It was bad enough when actress Mila Kunis was blindsided on TV earlier this year by a marine she didn’t even know asking her to be his date for the annual Marine Corps Ball.
Because it was clear even to her in that awkward moment that to reject him would be to appear is some perverse way unpatriotic. Not to mention the PR backlash that would surely have followed, which would have adversely impacted not just the movie she was promoting, but her entire career. So she accepted.
Then Justin Timberlake was blindsided in similar fashion by a female marine, and he too accepted … for the same reasons.
But this ploy of soldiers blindsiding celebrities with requests to go out on dates strikes me as a little too contrived and self-indulgent by all involved. Not least because it sets an untenable and unsustainable precedent for soldiers to think that their military service entitles them to dates with famous people.
I’m all for welcoming the troops home, thanking them for their service and providing every assistance possible to help them get assimilated back into civilian life. It makes a mockery of this welcome, thanks and assimilation, however, for them to think that getting a date with their celebrity crush is a part of the deal.
Nothing demonstrates the impudence and folly inherent in this ploy quite like a marine blindsiding no less a person than First Lady Michelle Obama today by asking her to be his date for next year’s Ball. Even though she had the good sense to demur a little by saying he had to check with her husband, she too affected interest by adding that she’d love to be his date. Which of course is bullshit!
What she should have said, with unbridled indignation, is:
Don’t you know that I’m married young man?!
Then she should have politely told him to ask someone more suitable to be his date. Unfortunately, even more than any celebrity, Michelle probably felt in that awkward moment that to put that little bugger in his place would risk Republicans spinning it as just further evidence of how little respect her husband has for the men and women who serve this country in uniform….
But the best thing that can happen for soldiers and famous people alike in this context is for a famous person (in his or her prime) to publicly decry this form of blackmail patriotism before it becomes a trend. Alas, so far, the only celebrity who had the balls to say no is 89-year-old Betty White, who clearly felt she had nothing to lose at this point in her career.
* This commentary was originally published yesterday, Friday, at 8:11 pm