*insert laughter here*
So, I see Angelina Jolie tops the news searches for some reason, I go to check it out and find three headlines, one claiming she is going to play Cleopatra (yawn, another Hollywood dramatization highlighting the lamest parts of an interesting story)and another with a similar headline to this post. Thinking this means that the story about her being cast is wrong, I look it up, thinking I will find out a more accurrate cast list for this supposed movie (hey, lame and inaccurrate historical films are still better than rom-coms or adaptations of childrens' entertainment). Instead I get this piece of racist, ignorant garbage:
Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie, is reportedly reading over a new role as Cleopatra in a movie that is developing about the iconic Egyptian queen. Continuing on with the legacy kicked off by Elizabeth Taylor, USA Today, reports that producer Scott Rudin has confirmed that the project is "being developed for and with Angelina Jolie". Oh boy, here we go again. Not that we're racists or anything, but, getting Angelina Jolie to play Cleopatra is like calling on George Clooney to play Ray Charles. It's not that Clooney is a bad actor, but... there's an obvious reason why that shouldn't be believable. Maybe, Scott Rudin should consider some of these actresses instead:
Meagan Good:
Gabrielle Union:
Tamala Jones:
Jill Marie Jones:
Nia Long:
(Pictures of scantily clad black women)
You see where we're going!
In case the LAST ancient historical set film touching on her family and featuring Angelina Jolie didn't make it clear to the vapid sh!t-for-brains losers who pass as journalists as an excuse to watch movies and get paid for it, the Greeks conquered Egypt, because if there was one thing Egypt had in common with the other nations & people with whom it shares their craptacular continent, it has been a massive inability to govern their own affairs or make societal or technological advances since the world moved past the bronze age. A Macedonian general and companion of Alexander the Great was the first Ptolemy to rule Egypt. He was born with that name in Macedonia, north of Greece, which is across an Ocean from Egypt, and to which there is no evidence of any migration of Egyptians. His king, Alexander the Great, had blond hair and cousins named Cleopatra. These names stayed in Ptolemy's family as it continued to rule in ancient Egypt down to the famous Cleopatra's day some 300 years later. Her father and brother were also named Ptolemy, and she was descended from the nobility of Armenia and/or Pontus as well. This sort of people did not go around sleeping with the wogs, even if native Egyptians back then did actually have significantly darker features. At the most, one of her grandmothers might have been of a different race, but she was still at least 3/4 Macedonian/Greek. And the ancient Egyptians were not negroid as all of the women in the moronic author's casting suggestions are in appearance.
As far as historical ignorance goes, this is akin to complaints that the Americans in the "John Adams" miniseries were incorrectly cast, with Paul Giamatti and David Morse playing Americans, since everyone knows that the "original Americans" are a swarthy people with distinctive features, and perhaps Eric Schweig and Wes Studi and Russell Means should have been considered for their roles.
What makes it even worse was hearing my political science professor claim Elizabeth Taylor was an example of the racist casting of this same character in my first ever college course. And he was from the same general region of Africa no less! That more or less set the tone for my college experience, btw.
It's bad enough when people carp over the distinctions between ethnicities of characters and the actors playing them when they are two variations of Mediterranean white people, or trivialities of language that are meaningless to the vast majority of English-speakers who don't speak French or whatever foreign tongue is being "butchered," or people argue about the dialects and expressions being anachronistic. Nitpicking over artistic license to make a movie more accessible to its target audience is annoying on its own. Nitpicking on the basis of historical inaccurracy that is NOT inaccurrate is simply stupid, considering all the things they are certain to get wrong for no reason.
Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie, is reportedly reading over a new role as Cleopatra in a movie that is developing about the iconic Egyptian queen. Continuing on with the legacy kicked off by Elizabeth Taylor, USA Today, reports that producer Scott Rudin has confirmed that the project is "being developed for and with Angelina Jolie". Oh boy, here we go again. Not that we're racists or anything, but, getting Angelina Jolie to play Cleopatra is like calling on George Clooney to play Ray Charles. It's not that Clooney is a bad actor, but... there's an obvious reason why that shouldn't be believable. Maybe, Scott Rudin should consider some of these actresses instead:
Meagan Good:
Gabrielle Union:
Tamala Jones:
Jill Marie Jones:
Nia Long:
(Pictures of scantily clad black women)
You see where we're going!
