Lara Spencer Laughs at boys in ballet — Page 3

Call_me_jorge said: "Re: Amar

https://twitter.com/iightandharmony/status/1165836655145754626?s=21

https://twitter.com/msdianecardoso/status/1165839059798962177?s=21"

Still trying to make this 'a thing' huh?

Absolute innocence; and I am sure he will be allowed to be whoever he wants to be.

EDIT--Oops! That gorgeous photo of the young Prince has gone, for reasons I would LOVE for the Mods. to explain without tying their tongues in knots. That would receive a backlash bigger than on the reporter that started this thread.

Updated On: 8/26/19 at 05:25 PM

And from Gene Kelly's widow-



In 1958, my late husband, the dancer, director, choreographer Gene Kelly, decided to take on the stigma facing male dancers in an Omnibus television program for NBC that he created and starred in called “Dancing, A Man’s Game.” He hoped that by aligning the great sports stars of the day—Mickey Mantle, Johnny Unitas, Vic Seixas, Sugar Ray Robinson, among others—he could challenge and destroy the shame surrounding male dancers once and for all. For Gene it was more than a professional task. It was, in his words, a personal “crusade” to show that dancers are athletes and that it is okay for a man to be graceful. As he says in the special: “What could be more graceful than a football player throwing a pass—what is more excitingly beautiful than the swift movement of a double play? Every motion a good athlete makes is as beautiful as any a dancer makes.”

Sadly, on August 22, 2019, Good Morning America elected to run a disgraceful segment about Prince George and his ballet classes. That host Lara Spencer would mock a boy’s study of ballet in a nationally televised morning show and that her colleagues would join in her derision is both unacceptable and incomprehensible.

Gene was a classically trained ballet dancer and believed that his training was essential to all that he did. He was schooled in Chicago by a woman named Berenice Holmes who had been the student of the great Russian dancer Adolph Bolm. Gene said that Holmes could perform many complicated turns better than a man, including a double tour en l’air, and that she instructed him to dance with great strength, particularly in his arms. He knew that ballet training gave him the long, beautiful line that he sought in his dancing and, later, in his choreography for the camera that led to some of the seminal films of our time, including On the Town; An American in Paris; Singin’ in the Rain; Brigadoon.

Over the years, Gene advised many professional athletes to study ballet, including former wide receivers Willie Gault and Lynn Swann. Both acknowledge that the training improved their performance on the field. Many have followed suit. Gene would be devastated to know that 61 years after his ground-breaking work the issue of boys and men dancing is still the subject of ridicule—and on a national network.

ABC must do better.

Patricia Ward Kelly (Mrs. Gene Kelly)

1. I DO think bullying is too strong a word. She mocked. Still NOT good.

2. It's easier to "mobilize" something small - because you can actually make a difference, quickly. Global warming? Sexism? Misogyny? None too easy.

I see nothing wrong with Spencer's statement.

Those offended and calling her statement "bullying" are just projecting their own trauma on someone pretty powerless.

"We'll see how long it lasts" That's bullying? Geez, the right-wing cry of PC Police is starting to make sense to me know. I'm actually ashamed at the Broadway community for this nonsense response.

Spencer is the victim here. She's talking about THE FUTURE KING OF ENGLAND! His life is mapped out for him. And whether wants to be a ballet dancer, a plumber, or a neurosurgeon he is going to get a HUGE reality check when he learns his life is largely not of his own agency.

She didn't mock his reported "love" for ballet, and even if she did...geez.. the kid is six! He probably loves the taste of his own boogers.. and this will likely change too.

Jesus.. these Broadway drama queens need to see a therapist and work on their wounds and stop fighting enemies that AREN'T THERE.

Updated On: 8/26/19 at 08:12 PM

What did Spencer say?

"We'll see how long it lasts"



Just on this thread hurled at Spencer:

Lara Spencer is an untalented, self-satisfied, shrill sh*t head. - jv92

Lara Spencer has always been insufferable. - SisterGeorge

she should be fired - EllieRose2

dingbat, his lady is a couple of enchiladas short of a combo plate. - theatreguy12

Hopefully the next update we get is news of her firing. - RWPrincess

If Ms Spencer had more than two brain cells, she do more research - A Director

our words are the reason why so many people commit suicide - klinnerz

This is a grown woman bullying a six year old - KathyNYC2

to insult and bully a little boy - Jacaranda2



The above is GENUINE bullying. I understand that hurt people, hurt people. But Spencer, again, simply said:

"We'll see how long it lasts"

And she is right. Ballet class for six year old is probably fun and easy to love doing, but that doesn't last long when the real discipline and sacrifice kicks in the more you grow and study.. and oh, yes, add that to the fact that Prince George has the already heavy load of discipline and sacrifice ahead of him as the future King of England. The laughter comes the reality that that kid doesn't know what he is in for.

