Celine Dion Demonstrates Why Live TV is Dangerous For Celebrities
Just in from Daily Kos, a partial transcript of Celine Dion on Larry King Live (excerpted)
You know some people are stealing and they’re making a big deal out of it. Oh, they’re stealing 20 pair of jeans or they’re stealing television sets. Who cares! They’re not going to go too far with it! Maybe those people are so poor, some of the people who do that, they’re so poor, they’ve never touched anything in their lives. Let them touch those things for once (pointing angrily)!
Perhaps Larry should have told her that many of the looters were armed and were sniping at rescuers hampering the relief efforts. Would she say…
Maybe those armed gangs are so poor that they’ve never shot a fireman! Let them shoot a fireman for once (making a gun out of her index finger and firing it)!
It should be noted that Celine donated $1 million dollars to the relief effort and bless her for that but let’s leave the social commentary to people with a clue.
Larry King also had this to say:
What has been your response, Celine, to this? I especially ask this because you’re French Canadian, from Montreal, and New Orleans is a mostly French city.
French city? I’ve been watching the news and not sure I’ve seen one French person. Does this mean that France is going to be kicking in more heavily to help out their “people?” Somehow I doubt the people of Toronto or Detroit are going to be less moved than those of Montreal because they aren’t “French Canadians.” Sheesh!
Update: According to the US Census Bureau there are as many Germans and people of German heritage as there are French and/or French ancestory. (Each with about 5%). So much for Larry King’s “New Orleans is a French City” comment.
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September 4th, 2005 at 12:05 am
What is this? You’re a scumbag, racist, worthelss peice of shit! Go choke on your own “independent” idiocy.. bless your own ass! Check “many” and “sniping”, this is pure speculation and opinion, frankly.
September 4th, 2005 at 7:44 am
You know, ff, you make a point. However, how do you come to the conclusion that the author is a scumbag, racist, worthelss peice of ****? I am really curious. What you have done by ranting on a 3rd grade level is only assure that your message will be deleted. That’s all. It will have never have been. Bottom line, there is no message to delete. Now, you obviously differ with the author’s point, but you make no effort whatsoever to tell anyone why. I am curious myself why you feel that way. Are you implying that the media misrepresented for all the world the facts of snipers shooting at firemen and their families? Are you implying that several relief agencies refused to go in immediately because it was unsafe? I mean, that’s what ALL media has reported for a week. Do you know something they don’t? I really would like to know.
September 4th, 2005 at 9:17 am
FF: “Many armed looters” is a point not in dispute, except maybe by you. It is also not in dispute that even a few snipers can disrupt a large operation (such as the relief organization). Think of the DC sniper or what is happening in Iraq. I’d like to respond to your other points but you really didn’t make any. We do not believe that the well-reported relief problems are all the result of the actions of armed looters but it is clear that they did have a disruptive effect on the such efforts. Finally, despite our poking fun at Celine’s inane commentary we did not that it was live TV (thereby unscripted) and that she donated $1 million which is the most important point of all. I’d be happy to be subjected to the clouded commentary of anyone else who is willing to make that kind of donation including you.
September 5th, 2005 at 6:52 am
Insider, I’m not sure you know this, but not all French-speaking people are white. Those that are not white are now known as Creoles, and mostly live in New Orleans. So, when you say you ‘haven’t seen any French people on the news,’ you must be assuming that they would be white. Well, most of them are not. So please, stop confusing ethnicity (or race) with nationality. And remember, culture is a mixture of both. And, by the way, you should also note that Cajuns are the descendants of French-speakers that moved to Louisiana from Nova Scotia, Canada. Hmmm, seems Celine has a lot more in common with Louisianans than most Americans do. I guess Larry King made a valid question.
