PREACH IT! A rare hiccup from Jennifer Aniston's purring PR machine
During a visit to "Live With Regis and Kelly" on Thursday morning, Aniston let slip a word that’s best not used in mixed company.
"You're playing dress-up!" Regis told her. She replied, "Yes, I play dress-up! I do it for a living, like a retard!"
Epic fail, as the kids like to say.
Advocates for the mentally challenged leapt into action, natch.
"Frankly, someone in her position ought to know better," Peter Berns, chief exec of the Arc (a nonprofit advocate for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities), told Us Weekly. "She is using language that is offensive to a large segment of the population in this country.”
At this hour, Aniston has yet to offer an apology, but you can bet it’ll be over our transoms by this time tomorrow.
Angelina Jolie may be the official queen of media manipulation -- that is, if the New York Times still holds any sway over such things. But if anyone really knows how to handle her image in the press, it’s Aniston.
— Leslie Gornstein
Photo: Jennifer Aniston arrives at the premiere of "The Switch" on Monday in Hollywood. Credit: Jason Merritt / Getty Images.
Related dispatches from the Ministry of Gossip:
Jennifer Aniston, Juliette Lewis keep it family friendly at 'The Switch' premiere after-party
Barbra Streisand 'very flattered' by Jennifer Aniston's Harper's Bazaar photo shoot
There's more where this came from -- visit the Ministry's Preach It! and Jennifer Aniston archives.
How is this news? Who cares what either one of these legends in their own minds think!
Posted by: no name | Aug 19, 2010 at 04:05 PM
I care that a public figure who has made a huge amount of money from her manufactured image has no better sense or sensibility than to make such a thoughtless and cruel remark on national television . I've read that Ms. Ansiton is accompanied by her acting coach on all her movie sets. Perhaps this grown woman is in need of a hand holder whenever she speaks in public as well.
Words matter. If we have learned nothing in our many battles for others to be treated with respect and dignity it is that Words Matter.
Posted by: Elizabeth | Aug 19, 2010 at 05:01 PM
"Jennifer Aniston is insulted, just insulted, at Bill O’Reilly’s misogynistic take on her new mommyhood movie."
If Aniston or MOG had bothered to watch, you would have seen that O'Reilly actually defended Aniston during the Culture Warriors segment, arguing that the tape of Aniston speaking about "not needing a man" was her speaking about the character she plays, and not about herself. O'Reilly was telling the women on the Culture Warriors segment that it wasn't fair to criticize Aniston based on her movie's character. But why let the facts get in the way of your rant?
Posted by: Lisa | Aug 19, 2010 at 05:12 PM
The word "retard" has come back into usage with a tinge of self-mockery: meant to demean not the group but the speaker. Perhaps Aniston meant it that way. It was an obvious slip. If she'd said it 11 times, that would be another story.
Posted by: Susan | Aug 19, 2010 at 05:32 PM
It was an offensive comment obviously there are worse things that someone could say but it is hurtful to use the word, and a 41 year old woman who is famous for being an American Sweetheart should know better than to use that kind of language on a morning TV show
Posted by: scooter | Aug 19, 2010 at 06:11 PM
This woman has a "sensitivity chip missing." I wonder what she drinks before she went goes on an interview? She's getting sloppy with her words lately.
Posted by: Starr | Aug 19, 2010 at 06:13 PM
Nah...Jolie is still the master manipulator. Witness the birth of her children. She went into deepest darkest Africa ostensibly in pursuit of privacy...triggering a media in frenzied pursuit and a bidding war for those prized first pictures. The twins were born in Nice, in a hospital in the middle of urban civilization. What happened to the concerns for privacy? She had no problem attaining it, did she? I think she just got tired playing the same game. The media and public take the bait so easily...she probably got bored.
Posted by: Jen | Aug 19, 2010 at 06:14 PM
Yes, it was obviously a slip, but you don't make that an excuse. What she said was WRONG! It was hurtful.
Posted by: meme | Aug 19, 2010 at 07:59 PM
Wow, she slipped with a word that our over sensitive culture has deemed inappropriate. So what? It simply means she's human like thee rest of us.
Posted by: Deepwater805 | Nov 22, 2010 at 12:41 AM
O come on. How many of us have not used the "r" word inappropraitely? It is offensive but all too common. Just like other words and phrases...like "that's so gay" and just habitual like any curseword. She didn't mean anything derogative by it. And if anyone actually knows a retarded person, they know that they are loving and forgiving and don't hold grudges.
let jen be. She's ok
Posted by: lisak1369 | Mar 06, 2011 at 06:46 AM