Celebrities

<p>At the Crystal &amp; Lucy Awards on Tuesday, Elizabeth Banks accepted an award &quot;for excellence in features&quot; and used her acceptance speech to take a poorly-researched shot at director Steven Spielberg.</p><div><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="giphy-embed" frameborder="0" height="263" src="https://giphy.com/embed/l2JJCf3cPSbVP4Xuw" width="480"></iframe> <p>&quot;I went to <em>Indiana Jones </em>and <em>Jaws </em>and every movie Steven Spielberg ever made, and by the way, he&#39;s never made a movie with a female lead,&quot; Banks told the audience, according to <a href="http://www.thewrap.com/elizabeth-banks-calls-steven-spielberg-hes-never-made-movie-female-lead/" target="_blank">The Wrap</a>. She continued:</p> </div><p>&quot;Sorry, Steven. I don&#39;t mean to call your ass out, but it&#39;s true.&quot;</p><p>At that point, an amateur fact-checker in the crowd reportedly shouted something about <em>The Color Purple</em>, a 1985 picture by Spielberg and starring Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey. According to The Wrap, Banks ignored the comment and &quot;moved on.&quot;</p><div class="oembedall-container sec-iframe sec-oembed-iframe"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">ELIZABETH BANKS: Steven Spielberg never made a movie with a female lead<br><br>AUDIENCE MEMBER: He made &quot;The Color Purple&quot;<br><br>ELIZABETH BANKS: <a href="https://t.co/gHTjKZS2C4">pic.twitter.com/gHTjKZS2C4</a></p>&mdash; Eric Haywood (@EricHaywood) <a href="https://twitter.com/EricHaywood/status/875340958790852609?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 15, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>You could still consider her point partly valid. <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2017/06/elizabeth-banks-is-not-entirely-wrong-about-steven-spielberg.html" target="_blank">Vulture</a> points out that Spielberg only has three movies with female leads over a career consisting of 30 feature films:</p><blockquote> <p data-editable="text" data-uri="www.vulture.com/components/clay-paragraph/instances/cj3xms1m501n0q3yedauprd7z@published" data-word-count="104">Since starting out with <em>Firelight</em> in 1964, Steven Spielberg has directed 30 feature films. His second movie, <em>The Sugarland Express, </em>from 1974, starred Goldie Hawn, but he didn&rsquo;t make another female-fronted feature until nine years later with <em>The Color Purple</em>. After that, it took another 32 years for Spielberg to make a little girl his main character in the critically well-received flop, <em>The BFG</em>, from 2016, but even that was mostly a showcase for Mark Rylance&rsquo;s Big Friendly Giant. His upcoming drama <em>The Papers</em>, starring Meryl Streep as Washington<em> Post </em>publisher Kay Graham, will be his first to star an adult woman since 1985.</p> </blockquote><p>But although her <em>point</em> was partly fair, her facts were definitely not.</p><div class="oembedall-container sec-iframe sec-oembed-iframe"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Steven Spielberg directed THE COLOR PURPLE, which was a hit. Steven Spielberg has a poor record of female-led films. Both things are true.</p>&mdash; Scott Mendelson (@ScottMendelson) <a href="https://twitter.com/ScottMendelson/status/875347895498801153?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 15, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>And she&#39;s spent the hours since being savaged on Twitter.</p><oembed>https://twitter.com/IamGMJohnson/status/875381742483496960</oembed><oembed>https://twitter.com/IamGMJohnson/status/875381953482153984</oembed><div class="oembedall-container sec-iframe sec-oembed-iframe"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">*Blinks in The Color Purple* <a href="https://t.co/wmnRmKIDg4">https://t.co/wmnRmKIDg4</a></p>&mdash; Matthew A. Cherry (@MatthewACherry) <a href="https://twitter.com/MatthewACherry/status/875355123014287360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 15, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><p>Not helping her case, by the way, is the fact that <em>The Color Purple </em>stars women of color, and as the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/elizabeth-banks-gets-buried-in-blanket-statement-about-steven-spielberg_us_5942a2a6e4b06bb7d2716ab5" target="_blank">Huffington Post</a> and <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/pitch-perfect-2-and-the-rise-of-hollywoods-casual-racism" target="_blank">The Daily Beast</a> point out, Banks&#39; movie <em>Pitch Perfect </em>is chock full of &quot;tone-deaf racial jokes.&quot;</p><div class="oembedall-container sec-iframe sec-oembed-iframe"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The color purple doesn&#39;t count? <br><br>All women aren&#39;t white. <a href="https://t.co/FXzzCJzqbN">https://t.co/FXzzCJzqbN</a></p>&mdash; Zerlina Maxwell (@ZerlinaMaxwell) <a href="https://twitter.com/ZerlinaMaxwell/status/875342157619634177?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 15, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div className="ad-splitter"></div><div class="oembedall-container sec-iframe sec-oembed-iframe"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Why did <a href="https://twitter.com/ElizabethBanks?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ElizabethBanks</a> &quot;move on&quot; after someone mentioned Color Purple? Because <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen</a>. What a shame. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OscarsSoWhite?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#OscarsSoWhite</a> <a href="https://t.co/eUuQytIJyx">https://t.co/eUuQytIJyx</a></p>&mdash; April (@ReignOfApril) <a href="https://twitter.com/ReignOfApril/status/875343450434097152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 15, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><p>After a Banks-defender apparently responded that <em>The Color Purple </em>was a &quot;flop,&quot; Twitter got even more heated.</p><div class="oembedall-container sec-iframe sec-oembed-iframe"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlackTwitter?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BlackTwitter</a> coming with receipts for all things The Color Purple related this morning like <a href="https://t.co/HMkgu1Agzj">pic.twitter.com/HMkgu1Agzj</a></p>&mdash; Matthew A. Cherry (@MatthewACherry) <a href="https://twitter.com/MatthewACherry/status/875361215165353985?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 15, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><oembed>https://twitter.com/freeblackgirl/status/875327736956452865</oembed><oembed>https://twitter.com/darleneturner53/status/875349088270790657</oembed><div class="oembedall-container sec-iframe sec-oembed-iframe"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">If I see ANY ONE trying to defend Elizabeth Banks statement about Spielberg and women by panning The Color Purple<br>I<br>WILL<br>FIGHT <a href="https://t.co/ciGUA2fQqh">pic.twitter.com/ciGUA2fQqh</a></p>&mdash; Gh-ash-tly Perish (@adashtra) <a href="https://twitter.com/adashtra/status/875351994512420866?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 15, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div class="oembedall-container sec-iframe sec-oembed-iframe"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Someone called The Color Purple a flop? In 2017? In this economy? <a href="https://t.co/FlnHzi8i8A">pic.twitter.com/FlnHzi8i8A</a></p>&mdash; lauren folds her nyepkins to the left (@iamlaurenp) <a href="https://twitter.com/iamlaurenp/status/875355276051857414?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 15, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>So far, neither Banks nor Spielberg has responded to the controversy. Although Spielberg doesn&#39;t have a Twitter, so we can&#39;t be sure he&#39;s aware of it.</p><p>SOMEONE GET SPIELBERG ON THE PHONE AND MAKE HIM FEEL BAD.</p><p>It&#39;s an emergency.</p><div className="ad-splitter"></div>

