Actress/Author Kristen Johnston with her NYClass Award
The Internet never disappoints with it's wealth of information and the wide range of writers who are providing news, entertainment and some less than factual pieces cloaked in insensitive commentary desperate to inspire a laugh. My friend Kristen Johnston was the latest casualty of a feeble attempt to get a laugh. Writer for the New York Observer,
Charlotte Lytton wrote recently about her experience at a
NYClass Gala that honored Johnston and her work to fight the use of carriage horses in New York. A cause that I fully support and is a shameful practice that would make the angels literally weep to see the treatment of these beautiful animals and their living conditions, so visitors can get their asses carted around the city. I will discuss the issue further in an upcoming blog.
It was the last event I would have thought that would have inspired such an article. I wanted to highlight the poor journalism and conjecture Ms. Lytton supplied to her readers when saying
"Ms. Johnston's boozy proclamations made the event's emcee Pamela Anderson seem, dare we say, rather demure." This statement following a ton of not so kind jabs at Kristen's book
GUTS, making light of Kristen's brush with death and her addiction, saying;
"Ms. Johnson almost lost her life mid-pee which really could have elevated her to Elvis levels of fame". From where I sit I found her comments to be very insensitive and not funny. The death of Elvis Presley was another tragedy linked to addiction and I am shocked someone would even use it as a reference for a laugh. I'm also sure Ms. Lytton he is famous more much more than the circumstances surrounding his untimely death.
Ok, so time to call horse shit on what Ms. Lytton implied in her article; Kristen is SOBER and has not had a drink in 6 years. I could see how you would get her "boozy proclamations" confused with her real raw honesty, as someone would have to be drinking to be as candid and honest like Kristen is, right? Not so much. Kristen is one of the most unapologeticly honest people I have had the pleasure to meet in our politically correct, BS, faux, generic society. Both her strength and her vulnerability inspires many people.
Kristen has responded to the article publicly and demanded an apology and retraction. The comments are counter productive to the message she is sending in her book
GUTS and to all those the book has inspired and yes it was a New York Time's Best Seller.
I would be proud to stuff my Christmas stocking's with
GUTS as it is a well written, honest memoir about her journey. A journey we can ALL relate to on some level if we are honest with ourselves. In fact I actually did send a copy to my mother (read the article in the NY Observer
HERE to get the complete picture). I love a laugh as much as the next person but I honestly don't get the humor in the article about her sobriety or about the cause of the horses in general. So sad the high point of the evening for Ms. Lytton was the Joan Jett and the Blackheart performance, I guess you "love Rock N Roll" more than the horses :(
I hear there is an opening at the National Enquirer Charlotte, lets get your writing at a publication that is the same calibre shall we?
NOTE *While composing this blog the article was pulled from the NY Observer's Webstite and "Corrected"*