So yes, Spencer is the victim here.

Updated On: 8/26/19 at 09:26 PM

Thank you, bk.

By the way.. when are you going to work your magic and release the original Australian cast recording of La Cage Aux Folles?

Every time I listen to my LP transfer I think how great it would be to have an official cd release.

OlBlueEyes said: "I took the bus a few hundred miles to the 250,000 student anti-Vietnam war rally in November, 1969. I admit that if students weren't afraid of their student exemption expiring (a genuine racist policy that sent many more blacks to the disease-ridden jungles than their numbers would justify. I genuinely don't believe that this could be repeated in this generation.),I don't know what the attendance would have been."



And all the while you were "protesting," two brothers, countless friends, hundreds upon thousands of other brave Americans, and myself, were offering our lives in foreign lands so that you could ride in comfort on that bus.

But back on topic.....

Spencer bullied a CHILD.

sabrelady said: "Whether George becomes King is an event so far in the future, there are numerous paths things can move to. There at least 2 reigns ahead of him and given the present longevity we are talking anywhere from 50- 70 yrs and a LOT can change by then. So Who Knows?


Thing is this.. even if the monarchy was to be dismantled tomorrow, Prince George would still be living under the most extraordinary of circumstances. Nothing in his life would allow him the freedoms to explore life's options the way, say, you or I have. He would also have enormous privileges that inherently carry overwhelming responsibilities. His ability to do whatever he wants with his life would be limited by a scrutiny that even a world famous entertainment celebrity couldn't fathom.

So even if the reign of the Windsors folded up, any attempts at living a life with a traditional career (dancing, construction work, mortician) would all be met with:

We'll see how long that lasts.

Updated On: 8/26/19 at 11:31 PM

Ugh, I am so tired of this story. I wasn't totally sold that her intent was to make fun of boys dancing in the first place but even if it was, she apologized twice and seemed genuine in wanting to listen to people from the dance community. That should be enough and it's time to accept her apology. People make mistakes. We cannot get so ridiculously upset every time someone says something they shouldn't but we do thanks to the internet and manufactured outrage.

I’m very much in line with you Mr Wormwood.

While she DEFINITELY saw Prince George as an easy target for a cheap laugh (something quite common in the UK towards the Royals as a whole) he was NEVER going to know anything about them without the social media outrage. And as it stands he wont be effected in any way. However the countless children within the US that want to, or currently do take dance classes WILL definitely face the ongoing stigma of gender norms which she so clearly played up to with her original story (the derision was totally aimed at the ballet classes and anyone who says otherwise is a liar) and anything that legitimises their bullying is obviously wrong.

That said I thought that the 5 minutes of airtime they took to apologise was genuine and that along with things like the Times Square ballet class and vocal support within the profession could do some long term good for acceptance of young boys in dance. The ongoing calls to fire Lara Spencer and for relentless apologies seem to me to be entirely baseless and often vindictive. What children need is positive role models and it was lovely to see that mentioned in the interview, and hopefully a few new ones emerge in light of this.

And all the while you were "protesting," two brothers, countless friends, hundreds upon thousands of other brave Americans, and myself, were offering our lives in foreign lands so that you could ride in comfort on that bus.

If you went to 'Nam in my place, then you have a right to be ticked off. If you didn't, then you should silence yourself. There weren't very many "heroes" who went to the jungle. It was mainly those who couldn't get out of it with a student exemption, emeigration to Canada, bursting eardrums, conscientous objector, whatever.

We didn't understand at the time, but the Vietnam War was fought against the Domino Theory, that international communism was going to take over the world nation by nation. The people got this idea in their head due to their experiences at the end of WW II, when Soviet Russia and Communist China were manuevering to occupy as much land as possible. Soviet Russia violated agreements that were in place on who would occupy which nations. They tried to kick us out of West Berlin.

While students at that time couldn't explain the reason for the war properly, it turned out that the domino theory was nonsense and "as goes South Vietnam, and Korea, there goes Japan" didn't apply. I admired George Herbert Walker Bush for graduating from Yale and immediately enlisted in the dangerous field of naval flight. But that war we pretty much had to fight. Anyone who voluntarily went to 'Nam to save us from Communism was pretty much a dupe, but we didn't understand that at the time so the people who went voluntarily should be respected for their courage and patriotism.

I have no recollection of how I got on this topic, but it's late and I'll just let it go.