When it comes to becoming the next Mel Gibson, Halle Berry may have missed it by a nose.
The Oscar-winning actress has issued a public mea culpa for a quip made on The Tonight Show Friday, in which she joked that a photograph making her nose look unusually large could pass for a picture of "my Jewish cousin."
While making the requisite small talk with host Jay Leno, Berry pulled out pictures she had taken of herself on her computer through Apple's Photo Booth software.
"The machine morphs your face to look like all these silly other people," she said. "Whenever I'm feeling really bad about the world I do this to crack myself up."
In introducing the first picture from the batch, in which her nose was vastly distorted, Berry said, "This one, I don't know, this is like my Jewish cousin."
The full remark never made it on air, however. The audience's silence at the attempted joke was covered with a laugh track and the word Jewish was muted out.
Leno's reaction, though, was not.
"I'm glad you said it and not me," he said.
Berry, however, appeared to realize her gaffe immediately.
"Oh, my God, have I just, like, ruined my whole career?" she asked, before going through the rest of her photo presentation.
The pregnant 41-year-old said Tuesday that the comment was not intended to be anti-Semitic and that she requested Leno have it removed from the show.
"I so didn't mean to offend anybody—and after the show I realized it could be seen as offensive, so I asked Jay to take it out, and he did," she said.
Berry also said one of her assistants, who happens to be Jewish, actually made the joke just before the actress went on.
"What happened was I was backstage before the show, and I have three girls who are Jewish who work for me. We were going through pictures to see which ones looked silly, and one of my Jewish friends said, 'That could be your Jewish cousin!' And I guess it was fresh in my mind, and it just came out of my mouth. But I didn't mean to offend anybody. I didn't mean any harm.
"It was just supposed to be a silly segment. I am so sorry, and I apologize."
Mr Bagel: A Lot of people are trying to play this down, but one of the things about stereotypes is they are 'loaded' and the use of them conveys more than just a sense of 'fun'.
I also think her comments after the gaffe were just as telling and loaded.
after her 'gaffe' she stated;
"Oh, my G_d, have I just, like, ruined my whole career?"
Now call me paranoid, but I don't just think this was just a innocent reference to the 'Mel Gibson affair' I also think it was a calculated loaded comment about the Jewish presence in the entertainment industry.
You might think why is what Halle Berry said racist?Well I wonder what the reaction would be if some one was to make a Halle Berry morphed photo like say:
- extra long gorilla like arms and said 'Here’s where I look like my African cousin'?
- or if Halle Berry had morphed her eyes to squint and said 'Here’s where I look like my Asian cousin'?
- Or possibly pasted a tea towel on her head and said 'Here’s where I look like my arabic cousin'.
- Or possibly dropped a background photo of a trailer park and said 'Here’s where I look like my white second cousin'
I think you might get an idea just how inappropriate her joke on a high ranking National TV show was.
The use of the above examples were to show the use of negatively loaded stereotypes.
Mr Bagel in no way condones the use of such racist language.I have tried to be offensive equally to as many groups as possible, if you feel I have discriminated against you by including your racial group or not including your racial group I apologise. I apologise to any one who feels in any way slighted and I assure you that I will not use a cop out tag line like the words of Halley Berry who said "It was just supposed to be a silly segment".
Or Putting it more succinctly, 'I was making fun of people in a racist way at their expense.'
See Halle even you could say that.
There's a lot of good posts and discussion on the blogosphere check out:
Michelle Malkin: Jay Leno whitewashes Halle Berry
Debbie Schlussel: Halle Berry & Her "Jewish Cousin's" Nose: Where Are All The Ann Coulter Critics?
Hotair: Video: Halle Berry’s censored anti-semitic joke
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