September 5th, 2005 at 7:44 am
Insider, I looked at your link for the US Census in New Orleans. In that ancestry section that you’re looking at to make your assumptions about New Orleans cultural composition, didn’t you find a little funny that over 60% considered themselves ‘other.’ Specially when 2% consider themselves ‘United States of American,’ less than those who considered themselves English (over 3%) and Irish (over 4%), and when there is only one category of African ancestry to pick from (Sub-Saharan, over 1%). In all likelihood that over 60% are the blacks in New Orleans that don’t fit into any of the available categories, and many of which are Creole.
In any case, if you don’t look at those who’s ancestry is ‘other,’ and just look at the largest group you’ll find that most consider themselves French, even if German is a close second. That is, of course, until you add together those who consider themselves French-Canadian with those who consider themselves French.
September 5th, 2005 at 7:52 am
Mac, I stand corrected on the “seen” quip which is in retrospect misleading–thanks for catching it. However if you drop that aspect of the posting everything else stands. My source was the US Census Bureau’s DP-2 Profile of Social Characteristics “Ancestry Breakdown” for New Orleans and I was quite careful to not mix up the two.
In that report 94% reported an ancestry other than US but only 5.6% said French and .7% (yes point seven) said French Canada. I appreciate the common held belief of Frechn Creoles and Cajuns all through New Orleans but the data just doesn’t back it up. It appears that Celine has a “connection” to well under 1% of the folks in New Orleans.
My main point wasn’t that Larry’s demographic facts were wrong, but that his thinking was wrong. The fact that in watching the pictures of the people in need and hearing the stories one would be more moved because of a tenuous cultural connection than one would be without it is, in my opinion, asinine. These are people like you, me, Celine, Larry, etc. and we don’t need to need to create any further connections to make this any more real, painful or relevant to our lives, or of more deserving of our donations. Larry isn’t the only person who does this as it is standard fare for mainstream media disaster coverage.
September 5th, 2005 at 7:54 am
John Grisham
Best-selling writer John Grisham and his wife usually keep their charitable donations very private. But they’ve decided to disclose their $5 million contribution to establish a relief fund to help Mississippians rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. In the…
September 5th, 2005 at 7:59 am
And, one more thing. This whole thing about snipers and them disrupting the whole relief operations is true, and that’s pretty sucky, but wait, don’t we have people trained to take out snipers? Please tell me we do, ‘coz if we don’t we’ll never win the war in Iraq. Funny, though, how not once has it been reported that the snipers have actually killed, or hurt anyone, or even left a hole on one of the vehicles used to bring relief or transport the refugees. I mean, if our guys can’t even take out people that are really bad shots then our problems are even bigger than we ever thought.
September 5th, 2005 at 8:08 am
Mac, I think we were working on our comments at the same time–interesting things for both of us to be doing on Labor Day(!). Anyway, yes the French Ancestry is the “largest” but it’s under 6%, in other words doesn’t back up Larry’s “New Orleans is a mostly French City”.
That said, as you can see in my post I’m bothered by use of ancestry or anything else to make these events any more real to us. When the data is wrong it’s even more of an annoyance.
The other point, about the interjection of poltical rhetoric while people are still on rooftops is reinforced, and in fact said better, in Moonage’s posting (here: http://moonagewebdream.blogs.com/moonage_political_webream/2005/09/john_grisham.html) or follow the link in the above comment.
September 8th, 2005 at 7:09 pm
haven’t you forgotten the meaning of freedom of speech… she just speak what on her mind and follow what her heart say…
September 8th, 2005 at 9:10 pm
Free speech means she has the right to say silly comments and I never suggested otherwise. However, I find her comments regarding the looters to be inane and unsupportable. You are right she spoke from her heart and not her brain. Presumbably if she hadn’t been on live TV and had a chance to thik about it, she would have said something a little different.
January 12th, 2006 at 11:30 pm
[…] t result of a well-documented dislike of French people by the Bush Administration. As stated by Larry King live on CNN, “New Orleans is a French City.” Since neither Presi […]
November 4th, 2006 at 5:22 pm
[…] before quoting him as a disaster relief expert next time and focus on real experts such as Celine Dion. Note: MTVE has pulled the video from YouTube. Share this post!These icons li […]