Celebrity Stupid – Martin Luther King, Jr. edition.

In the creation of great fictional art such as movies and television shows, it’s a necessary evil that – in certain cases – something is constructed as to be extremely “real”, even though it clearly, obviously, reasonably to most functioning, thinking humans, isn’t. Soap opera actors have been known to receive donations when their characters have fallen on hard times; automobile accidents are often the sites of heroic exploits by action movie stars (and, naturally, Scientologists); kooky and lovable rom-com movie actresses are often expected by their fans to be so darling, so approachable, so down-to-earth in what we whimsically refer to our non-movie existences as “real life”.

And so it should be seen as inevitable that an actor who is perhaps best known for his portrayal of a prominent political figure would speculate as to the impact he’s had on our ever-well-informed electorate when it comes time for this country to possibly make history in the election of a U.S. President who has at least one immediately, identifiably unique, quality:

[Celebrity]: “As far as the public is concerned, it did open up their minds and their hearts a little bit to the notion that if the right man came along…a black man could be President of the United States. People on the street would ask me to run for office…It doesn’t surprise me that Barack would be met with open arms and minds.”

Find out who’s responsible for your newly-discovered sense of political sensitivity, after the jump.

Dennis Haysbert is today’s Celebrity Stupid!

Starpulse Entertainment News Blog features the make-believe President’s comments here:

Dennis Haysbert: “As far as the public is concerned, it did open up their minds and their hearts a little bit to the notion that if the right man came along…a black man could be President of the United States. People on the street would ask me to run for office…It doesn’t surprise me that Barack would be met with open arms and minds.”

Now I’m about to say something that I don’t normally say when we’re discussing stupid celebrities here at Burbanked: I’m going to give Haysbert the benefit of the doubt and suggest that the heartless “stupid” tag that I’ve cruelly stuck upon him may be unwarranted.

I’m thinking that he probably went on a bit in his quote here, and likely tempered his comments with an “in my opinion” and a few “in my small ways” and perhaps even one or two “of course, ours is only a silly, testosterone-driven fantasy action show that I would not in all seriousness expect to impact real-world politics in any way outside of the obviously acne-challenged fanbase who populate the Internet’s more reality-ignoring discussion boards”. I can’t imagine that a seemingly grounded and well-intentioned guy like Haysbert could actually believe that his fine, stern-faced yet soft-spot-for-Bauer portrayal of the President could actually have our nation’s voting fence-sitters thinking, “Well, dang. I sure never gave black people as politicians two thoughts before, but the way President Palmer covered up the news of that nuclear blast in downtown LA sure has opened my eyes!”

Perhaps, in this one isolated case, Haysbert’s comments might have had a greater context than what’s seen here. That telling pair of ellipses in his quote, I would hope, may have spoken volumes about his true evaluation of his political impact. Or perhaps my own sense of right and wrong and my eternal optimism merely cause me to hope it so.

Because it could simply be that Haysbert is, well, stupid.