Man, I Feel Like an American
Country music queen Shania Twain has been on something of a Millennial pop culture tour lately. She played herself in a hilarious appearance on Broad City this past fall, recently served as a guest judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race and hung out at Coachella with Timothée Chalamet, French Montana, The Weeknd and Nicki Minaj, as evidenced by a now-viral photo that rivals Ellen’s Oscar selfie. This means Shania’s woke, right? Well, Brad Pitt may not impress her much, but it sure sounds like Donald Trump does, according to an interview with the Guardian. See, while Twain might seem like the all-American Grammy-winner next door, she’s actually a Canada native who lives in Switzerland. So she couldn’t vote in the 2016 U.S. election, but if she could, she says she would have voted for the Orange One because he seemed honest. Girl, what you doin’? Shania quickly apologized for the remarks, using the classic “taken out of context” excuse and saying she should have never commented, she does not support any kind of discrimination and she doesn’t share any of Trump’s “moral belief.” Shania is now on progressive probation but I guess we don’t need to go burning our replica leopard-print outfits quite yet.
He’s Just Bein’ Kanye
Of course Shania Twain wasn’t the only celebrity to make some pro-Trump comments this week. Kanye West recently ended his Twitter sabbatical to drop some snippets of a philosophy books he’s “writing in real time” (?), photos of his new line of ugly ass shoes and potential neck tat designs and even an apparent sneak peek at his upcoming album cover, which he says will feature the image of Jan Adams. Adams is the plastic surgeon who performed a number of operations on West’s mother, Donda, who died from complications the day after her surgery. But it was his musings on the president and shots of him wearing the infamous red “Make America Great Again” hat that sent the internet into a frenzy.
In addition to rambling on social media, Ye also called Hot 97 radio host Ebro Darden, during which he dropped the bomb, “I do love Donald Trump” (and, perhaps even darker, that he was addicted to opioids during his 2016 hospitalization), because Obama regularly ignored his calls whereas Trump set up a meeting with him ASAP.
At this point Kanye will do anything to stir up #controversy. Him supporting Trump doesn’t necessarily make him a conservative anymore than him typing “Be here now” makes him a philosopher. Days after supporting Black Lives Matter critic Candace Owens, he said activist and Parkland shooting survivor Emma González was his hero and even shaved his head to match hers. It’s all for the gram as the kids say — anything it takes to keep his name in all our mouths. We’re just giving the guy what he wants. Including me. Oops. At least it inspired Jordan Peele to get started writing Get Out 2.
Nerd Prom Gets Savage AF
The White House Correspondents’ Dinner — annoyingly known as Nerd Prom — is a longstanding Washington tradition. First held in 1921, this annual event hosted by the White House Correspondents’ Association celebrates the First Amendment, featuring various types of entertainment over the years and raising money for scholarships and awards that recognize journalists. Since the 1980s, the dinner has featured comedians who often poke fun at politics, journalists and the sitting president — who often attends, gets roasted and has a bit of their own silly fun. (Cut to George W. Bush’s filmed skit about looking for weapons of mass destruction in the Oval Office. Oy.) That all naturally changed when our country elected a giant baby who refuses to participate in the event, but the show must go on and it did with help from this year’s host, comedian and writer Michelle Wolf. She wasted no time reading the room for filth, remarking on how at age 32, she’s “10 years too young to host this event and 20 years too old for Roy Moore”; Sarah Huckabee Sanders uses burnt facts to create the perfect smokey eye; Trump may actually be broke and grabs pussies to find loose change; and, in a mic-dropping end note, that Flint, Mich., still doesn’t have clean drinking water. CUE THE CONSERVATIVE RAGE!
Free-speech loving right-wingers who constantly lament overly PC snowflakes had their panties in a bunch over Wolf’s speech and many think the WHCD format should die. Sure, the notion of journalists, celebrities and politicians all getting cozy and chummy is pretty gross and is definitely not what the scholarship fundraiser is all about. But Wolf dropped some comedic truth bombs — including digs at democrats — at a time when the media isn’t holding anyone in office accountable for the true dumpster fire that is aflame in our country right now. Wolf Pack (a term I just invented) for life!
One thing we can all agree on: reading Dennis Miller for this tweet: “What a horrid human being Michelle Wolf is. I’m going to read up on her over the next couple of days and I will have a few brutally mean jokes about her by Wednesday.” Stay tuned for that timely commentary!
Bye Bitch: Bill Cosby Edition
One of the most disappointing figures to ever have had the moniker of America’s Dad, Bill Cosby was found guilty of sexual assault charges against Andrea Constand this week. After the last attempt to cage this monster resulted in a mistrial last summer, he now faces up to 10 years for each of the three counts. At age 80 and in poor health, Cosby could be living out the rest of his days behind bars (though his lawyer will likely request home confinement). Speaking of his attorney, Thomas Mesereau passed out, mouth agape, in court for a half hour as the judge reviewed testimonies.
Contact T.C. Britton: letters@citybeat.com
This article appears in May 2-9, 2018.