Monday, September 6, 2010

Cele|bitchy

Cele|bitchy


Swizz Beatz’s ex-wife Mashonda goes off on Alicia Keys in a new interview

Posted: 06 Sep 2010 08:02 AM PDT

NEW YORK - OCTOBER 16:  Producer Swizz Beats and Mashonda arrive to Verizon Presents Mary J. Blige in Concert at 'Frederic P. Rose Hall , Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center' on October 16, 2005 in New York City.  (Photo by Brad Barket/Getty Images)

I swear, this Alicia Keys-Mashonda Dean-Jahna Sebastian-Swizz Beatz is the biggest, most dramatic, clusterf-ck gossip story of the year, and it pains me that it's not getting more play. Is it all about race? If Alicia Keys was white, do you think there would be Us Weekly covers asking in ALL CAPS BOLD why she and her relationship are so damaged? I do. Anyway, Bossip has a new story that is really, really rough - Swizz Beatz's ex-wife mashonda has given yet another interview, this time to Sister 2 Sister Magazine. Before I get to the interview, I'd like to recap the events thus far:

*Mashonda called Alicia and Swizz out for their affair last year in a open letter - Alicia and Swizz's affair began when Swizz and Mashonda were married and when their youngest child was only months old.
*Alicia has never publicly spoken about homewrecking Swizz and Mashonda's marriage, and on the rare occasion when she was asked about it, she name-dropped Oprah and acted like she was too good to discuss it.
*Swizz has yet another baby-mama in England named Jahna Sebastian, whom he has yet to pay child support on or even acknowledge their daughter.
*Beyond the fact that Swizz has impregnated his third woman in, like, four years time, his baby-mama drama isn't even the least of his worries - he also owes millions in back-taxes.
*Not that Alicia and Swizz had their shotgun wedding, everything will continue to be whitewashed, with happy-happy quotes being pushed in People Magazine and other major publications, with Swizz talking about "spreading his love" and such.

Okay, now on to Mashonda's interview. This is… God, I just feel for Mashonda. It's one of those situations where I totally understand why the ex is still talking about the situation and the new girl, because the new girl is consistently f-cking with the ex's business. I just come away from this thinking that Alicia is ten different kinds of WRONG. This whole thing comes courtesy of Bossip:

Mashonda covers the new October issue of Sister 2 Sister Magazine and spills even more surprises — including how Swizz was still sleeping with her when he was dating Alicia, why she's still talking about their messy divorce and how Alicia had the nerve to ask her son to call her Mommy!

On Swizz and Alicia's affair: Were you guys dating other people before he got with Alicia? Were you guys separated?
Mashonda: We were married. Sleeping in the same bed and having sex every night while he was seeing Alicia. Okay? It was an affair. 100 percent. I don't know why people want to change that rule so much. We had just had a kid, for crying out loud. Our child was 8 months. I found out about Alicia two days before my son turned 1. They had been doing their thing for months before that.

On Why She Continues To Speak About It If She's Moved On:
Mashonda: People ask me why am I still talking about this and why don't I just leave it alone. I'm like, this is going to help somebody. My story is a universal thing. This is not just something that only happened to me: This happens to women every day. Mine was just ugly. If I can help the next woman get through and be positive, then I'm going to talk about it.

On Alicia Asking Kasseem Jr. to call her 'Mommy':

S2S: You said that Alicia wanted your baby to call her "mommy". How do you know that she said that?
Mashonda: My son told me.
S2S: And you told her that is not going to happen?
Mashonda: Yeah. I sent her an email and asked her to please respect what I am to him and it's not right for her to think that is okay. She never replied. She doesn't reply to me. She has never given me that respect.

S2S: What does Swizz say?
Mashonda: He said okay, he would stop it. He wouldn't let her do it.
S2S: That would be kind of confusing for the child.
Mashonda: Oh, it is. It is so unfair to the child. I have been in contact with the little girls mother (the woman in England who has Swizz's baby). She's a young girl. She's a spiritual girl. She apologized to me… I don't even judge her. I can't. She's totally different than the other one. This other one knew. Alicia knew about me 100 percent. Swizz introduced me at prior events. They were signed to the same record company. She knew. And I emailed her and asked her to stop doing what she was doing and she disregarded me. Just like she disregarded me when I asked her to not have my son thinking it was okay to call her "umi." You're not his umi. You just met my son.