In case the LAST ancient historical set film touching on her family and featuring Angelina Jolie didn't make it clear to the vapid sh!t-for-brains losers who pass as journalists as an excuse to watch movies and get paid for it, the Greeks conquered Egypt, because if there was one thing Egypt had in common with the other nations & people with whom it shares their craptacular continent, it has been a massive inability to govern their own affairs or make societal or technological advances since the world moved past the bronze age. A Macedonian general and companion of Alexander the Great was the first Ptolemy to rule Egypt. He was born with that name in Macedonia, north of Greece, which is across an Ocean from Egypt, and to which there is no evidence of any migration of Egyptians. His king, Alexander the Great, had blond hair and cousins named Cleopatra. These names stayed in Ptolemy's family as it continued to rule in ancient Egypt down to the famous Cleopatra's day some 300 years later. Her father and brother were also named Ptolemy, and she was descended from the nobility of Armenia and/or Pontus as well. This sort of people did not go around sleeping with the wogs, even if native Egyptians back then did actually have significantly darker features. At the most, one of her grandmothers might have been of a different race, but she was still at least 3/4 Macedonian/Greek. And the ancient Egyptians were not negroid as all of the women in the moronic author's casting suggestions are in appearance.
As far as historical ignorance goes, this is akin to complaints that the Americans in the "John Adams" miniseries were incorrectly cast, with Paul Giamatti and David Morse playing Americans, since everyone knows that the "original Americans" are a swarthy people with distinctive features, and perhaps Eric Schweig and Wes Studi and Russell Means should have been considered for their roles.
What makes it even worse was hearing my political science professor claim Elizabeth Taylor was an example of the racist casting of this same character in my first ever college course. And he was from the same general region of Africa no less! That more or less set the tone for my college experience, btw.
It's bad enough when people carp over the distinctions between ethnicities of characters and the actors playing them when they are two variations of Mediterranean white people, or trivialities of language that are meaningless to the vast majority of English-speakers who don't speak French or whatever foreign tongue is being "butchered," or people argue about the dialects and expressions being anachronistic. Nitpicking over artistic license to make a movie more accessible to its target audience is annoying on its own. Nitpicking on the basis of historical inaccurracy that is NOT inaccurrate is simply stupid, considering all the things they are certain to get wrong for no reason.
Aisha - formerly known as randschicka
*Incoherent sputters of historian rage* Angelina Jolie Incorrectly Cast In New Cleopatra Role
11/06/2010 02:35:15 AM
- 838 Views
I nominate Tyra Banks.
11/06/2010 06:29:44 AM
- 440 Views
I love Angelina jolie
11/06/2010 06:36:48 AM
- 511 Views
Did you read his post? There's no reason for an Africanish person to play the part. *NM*
11/06/2010 06:58:42 AM
- 171 Views
They should get Lyndsey Marshal back, she was awesome. And looked the part.
11/06/2010 12:45:48 PM
- 459 Views
Angelina is HOT, Cleopatra was NOT
16/06/2010 10:42:42 PM
- 403 Views
I'm having a hard time telling if you agree with me about Marshal or not... *NM*
16/06/2010 11:29:02 PM
- 164 Views
Wait...is the racist part the idiocy of trying to say Cleopatra was black or the "wog" calling part?
15/06/2010 01:38:42 AM
- 447 Views
it's not even a proper use of the term wog.
15/06/2010 10:16:25 AM
- 411 Views
No, actually it is.
15/06/2010 05:06:54 PM
- 499 Views
mk so, looking at that neither use is "wrong".
16/06/2010 08:53:05 AM
- 404 Views
Hence, your statement "it's not even a proper use of the term wog" is incorrect. *NM*
16/06/2010 01:34:45 PM
- 149 Views
And no one in the rest of the world cares about Australian slang. They're just weird down there. *NM*
16/06/2010 01:35:11 PM
- 161 Views
Wouldn't the closest modern ethnicity to the ancient egyptians be the Coptics? *NM*
16/06/2010 10:44:39 PM
- 152 Views
I wasn't calling anyone a wog, I was suggesting a likely parallel to the Ptolemies' attitude
17/06/2010 09:58:23 PM
- 477 Views
I completely agree that the "black Cleopatra" syndrome is born of insecurities.
18/06/2010 02:11:15 AM
- 413 Views
Yah...i don't see why people ever think Cleopatra should be black.
15/06/2010 10:18:12 AM
- 423 Views