Today, a case study on the hypocrisy and self-absorption of the Left in both the entertainment and news industries.
Last week, stage legend Patti LuPone called for the Kennedy Center to get “blown up” because of President Donald Trump’s involvement. Not just once, but several times.
“She is even angrier at the rest of the country,” New Yorker writer Michael Schulman stated in his new profile of the actress. “She told me, more than once that the Trumpified Kennedy Center ‘should get blown up.’”
Over the weekend, LuPone apologized.
Oh, not for that, but for snarky comments in that same interview with Schulman about Tony-winning black actresses Kara Lewis and Audrey McDonald.
It seems Lewis’ musical “Hell’s Kitchen” plays next door to LuPone’s play “The Roommates,” and last fall LuPone complained the “Hell’s Kitchen” music was too loud and was disrupting her play. Lewis responded to the comments, asking LuPone to apologize, one Broadway veteran to another.
In the New Yorker interview, LuPone answered Lewis with “Don’t call yourself a vet, b—-,” and ranted again. “She calls herself a veteran? Let’s find out how many Broadway shows Kecia Lewis has done, because she doesn’t know what the f— she’s talking about.”
McDonald ended up being dragged in as well for having defended Lewis.
Broadway Responds … Selectively
Why do we care about a cat fight between three Broadway divas? We don’t.
Sure, if they gave out Tony Awards for obnoxious diva behavior, LuPone could fill the Hudson River with all of hers. Who can forget her stopping a play mid-performance to scream at some poor theatergoer whose COVID mask slipped down during a show? But you can find divas almost as bad at your local community theater.
Our concern is the response from the Broadway community. More than 500 Broadway performers signed an open letter in Playbill shredding LuPone for her “inappropriate and unacceptable public comments.”
No, not about the getting “blown up” bit. About the actresses.
“This language is not only degrading and misogynistic-it is a blatant act of racialized disrespect,” the letter stated. “It constitutes bullying. It constitutes harassment. It is emblematic of the microaggressions and abuse that people in this industry have endured for far too long, too often without consequence.”
“Let us be clear: this is about more than one person,” the letter continued. “It is about a culture. A pattern. A persistent failure to hold people accountable for violent, disrespectful, or harmful behavior—especially when they are powerful or well-known. This is not about differing opinions. It is about public actions that demean, intimidate, or perpetuate violence against fellow artists. It is about the normalization of harm in an industry that too often protects prestige over people.”
Fine. LuPone certainly deserved to be called out. However, our point: A two-page letter condemning “violent, disrespectful, or harmful behavior” and “perpetuating violence against fellow artists,” and not a single peep about her call for violence against the Kennedy Center, a call to wreck a venue that’s home to countless theater artists, stagehands, and support personnel?
Apparently, that’s fine because Orange Man is the most wicked stage villain since Scar from “The Lion King.” And their bit about “differing opinions” certainly wouldn’t refer to differing political opinions.
However, get snotty about a fellow performer? Let’s band together and sing LuPone the riot act. To her credit, LuPone did issue a deep apology. To her shame, she did not include an apology for her Kennedy Center remarks, which are also harmful to the theater community, to say nothing of stoking political violence.
CBS News Ignores the … News
Also deserving shame? CBS News. In its long news article covering LuPone’s apology and the events that led up to it, CBS News did not mention that, just days before, LuPone had called for the Kennedy Center to be blown to bits. At its core, it’s the same story as her beef with the theater next door playing “Hell’s Kitchen”: LuPone going postal on a theater that displeased her. Seems relevant to add.
If, days after smacking her boyfriend’s car with a tire iron, an actress threw a chair at a director, you’d include that in your article, right? That’s News Writing 101.
CBS News not mentioning LuPone’s call for violence against the Kennedy Center theater in a story days later about Patti LuPone’s “violent” rhetoric toward her theater peers is journalistic malpractice. And we can guess why they did it. CBS News’ hard-core political bias and loathing of all things Trump.
Both Broadway’s response to LuPone and CBS News’ coverage demonstrate the self-absorption of both industries … and their tacit approval of violence if directed toward Trump or his supporters, contrary to their eloquent, scripted soliloquies against violence.
If they could ever see and address their hypocrisy, now that would be worthy of a standing ovation.
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