” the members of her family for their conservative views. She added, “I’ve tried to get over it and I really can’t. I can’t. I’m sorry, I’m just unleashing, but I can’t f*** with people who aren’t political anymore. You live in the United States of America. You have to be political. It’s too dire. Politics are killing people.”
Imagine creating a rift with your family and then claiming you have to forgive them for their politics. Just how much of one’s soul and mind must one sell to become famous? Or for that matter, to be politically and socially “safe?” Too much, apparently.
That’s all for now! We’ll see you next time on Lincoln Brown’s Hollywood Update!
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