Blunt Talk

Yes, "Fox News" often does things so egregious that it makes your head explode, Those are usually about important matters, so the whole head-explosion thing is understandable.  But sometimes they do something so insane because it's over something so totally idiotic that the pointlessness of it is just inexplicably numbing.

Enter Emily Blunt.

Ms. Blunt recently became an American citizen.  That alone should tell you her affection for the country, not that such a thing is critical in the grand scheme of things here, but it's true and obvious and is the foundation of what started this whole story.  That, by choice, Emily Blunt went out of her way to go through the long process to become an American citizen.  But "Fox News" seems incapable of grasping that point.  Or grasping anything said that's even remotely critical about conservatives.  Or grasping the concept of humor.

In a recent interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Emily Blunt off-handedly quipped that after watching the last Republican debate she thought that becoming a citizen might have been "a terrible mistake."

This, it turns out, infuriated the hosts Fox & Friends.  Never mind, of course, that at the heart of the quote is the point that she says she became a citizen and never mind too that the point of the quote is that she actually watched the debate!  (Fun Fact: which was on...Fox.)

One of the Fox & Friends co-hosts, Anna Kooiman, was not only upset at this joke but so upset at it that she suggested that Emily Blunt "leave Hollywood" and then added, "Let some American women take on the roles that you're getting, because Americans are watching your movies and lining your pockets." 

A moment here to point that Emily Blunt is, in fact, now an "American woman."  Which again, is blatantly clear because it's the only way for her joke to make sense.  Though "making sense" doesn't appear to be a high priority here on "Fox News."

Properly primed at this point, that then brought about another co-host Brian Kilmeade pointing out in his annoyance that when Ms. Blunt was recently on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, she talked about when becoming a citizen she had to renounce the Queen, something that disappointed her, but she said she was told she didn't have to really mean it -- to which the riled Mr. Kilmeade thought was just "just so perfect" from someone clearly taking digs at America.

Before we go any further, though, let's take a look at that appearance of Emily Blunt on Kimmel's show.  She's charming, adorable and funny, telling funny stories about her husband, fellow-actor John Krasnski being at the ceremony with Matthew McConaughey whose wife was also becoming a citizen.

Okay, so that's the appearance that Brian Kilmeade was so bothered about and referencing in chastising Emily Blunt for supposedly un-American comments.  After having just become an American citizen, just to be really clear...

And then as if two pissed-off hosts wasn't enough to help fill up their airtime, the third Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy had to pile on.  Though he would have been better served if he had followed the advice of the father of the Republican Party, when Abraham Lincoln said, "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than speak and remove all doubt."

Doocy chimed in -- "You know what Emily Blunt just did? She just Dixie Chicked herself. She has alienated half the country, that now will think twice about going to one of her movies." 

Well, you know what Emily Blunt just didn't do?  Anything remotely close to what Steve Doocy is trying to talk about.

For starters, it was reprehensible what conservatives did do to the Dixie Chicks, which Steve Doocy is seemingly endorsing.  So many on the far right today seem to love to revel in political un-correctedness which they defend by asking in faux-outrage about what's happened to free speech?  Where was that attitude though when the Dixie Chicks said something conservatives didn't like.  It's one thing to not want to buy an album from someone you don't like for what they said.  It's another for radio stations to literally blackball them -- for daring to say something critical.  

Further, being critical wasn't the point of the "outrage" against the Dixie Chicks.  What the Dixie Chicks came under the most heat for was daring to say something negative about the Bush Administration while on foreign soil.  (I'm sure that their critics would have been just fine if the Dixie Chicks had said nice things about George Bush when on foreign soil.  So much, again, for that whole "freedom of speech" thing.)

But again, the point is that the "outrage" of conservatives (unjustified or not) was that the Dixie Chicks were on foreign soil.  Emily Blunt was in Los Angeles talking to the Hollywood Reporter.  I certainly hope that Steve Doocy isn't suggesting that an American citizen can't say something critical about anything concerning America at any time, but especially when they're actually in America.  Because if he doesn't believe that, he not only is being seriously un-American, but he himself could be "Dixie Chicked" for what he's been saying critically about the president of the United States for the past seven years.

Beyond that, though, I think I'm on pretty safe ground saying that Emily Blunt did not just "alienate half the country."  And I say this knowing that that very "half" themselves pretty much hates most of the GOP candidates, too, giving two-thirds of the GOP candidates less than 3% support each.

And I feel even safer saying that half the country is also not going to "think twice" about going to a movie that Emily Blunt is in because of her quip.  And I say that because this video below is who Emily Blunt is.  And most people know that, even if Steve Doocy and all the hosts of Fox & Friends don't.