Can there be a course to teach folks in the limelight how to think before they speak? Of course, I’m lumping all celebs and entertainment figures together unfairly; there are many out there who do think before they speak. But there also seem to be quite a few who don’t. We can now count Giuliana Rancic among them.
I never would have pegged Rancic as a the type to let her gums flap this much—I had spoken to her when she was a co-host for Miss America or something, and she seemed to have her act together; knowing what beats to hit in interviews, what to say and what not to say, etc. She seemed very much in the mold of all the entertainment news hosts—say what’s important for the job, be personable, and leave your own real opinions out of it, because you know good and well that a lot of the entertainment news hosts could care less about the Kardashians or what dress some starlet is wearing.
Even on Fashion Police, when Joan Rivers was the head, Rancic never really said anything out of the way. She was able to give her opinion about a dress without being overtly mean about it. Well, mean without being offensive. But, during E!’s Oscars Fashion Police special, Rancic lost herself and talked horribly about Zendaya’s faux locs, saying she looked like she smelled of “patchouli oil…or weed.”
Without saying, it was a horrible thing to say. First, just on the shallow end of the spectrum, what about Zendaya’s locs make her look like she smokes weed? The fact that she doesn’t have straight or what could be perceived as “traditionally-styled” hair? Second, locs don’t mean you smoke weed. Locs mean you have locs. Rancic is trying to make some slight on the Rastafarian lifestyle by her comments, but just a quick Wikipedia search will show that dreadlocks have a much longer world history than just the Rastafarian styles that have now come to signify “dreads” in the west. You can also wear dreads for various cultural, religious/spiritual reasons.
What’s probably the weirdest part of the whole thing is that Rancic chose to say this on a night when other people wearing dreads or textured styles, like Selma director Ava DuVernay, Lupita Nyong’o and Nyong’o’s brother, were also walking the red carpet.
Zendaya put out a very eloquent statement on Twitter about how she’s coped with this comment Rancic has since tried to apologize for. Zendaya wrote:
And, for the record, here’s Rancic’s apology:
Ava DuVernay also reached out to Zendaya via Twitter, writing this wonderful gem:
Kerry Washington, Chloë Grace Moretz and Niecy Nash have also come out in support of Zendaya. Kelly Osbourne has since taken to Twitter to clarify that she didn’t make the “weed” comment, since it was said when the cameras had cut from the Fashion Police cast to Zendaya’s picture. Osbourne is also threatening to leave the show because of Rancic’s statements. She also states that Zendaya’s her friend and would never say anything bad about her.
And there you have it. What do you think about all of this? What do you think’s going to happen next with Rancic’s career? Give your opinions in the comments section below.
EDIT: Apparently Giuliana has been called out on off-color comments before. By Aziz Ansari.
EDIT 2: Giuliana Rancic has apologized on camera:
Rancic’s apology is something that is better than what a lot of figures put out, and it really seems like she’s learned her lesson.
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