Morgan defends Osbourne
Piers Morgan has gone to bat for pal Sharon Osbourne, bemoaning the “heavy price” the now-former talk show host is paying for defending his takedown of Meghan Markle in her Oprah Winfrey interview.
“What’s happened to @Mrssosbourne is an absolute disgrace that shames CBS,” he tweeted Saturday. “Bullied out of her job for defending me against an invented slur of racism because I don’t believe a liar.”
On Sunday, he went on a rant in the Daily Mail, where he’s an editor at large.
First, doubling down on his contention that Markle made up much of what she had recounted to Winfrey on March 7, he used that to deride the Duchess as “one of many whiny, privileged, hypocritical celebrities who now cynically exploit victimhood to suppress free speech, value their own version of the truth above the actual truth, and seek to cancel anyone that deviates from their woke world view or who dares to challenge the veracity of their inflammatory statements.”
As for Osbourne, who defended him against charges of racism in a controversial exchange with “The Talk” co-host Sheryl Underwood, he said that he and his friend were being targeted by “cancel culture.”
Both he and Osbourne are out at their respective talk shows for their various comments and condemnation of Markle’s recounting of her lived experience.
Osbourne has also had to hire private security since her charged exchange with Underwood. And on Sunday, Morgan said his three sons were all being targeted with abuse as well.
Morgan revealed in the column that he had been told, after storming off set, to either apologize or leave. He chose to leave.
Both television personalities on each side of the Pond still stand accused of racism, which they continue to vehemently deny, as Eonline reported.
— New York Daily News
“Underpants” spinoff pulled from shelves
Author Dav Pilkey, best known for his children’s book series “Captain Underpants,” and Scholastic publishing have pulled his 2010 graphic novel “The Adventures of Ook and Gluk: Kung-fu Cavemen from the Future” off the shelves over what they dubbed “passive racism.”
The book, a spinoff of the “Captain Underpants” series, follows two caveboys named Ook and Gluk who learn kung fu from a martial arts instructor, Master Wong.
“‘The Adventures of Ook and Gluk: Kung-fu Cavemen from the Future’ was intended to showcase diversity, equality, and nonviolent conflict resolution,” Pilkey said in a statement on Youtube.
“But this week it was brought to my attention that this book also contains harmful racial stereotypes and passively racist imagery. I wanted to take this opportunity to publicly apologize for this. It was and is wrong and harmful to my Asian readers, friends, and family, and to all Asian people.”
Pilkey said he and Scholastic are pulling all copies of the book from their website, stopping fulfillment of new orders and working with retail stores and schools to take the book off the shelves.
“Together, we recognize that this book perpetuates passive racism,” Scholastic said in a statement. “We are deeply sorry for this serious mistake.”
Pilkey also announced that he would be donating the advance and royalties from the sales of ‘The Adventures of Ook and Gluk’ to charities, including We Need Diverse Books, the AAPI and Theaterworks USA.
“Throughout our 100 year history, we have learned that trust must be won every day by total vigilance,” Scholastic said. “It is our duty and privilege to publish books with powerful and positive representations of our diverse society, and we will continue to strengthen our review processes as we seek to support all young readers.” — New York Daily News
Tiktok star’s Fallon bit panned on Twitter
Many of Tiktok’s viral dance challenges were started by Black creators, but you wouldn’t know that by watching Friday’s episode of “The Tonight Show,” which saw one of the app’s biggest stars, Addison Rae, perform several dances without crediting their choreographers.
What was intended as a fun moment between Rae and host Jimmy Fallon — who are both white — backfired over the weekend as Twitter users demanded recognition for the people whose choreography was featured on the show.
“Stealing from black entertainers and having white ‘creators’ regurgitate it to the masses is american history 101,” one person tweeted after Fallon shared a clip of Rae dancing to eight songs.
“I think Black creators should just stop creating content for like a good 6 months and just observe what these people come up with,” wrote another in a tweet that had amassed more than 261,000 likes.
Representatives for “The Tonight Show” and Rae did not immediately respond to the L.A. Times’ requests for comment.