S2S: "Umi" is like "mommy"?
Mashonda: "Umi" means "mommy" in Arabic. I'm like no. And then after I spoke to the lady in London, she told me that she tried to get her daughter to call her "umi" as well.

S2S: She's met the lady in London?
Mashonda: Yes. I'm glad she's having her own child now because now she will have someone to call her "umi".

S2S: Wow.
Mashonda: Like, if you want to be a stepmother, that's great. Be a stepmother. But don't think that it's okay to make a kid call you "umi" or "mommy."

[From Bossip]

Once again - and this is much like the LeAnn Rimes stuff - I'm not saying it's a bad thing that a step-mother is trying to have a good relationship with her partner's children. But there's a difference between loving your partner's children like they're your own and just pulling some crazy, disrespectful Hand That Rocks The Cradle bullsh-t. It's not just about the kids - it's also about respecting the kids' relationship with their parents, you know? Mashonda is their mother. Respect that. And that poor Jahna Sebastian… I believe what Mashonda says about her too, and I think Jahna is getting royally screwed in this situation. It's kind of cool that Jahna and Mashonda are now friendly though.

But don't you come away from this extremely frustrated with Alicia? It's not even like, "Oh, poor Alicia, she's just head-over-heels in love, she can't see that Swizz is a dog." Alicia is fully complicit in all of this, and she's going out of her way to instigate sh-t. Bitch. Why aren't more people calling her out on this crap?

Alicia Keys accepts the award for Best Collaboration at the 2010 BET Awards in Los Angeles on June 27, 2010.  UPI/Jim Ruymen Photo via Newscom

44291, NEW YORK, NEW YORK - Wednesday September 1 2010. Pregnant Alicia Keys walks hand in hand with her husband Swizz Beats in Tribecca District. Photograph: PacificCoastNews.com

LOS ANGELES, CA - JUNE 26:  Recording artist Swizz Beatz (R) with wife Mashonda (L) and their songs arrive at the 2007 BET Awards held at the Shrine Auditorium on June 26, 2007 in Los Angeles, California.  (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 10:  Singer Mashonda attends the BMI Urban Awards at Jazz at Lincoln Center on September 10, 2009 in New York City.  (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for BMI)

“Hugh Grant is 50 years old and single” & Labor Day links

Posted: 06 Sep 2010 07:16 AM PDT

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Hugh Grant is 50 years old (and single!). [I'm Not Obsessed]
F-ck me, I love corgis. [CityRag]
I have no idea what Kiera Knightley is doing to that motorcycle. [A Socialite Life]
Eva Longoria launches her crappy perfume - who wants to smell like her?!? [Dlisted]
'Machete' reviewed: not very good, actually. [Pajiba]
Nicole Richie is kind of dorky cheeseball. [LaineyGossip]
Holy crap, Courtney Cox looks like hell in these pics. [Pop Sugar]
The summer of Sparkles & K-Stew. [Celebuzz]
Bjork's latest fashion DON'T. [PopEater]
Sadie Frost says Jude Law is a "great dad." [Celebrity Baby Scoop]
Hilarious, sad, ridiculous video of the trashy X-Factor fight. [Gawker]
Beyonce turns 29 years old - her twenties have lasted more than ten years, right? [Bossip]
Kate Beckinsale in a bikini. [Celebslam]
Jessica Simpson thinks she's "lucky" to date Eric Johnson. [Bitten and Bound]
Amy Winehouse is single: alert the CDC. [Evil Beet]
Leighton Meester gets highlights. [LimeLife]
I still don't get the Chace Crawford thing. [PopBytes]

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George Clooney’s lack of promotion for ‘The American’ won the box office

