Kamala Harris had a host of celebrity endorsements throughout her ill-fated campaign. Taylor Swift, Megan Thee Stallion, Bruce Springsteen, George Clooney, Billie Eilish, Cardi B, Ariana Grande, Lizzo, Mark Hamill, Lebron James, Charli XCX and Beyonce were among the Beautiful People singing the Vice President’s praises.
It didn’t work, and pundits are wondering whether the age of celebrity endorsements is dead. A better question is why celebrities are valued for political endorsements in the first place? They can speak for the rarefied world of wealth and fame, but do they speak for the rest of us?
As Fox News reported, during a panel discussion at an Italian Film Festival, Sharon Stone groused about voters who chose Donald Trump.
“We have to stop and think about who we choose for government,” Stone said. “And if, in fact, we are actually choosing our government or if the government is choosing itself.”
Would someone please explain to Stone how democracy works?
She went on: “My country is in the midst of adolescence. Adolescence is very arrogant. Adolescence thinks it knows everything. Adolescence is naive and ignorant and arrogant. And we are in our ignorant, arrogant adolescence.”
Was she speaking of Hollywood?
Stone places herself on the Better Than Trump Voters pedestal in part because she jets off to places like Italy to pick up film awards.
“So, Americans who don’t travel, who 80% don’t have a passport, who are uneducated, are in their extraordinary naïveté,” she said.
Is Stone aware that most Americans don’t have her level of disposable income? She reportedly earned $16.5 million for “Basic Instinct 2,” of course she has a passport for globe-trotting.
Alec Baldwin was at that same film festival and gave his two cents: “Americans are very uninformed about reality — what’s really going on. With climate change, Ukraine, Israel … you name it. All the biggest topics in the world, Americans have an appetite for a little bit of information.”
Americans are quite informed about reality, and it’s been harsh for those who don’t get invited to film festivals. Inflation, a cold slap of reality, has crush family food budgets and seen wages out of step with rising costs. That’s reality. When was the last time Stone or Baldwin clipped coupons to stretch the family dinner budget, or couldn’t afford Christmas gifts for loved ones?
They aren’t clueless outliers, of course.
Business Insider reported this exchange on “The View:” Cohost Sara Haines told Whoopi Goldberg that people might’ve backed Donald Trump because he seemed to care for the working class.
“There were millions and millions of people that felt heard,” she said.
“I appreciate that people are having a hard time. Me too,” Goldberg said.
“I work for a living. If I had all the money in the world, I would not be here. I’m a working person, you know, and my kid has to feed her family, you know, and my great-granddaughter has to be fed by her family,” Goldberg continued.
Variety reported in 2016 that Goldberg’s annual salary on “The View” is in the $5 million to $6 million range.
These post-election revelations by Hollywood’s glitterati underscore how out of touch some celebrities are. Their “reality” isn’t shared by most Americans, and it’s not because the stars are superior.
They’re just overpaid.
