Bret Easton Ellis: Barbra Streisand And Lena Dunham Need To Stop ‘Blaming’ Trump
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Bret Easton Ellis had some choice words for Lena Dunham and Barbra Streisand during his latest podcast.
The “American Psycho” author criticized the two celebrities for their continued outspoken stance against President Trump, and their discussions of the emotional toll his presidency has taken on them.
“You can dislike the fact that Trump was elected, yes, definitely, and yet still understand and accept ultimately that he was elected this time around,” Ellis said. “Or you can have a complete mental and emotional collapse and let the Trump presidency define you, which I think is absurd. If you are still losing your s— about Trump, I think you should probably go to a shrink and not let the bad man that was elected define your self-victimization and your life. You are letting him win.”
Ellis went on to slam Dunham and Streisand for their assertions that Trump has had a direct effect on their respective weight loss and weight gain.
“Barbra Streisand says she’s gaining weight because of Trump. Lena Dunham says she’s losing weight because of Trump. Really? You’re blaming the president for your own problems and neuroses?” he said.
The author then criticized the “moral superiority of the left,” and picked apart Meryl Streep’s anti-Trump speech at the Golden Globes.
“Instead of talking about all the filmmakers she had worked with and who had passed away in the last two years, Michael Cimino, Mike Nichols, Nora Ephron, or especially what it was like playing Carrie Fisher in ‘Postcards From the Edge,’ since Fisher had died just two weeks earlier, Streep used this moment to go on an anti-Trump rant for 10 minutes on national TV,” Ellis said.
Ellis, who didn’t vote in the election because his home state of California always goes blue, pointed out that he is not a fan of the president either — and acknowledged it wasn’t an accident that Patrick Bateman, the sociopathic protagonist of “American Psycho,” admired Trump.
“A long time ago in a country far, far away I had made Trump Patrick Bateman’s hero in ‘American Psycho,’” he said. “I had researched the odious business practices, the lying, Roy Cohn as his mentor, the hideous racism. Followed his trajectory. I had done my homework. You do not need to remind me. I know it all.”
Thea Glassman is an Associate Editor at the Forward. Reach her at glassman@forward.com
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