Gawker: defamer, deepak chopra

Elisabeth Hasselbeck Attempts to Sneak In Rare Apology Before Commercial

Kyle Buchanan — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:41:44 EST

The other day, The View's resident conservative/pirate couture expert Elisabeth Hasselbeck chose to assail Deepak Chopra not with any of the clear, New Agey ammunition at hand, but with the ethnically questionable order, "Go light a bowl of incense!" This comment, er, incensed some Indians, who saw it as a potential slur.

The furor prompted Elisabeth to make amends on today's show, but in the most hurried, sneaky way possible. After the ladies devoted endless amounts of talk to offensive, sexist comments made by Rush Limbaugh about Hillary Clinton, Elisabeth quickly rushed out the apology for her comparatively innocuous jab just as Whoopi began to throw the show to commercial. Clever, girl, but the real expert would have snuck it in during the View's endless crosstalk, where no one would have been the wiser. Clip above.

The View [ABC]

Peeved Elisabeth Hasselbeck Tells Noted Indian Scholar to 'Go Light a Bowl of Incense'

Kyle Buchanan — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:30:43 EST

Though Elisabeth Hasselbeck has offended many during her tenure on The View, she's never quite had what could be called, in the show parlance, a "Ching Chong" moment. So named for Rosie O'Donnell's Asian language impression in which she shrieked, "Ching Chong Ching Chong!" and stopped just shy of declaring, "That was me, Rosie, playing an Oriental!" the gaffe is the type that incurs the wrath of an entire race, and Hasselbeck may have had her own in this morning's episode.

While attempting to reference Deepak Chopra's recent remarks on the Mumbai massacre (he implied the terrorists had an eye on America), a frustrated Hasselbeck first called him "Glitter Glasses Whatshisface," and then, dismissing his comments as beneath her recognition, muttered, "Go light a bowl of incense." Why stop there, Elisabeth? Tell those minorities how you really feel using the most stereotype-laden kiss-offs you can muster! If your stylist tries to dress you in another pirate shirt? "Oh, go take your AIDS pills!" Joy Behar got you down? Just say, "Whatsa matta, you-a? Something land in your spaghetti? Oh, what-a spicy meatball!" It's fun, easy, and guaranteed to get the letters pouring in!

The View [ABC]

Deepak Chopra Comes Clean, Admits He Hated 'Love Guru'

STV — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 12:20:00 EDT

It seems like only yesterday that Deepak Chopra flexed his philosophical muscle in the name of The Love Guru, deflecting rumors of its anti-Hindu undercurrents in a zinger of an essay on BeliefNet: "Silliness often has wisdom hidden just beneath the surface — perhaps The Love Guru will, also, since Myers laced his Austin Powers farce with a message about tolerance — but if you can't accept silliness in the first place, you are likely to be immune to wisdom, too."

Oh, but for the old times, as Guru's singular tank job, critical enmity and shocking Myers implosion provoked a reconsideration of sorts for the spirituality kingpin, who seems to have overcome his immunity to wisdom in the bitter months since Guru's release:

“The Love Guru didn’t work well because Mike Myers addresses a teenage audience, and he was trying to mix it up with metaphysics,” Chopra told MTV News. “Humor mixed with spirituality can work, if it’s done well. But frankly speaking, this was not a good attempt.” ...

“I think what he could have done was have been a little less gross about some of the jokes [which were added later],” Chopra said. “And some of the spiritual themes, they could have shown more the lighter side. He was almost too serious in his deprecation. He needed more humor.”

Read: He needed humor — anything to mitigate the lesbian elephants. No worries, though! Everyone involved will have a few thousand years to figure out how to improve the concept for next time.

Why Did ‘The Love Guru’ Bomb? [MTV Movies Blog]