My hat is off to Scarlett Johansson. In today’s UK Guardian, the Tony winning actress deftly takes questions about Woody Allen and about Soda Stream. She doesn’t give an inch. And she doesn’t give into goading by the reporter, who clearly has an agenda about Israel.
Of Woody Allen and Scarlett being named in Dylan Farrow’s “open letter” a few weeks ago:
“I think it’s irresponsible to take a bunch of actors that will have a Google alert on and to suddenly throw their name into a situation that none of us could possibly knowingly comment on. That just feels irresponsible to me.”
The reporter then asks about a backlast against Woody Allen, as if there is one. (There is none, in reality.) “I’m unaware that there’s been a backlash. I think he’ll continue to know what he knows about the situation, and I’m sure the other people involved have their own experience with it. It’s not like this is somebody that’s been prosecuted and found guilty of something, and you can then go, ‘I don’t support this lifestyle or whatever.’ I mean, it’s all guesswork.”
So, has it had an impact on her relationship or affection for him? “I don’t know anything about it. It would be ridiculous for me to make any kind of assumption one way or the other. “
on the SodaStream controversy, in which the reporter keeps badgering Johansson about the manufacture of the popular fizz machine at a factory in the West Bank and the decision of Scarlett to leave Oxfam after they criticized her for promoting it. The reporter, obviously pushing an anti-Israel agenda, writes in the piece
Half of me admires Johansson for sticking to her guns – her mother is Jewish and she obviously has strong opinions about Israel and its policies. Half of me thinks she’s hopelessly naive. Or, most likely, poorly advised.
The reporter has to add, as an insinuation: Her mother is Jewish and she obviously has strong opinions about Israel and its policies. The idiot reporter, showing her anti-Semitism, didn’t even ask Scarlett about Israel as far as I can tell, or if she has strong opinions about its policies. This is the Guardian? Very disappointing.
Johannson is not poorly advised at all, or hopelessly naive. Take it to the Op Ed page, lady. Scarlett gives the right answer:
“I stand behind that decision. I was aware of that particular factory before I signed it.” Really? wonders the reporter. “Yes, and… it still doesn’t seem like a problem. Until someone has a solution to the closing of that factory to leaving all those people destitute, that doesn’t seem like the solution to the problem.”
Scarlett adds:
“I’m coming into this as someone who sees that factory as a model for some sort of movement forward in a seemingly impossible situation.”
Go Woody, Go Soda Stream, Go Scarlett!
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