(Photos via Getty Images)
At last night’s Golden Globe Awards, Meryl Streep used her platform after receiving a lifetime achievement award to unleash an anti-Trump diatribe. While I certainly agree with some her criticisms and personally think Trump is a total assclown, it’s frustrating that people inside the Hollywood bubble still can’t get their heads around that Trump’s rise was largely fueled by a backlash against precisely this type of smug self-righteousness from people like Meryl Streep who are completely out-of-touch with the lives of ordinary Americans.
During the speech, the 80-year-old Hollywood icon took shots from seemingly out of nowhere at the NFL and mixed martial arts.
“Hollywood is crawling with outsiders,” Streep said. “And if we kick them all out, we’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts,” before sassily adding amidst growing applause from the audience, “which are not the arts.”
https://twitter.com/BBCWorld/status/818375657210212352
While it’s understandable why a Hollywood lifer would extol “the arts”, I don’t see the point of aiming her vitriol at the NFL and mixed martial arts.
You can like highbrow artsy films, and still enjoy watching athletes compete. But by demonizing sports fans- which, newsflash is an enormous part of the population- she’s giving ordinary Americans another reason to roll their eyes and tune her out.
While maybe football players and fighters aren’t “artists”, they are far more relatable heroes than Hollywood actors are, and we admire them for their toughness and dedication to their craft.
And unlike what Streep seems to think, the UFC and other fighting promotions are comprised of working class fighters from countries around the globe. And I’d bet the makeup of MMA’s fanbase is much more diverse than the group of people who pay to see Meryl Streep movies in theaters.
UFC President Dana White fired back to Streep’s comments by calling Streep and “uppity 80-year-old lady” who he wouldn’t expect to be in the UFC’s demographic.
White also called objected to her declaration that MMA isn’t an art. “Saying something stupid like that is like saying that she’s not a talented actress,” he said. “Which she is. She’s a very talented actress.”
Here’s the video of White’s full reaction, courtesy of TMZ Sports.
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Scott Coker, president of UFC competitor Bellator, also chose to respond to Streep’s comments. Below is the open letter he posted on Twitter, in which he invites Meryl to the upcoming Bellator 170. I’m sure he’s being genuine with the invitation to Meryl, and definitely not just exploiting this pop culture moment to generate publicity for his upcoming pay-per-view.
https://twitter.com/ScottCoker/status/818308374563463168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
