- There are Twitter rants and then there are TWITTER RANTS. Indian-American
actor Kal Penn went the latter route, posting a long series of tweets he used
to shine a light on scripts he’s received in auditions that perpetuate racial
stereotype in the film and TV industries. Penn, who is politically active and
well-spoken, is an American born to Indian parents and is known for both his
role as Kumar Patel in the Harold & Kumar films and as then-President
Barack Obama’s Associate Director in the White House Office of Public
Engagement from 2009 to 2011. He’s landed quite a few good roles, including
Lawrence Kutner in “House” Seth Wright
in the ABC political drama “Designated Survivor,” but what has Penn chafed is
the way actors of certain nationalities are written as characters in various
scripts he’s read and auditioned with over the years. “Found a bunch of old
scripts from some of my first years trying to be an actor,” Penn tweeted,
signaling the start of a string of posts with scripts from shows like “Sabrina
The Teenage Witch” and “Smart Guy,” with one script looking for a “Gandhi
lookalike” and “snake charmer,” while another was casting a character described
as a “Pakistani computer geek.” The “Smart Guy” script called for a character
simply labeled “Foreign Student” and seeing such vague, stereotyped roles for
people of his ethnicity didn’t sit well with Penn. “There are too many in this
stack to tweet, I’ll be here all day,” Penn later tweeted. “That said, there
were also some wonderful 1st audition & work experiences!” He saluted
“Steve Harvey, Buffy, Angel, 24, really smart, creative people who didn’t have
to use external things to mask subpar writing,” so props to all of those
wonderful shows and people…….
- To the objective observer, it might seem nonsensical to
have a new girls council to deal with issues pertaining to females in your
country and not actually allow any ladies to attend that council’s first
meeting, but thankfully, the powers that be in Saudi Arabia are neither
objective nor in the habit of fairly observing and assessing their own actions.
Saudi Arabia unveiled its inaugural girls’ council in the province of al-Qassim
and launched this aspirational group with a meeting that failed to include a
single female on a stage that had 13 men. The bad news is that the ladies
weren’t represented on that stage; the slightly less bad news is that there are
female members of the Qassim Girls Council, but due to a Saudi state policy
that requires that women and men who are not related remain separated, their
only means of “participating” was being shown on video screens from their
position in a separate room. Yes, nothing says caring about the rights and
feelings of women like shoving them into the back room with a camera like
hostages and broadcasting their likeness on a screen in the main room, where
the men folk gathered and took center stage. What’s sad is that the Saudi
government clearly expected it to be a praiseworthy moment of inclusiveness and
progress, only to have it blow up in their face and become an instant rallying
cry for social media users around the world to denounce its actions and
policies as unfair unjust and stuck in a bygone era……..
- Does anyone actually know the World Baseball Classic is
going on? Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez clearly does, but
it’s mostly because he’s playing for the Mexican team in the WBC, which is
being contested at various sites around the world ahead of its championship
round in Los Angeles. But Gonzalez, normally a pleasant individual, threw an
unprovoked haymaker at the event after his team beat Venezuela 11-9 in
Guadalajara, Mexico, leaving both teams tied with Italy for second in Group D.
Gonzalez was irate that something called the WBC technical committee determined
the tiebreaker -- runs allowed per defensive inning -- meant Italy (1.05) and
Venezuela (1.11) advanced and not Mexico (1.12), meaning he would return to
spring training with the Dodgers rather than play on in an event sports fans
are blissfully unaware of as they lock in on the NCAA tournament. "They're
trying to become the World Cup, but they're not even close to being the Little
League World Series,” Gonzalez said of the WBC. He was especially angry because
the Mexican Baseball Federation objected that the ninth inning of last
Thursday's game between Mexico and Italy should count as a partial inning, even
though Italy scored five runs without Mexico getting any outs. Italy won the game
10-9 and now, it’s moving on an Mexico isn't. Following the decision, Gonzalez,
a veteran of four WBCs, said he won't play in any more. According to Gonzo,
Mexico's general manager called the two WBC representatives in Mexico seven
times and sent several text messages and emails prior to the team’s final game
and the squad believed it only needed to win by two runs to advance. After the
game, they found out that a different determinant was being used and all they
could do was pack their bags and go home……..
- Know your room. If you go to a low-end, fast food
restaurant, you can't expect the same quality of food or service that you’re
going to get at a pricy, $$$-rated eatery in the Zagat guide. As such, when
workers at a Zaxby's restaurant in suburban Atlanta hand you french fries with
what you perceive to be insufficient seasoning salt, your options for reacting
fall within fairly limited parameters. You can take those fries back and demand
a new batch, you can ask to have more seasoning sprinkled on those fries or you
can demand a refund….but you can’t hurl your carton of soggy, greasy potato
slivers back at the minimum-wage-earning workers who served them up, which is
precisely what one unhappy customer did. The woman had two takeout containers
filled with food an when she went back to the counter to confront the employees
unfortunate enough to be in the vicinity of the register, she decided that the
best way to drive home her point about the importance of properly season fries
was to hurl the bags across the counter. Security footage shows the customer
exiting the store with her order, only to return moments later to speak to a
manager. That escalated quickly to this rage-a-holic punching the screen
attached to the register and according to Clayton County Police Det. Stefan
Schindler, spewing some very colorful profanities at workers. She was
accompanied by a man who stood silently during the entire episode, which means
that she could face charges for assault (with a non-lethal food product) and
property damage, while her male counterpart is guilty only of having poor taste
in who he hangs out with. Next time, just accept the replacement fries or go to
the Ruth’s Criss steakhouse down the street for the quality of meal you seem to
feel you deserve……….
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