wowOwow - The Women on the Web

03/04/2009 12:00 am

Culture

Liz Smith: Rihanna – Dump Your Abuser, Now!

Also, Rush Limbaugh -- no joke; and Elizabeth Taylor at 77 – icon in furs. Here's the daily dish with wOw's Grande Dame

“Certain women should be struck regularly, like gongs,” wrote Noël Coward in his 1930 comedy of manners, “Private Lives.”

The last time I saw “Private Lives” on Broadway, with Liz ‘n’ Dick, this line still got a big laugh. I never liked it myself, and I wonder if in any future production of this play, that line itself would be struck.

The Master’s words are timeless gems of wit. But the ticktock of political correctness could squash this one.

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Two big stories were on my mind over the weekend. 

One was the swirling rumor of “reconciliation” between beaten singer Rihanna and her alleged abuser Chris Brown.

Girl, get it together! This man has to go to jail. You have to press charges. I don’t care if you’re only 21, so in love and he apologized. No man who hits a woman “even once” should get another chance. Think of your young fans and the message this sends.

Afraid you’ll never feel this way again? Please. Go talk to Halle Berry who is partially deaf in one ear from the abuse she took from an early relationship — she is now madly in love again and a new mom. Sit down with Tina Turner, beaten for years by Ike. She got away, made the comeback of the ages and has had a great man in her life for many years.

Rihanna, you have a real responsibility here that has nothing to do with your “feelings.” Be an adult. This is not a Noël Coward play.

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The other story of note was the Rush Limbaugh jamboree at the CPAC conference. I channel surfed to Fox News, and there was Rush. Aside from anything he said, I was really turned off by his sloppy appearance. I didn’t need to see that much of Mr. Limbaugh’s neck in his open shirt. At least he wore black. On and on he went and I decided to get some fresh air on CNN. No escape! 

There was Rush on CNN. They, too, were telecasting his entire speech, which lasted longer than the Civil War. It was, well — like when the president speaks. But he’s a radio talk-show host, yes? (MSNBC was lost in its idiotic weekend morass of specials about Death Row and other criminal matters.) CNN was leaning to the right and trying to catch Fox’s ratings.

Rush Limbaugh is not a marginal figure. He has millions upon millions of listeners/acolytes. He is the head of the conservative portion of America, if not quite of the Republican Party — there is a difference. Still, no Republican dares criticize him. The craven, frightened apologies he engenders are rather funny … in a Joe McCarthy/Huey Long kind of way.

Rush Limbaugh is no joke, and there’s no use trying to pretend he is just a buffoon or that the Republican Party will never rise again. If the stock market continues to plunge, we might see Rush on the political scene in ways too awful to imagine.

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On to lighter fare. There’ll be big doin’s in Tribeca next Tuesday, March 10, when Tom Hanks presides over  a special screening of his film “The Great Buck Howard” — he wears his actor and producer hats for this one. (It is a tale of a has-been “mentalist” looking to make a comeback.)

The Cinema Society is putting this together. Attending along with Hanks will be the movie’s stars: John Malkovich, Colin Hanks (Tom’s son) and the delectable Emily Blunt, who should have been Oscar-nominated for her turn in “The Devil Wears Prada.” I still feel bad that Emily and Michael Bublé split after several years dating. We dined together once and they were a great couple. She leveled him out. But a girl can only do so much.