Below the Barr

May 31, 2018

ABC, which is owned by Walt Disney, cancelled “Roseanne” immediately after star Roseanne Barr tweeted that Valerie Jarrett, former senior adviser to President Barack Obama, was the progeny of the Muslim Brotherhood and “Planet of the Apes.”

One poster on The New York Times’ website suggested that Barr was riffing on the political commentary offered by the movie. But racists have been comparing blacks to apes for centuries. Barr has built her career on what can only be called white trash humor. Somehow I don’t think she was aiming for political allegory. …

A world lit by fire in a reverse fairy tale

May 19, 2018

In the end – after all the melodrama about in-laws and outlaws, race and clashing cultures – it was both a deeply personal moment and a global event brimming with cultural meaning.

A justifiably proud, almost wistful mother seeing her daughter off into a new life; a father-in-law stepping in to escort a bride who might’ve represented the daughter he never had; a self-possessed scion supporting his adored, rougher-around-the-edges kid brother on his big day; and oh, that kid brother – like a hero out of Jane Austen – waiting, craning his neck, hoping almost against hope, as it were, for “her” to appear. Then, finally, yes, it was she, of course, poised at the entrance of the church, but then, who else would it, could it, be? Looking like a goddess …

Negotiating with the stars

May 16, 2018

One of the more endearing but also infuriating things about Americans is their belief that anyone can do anything if he just works hard enough, fast enough. This is the “Dancing With the Stars” philosophy of life that says you, too, can be a ballroom dancer if you have three weeks of intense training and, possibly, Maksim Chmerkovsky as a partner.

This would be amusing if it weren’t sometimes so deadly. Now we have a president who lacks the talent, temperament, training and technique for the job and it shows in the country pulling unilaterally out of the Iran nuclear deal, moving its embassy to Jerusalem with violent consequences and now facing a North Korean pullout from the planned summit due to American-South Korean military maneuvers. …

Royal fever

May 12, 2018

I have a confession to make: I am in love with a much younger man – Prince Louis.

OK, so he’s only 3 weeks old but he has stolen my heart. Prince Louis is already a star — thanks to his shutterbug of a mother, Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge — but even he will have to take a backseat this week as we get set for the Olympics of romance. I am talking, of course, about the wedding of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry May 19 at 7 a.m. (EDT).

As with any such event, this is not a sprint for the press but a marathon. In my guise as editor of WAG magazine, I have been among those whetting the appetite with wedding previews …

Don Rodolfo Giuliani de la Mancha, a tragicomedy in two acts

May 8, 2018

Tragedy, they say, returns as farce and so it is with Rudolph Giuliani – former New York City prosecutor and “America’s mayor” – who in defending his new client President Donald J. Trumpet to “Fox News’” Sean Hannity contradicted him on the Stormy Daniels matter, perhaps putting him in legal jeopardy. More tellingly, Rudy Two Shoes told Hannity he might have “to get on my charger and go into (Robert Mueller’s) offices with a lance” to defend his damsel in distress, his Dulcinea – Ivanka Trump. (I think I speak for women everywhere when I say Ivanka can take care of herself.) …

Trump’s ‘he said, he said’ moment

May 7, 2018

Let me make one thing perfectly clear: Trump did not have sex with that women, Miss Lewinsky, er, Daniels.

Until he did.

But he didn’t pay her. No, sirree, his lawyer Michael Cohen did. But Trump reimbursed him.

Then again, maybe not.

Folks, you might as well go to your local ballpark and buy a scorecard, because you’re going to need it to sort out this one. …

Modern Medusas: From Barbara Bush to Barbra Streisand

April 21, 2018

Barbara Bush – who died Tuesday at age 92 and was scheduled to be buried today in the presence of four former presidents – has been the subject of many remembrances and reactions this week, most of them admiring of a woman who turned a sharp gaze and an even sharper wit on herself as much as others. So, she no doubt would’ve been amused by The New York Times’ official reflection, whose undercurrent was a motif she often addressed – her appearance. …