A national writer for the Associated Press, Jocelyn Noveck, described the Tony Awards as an event “where tolerance and inclusion were constant themes.” So this is what Robert De Niro was doing—exercising his “tolerance”—when he screamed “F*** Trump”?
At least De Niro didn’t threaten violence against the president, which he did previously (“I’d like to punch Donald Trump in the face,” he said during the last presidential campaign). More recently, he vigorously defended Michelle Wolf’s obscene-laden address at the White House Correspondents Dinner. This is how Mr. Tolerance acts.
Another beacon of tolerance who spoke at the Tony Awards was Tony Kushner. He implored the audience to “heal our country.”
Kushner’s idea of healing is to bash Catholics and Jews. He not only cheered when Terrence McNally gave us “Corpus Christi,” the play where Christ is depicted as having sex with the twelve apostles, he lashed out at the Catholic League for exercising its First Amendment right to free speech by protesting the play.
After Matthew Shepard was murdered in Wyoming, Kushner blamed the pope for the homosexual’s death: “Pope John Paul II endorses murder,” the healer said. He has also been relentless in bashing the democratic state of Israel.
When Andrew Garfield won the best actor award, he took the occasion to reference the Supreme Court decision which affirmed religious liberty in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case. He sided against the decision calling on everyone to say “no to bigotry, no to shame, no to exclusion.”
It’s too bad Garfield didn’t direct his comments at the gay bullies who took aim at the baker, Jack Phillips. “We declined to create one custom cake to celebrate a wedding ceremony that would directly violate my faith’s teachings…and it resulted in five years of court battle, 40 percent of my business, losing half my staff and even death threats,” Phillips said.
Tolerance. Inclusion. Civility. The New York-Hollywood axis may shout those virtues from the rooftop, but in practice they violate them with regularity. There are no bigger phonies on earth.
