{"id":4605,"date":"2019-01-07T02:31:55","date_gmt":"2019-01-07T10:31:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/?p=4605"},"modified":"2019-01-07T02:31:55","modified_gmt":"2019-01-07T10:31:55","slug":"heart-of-hart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/blog\/2019\/01\/07\/heart-of-hart\/","title":{"rendered":"Heart of Hart"},"content":{"rendered":"

If the Golden Globes <\/em>taught us anything, it\u2019s that not just anyone can host.  The Oscars <\/em><\/strong>may be more than a month away, but they are still host-less.  So, Ellen DeGeneres <\/strong>decided to flex her considerable power to strong-arm Kevin Hart <\/strong>back into the job \u2013 and strong-arm the viewing audience into accepting him.  Apparently, Ellen and Kevin are good friends, and she thinks his past homophobic rants should not preclude him from the job.  In what was presented as a spontaneous interview on her show, Ellen asked Hart about the controversy and why he stepped down.  He then rambled on and on about\u2026well, really, about nothing.  She then allegedly surprised him by saying that she spoke up on his behalf to The Academy<\/em>.  I don\u2019t know who she spoke to at The Academy <\/em>\u2013 it may very well have been a receptionist, or even a temp.  \u201cWe want him to host, whatever we can do, we would be thrilled, and he should host,\u201d said whomever answers the phone at The Academy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This pissed off many people \u2013 specifically gay people.  Who was Ellen to speak on behalf of the gay community?  Maybe she is friends with Kevin and forgives him, but not everyone agrees.  Don Lemon <\/strong>\u2013 whose opinion is germane if for no other reason than he is a black, gay man \u2013 said he doesn\u2019t think Hart should be allowed to host.  Lemon said Hart\u2019s past \u201cjokes\u201d actually do represent the views of many black fathers of gay children.  \u201cThat is a joke to Kevin.  But the truth is, that is a reality for many little boys in the United States.  Somewhere, a black dad is beating his black son.\u201d  Lemon added, \u201cApologizing and moving on does not make the world a better place for people who are gay or people who are transgender.  Being an ally does.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let me say I don\u2019t have a dog in this fight.  I really don\u2019t have any strong feelings about Kevin Hart \u2013 although I stand by my earlier statement that if you aren\u2019t tall enough to get on Space<\/em> Mountain<\/em>, you can\u2019t host the Oscars<\/em>.  Beyond that, I have no idea in the heart of Hart if he is homophobic or not.  What I do know is that comics will say anything for a laugh \u2013 and I suspect Kevin Hart\u2019s core audience would laugh at homophobic comments.  So, while I don\u2019t know if he\u2019s homophobic, I do know he thought the comments were funny.  Likewise, I think his non-apology apology seems to be what he thinks people want to hear.  To get the gig, he has to appear contrite, so that\u2019s what he\u2019s doing \u2013 with a fair amount of indignation that we\u2019d even think he was really homophobic.<\/p>\n

The real question is, can people evolve?  I suppose they do.  Politicians do.  People like Obama <\/strong>and Clinton <\/strong>changed their stance on gay marriage as their view \u201cevolved\u201d (although, like comics, I think politicians play to their audience).  Ultimately, I believe in the free market.  If The Academy <\/em>wants Kevin Hart to host and he wants to host, he should host.  And if people don\u2019t like him, believe he is homophobic, or don\u2019t buy his apology, they should not watch the Oscars<\/em>.  Kevin solved the problem for us \u2013 he (again) took himself out of the running to host\u2026for now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If the Golden Globes taught us anything, it\u2019s that not just anyone can host.  The Oscars may be more than a month away, but they are still host-less.  So, Ellen DeGeneres decided to flex her considerable power to strong-arm Kevin Hart back into the job \u2013 and strong-arm the viewing audience into accepting him.  Apparently, Ellen and Kevin are good friends, and she<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4605"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4606,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4605\/revisions\/4606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}