Posted: 06 Sep 2010 06:38 AM PDT

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These are some additional photos of George Clooney and Elisabetta Canalis last Thursday. This paparazzi-friendly photo op was pretty much the only "promotion" Clooney did as an actor to promote The American, which came out last Wednesday. He didn't do any big interviews, no magazine profiles, no premieres, no film festivals. It was just some pap photos, an appearance at the Emmys to pick up the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award, and lots of commercials for the film. That's it. And he won the weekend box office! CB and I thought The American was going to tank, and I really though Machete would do much better (it came in second). However, according to Deadline Hollywood, it's not all good news:

1. The American (Focus Features) NEW [2,823 Theaters] Opened Wed
Friday $3.8M, Saturday $4.9M, 3-Day Weekend $13.3M, Est 4-Day Holiday $16.1M, Est Cume $19.2M

This is the way a Clooney picture should be sold from now on. Even though early exits show that attendance was partly driven by the “George Clooney factor”, he just can’t muster wide domestic appeal even if he is still a big name on the international scene. Focus Features marketed Clooney’s The American to his core +35 adult audience as the more cerebral and sophisticated choice that was a counterprogramming alternative to the summer’s mindless crap. (Focus did the same with 2005’s The Constant Gardener.) Problem is, moviegoers didn’t like what they saw: the CinemaScore was a poor “D-”. Focus execs say Control helmer Anton Corbijn’s performance exceeded internal projections which undoubtedly it did. But a star of Clooney’s status should be able to muster a better 6-day opening than just $16.1M — and didn’t.

[From Deadline Hollywood]

I kind of think that an estimated 6-day opening of $19 million with absolutely no exertion is still kind of awesome - it speaks to Clooney's die-hard fan base, and also the wisdom of the adult moviegoer. Of course, there are still questions: why did Clooney not do anything for the film? Lainey at LaineyGossip is wondering aloud if there's some kind of story/gossip to go along with it, but there's always the possibility that though reviewers didn't hate the film, Clooney knew he made a dud and he wanted people to forget it.

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Clooney & Canalis on September 2, 2010. Credit: Fame & WENN.

Wyclef Jean says Sean Penn was too coked up to meet him in Haiti

Posted: 06 Sep 2010 05:58 AM PDT

Haitian singer Wyclef Jean, a candidate for the next presidential election in Haiti, attends a news conference before his concert at the Antilliaanse Feesten music festival in Hoogstraten in this file picture taken August 13, 2010. Jean is not on the list of approved candidates who satisfy legal requirements to run in the country's Nov. 28 presidential election, an electoral official said on August 19, 2010. Picture taken August 13.   REUTERS/Sebastien Pirlet/Files (BELGIUM - Tags: ENTERTAINMENT POLITICS)

A few months ago, Wylcef Jean threw his hat into the ring to be a nominee in Haiti's presidential election. Wyclef made major waves in America - he is perhaps the best-known Haitian in the American media's mind, so he got lots of play. Unfortunately, in the end, Wyclef was ineligible to be a presidential nominee because of some regulations regarding residency - it seemed Wyclef had been living in new Jersey too long, and not Port-au-Prince. So just like that, Wyclef's bid was over. And now it's time for Wylcef to call out the haters.

Clef's ex-Fugee friend Pras made an impassioned and well-spoken argument for why Clef shouldn't be Haiti's president, but one of the biggest cut-downs was made by Sean Penn, who sat down with Larry King. Sean has become something of an honorary Haitian, and has spent months working in Haiti post-earthquake. Here's part of what Sean said after Wyclef announced his bid:

I feel that it's important to say that while President Preval himself has made very clear the value of Wyclef's voice as a song writer, as someone with whom the youth is quite enamored with, and appointing him, not as he said electing him, ambassador at large, which took place, in fact, three years ago, which does not qualify him as someone who has had residency for the five consecutive years necessary — but that's an issue of rule of law that we will or won't respect in our donations, or lack thereof, to campaigns abroad.

… I'm not accusing Wyclef Jean of being on opportunist. I don't know the man. But I think it's extremely important that we pay great attention to both the individuals in the United States who are enamored with him, maybe not for his political strengths, and in particular for corporate interests that are enamored with him, and those that may themselves be opportunists on the back of the Haitian people.

