THE CORONAMANIA CELEBRITY HALLS OF FAME AND SHAME

In my early twenties, I occasionally spent late nights in North Jersey diners with friends. One summer weeknight, while in such a near empty diner on Rt. 4, not far from the George Washington Bridge, a tall, dark-haired, blazered man left his table on the far side of the floor. His waitress walked away from that table and toward two other waitresses resting their legs in the booth next to the booth with my buddies and me. The standing waitress told the seated waitresses that the guy who just left was George Frazier, a non-standout pitcher for the Yankees. I guess the Yankees had a game earlier that night.

The seated, fiftyish waitresses didn’t recognize that name. Nonetheless, one earnestly asked what he ordered. The attending waitress named some platter that I don’t remember, probably something like The Midnight Special.

The other seated waitress immediately inquired, “Did he eat the green salad?”

It struck me as odd that they would care about what he ordered and if he’d cleaned his plate.

Many Americans have a strong— verging on dysfunctional—interest in celebrities. Many people care who celebrities date, what they wear, what kind of dog they have, etc.

But celebrities are the original influencers. Thus, I wished throughout Coronamania that more celebrities would have had the insight and conviction to speak out against the lockdowns, school closures, masks, tests and injections. Doing so might have snapped some un-famous people out of their passive, conformist, Coronamania daze.

Sports leagues probably imposed gag orders on players and coaches. Musicians probably feared alienating fans by speaking against the madness; consider what happened when Michelle Shocked dared to defy political correctness. Movie studios would have blacklisted the Corona heretics, as during the 1940-50s Red Scare but ideologically reversed; this time with the Communists in control.

Maybe it’s because I don’t consume much news or maybe because the news media refused to give an audience to lockdown or vaxx opponents. But I didn’t hear of many celebrities who vocally opposed Coronamania. Offhand, I can recall Van Morrison recording and releasing two anti-lockdown songs. Outkick’s Clay Travis mocked the overreaction from early on. Ex-NBA-er John Stockton opposed the lockdowns and the shots. In response, his alma mater, Gonzaga University, barred him from attending games. Current NBA players Kyrie Irving and Jonathan Isaac passed on the shots. Kyrie gave up millions of salary dollars because he refused to comply with New York City’s workplace vaxx mandate before the empty-headed Mayor, Eric Adams, who followed the empty-headed Bill DeBlasio, carved out an exception for entertainers. Why the arbitrary exception? Because he said so. That’s literally how Adams explained the plainly arbitrary vaxx mandates.

And of course, there’s Novax Djokovic. Though I hesitate to list him because I’m not sure how to spell his name.

Eric Clapton criticized the shots after he was partially paralyzed following injection. He should have called me first. I could have saved him some trouble.

There should be a Hall of Fame for the lockdown and vaxx resisters. And some sort of Honorable Mention for Clapton. Buyer’s remorse is not courageous.

But most celebrities were on the flip/dark side. Bruce Springsteen and Patti Lupone shrilly and profanely supported mask mandates. Patti Smith, Howard Stern, Dave Grohl and Neil Young, Kareem Jabbar, Charles Barkley and Jeff Van Gundy (Yale grad!) shilled for the failed, injurious injections. Smith posed for a jab photo op. Stern called non-maskers and/or non-vaxxers homicidal. To Barkley, the vaxx decliners were merely “a**holes.” After flopping on Jeopardy, Jabbar called for non-jabbers to be disciplined. Grohl uncoolly required vaxx passports for his Foo Fighter shows; others also later did, but Grohl was part of the authoritarian vanguard. Neil Young took the stupidity one step beyond by demanding that Spotify take his songs down because Spotify provided a platform to Joe Rogan, who had the temerity to ask basic questions about the shots; to Neil this was “spreading misinformation.” So Neil is both ignorant and supports censorship. He sounds Canadian or something.

Then there was Jimmy Kimmel with his horse paste comment and other characteristically smug foolishness that I don’t specifically remember. And perhaps the most embarrassing of all, given its sheer dorkiness: Stephen Colbert’s Vaccine Dance. Though Dolly Parton’s authorization of a cringe-inducing, multi-dozen women choir Zoom song parody replacing Jolene with vaccine is not far behind. Girl power.

Those mentioned in the two preceding paragraphs belong in the Hall of Shame. These perpetrators of fraud and calumny should live in infamy.

Can you help me crowd-source a Hall of Fame (anti-lockdown/school closure and mask) and Hall of Shame (pro-lockdown and mask), with any specifics you remember about what the named celebrity did or said? Over the past thirty months, people—both celebrities and everyone else—have defined themselves. Whether good or bad, their words and actions during this time deserve to be part of the permanent record. Their prescriptive know-it-all pro-lockdown/mask/vaxx comments are not aging well. People should not be allowed to forget how consequentially wrong they were.

Thanks if you provide names and details below. In any event, I’m done downloading any more of the Hall of Shame member’s music. Think of all the pennies they’ll lose.