The Devil’s Advocate, serving you a cocktail of humour, wit and sarcasm
Imagine you went to a bakery to buy a loaf of bread. At the end of the purchase, just as when the baker is handing the bread over to you, he notices that you have a leg of lamb in your shopping bag. He screams, “How dare you? Stop eating meat. You are slaughtering helpless animals, causing climate change and killing the planet.” How would you react? With shock, surprise, outrage, anger?
Of course, you would be boiling with rage and there would be fire coming out of your nostrils. “Who the hell is he to tell me what I should and shouldn’t do and admonish me in public? That is none of his business.”. Your reaction is understandable and justified.
Imagine again, that you are a guest at the Hollywood’s glitzy Oscar ceremony or Golden Globes function. One of the Hollywood celebrities walks up on stage and says, “We feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow and steal her baby, even though her cries of anguish are unmistakeable. Then we take her milk that’s intended for her calf and we put it in our coffee and our cereal.”
Bet you would spit out the creamy dairy ice cream dessert who were tucking into, jump up and give him a standing ovation, along with the others, and turn life-long vegan from that very moment.
Why does getting sermonised by the Hollywood royalty feel so acceptable when compared to the baker’s dressing down? The power and influence of Hollywood celebrities on us peasants, are mind-boggling!
What gives these pompous know-alls the right to lecture people from their ivory towers? They are just actors who make a grand living by reading scripts written by other people, not even their own words, and pretend to be someone they are not. They are people who live in a make-believe land.
Why can’t they just confine themselves to acting and not get involved in social commentary just because they have the platform, a megaphone within reach and a captive audience which laps up all that is said by them?. When I go to an opera, I want to hear the fat lady sing. I don’t want her to give me a lecture on plastic recycling. When I go to the circus, I want the clown to be falling all over and making me laugh, and not tell me to plant trees to stop climate change.
Despite all their rhetoric on social justice, politics, gender equality, poverty, animal cruelty etc, Hollywood celebrities are just a bunch of hypocrites, hiding behind their masks.
My mate, Ricky Gervais, the comedian, summed it up wonderfully what most intelligent people would have loved to say. At the recent 2020 Golden Globes award ceremony, in which he was the master of ceremonies, he said, “No one cares about movies anymore, so if you do win an award tonight, don’t use it as a platform to make a political speech. You’re in no position to lecture the public about anything. You know nothing about the real world. Most of you spent less time in school than Greta Thunberg. So if you win, come up, accept your little award, thank your agent, and your God and fuck off, OK?”
The Golden Globes function served vegan food, to drive home the point that Hollywood was turning vegan. Cringey! But the celebrities arrived in private jets and limousines and walked on red carpets in their tuxedos and expensive gowns, to sit down to a meal of king oyster mushroom risotto. Why couldn’t they car pool or take Uber, just like the rest of us? One of their own, Joaquin Phoenix, jolted and embarrassed them by saying, “We don’t have to take private jets to Palm Springs”
The biggest Hollywood hypocrisy was uncovered as a result of the #MeToo public outcry. Harvey Weinstein, the whipping boy for the #MeToo warriors and now convicted of sexual assault crimes, is a product of the Hollywood casting couch culture. For decades, his womanising ways were well known, an open secret and legendary in the industry. Michael Caine, a Hollywood veteran said, “In Hollywood we were all aware of the casting couch. It was almost a joke. We knew it existed.” The casting couch is a permanent piece of furniture in Hollywood. Many have willing jumped on it to further their careers and improve their fortunes. Harvey had been feted and thanked by dozens of Hollywood actors in public, on stage. Images of women swarming and gushing all over him were a pretty common sight a few years ago, including a few of his current #MeToo accusers.
Meryl Streep in her 2012 Golden Globe award acceptance speech called him her “God”. The great Oprah Winfrey was a close friend of Harvey. But when the #MeToo wolves were at his door, baying for his blood, the Hollywood hypocrites deserted him. Hollywood had been feeding and nurturing the Weinstein monster for years until it became untenable and Hollywood quickly hitched on to the #MeToo bandwagon. Hollywood has covered up for other unsavoury characters such as Woody Allen, Roman Polanski, Bill Cosby etc. Such hypocrisy!
Besides their acting abilities, the Hollywood elites appear to be expert in all areas of life: climate change, women’s reproductive rights, politics, Trump, bushfires, renewable energy, gender equality, gender wage gap, multicultural diversity, LGBTQI, abortion, feminism, women-empowerment, poverty eradication, identity politics etc.
If you need examples of Hollywood hypocrites then Leonardo DiCaprio, Harrison Ford, James Cameron, John Travolta, Arnie Schwarzenegger and others stand out.