Right now, I worry that this is a campaign that is more about a vision of flying around the world, talking to people, as he said. It's certainly not one of the youth drafting him… What the Haitian people need now is a leader who is genuinely willing to sacrifice.

And one of the reasons I don't know very much about Wyclef Jean is I haven't seen or heard anything of him in these last six months that I've been in Haiti. I think he's an important voice. I hope he doesn't sacrifice that voice by taking the eye off the very devastating realities on the ground and the very difficult strategic future that it's got in putting itself back together…

[From CNN]

So it's clear that Sean at that point had never met Wyclef, and probably had no interest in meeting him either. But now it's Clef's turn to give his side of the story for why they never met - apparently, it had something to do with Sean being a cokehead…?

"If I was president….I got a message for Sean Penn, maybe he ain’t see me in Haiti because he was too busy sniffing cocaine. I got a message for Praswell, even though you don’t want to support me, I got love for you, even though you only kicked eight bars in the Fugees.”

[From Gawker]

Clef is kind of a whiny little baby, right? It's not Sean Penn's fault that Clef didn't meet the residency requirements. That being said, if Sean is a cokehead, it wouldn't surprise me. At all.

The Pras dis was rough too, right? UGH. Clef needs to get a grip.

40744, WASHINGTON, D.C - Wednesday May 19, 2010. Academy Award winning actor Sean Penn testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on relief efforts in Haiti Wednesday morning on Capitol Hill. Photograph: Nick Gingold, PacificCoastNews.com

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI - AUGUST 19: Singer Wyclef Jean as he speaks with a journalist in the home he is staying in while he waits to hear if he is eligible to run for the November 28th presidential election on August 19, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Haiti's electoral authorities are scheduled to release the list of the presidential candidates that can run in the November 28, 2010 election on August 20. There is 1.5 million people still living in tent camps and less than four percent of the rubble from collapsed buildings has been cleared since the earthquake, that killed some 200,000 people. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Singer Wyclef Jean attends a news conference before his concert at the Antilliaanse Feesten music festival in Hoogstraten, in this August 13, 2010 file photo. The Haitian hip-hop star and presidential hopeful turned to song on August 26 to accuse outgoing President Rene Preval of engineering his rejection as a candidate for Haiti's November election. Local radio stations were broadcasting a song by Jean in Creole in which he called for the jailing of electoral officials who last week disqualified him and for the first time directly blamed Preval for being banned from the Nov. 28 vote. REUTERS/Sebastien Pirlet/Files  (BELGIUM - Tags: ENTERTAINMENT POLITICS)

Haitian singer Wyclef Jean, a candidate for the next presidential election in Haiti, attends a news conference before his concert at the Antilliaanse Feesten music festival in Hoogstraten, August 13, 2010.  REUTERS/Sebastien Pirlet (BELGIUM - Tags: ENTERTAINMENT POLITICS)

Jay Leno makes inappropriate pregnancy joke to Bristol Palin on the Tonight Show

Posted: 06 Sep 2010 05:44 AM PDT


Jay’s comment to Bristol is at about :20 in. This is the second part of her interview

Bristol Palin was a guest on The Tonight Show on Friday. She did a decent job and kind of rolled with it, but I still found her very bland. She’s 19 years old and doesn’t have a lot to say, nor does she seem comfortable with the media. That’s fine and a lot of people are like that, but the vast majority of them don’t pursue fame, either. Bristol told Jay that she learned that she was invited to be on Dancing With The Stars through a text message she received while working at her day job as an office manager at a dermatologists. The way she explained it was simple - she decided to follow up on it and here she is. There was no mention of whether it was hypocritical of her to be on the show when she previously blasted Levi for being “obsessed with the limelight.” The thing that stuck out for me in this interview, and you can read it below and watch above, is Jay’s really stupid inappropriate comment to Bristol about getting pregnant. It was uncalled for and didn’t make sense, as if he was waiting to make a bad pregnancy joke and then tried to shoehorn it in there.

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On choosing to do DWTS
Some people are like ‘do you really want to be in the spotlight?’ but I’m having fun with it

On her breakup with Levi
I’m not disappointed, not heartbroken. I tried to make it work for my son. It didn’t work. I realized that we’re not meant to be. I’m just focused on being a good mom.

