Scripture is replete with warnings against false idols. For believers and non-believers alike, idol worship never leads to positive results. Why actors fill the idol role has always baffled me. I grew up in SoCal; one of my best friends was/is a well-known actor. At the height of his fame, we couldn’t go anywhere without everyone staring at us. Well, him.
A little boy came up to me and nervously asked if he could speak to my actor friend. I asked him why he was asking me.
“You’re his bodyguard – right?”
He wasn’t an idol to be worshipped or treated as “special” simply because people recognized him as an actor.
A TV producer got me a job as a cue-card holder (yes, that was the thing) for a game show. It was intended as a “stepping stone” into the industry. I was shown how to do the job and how to anticipate moving to the next card. At one point, the actor read my card and flubbed a line. He cursed loudly, telling everyone on the set that I was to blame. I looked at my card and said:
“No, you blew the line.”
The set went silent. I was told that you cannot correct the actors even when they are wrong. I was told to leave the lot. I was unable to properly idol-worship.
Decades later, my sons attended a private school that catered to the wealthy and famous. The famous being mostly actors, and sometimes famous athletes. Actor parents were treated with a deference that I found approaching idol worship. At one event, I sat down at an open table, and I was told by another parent that that table was reserved for students. Oh, no problem, and "Sorry" was my response. I got up.
Soon, two famous parents walked in, both wearing their matching golf attire (golf gloves dangling from rear pockets). They sat down at the same table I had been shooed from moments before. The idol-worshiping parent said nothing to them. She just smiled. My wife touched my arm and told me not to make a scene. The toady parent was too afraid to speak to her false idols.
Blake Lively grew up with a talent agent mom. Her actor father took his wife’s last name – apparently because it opened more doors. And it seems Blake Lively assumed the myth early on that she was not only special because she acted, but was worthy of worship as an idol because she acted.
From multiple accounts, Blake Lively is an insufferable jerk. A bully, consumed with an over-inflated sense of importance. That may be a byproduct of people who cater to her and grovel when bullied, but in the end, she’s an actor who reads lines written for her. When the Justin Baldoni dispute erupted, I had no opinion. After reading more, I realized that Lively was a typical Hollywood actor — an insufferable jerk — an actor who believes her fame entitles her special status. A false idol.
Today I read Megyn Kelly’s recount of how Lively, her attorney, and her enabling jerk of a husband, Ryan Reynolds, attempted to bully dozens of people through third-party subpoenas — demanding private communications. In legal parlance, it was a “fishing expedition,” and the net came up empty. Lively's team of toadies made an obvious error. Lively and her lapdogs tried to bully the wrong person. Kelly will not suffer fools, and she fought back. And, Kelly has a massive public forum. Lively’s lawyers got nothing – and they deserved nothing. I invite you to read Kelly’s entire takedown, but here is a sample:
It is ironic, of course, that in an effort to disprove that she is an unlikeable bully brat who didn’t deserve any of the negative press she received, Blake Lively acts like an unlikeable bully brat who cannot believe any of that negative press could be genuine.
Blake Lively is a narcissistic, liar, bully, brat. And now we know she harassed Justin Baldoni too. She threatened him that her “dragons” Ryan Reynolds and Taylor Swift were there to be her enforcers, a claim that appears to have cost her her relationship with Taylor who now reportedly wants nothing to do with her.
No one is deserving of worship. Not politicians, and particularly not actors. Actors believe in their own myth. I do hope that Lively loses in court, and I dream of the moment when Hollywood actors are wholly ignored in public. That would be the worst cut for false idols like Blake Lively. To be ignored. Treated like a commoner is the hardest blow for false idols.
Last year, the actor Kevin Bacon was upset. He put on a disguise and walked among the commoners. No one bothered to ask for his attention. He was upset. “It sucked,” he said; being a nobody sucked. No one touched his cape – no one worshipped him. Imagine the hubris. I don’t have to imagine it – because I’ve seen it, first hand.
Idols are false. Always.
Editor’s Note: Do you enjoy RedState’s conservative reporting that takes on the radical left and woke media? Support our work so that we can continue to bring you the truth.
Join RedState VIP and use the promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your VIP membership!
Join the conversation as a VIP Member