The “Clueless” star and animal rights activist, Alicia Silverstone, was the guest directly following the Rosie/Elisabeth dust-up, and it looked like she snubbed Hasselbeck, or did she just make a mistake? When approaching from the token non-liberal’s side of the stage, Silverstone stepped up onto the platform with the couch to greet the hosts and instead of greeting the pregnant Republican in the brightly colored dress, the PETA activist walked right by Hasselbeck’s outstretched hands. The Republican host actually touched the actress’ arms to welcome her, but Silverstone moved past Hasselbeck and clearly greeted Behar, who was standing directly beside Hasselbeck. She then hugged all of the hosts except Hasselbeck (YouTube video here).
Now, maybe Silverstone just didn’t see Hasselbeck, but she noticed Joy Behar who was less than two feet away from the source of the “Republican crap.” During the interview, she did nominally answer Hasselbeck’s questions, but the actress tended to look at the pregnant Republican for a short interval, and then finished the question by looking elsewhere, usually at Rosie, who she frequently touched affectionately. So, was it a snub? The first 15 seconds sure look it, but Silverstone was minimally polite to Hasselbeck during the actual interview. Much of the Internet billed it as a snub.
Also, during the interview, Rosie told the vegan (consumes zero animal products—no dairy, fish, meat, not even by-products like enzymes) Silverstone that her ten-year-old daughter stopped eating meat three years earlier. None of the hosts questioned the safety of a vegan diet on children (emphasis mine throughout):
O’DONNELL: Do you know my daughter is turning ten, and she decided like three years ago -- she’s like, “I don’t want any meat.” And I was like, “really what are you going to eat?”
SILVERSTONE: (sympathetic and admiring) Awww, “W hat are you going to eat?” Call me.
O’DONNELL: She eats vegetables. She eats everything else—like rice and soy, she just loves animals too…
SILVERSTONE: (breaking in) And it’s so much healthier.
O’DONNELL: (continuing)…she just loves animals too, she just can’t do it.
Recent Recent government studies have shown that children and pregnant women actually are harmed by a vegan diet (from the BBC):
Professor [Lindsay] Allen [from the US Agricultural Service] said: There have been sufficient studies clearly showing that when women avoid all animal foods, their babies are born small, they grow very slowly and they are developmentally retarded, possibly permanently."
"If you're talking about feeding young children, pregnant women and lactating women, I would go as far as to say it is unethical to withhold these foods [animal source foods] during that period of life."
She was especially critical of parents who imposed a vegan lifestyle on their children, denying them milk, cheese, butter and meat.
"There's absolutely no question that it's unethical for parents to bring up their children as strict vegans," she told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
I guess the idea of basic civility and politeness doesn’t apply to a B-list actress who thinks that restricting growing children to a malnourishing vegan diet is “healthier” and the movie “Excess Baggage” was a good idea.
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