Jessica Calls TMZ, Bill O'Reilly the Stupid Ones

[RebelMan]

Source: E! Online
Tue Jan 27, 2009, 6:15 am EST

Jessica Alba is disappointed in all of us for paying attention to her during what she blogs is "perhaps the most salient time in our country's history." (Don't worry, Jess, we're more disappointed in ourselves than you'll ever know.)

She's speaking, of course about the "a-hole" episode, when Jessica called out Bill O'Reilly and then harassed a reporter who didn't want to answer her questions—taunting him with "Be neutral about it, be Sweden!" This, of course, gave TMZ a chance to call her a ditz for not saying Switzerland.

But Jess isn't going to sit around and let people call her stupid, especially when Wikipedia and MySpace exist to clear her name. This is her defense of giving Sweden the neutral shout-out:

"Last week, Mr. Bill O'Reilly and some really classy sites (i.e.TMZ) insinuated I was dumb by claiming Sweden was a neutral country. I appreciate the fact that he is a news anchor and that gossip sites are inundated with intelligent reporting, but seriously people...it's so sad to me that you think the only neutral country during WWII was Switzerland. Check out: [Wikipedia link] if you want to see what I was referring to. I appreciate the name calling and the accurate reporting. Keep it up!!"

Well, we can't argue with Wikipedia. You win, Jess. You're totally smarter than TMZ.

[TopHeavyBoy]

From TMZ:

"Jessica Alba is fuming at TMZ for calling her dumb when she called Sweden a "neutral" country last week ... even though it currently has troops in Afghanistan.

She is absolutely correct. Sweden was a neutral country ... 60 years ago.

Even though she was engaged in a debate about the current political situation in America when she advised a reporter to "Be Sweden ... be neutral" -- Alba is swinging back at critics, like TMZ, on her blog saying, "It's so sad to me that you think the only neutral country during WWII was Switzerland."

She is absolutely correct -- when the Nazis were waging war on anyone who opposed Hitler's evil rule, Sweden remained neutral and stayed out of the war. After the war, Winston Churchill referred to Sweden as "that small, coward country."

We apologize for not considering the political climate of the world in 1942 when we suggested she may have meant, "Be Switzerland" -- a country that is currently neutral.

Our sincerest apologies."



This kinda bugs me because, quite apart from Jessica, I'm an amateur history geek. Sweden's reputation for neutrality might be second to Switzerland's, but it's definitely there. Sweden's had a policy of neutrality since the 19th century. Sweden had an official policy of neutrality not only in World War II, but the Cold War. If someone said to me what Jessica said, I'd know full well what they were getting at and it wouldn't even occur to me that they might have meant Switzerland.

What I don't know is why Jessica confined it to WWII. It says it right there in the introduction to the Sweden article on Wikipedia (ultimate fountainhead of all knowledge): "Since 1814, Sweden has been at peace, adopting a non-aligned foreign policy in peacetime and neutrality in wartime." There's even an article on Swedish neutrality!

Swedish neutrality isn't what it once was of course, since it has participated in joint military exercises with NATO following the Cold War, joined the EU, and is engaged in multiple peacekeeping operations (including the one under NATO command in Afghanistan).