Huckabee Attacks Natalie Portman For Glamorizing "Out Of Wedlock Births"
March 03, 2011 5:41 pm ET by Eric Hananoki
In a radio appearance on Monday, Mike Huckabee attacked actress Natalie Portman for having a child "out of wedlock." Huckabee said that it's "troubling" to see people like "Natalie Portman or some other Hollywood starlet who boasts of, 'Hey look, you know, we're having children, we're not married, but we're having these children, and they're doing just fine.'" Huckabee added that "it's unfortunate that we glorify and glamorize the idea of out of children wedlock."
Huckabee's remarks came in response to radio host Michael Medved, who discussed Portman's Academy Awards speech last Sunday. During her speech, Portman thanked fiancé Benjamin Millepied, "who choreographed the film, and has now given me my most important role of my life." Medved said that Millepied "didn't give her the most wonderful gift, which would be a wedding ring! And it just seems to me that sending that kind of message is problematic."
From the February 28 edition of Salem Radio's The Michael Medved Show:
MEDVED: Governor, I know you probably are out on book tour right now, you probably didn't have a chance to watch the Academy Awards last night?
HUCKABEE: I'm very happy to say that I missed it because usually it's about the most boring waste of several hours that I've ever experienced.
MEDVED: Well this was a - this was a low audience. However, there was - there was one moment where a very brilliant and admirable actress named Natalie Portman won Best Actress, and she won for a movie which I loathed called Black Swan. But in any event, she got up, she was very visibly pregnant, and it's really it's a problem because she's about seven months pregnant, it's her first pregnancy, and she and the baby's father aren't married, and before two billion people, Natalie Portman says, 'Oh I want to thank my love and he's given me the most wonderful gift.' He didn't give her the most wonderful gift, which would be a wedding ring! And it just seems to me that sending that kind of message is problematic.
HUCKABEE: You know Michael, one of the things that's troubling is that people see a Natalie Portman or some other Hollywood starlet who boasts of, 'Hey look, you know, we're having children, we're not married, but we're having these children, and they're doing just fine.' But there aren't really a lot of single moms out there who are making millions of dollars every year for being in a movie. And I think it gives a distorted image that yes, not everybody hires nannies, and caretakers, and nurses. Most single moms are very poor, uneducated, can't get a job, and if it weren't for government assistance, their kids would be starving to death and never have health care. And that's the story that we're not seeing, and it's unfortunate that we glorify and glamorize the idea of out of children wedlock.
You know, right now, 75 percent of black kids in this country are born out of wedlock. 61 percent of Hispanic kids -- across the board, 41 percent of all live births in America are out of wedlock births. And the cost of that is simply staggering.
MEDVED: It's tremendously staggering.
Huckabee is a host for the Fox News Channel, and a potential presidential candidate. Portman's Black Swan is distributed by News Corp.'s Fox Searchlight.
In the early 1990s, then-Vice President Dan Quayle "ignited a firestorm of controversy when he criticized Murphy Brown, the powerful, intelligent character in an eponymous sitcom, for having a child out of wedlock -- and without any father in the picture whatsoever."
He's been listening to Frank Luntz.
Perhaps Huckabee is already running for a VP slot on somebody's 2012 ticket by demonstrating he can fluently speak crazy to the GOP's Glenn Beck wing.
You do realize that sentence is completely nonsensical. "Reasonable... christian"? Makes no sense, has no meaning. Completely nonsensical. Faith is the total rejection of reason, it is the willful suspension of disbelief. It is insanity.
This is not really true. Faith is the acceptance that there are things we do not know and perhaps cannot know and the belief those things are a certain way. The Dalai Lama was once asked what he would do if they proved scientifically that re-incarnation did not happen. He said we would stop teaching it immediatly. See it is not a rejection of rationality however it is the ability to believe some things we dont know follow a path we BELIEVE is true and best. Prove to me I am wrong and I will be greatful until then your opinion is no better than mine
Many, especially conservatives, believe people are basically evil. I refuse to accept this. I have FAITH the people are basically good not because evidence shows this but because I cannot accept a world where this is not true, because it would make life so tawdry and ugly were it is not true. If PROOF was given that in general people ARE evil I would have to accept it but FAITH is saying until you cough that proof up I will continue to believe people are basically good
Please click here if you believe that for one second.
With so many marriages ending in divorce, it seems that marriage isn't working for half the population. Who the f_ck are you to be preaching to Natalie Portman?