On how Levi has changed
The guy I fell in love with was a hardworking Alaskan man that didn’t want to wear straight-legged jeans and boots and um be chased by Radar and those kind of people. So, it’s a night and day difference and it’s sad to watch, but oh well.

On Levi’s run for mayor of Wasila
He needs to move to Wasila, to the city limits, and he’s got to get his GED.

On how Dancing with The Stars is hard work
Well, I expected it to be hard work, but I’m so uncoordinated, don’t have any rhythm so we’re starting from scratch.

Leno’s inappropriate comment that followed this statement
I think it was a wise choice to go on the show. I was going to say, that’s also how you get pregnant, but I’m not going to go there. I’m teasing, I’m teasing.

On whether she’s a diva
No. The only thing I’ve asked for is a velcro mic pack so I don’t have to wear it on my belt loop.

What the hell is Jay talking about “that’s also how you get pregnant“? What does that mean in response to a 19 year-old girl saying that she can’t dance? It’s so wildly off the mark that it just goes to show what this old dude is thinking about. The people in the audience groaned loudly at that one, and so they should have. Remember when Letterman made a dumb joke about Bristol getting knocked up at a Yankees game but was accidentally referring to Sarah’s youngest daughter, Willow? Sarah and her husband freaked out about that and said that Letterman was joking about statutory rape. Letterman then apologized and Sarah accepted, and the whole thing was blown out of proportion, in my opinion. Anyway is Palin going to call Leno on this? It was a dumb joke and one that she’ll probably let go. I bet she’s seething over it, though.

Jay’s show is not doing as well as hoped, but he’s still hanging in there for some reason. It’s not because he’s particularly funny or has strong interview skills that’s for sure.

Here’s the first part of Bristol’s interview:

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Here are photos of Bristol outside DWTS practice on 9/2, 9/4 and 9/5, with partner Mark Ballas. Credit: WENN.com

Teresa Giuidice accused of hiding $250k in assets in bankruptcy filing

Posted: 06 Sep 2010 05:37 AM PDT

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Real Housewife of New Jersey Teresa Giudice filed for bankruptcy a few months ago along with her husband, Joe. The couple is $11 million in debt despite earning less than six figures a year - officially. Teresa has refused to take any responsibility for her actions and insists that her lavish lifestyle didn’t drive them into bankruptcy. In a recent interview in In Touch, she claims to be living within her means and limiting her spending. She doesn’t mention or account for the $60,000 she’s accused of spending in just two months after they filed for bankruptcy. Teresa and Joe’s creditors claim in a recent court filing that the couple never reported $250,000 they earned as an advance for Teresa’s book, Skinny Italian, along with failing to report earnings from her online boutique and another company that Joe owns.

A New Jersey lawyer for the Dept. of Justice handling the case of Teresa and Joe Giudice in federal bankruptcy court has filed a complaint on Thursday objecting to the couple’s request for Chapter 7 protection, claiming they intentionally failed to reveal major assets in their original petition. The court documents that appear to have been filed by Roberta A. DeAngelis have surfaced on a ‘Housewife’ blog. Sources of income alleged to be missing from the bankruptcy filing? The court documents list a $250,000 book advance from Hyperion received by Teresa for her cookbook ‘Skinny Italian,’ her ownership of an online boutique called TGFabulicious and more.

The objection reads: “To date, the Defendants have not filed amended schedules that disclose the existence of the book ‘Skinny Italian,’ the publishing deal with Hyperion, Defendant wife’s ownership of TG Fabulicious, LLC, or Defendant husband’s ownership of 1601 Maple Avenue Associates, LLC.”

The claim further alleges that the couple were untruthful in previous sworn testimony (”the Defendants have knowingly and fraudulently made false oaths in this case”) as the contract with Hyperion was reportedly dated Oct. 22, 2009 — just prior to the Guidices’ petition for bankruptcy protection — and signed within weeks of filing for Chapter 7. While Teresa has reportedly acknowledged in an April 2010 examination under oath that she received the book advance, her legal team has apparently done little to officially update court records about the newly disclosed assets.