DiCaprio, the self-anointed Hollywood environmentalist, flies around in his private jets. He even flew from Cannes to New York to collect an environmental award. Travolta operates his own mini airport at his home
DiCaprio, the self-anointed Hollywood environmentalist, flies around in his private jets. He even flew from Cannes to New York to collect an environmental award. Travolta operates his own mini airport at his home. Arnie drives the fuel-guzzling Bugatti Veyron Vitesse, military-grade Hummer H1 and flies in a Gulfstream III jet. Arnie built his career and his body on meat but now he is a vegan champion. Methinks Arnie turned vegan because he is now too old to chew his steak. LOL.
James Cameron owns a Ducati 848 EVO and three Harley Davidson’s. Harrison Ford likes flying around in his Cessna 208B Grand Caravan. Natalie Portman made a statement at the Oscars through her dress embroidered with the names of all the snubbed women filmmakers, but she has never employed a woman director for her productions. WTF!
Most of these hypocrites, supported by an army of lawyers and accountants, pay very little or no tax and have commercial invested interests in the causes they support in public. DiCaprio, who supports veganism has investments in the vegan products industry. Wish they would disclose their vested interest and wear it on their sleeves, too.
Another area in which Hollywood shows off its hypocritical, virtue-signalling, politically-correct grandstanding is feminism and women-empowerment by producing feminist “woke” movies with a feminist agenda.
A series of movies have been produced recently, which have all crashed and burnt at the box office, giving rise to the memes, “Go woke! Go broke”. Even the women and feminists wanted nothing to do with those movies. How does Hollywood make such woke movies? Simple. Pick a box office success movie (e.g. Ghostbusters) and re-make it by erasing men out of it and replacing them completely with women. Reboots such as Charlie’s Angels, Ocean’s 8, The Hustle and many more, all follow this “girl power” ideology. Hollywood movies are increasingly becoming social justice messaging services rather than an entertainment product.
If gender equality advocates wish to see women on top (both literally and figuratively), they should go watch a woke movie. In a woke movie, a woman who looks like a catwalk model, takes on a dozen men built like 300-pound gorillas and smashes them to smithereens. A petite woman in Terminator movie handles a bazooka which weighs heavier than her while Arnie is reduced to being a curtain salesman. A woman even steals his line “I’ll be back”.
Even Mr. Bond, the epitome of toxic masculinity and male chauvinism, has not been spared either. A woman slaps Bond sharply across his face, in one of the movies. Another woman, forces herself on him and kisses him passionately, against his wishes. A female James Bond is being planned. Will this leave Mr. Bond shaken or stirred? LOL
Bollywood constantly shadows Hollywood for “inspiration” but in the case of #MeToo, it was dragging its feet until Tanushree Dutta flew across from the USA to kick start it with her 10-year old allegation against Nana Patekar
On the one hand, Hollywood women are punching men, patriarchy and misogyny to pulp and “roaring” on the silver screen but in real life they are helpless and are fighting for their self-respect and dignity against lecherous Hollywood men through the #MeToo movement. How hypocritical and ridiculous! This hypocrisy insults the intelligence.
A discussion on Hollywood is not complete without mentioning Bollywood. Bollywood constantly shadows Hollywood for “inspiration” but in the case of #MeToo, it was dragging its feet until Tanushree Dutta flew across from the USA to kick start it with her 10-year old allegation against Nana Patekar.
Though her case against Nana Patekar, was thrown out, along with other #MeToo cases, Tanushree should be credited for cleaning up Bollywood. There has not been a single sexual-related allegation ever since in Bollywood. The Bollywood men are now keeping their ugly paws to themselves even in the raunchy item number songs. The Bollywood casting couch was officially set on fire, in public, during Holi.
But herein lies the hypocrisy. In spite of ridding Bollywood of evil, Tanushree has been shunned by her very own gender and industry and is struggling to find work. Where are the “empowered” Bollywood women when you want them? Why can’t they help their own sisterhood in times of need? Is this “fake” feminism? Hypocrisy?
“A hypocrite is more dangerous than a dishonest man. A dishonest man deceives and cheats and a hypocrite betrays and swindles”. – Dr TP Chia
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.
Donate To The Indian Sun
Dear Reader,The Indian Sun is an independent organisation committed to community journalism. We have, through the years, been able to reach a wide audience especially with the growth of social media, where we also have a strong presence. With platforms such as YouTube videos, we have been able to engage in different forms of storytelling. However, the past few years, like many media organisations around the world, it has not been an easy path. We have a greater challenge. We believe community journalism is very important for a multicultural country like Australia. We’re not able to do everything, but we aim for some of the most interesting stories and journalism of quality. We call upon readers like you to support us and make any contribution. Do make a DONATION NOW so we can continue with the volume and quality journalism that we are able to practice.
Thank you for your support.
Best wishes,
Team The Indian Sun