And glad to point it out in other people.
Wow, that was tiring--I need an energy drink...
Proof positive!
May the Flying Spaghetti Monster forgive me.
Maybe you should practice humility, but you seem to think you have the right to attack other followers of Christ because they don't share your politics.
So, directly quoting scripture, in context, is skewed?
Please explain your position. I am honestly curious.
What is it with people marrying animals? Why is that the last sign of the Apocalypse? Didn't O'Reilly say something about people marrying ducks? Ducks?! I just don't get this.
sorry that was pretty fowl
Don't you have anything better to do?
Looks like you're desperate to defend fools.
It may sound like he just saying 'I don't care', but he didn't just say that, did he? Why bring people marrying animals into it at all? This is what I do not understand.
Anytime someone like you, or your friend, tries that moral superiority game, all it does is make you look small.
Rev. Huckabee, you can now raise the flag of Phony Christianity in front of your home.
P.S. Cuckabee, to do whast you as doing for money is sad. And you, sir, are a sad man.
I know it's not what s/he meant but they didn't reply very coherently.
But what fun would that be, right? Much more entertaining to say, "You're a conservative, and those beliefs are evil. If beliefs are evil, the people that have them are evil, too. You know who else was evil? Hitler. Why are you like Hitler, Center Right?"
OK, granted, that IS more entertaining, but it does not make it right.
They hang them, slit their throats and stone them to death.
Where in this are the answers to worriekings questions?
So I assume you're equally critical of Bristol Palin?
Oh and casting that kind of moral judgement on someone is very un-Christian and I say that as a Catholic.
Further, lying politicians should not be glamorized by being given hours of air time to continue to spread their lies. Huckabee is the LAST person right now who should be commenting on anybody's morals.
It was disgusting.
So, disgusting IS as disgusting does, right?
And just for the record, if anyone believes that had one of Obama's daughters gotten pregnant out of wedlock in 2008 (assuming they were older) the Fox set wouldn't have responded with racist howls of "welfare queen" (while falling over themselves to excuse Bristol and Levi) said person desperately needs to reconnect with reality.
Otherwise, Natalie Portman never glamorized out of wedlock births. Yet if Huckabee is indeed so adamant about the questionable morality of such things, I'm sure Miss Portman would only be too happy to get an abortion to set Huckabee's mind at ease.
>>>>The night that Sarah Palin trotted her pregnant, unmarried teenaged daughter across the stage was the day I lost any and all respect I could have ever had for that woman.
Sarah Palin has become highly skilled at using her kids as living props to exploit her audience.
And screaming like a stuck pig about "my children are being attacked!" whenever anyone calls her on her blatant pandering...
The GOP can't have it both ways-- to glorify Bristol's situation and how well "she" is dealing with single parent role and knock others that make a "choice" to have a baby but not marry the father of the child.
They also should not be allowed to preach pro-life and then remove state/federal government programs that are the safety net for the woman that do not have abortions!
Bristol Palin is a high school drop out attempting to cash in on her mother's celebrity. She can dance but wasn't good enough to win.
Natalie Portman is a 29 year old Academy Award winning actress. She's been acting since the age of thirteen. She still found time to finish her education. While in high school she acted and still had time to write a paper which was one of the finalists in the Intel Science Talent Search. She completed her education earning a psychology degree from Harvard. She can dance and her dancing and acting performance won the most prestigious acting award on the planet.
No, wait, I'm confused... You're trying to trick me... It has to be the other way around. Palin must be the self made successful academy award winning actress and Portman the deadbeat single mom living off of the charity of others. Right?
Portman is a dirty parasitic liberal, she depends on the government. She can't do anything for herself shes a dirty taxpayer robbing single mother. Palin is a nice wholesome conservative, she... Oh man, I'm so confused... Getting dizzy... so confused... Somebody please call FOX NEWS to help me figure this out. It has to be some kind of conspiracy.
Its almost too hard for me to be a conservative. Poor me.
A birth is a happy occasion. And, who are YOU to judge anyway??
Out of wedlock births should not be glamorized.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You had better inform the Palin family and all of the tea baggers that idolize them.
Ms.Portman was in a loving relationship, wealthy and settled in her career BEFORE she had a child.
Brisket Palin is making money simply BECAUSE she is an unwed mother, of a failed politician, fighting with and constantly belittling the child's fathers in the media to garner even MORE attention for $$$$$$.