[From Popeater]

Every move this woman makes shows what an entitled arrogant person she is. She has no shame and will stop at nothing to continue to buy whatever she wants so she can live however she wants. I just feel sorry for her kids.

As for those rumors that the “nephew” that Danielle Staub brought up on the reunion show last week was Teresa’s husband’s lovechild, several of you mentioned another possible reason why Teresa flew into a rage. (As if she needs a reason.) There’s a story that she has a nephew that is of mixed race, which her low class family refuses to acknowledge. I was unable to verify that at all, though. I had the chance to read the full dumb interview with Teresa and Joe in In Touch, and they don’t address the cheating rumors except to say that Teresa “laughed” at that story and that they’re solid. Joe volunteers that they “still make love once, sometimes twice, a day.” Thank you for sharing. That really puts me off my lunch and now I’m imagining fur flying and cats mating.

Here’s Teresa looking lovely on 9/1 and 9/5/10. Credit: WENN.com

Michaele Salahi of RHODC to pose nude in Playboy

Posted: 06 Sep 2010 05:30 AM PDT

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White House party crasher Michaele Salahi, supposedly 44, is going to show off her starvation-maintained figure inside Playboy. Salahi, who claims to still have her natural boobs but to be open to plastic surgery, is going to go full frontal for the men’s magazine. I can’t imagine that there will be many people clamoring to see her naked. What is she known for other than being half of a scam artist team that weasled their way into the White House state dinner? Oh, there’s also that charity that she runs with her husband as a front for their shady business dealings.

Michaele Salahi is about to crash another party — the one in your pants — because TMZ has learned the “Real Housewives of D.C.” star is taking it all off for Playboy magazine.

And not just artsy “top half” naked — we’re talking full-frontal, birthday suit naked.

Salahi’s rep tells us the shoot will go down later this month — and Michaele is “very excited” about posing down.

We’re told Playboy honchos have not yet determined whether or not Salahi will get the cover … but she would “love it.”

[From TMZ]

This is somewhat better than putting out a sex tape Danielle Staub style, but it’s along the same lines. Salahi was called anorexic by another housewife on her show, which she claimed is untrue while admitting to a diet that consists of less than 900 calories a day. Here’s some validation for her starvation and whole fame-whoring existence in the pages of Playboy. I hope they’re not stupid enough to give her the cover, not that it means much lately. I didn’t know what the hell to say about this except to make fun of this woman, so I looked through the comments on HuffPo until I found some good ones. Here are my favorites:

I’d say this was a new low, but Playboy loves the notorious. Remember Darva Conger, Jessica Hahn, Rita Jenrette, Fannie Fox? I think the nadir was probably Faye Resnick, Nicole Brown Simpson’s “best friend”. Talk about cashing in on tragedy! - stagebandman

Playboy has added a 13th month to the calendar and Michaele Salahi gets to be Ms. Skanktember! Congratulations - prthatrocks

[From Huffington Post comments]

The last we heard about Michaele, her former personal assistant went on the record to tell Star Magazine what a slob her former employers were, describing their home as “almost like a hoarder's house” with filth and papers laying all over. I guess she’s skanky in more ways than just the obvious.

Photo credit: In Touch Weekly

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Morrissey calls the Chinese people a “subspecies” & refuses to apologize

Posted: 05 Sep 2010 09:25 AM PDT

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This story comes via Gawker, and it's slightly complicated because there's some back-and-forth and some history to it. Basically, British singer and former Smiths front-man Morrissey is a racist douche. What's interesting is that he has no plans to apologize for being a racist douche, or for his sketchy history of racist comments, and that his fans probably still love him.

So, in an interview with this weekend's Guardian Magazine (UK), Morrissey began talking about animal rights (he's a big animal rights guy), and how pissed he was that China still has a pretty terrible animal rights record. This is part of what he said:

Morrissey, a vegetarian and animal rights advocate who last year abandoned the stage at the Coachella festival in California because of the smell of cooking meat, described the treatment of animals in China as “absolutely horrific”, referring to recent news stories about animals in Chinese circuses and zoos. He told interviewer Simon Armitage: “Did you see the thing on the news about their treatment of animals and animal welfare? Absolutely horrific. You can’t help but feel that the Chinese are a subspecies.”

