So you have to help me out here because I'm confused (at least more so than usual this time).
So as you will recall, I reported here a few months ago that both Holly Robinson-Peete and Leah Remini were dumped from CBS's afternoon The View rip-off, The Talk, after the producers of the show decided not to renew their contacts.
That news got MASSIVE amounts of comments here from readers who were not only upset about the news that Robinson-Peete was being dumped from the show, but that her replacement was the generally loud and abrasive comedian Sheryl Underwood, who people felt was a poor choice to replace the far classier Robinson-Peete.
However, this week, Remini broke her silence about the whole matter and tweeted that it was co-host Sharon Osbourne who had them fired. According to her: "Sharon thought me and Holly were "Ghetto". We were not funny, awkward and didn't know ourselves. She had us fired."
HUH?
Now exactly in what context does Remini mean that she and Robinson-Peete were "ghetto"? First of all, I have to say that judging from the times I've seen her, you could argue that Underwood is about as "ghetto" as they come. So what is Remini talking about? And I'm willing to bet that Remini herself has never stepped even one toe in a ghetto anywhere, anytime in her entire life.
I have to assume that for Remini, using the pejorative "ghetto" means perhaps being outspoken, saying what you think. So being quiet and tenative is being "white"? And I've noticed this trend lately of white celebrities using the word "ghetto" to mean someone who's tough and who does what they want to do. Like, for example, Gwyenth Paltrow, who recently called Paul McCartney's fashion desinger daughter Stella "ghetto" saying that "She doesn't back down from someone who might have less to lose than her."
Ooooooooooh watch out! Stella and Gwyneth are straight up, hard core ghetto from Beverly Hills and Kensington.
But all this comes back to what we deal with here all the time on S & A – black images in the media and who decides what those images are and what they should even be called.
And who knows why Robinson-Peete was dumped from the show? Perhaps there was no chemistry on the show, perhaps there were major problems among the women off camera.
Or Osbourne throwing her weight around; Robinson-Peete with less clout, since she's not married to the head of CBS programming like Julie Chen.
But being too "Ghetto"? Not hardly.