Portman is a beloved celebrity and Brisket is an unintelligent, talentless media whore like her mother.
well, we can argue whether they should be or not, but the fact is that they are NOT being glamorized. At least not in this case. We have a fundamental problem with the English language when this is referred to "glamorizing " out of wedlock birth.
Though I suppose it's not as bad as the fundamental problem of boneheads not realizing that if half the marriages in America end in divorce, it might not be the magical institution a deep thinker like Medved says it is.
Just ask Newt Gingrich.
The Obama-worshippers on here must love that Obama's decision to stop defending the federal Defense of Marriage Act. That way, the records that show that married couples and their children are happier and healthier will be abolished, and their "anything goes" lifestyle will have some, albeit false, credibility.
It's sad how disgusting the left is.
Children are all to be greeted with love and acceptance. No matter how they came.
Please prove to me how shame is more healthy for a child than love.
You're a little confused, I think.
What is disgusting is your ability to attempt to shame two people who are in love and their child.
So much for "love thy neighbor," eh? Your Christianity is as shallow as your intellect, you judgmental halfwit.
This is about a man who lied on a radio program and then, when caught, has continued to lie REPEATEDLY claiming to have some sort of moral compass which allows him to sit in judgment of another person.
Further, your comments about out of wedlock pregnancies being shamed and your apparent misguided concept of political ideologies lead me to ask, did you SHAME Bristol Palin and her mother for glamorizing Bristol's out of wedlock pregnancy? If you did, why?
Oh, and your complete lack of knowledge about the Justice Department's LEGAL decision not to defend ONE SECTION of DOMA is astounding. The DOJ will continue to enforce it, but it will no longer defend, in court, the ONE SECTION which has been determined by legal scholars and more than one court to be un-Constitutional.
You might also want to pick up a Bible. You claimed that word for word scripture posted above was skewed. It was not.
Additionally, if gay folks can marry in every state, those numbers would go up. If, indeed, "the records" exist at all. I don't believe they do.
And this comes the day, or two days after Huckaducks attack on Gays. Yeah, he's a conservative alright, hates big government, regulation and does not want the nanny state taking care of us.
There are many things that we as Americans have to be very ashamed of, past, present and future, but this is not one of them.
Hey Huck, stop trying to cram big government nanny statism down the throats of the conservatives while you call yourself a conserva... Oh, wait, I forgot, conservatives support a big government nanny state as long as it is done their way, the bible way. Keep your filthy bible out of my bedroom, leave it in the bathroom where I can use the pages as toilet paper. Your faith is a sad, sick joke, and worse yet it is a joke you want turned into law. You want abortion banned, you want homosexuality banned, and, if you can find a legal angle, you will try to legislate out of wedlock births and single parenting. You are already cutting funding for aid to single mothers.
RIGHT ON, BLACKMAKO!!! I couldn't have said it better myself.
This almost makes up for your radical hatred of America. Almost.
"For all respect, you cannot lust
In an invisible man you place your trust"
-Slayer, "Jesus Saves", 1986
Yeah, how dare you! After all, god knows better.
Whether the baby or the wedding comes first, she won't really be a "single mom."
The War on Terror is dead! Long live the Culture War!
I beleve we have a population that is slightly to the left. But "Senate and President"? The President is to the left of Dick Chaney, but not by that much.
I've been really disappointed. When the President first entered the race, the Republicans came out and said he was the most liberal member of the Senate.
It was just one more lie from the Republicans.
Huckabee is right, don't you have any moral compass!!!!! No one is perfect and mistakes happen but why glamorize them?
For Huckabee who has spent the better part of the week trying to lie his way out of stupid remarks he's made, I don't think I'd be talking about "moral compasses." If you are a Christian, you know that ALL sins are equal in the sight of God, save and except for blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Huckabee's sin of lying is just as grievous in the eyes of God as Portman's pregnancy.
Allow me to put it in Crayola for you. Nobody is glamorizing anything - it is Huckabee who is looking for a target to distract us from his recent "Oops, I guess I'm a sellout" faux paux. It is a simple as that.
On another note, where is the flaming rhetoric towards Bristol Palin? If anything, you should be on her ass (not literally, someone beat you to it) about having a child out of wedlock despite her Strong Family Values™
As far as our moral compass, it is pointed in the correct direction for the very reason you stated - "people make mistakes". A Good Christan Boy™ like Huckabee should know better and practice a little forgiveness like that one dude...whats his name...oh - Jesus - did. But it isn't our Commie Godless Liberal™ style to hold peoples mistakes against them (we do hold them accountable, but we don't hang it over their heads).