[From The Guardian]

That's right, a "subspecies." This is not Morrissey's first brush with race-tingled comments:

In 1992 NME Magazine accused Morrissey of “flirting with disaster” and racist imagery after wrapping himself in the union flag while on stage in Finsbury Park, north London.

In the same year, the singer, now 51, was quoted in Q Magazine stating that he did not want to be “horrible or pessimistic” but he didn’t “really think, for instance, black people and white people will ever really get on or like each other. I don’t really think they ever will.” While in 1994 he told Select magazine that the National Front should be given a clear voice or platform in order for them to be “less of a threat”.

The war of words with NME continued in 2007 after Morrissey, who lived in Rome at the time, was quoted in an interview with the magazine apparently criticising levels of immigration after being asked if he would ever consider moving back to England. “With the issue of immigration, it’s very difficult because, although I don’t have anything against people from other countries, the higher the influx into England the more the British identity disappears,” he said. “If you walk through Knightsbridge on any bland day of the week you won’t hear an English accent. You’ll hear every accent under the sun apart from the British accent.”

At another point in the interview he stated: “England is a memory now. The gates are flooded and anybody can have access to England and join in.”

[From The Guardian]

During those past incidents, Morrissey apologized or revamped his comments, claiming he was misunderstood or misquoted, or that he didn't really mean anything. In 2008, he even donated about $40,000 to Love Music Hate Racism as a way to apologize for the comments about England. That organization, LMHR, is now bashing Morrissey for the "subspecies" comment.

A spokesman for Love Music Hate Racism, which received a donation of £28,000 from the singer in 2008 after his apparently anti-immigration comments made in music magazine NME convulsed the media, said it would be unable to accept support from Morrissey again if he did not rescind or dispute today’s comments.

“It really is just crude racism,” said Martin Smith. “When you start using language like ’subspecies’, you are entering into dark and murky water. I don’t think we would, or could, ask him to come back after that.”

[From The Guardian]

And Morrissey doesn't seem to be in a mood to retract the "subspecies" comment either. The interviewer notes that "I thought at the time it was a dangerous thing to say into a tape recorder. He must have known it would make waves, he’s not daft. But he’s provocative and theatrical, and it was one of dozens of dramatic pronouncements. I’m not an apologist for that kind of remark, and couldn’t ignore it. But clearly, when it comes to animal rights and animal welfare, he’s absolutely unshakable in his beliefs. In his view, if you treat an animal badly, you are less than human. I think that was his point.”

And Morrissey offered this statement in the wake of The Guardian's interview: “If anyone has seen the horrific and unwatchable footage of the Chinese cat and dog trade – animals skinned alive – then they could not possibly argue in favour of China as a caring nation. There are no animal protection laws in China and this results in the worst animal abuse and cruelty on the planet. It is indefensible.”

Of course, Morrissey also had some other lovely things to say. On "people" he says, “They are problems.” On being a lonely prig, he says, "We’re all lonely, but I’d rather be lonely by myself than with a long list of duties and obligations. I think that’s why people kill themselves, really. Or at least that’s why they think, ‘Thank heaven for death.'" And on the subject of cats, he says, "Yes. Cats. I’ve had lots of cats. But also many bereavements.”

Just to be clear, and offer my own opinion: I think Morrissey's comments are reprehensible, and the fact that he's sticking by them is even worse. If his point was to raise awareness about the lack of animal rights in China, he failed. Morrissey and his racism are now the topic. While I understand the anger he feels as an animal rights activist, referring to one billion Chinese people as a "subspecies" is f-cking horrible, and reminiscent of ye olde racist arguments that there is a genetic/evolutionary argument to be made to defend one's racism. Now, I prefer animals to people as well, but I don't care enough to break up my dislike of people based into "subspecies" and "not that deplorable, also: white."

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Morrissey performing in Ireland and California in 2009. Credit: WENN.

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