Hugh Laurie Has Fans Confused. What Is Going on With the ‘House’ Star on Social Media?
Hugh Laurie has seen some things in his day. The man was a misanthropic genius who could diagnose rare diseases from a mile away for ten years. He then navigated the moral labyrinth of a high-end hotel arms deal in The Night Manager. And let’s not forget about playing a nuclear inspector on Apple TV’s spy thriller Tehran.
None of these roles, however, could quite prepare him for the most treacherous pitfall of the 21st century, which turns out to be posting an uninformed thing on the internet. And now, what started as a heartfelt tribute to a colleague has metastasized into a PR disaster. Primarily given said colleague’s personal beliefs.
A eulogy to a colleague is what started it all
Dana Eden, the Israeli producer and co-creator of Tehran, which is an Apply TV+ spy drama about a Mossad agent who infiltrates the Iranian capital to destroy the country’s nuclear program, was recently found dead in her Athens hotel room while overseeing production of the show’s fourth season. Her death has been treated as an apparent suicide, though investigations are still ongoing.
Laurie, who joined the show in its third season in the role of a South African nuclear inspector, shared a tribute following the news: “Dana Eden, who co-created and produced Tehran, died on Sunday, seemingly by her own hand. It’s a terrible thing. She was brilliant, and funny, and an exceptional leader. Love and condolences to all who knew her.”
When he posted of her passing, man equated her beliefs to him in that moment leaning to many asking if the House star was a Zionist.
The pile-on begins, and within hours, Laurie was a Zionist
Laurie’s tribute was swarmed by users accusing him of being a “closet Zionist” and calling Eden, who was a fixture of Israeli cinema, a “Zionist propagandist.” Some even went so far as to suggest that her job was to create propaganda for Israel so that it can “kill kids more effectively,” referring to the Gaza massacre that has killed or injured more than 50,000 children according to UNICEF.
Laurie responded to the idea that he is a Zionist on X. “Nothing I have ever said or done could lead a sane person to believe that I am a Zionist,” he wrote. “However. If someone exults in the death of a friend of mine, yes I will block them. If you wouldn’t do the same in my position, you can f**k off too.”
The response did not go over well on social media.
People are still not happy with Hugh Laurie
Pro-Israel commentators, who had presumably been ready to welcome Laurie into the fold, were incensed that he’d gone out of his way to clarify that he is not, in fact, a Zionist.
Someone wrote, “Oh great, now we have Dr. House vagueposting on main” while another added: “There is no shame in accepting that Jews have the right to a state in our ancestral homeland. Don’t be such a coward.” Another person accused took it further, interpreting Laurie’s message as saying he doesn’t believe in Israel’s right to its sovereignty.
A rabbi even said that Laurie’s comment was a “great affront” to Dana Eden. Laurie was one reply away from a complete dissolution of his sanity, and he wrote: “God almighty, why does no one understand English anymore? I have not spoken or written a word that would indicate pro or anti Zionism. That’s what those words mean. Blimey.”
(featured image: Fox)
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