Easy enough? I even used some of your keywords there to keep your conservative brain going.
You know, someone who has a "moral compass"!!
I guess Huckabee forgot that if Portman had lost, a woman playing a lesbian mother would've won it.
The point is, why is Huckabee trying to make Portman out to be a sinner extraordinaire when he's been running around lying like a dog for the past week about the lies he told on a radio program? He's just as much a sinner in the eyes of God as she.
It's her choice, not mine. I don't choose to have one for myself, but I can't make anyone else's choice. Try reading before condemning.
You know, someone who has a "moral compass"!!
I wasn't a member of this site at the time.
Been there, Done that.
"Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions."
--- T. Jefferson
Actually, I think the war thing is worse.
You know, right up until the point that Mike had to make an issue out of it, I had no idea that Natalie Portman was pregnant.
I guess they need to work harder on the glamorizing part because they weren't getting the message out very well.
People should be encouraged to shed the yoke of outdated and illogical rules regarding so-called sexual morality. It's one thing to say it's unwise for a person of limited means to get pregnant. It's another thing to label that situation as immoral.
On a personal note, my live-in (shacking up for the bagger set) girlfriend became pregnant. Her family is pretty fundie, though more like liberal fundies than your traditional conservative fundies. Before I met them, I didn't realize how someone could be a fundie and relatively liberal at the same time. It is possible.
My girlfriend herself has a masters degree in theology and at one time was on the road to becoming a Lutheran pastor. She lost her faith somewhere along the way, before I came into the picture (honest, it wasn't my fault). I couldn't believe when we had dinner with her sister not long after people became aware that "we" were pregnant. Her sister was randomly crying throughout the night. I was perplexed. It turned out that her sister was upset that her nephew was going to be "a bastard". I couldn't believe it. How could someone of high intelligence really see things so narrowly.
Fast forward three years and my son is a whip-smart toddler. My girlfriend and I are now engaged. We probably would have gotten engaged previously but we're both stubborn and didn't want it simply because others were pressuring us. My son is the light of his grandparents and aunt's life. They love him and he loves them. To look at my son and think that there's something wrong with him, simply because some civil ceremony wasn't preformed before he arrived, is ridiculous. Since then, to her credit, my girlfriend's sister has apologized for her previous attitude.
In short, a wanted and loved child is a lucky child. It doesn't matter under what circumstances that the child came into the world. For all those that create arbitrary litmus tests to determine who is moral and who is not, you need to grow up and start taking a long hard look at your "values" and really look at their root.
They want everyone to live by their religious beliefs, but really, it isn't about religion, morality or setting the wrong example per se, it's about FEAR. Fear that if they don't force everyone to live by the word of their God, they will be in the minority.
Being the minority (read: being in a position of less power) is overwhelmingly scary for them. Unfortunately, they will never admit this and only hide behind their supposed moral superiority. They look inward at how they themselves treat minorities and are able to see how they might be treated should it some day be them. AND IT SCARES THEM
As for your moral compass, I suggest you have it looked at because it looks to be broken.
I think the media needs to dig into the lives of his children. Especially the dog torturer and animal killer. I hope Mike does run for the presidency and I also hope that attention is focused on his son. Maybe Michael Vick will agree to give Huck an interview on his Fox show and they can discuss animal cruelty.
Apparently, Mike Huckabee has accepted the idiocy that "any publicity is good publicity."
The air around Huck is heavy with the scent of Frank Luntz.
How is that not twisted to everyone??
If you were to be miniaturized and injected into the gray goo inside Beck's hat holder, the answer would be obvious.
Word of warning: the chemically-addled brain is not a pretty sight.
Most single moms are very poor, uneducated, can't get a job, and if it weren't for government assistance, their kids would be starving to death and never have health care. And that's the story that we're not seeing,.....across the board, 41 percent of all live births in America are out of wedlock births. And the cost of that is simply staggering.
The only solution is what Republicans are proposing.
Defund Planned Parenthood, sex education, conraception services.
Defund all social programs that offer assistance to hapless fornicators.
Defund any community organization that helps fornicators seeking assistance or employment.
Defund any child care programs that might allow unwed fornicators to hold a job.
