In a span of a week, Giuliana Rancic's comments about Zendaya's Oscars dreadlocks — that they made the singer look like she smelled of patchouli oil or weed — prompted an eloquent message from Zendaya, an apology from Giuliana, and the surprise departure of Fashion Police staple Kelly Osbourne, who was outraged by the controversial joke from the get-go.
At last night's taping of Comedy Central's Night of Too Many Stars, which will air March 8, Sarah Silverman weighed in on the whole mess. "I love Fashion Police, I've been watching it since Joan [Rivers] hosted it," she told Cosmopolitan.com. "I'm not a fashion person, but I am interested in [fashion]. It's art, you know?"
Her initial response to the backlash against Giuliana was to dismiss it as an overreaction. "I saw her apologize to the camera, and I go, 'Good lord! It's Fashion Police. It's jokes!'" she said. "Then I looked up what Zendaya wrote, and it was beautiful. So in a way it's a win-win, because it's hard to apologize for jokes when it's a fashion show, but at the same time, it made Zendaya write that, and what she wrote was really beautiful and opened my eyes."
The fact that the show is in hot water at the same time celebrities like Reese Witherspoon have been advocating for red carpet reporters to ask women about more than what they are wearing raises questions about whether Fashion Police is even relevant anymore. If people really want E! correspondents to #AskHerMore on the carpet, will they want to hear those same correspondents pick women apart for their fashion choices the next day?
Sarah's thoughts on the #AskHerMore movement are equally measured. "I agree in a lot of ways, but also, if you're being lent fancy pieces of art that you wear and they ask you what you're wearing and you say — it's advertising, it's selling soap to a degree, it's promoting designers. That's what it is! Make no bones about it. If you're doing an interview for Harper's and they ask 'What are you wearing?' that would be insulting, I suppose. But you have to consider what this is and everything."
Then, being the glorious wonder that she is, Sarah went on a little tangent. "I'm a great proponent of women's causes and women's rights, and I loved what Patricia Arquette said [in her Oscars' speech, about wage equality]. Did you see that thing in the Post yesterday that cunt wrote? Not 'cunt' — uh, woman with a different opinion than my own. To just go, 'She's a rich celebrity.' Jesus, the fucking Post. She's not speaking on behalf of herself, she's speaking on behalf of all women."
Sarah Silverman: queen.
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