Is the Entertainment Industry’s Opposition to Donald Trump Getting to Him? Maybe.
Donald Trump is at war with the liberal elite of Hollywood and the entertainment industry. That’s fine because they don’t like him much, either. But given that Trump has always craved acceptance by the upper crust of society (just read any of his biographies), you gotta think that the continuous snubs and pokes are getting to him. Vulture thinks so.
On January 4, the president-elect of the United States woke up in a mood, as he seems to have done on so many mornings since the election. It was a day of angry tweeting — about the media’s “double standard,” about the “terrible things” the DNC did, about the “failed ObamaCare disaster” and the “Schumer clowns” who must not be let out of “the web,” whatever that is. But capping his fulminations was this: “Jackie Evancho’s album sales have skyrocketed after announcing her Inauguration performance. Some people just don’t understand the ‘Movement.’”
For those of you who have been thinking about Cabinet appointments or the dismantling of the Affordable Care Act or the Russian hack or America’s relationships with China or Israel rather than the truly important things, a quick primer: Jackie Evancho is a 16-year-old pop singer from Pittsburgh who, despite a Wikipedia entry that is three times as long as the one for Joyce Carol Oates, has only two real claims to fame: She came in second on the 2010 edition of NBC’s competition seriesAmerica’s Got Talent, and she was, as of Trump’s tweet, the biggest celebrity to agree to perform at his inauguration.
Never mind that the claim that her sales had “skyrocketed” was quicklydebunked by, of all places, Access Hollywood, which is apparently in contention to become PEOTUS’s personal Javert. That celebratory-but-actually-defensive tweet outlined the contours of a tiny post-election tempest: The entertainment industry does not like Donald Trump. He got inauguration turndowns from everyone. The A list is staying away. The B list is staying away. Most of Nashville (with the exception of Big & Rich, a duo one half of which won Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice in 2011) is staying away. Even the Rockettes, that bespangled bastion of heartland America in a bubble within the bubble of the putative coastal elite, raised a ruckus when MSG executive chairman James Dolan tried to get them to perform, with one dancer pointedly asking whether they were supposed to “tolerate intolerance.” (Yes, said Dolan, who ultimately lost that battle.
Keep reading. By the way, Britain’s Rebecca Ferguson says she won’t be performing at the inauguration because Trump’s people won’t meet her conditions.
I just find it beyond funny and more than a little pathetic that such an apparently successful, rich (wanna bet???), sophisticated businessman has such a sad and desperate need to be liked by people that actually laugh in his face.
Never forget that the finger he uses to hit SEND on his Twitter feed is the same one that can launch the nukes and scratch his ass with…
Jackie Evancho:
Claim to fame # 3 – youngest opera singer
Claim to fame # 4 – youngest artist to go platinum
Fact check #1 – more of a classical crossover artist than pop.
Interesting fact #1 Sung for Obama twice.
Interesting fact #2 Sung with many of the worlds finest singers.
Interesting fact #3 She is still in public high school.
January 10, 2017 at 7:12 pm
Jackie Evancho:
Claim to fame # 3 – youngest opera singer
Claim to fame # 4 – youngest artist to go platinum
Fact check #1 – more of a classical crossover artist than pop.
Interesting fact #1 Sung for Obama twice.
Interesting fact #2 Sung with many of the world’s finest singers.
Interesting fact #3 She is still in public high school.