Abolish minimum wage so that fornicating mothers cannot afford to feed and cloth their bastard children.
Defund public education so that no bastard child has any chance of lifting themselves out of the poverty cycle.
All that should put an end to all this fornication business.
And we can balance the budget with all those savings.
This is reason # 657923547517 why I will NEVER vote for anyone running for any office on the repugnant party ticket.
Thank gosh for the GOP, taking us back to the good old days.
She has the resources to raise a child, and is doing so with a man who is committed to the relationship. Sounds like an ideal situation to me.
This is just priceless.
You can pick up a wedding ring at any pawn shop.
Babies are a teensy weensy itsy bitsy bit harder to come by than that.
It would take a very stupid man to claim right out in public that a ring is better than a baby. But his beliefs, odd as they may be, are his own problem.
Huckelberry hound is whining because people are deciding to keep their children instead of aborting them, regardless of the hardship. I guess that makes old huckster a pro abortion kinda guy, eh? For cost sake he would rather see those kids aborted.
One thing is for sure about hypocrites like huckster, they all seem to love the fetus, and yet they all seem to loath the children.
In his comments, huckleberry hound proves this to be true.
Huckabee is allot like Palin, simply media whores for the $$$.
anyone care to prove that sentence wrong, with facts?
As someone who believes in marriage and is married and believes that marriage is forever, I don't agree with your assertion. What matters to a child is whether or not mom and dad live together and are in a happy, stable, monogamous relationship. The legality of marriage is meaningless to a child. This is especially true when mom and dad are married but dysfunctional. No I would argue that marriage, as it relates to children and their upbringing, is utterly meaningless. Marriage is for the married, not for their children.
Oddly enough we were just talking about those studies a few days ago.
The statistics do not support the conclusions. But then they rarely do.
It is true the the majority of people living in poverty in the US are children. Having two incomes is a necessity for most families in the US. Having two incomes is not necessarily the same as having two parents. KWIM?
Education is the only real path out of poverty. Not just here but everywhere.
That is why Republicans are chopping support for schools, eh.
Is her status any worse than that of Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole, Newt Gingrich, Dick Armey, Phil Gramm, John Engler, Pete Wilson, George Will, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Barr, Al D'Amato, John Warner, George Allen, Henry Kissinger, Helen Chenoweth, John McCain, John Kasich, Susan Molinari, Rudy Giuliani and other Republicans who've all been divorced? Some of them several times?
Yeah, because the last thing anyone should strive for is wealth, success and adoration by millions.
So, Mike He who is whithout sin may cast the first stone. I think you should drop teh stone, because we know your flaws and your shortcomings.
The Golden Rule is an inner struggle to treat people as you want to be treated. Obviously, you should go back and read it again. You should be trying to be a better person, not being judgemental. Only G_D can judge people Mike. Did I mention I"m an atheist? LMAO
I think Huck is spending too much time at Fox and it has potentially corrupted him.
Does he have a case of Beckitis? Or O'Riley Measels? Or Hanity Pox? Maybe he has been tempted by the sirens at Fox....mmm Mike you dirty little boy...
Hint to Mr H: ALL of our ancestors were born out of wedlock if you go back far enough. You are an average ba$terd like the rest of us.
The history of conservatism is a history of slavery and racism so there is no good reason to believe that their totally unfounded criticisms of Obama have to do with anything but race. Yes, it is true that Lincoln was a Republican, but he was a liberal and if he were alive today he would either be a democrat or an unelectable republican. Remember your history kiddies, the party lines have changed.
Well, which is it... or is just shy of 1/3 of the planet now considered a small audience? What an unbelievable tool you are Medved. Seriously.
And finally,
Not up to you to decide what is most important for other people, but I am willing to bet that if it came down to choosing one of them, the majority would prize their children over some gaudy bobble.
I'm not sure that by "low" he meant small. I think it may be a judgment.
Your honor, Mr. Huckabee has proven, without a doubt,that he is dumber than a Quayle.
Portman can afford to have a child and is not living on welfare. So he has no argument.
I want to ask Huckabee a few questions: How many single mothers attend church every Sunday? How many single mothers attended your church?
Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol had a child out-of-wedlock. I'm waiting to hear what she says about this one.
Still it makes a lot of humor http://bit.ly/eMTDL5
Oh, and I just love how CenterRight and other trolls get to continue to post despite repeated lies and obvious trolling, but I still have to wait to be approved for comments.