Celebs Do Dramatic Reading Of Mueller Report, In Vain Attempt To Get You To Read It

The Bobs: Robert De Niro, Robert Mueller, and Rob Reiner Image by Getty/Forward Montage

By Jenny Singer June 20, 2019

Like a tired parent airplane-ing a spoonful of mashed peas into a reticent toddler’s mouth, a group of bleeding-heart celebrities is determined to spoon-feed the contents of the Mueller Report to the American public.

Led by Rob Reiner, a troupe of reasonably famous faces collaborated with “Now This,” the group that makes those highly produced social media mini-videos, to summarize the findings of special counsel Robert Mueller’s two-year investigation.

Mueller, the aquiline, mute presence who dominated headlines for two years, in April dropped a report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. At over 400 pages, it’s roughly the length of “Gone With The Wind,” but in legalese.

“It is important that the office’s written work speak for itself,” Mueller said in a statement in late May, breaking his long silence. But most people are just not inclined to read half a dictionary worth of justice findings, regardless of their implications for American democracy.

Enter: Actors Robert De Niro, George Takei, and Martin Sheen (whom you may know as President Bartlet,) writer Stephen King, “Queer Eye” star Jonathan Van Ness, and more. Against stark white walls, they intone choice quotes and turn pages into summaries, which they then editorialize. “That’s collusion,” many entertainers add, elucidating events described in the report.

This approach may well help non-politicos understand the dense special counsel findings, though it will do little to dispel the right-wing perception that liberal Hollywood elites strive to influence America from rarified coastal bubbles.

Judge for yourself:

Exclusive: De Niro, @robreiner, @SophiaBush, @StephenKing, @jvn, and more are cutting through the Trump administration’s lies about the Mueller report pic.twitter.com/VpJhIGBbv0

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) June 20, 2019

Jenny Singer is the deputy life/features editor for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny

Jenny Singer is a freelance writer with pieces in Vox, the Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, Teen Vogue, and more. She was previously a staff writer at Glamour and the Forward, and she’s currently getting an MFA in nonfiction writing at the University of Iowa.

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