Former CEO of the Disney empire Michael Eisner shared his thoughts about how hard it is to find a “beautiful, funny woman.” In a conversation with Goldie Hawn at the Aspen Ideas Festival, he was trying to explain (mansplain?) his view on how her career was so successful.
To be more specific, he said:
From my position, the hardest artist to find is a beautiful, funny woman. By far. They usually—boy am I going to get in trouble, I know this goes online—but usually, unbelievably beautiful women, you being an exception, are not funny.
You were right, Eisner. This does go online.
Hawn, possibly trying to defuse the potential explosiveness of the comment, said that she felt she was only funny because she considered herself “an ugly duckling” when she was young. She felt her comedic talents came as a result of dealing with that. But Eisner doubled down on his comments (boy, he sure realized he was going to get in trouble) and said:
I know women who have been told they’re beautiful, they win Miss Arkansas, they don’t ever have to get attention other than with their looks. So they don’t tell a joke. In the history of the motion-picture business, the number of beautiful, really beautiful women — a Lucille Ball — that are funny, is impossible to find.
Sure, it’s pretty obvious where he was trying to go with his comment. It’s a shame he completely blew it by saying what he did, though. To suggest that being funny and beautiful are somehow mutually exclusive is ridiculous. He speaks about the “history of the motion-picture business,” perhaps it’s time he started looking into the present and future of the motion-picture business.
Lucille Ball was a great example of a funny, beautiful woman. Not arguing that. But one has to wonder just what Eisner’s criteria for funny and beautiful are. There’s plenty of “beautiful, really beautiful” women out there who are funny: Kristen Wiig, Mindy Kaling, Rashida Jones, Anna Kendrick, Cecily Strong, Leslie Jones, Danielle Brooks… the list goes on. Where the futz is he looking that makes him feel it’s so impossible to find a woman who’s both funny and beautiful?
Ew, never mind. We don’t want to know where he’s been.
(via The Hollywood Reporter, image via Twitter/@michael_eisner)
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