Elizabeth Banks calls out Spielberg for 'never' making a movie with a female lead. Oops.

At the Crystal &amp; Lucy Awards on Tuesday, Elizabeth Banks accepted an award &quot;for excellence in features&quot; and used her acceptance speech to take a poorly-researched shot at director Steven Spielberg. &quot;I went to Indiana Jones and Jaws and every movie Steven Spielberg ever made, and by the way, he&#39;s never made a movie with a female lead,&quot; Banks told the audience, according to The Wrap. She continued: &quot;Sorry, Steven. I don&#39;t mean to call your ass out, but it&#39;s true.&quot;At that point, an amateur fact-checker in the crowd reportedly shouted something about The Color Purple, a 1985 picture by Spielberg and starring Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey. According to The Wrap, Banks ignored the comment and &quot;moved on.&quot;ELIZABETH BANKS: Steven Spielberg never made a movie with a female leadAUDIENCE MEMBER: He made &quot;The Color Purple&quot;ELIZABETH BANKS: pic.twitter.com/gHTjKZS2C4&mdash; Eric Haywood (@EricHaywood) June 15, 2017 You could still consider her point partly valid. Vulture points out that Spielberg only has three movies with female leads over a career consisting of 30 feature films: Since starting out with Firelight in 1964, Steven Spielberg has directed 30 feature films. His second movie, The Sugarland Express, from 1974, starred Goldie Hawn, but he didn&rsquo;t make another female-fronted feature until nine years later with The Color Purple. After that, it took another 32 years for Spielberg to make a little girl his main character in the critically well-received flop, The BFG, from 2016, but even that was mostly a showcase for Mark Rylance&rsquo;s Big Friendly Giant. His upcoming drama The Papers, starring Meryl Streep as Washington Post publisher Kay Graham, will be his first to star an adult woman since 1985. But although her point was partly fair, her facts were definitely not.Steven Spielberg directed THE COLOR PURPLE, which was a hit. Steven Spielberg has a poor record of female-led films. Both things are true.&mdash; Scott Mendelson (@ScottMendelson) June 15, 2017 And she&#39;s spent the hours since being savaged on Twitter.https://twitter.com/IamGMJohnson/status/875381742483496960https://twitter.com/IamGMJohnson/status/875381953482153984*Blinks in The Color Purple* https://t.co/wmnRmKIDg4&mdash; Matthew A. Cherry (@MatthewACherry) June 15, 2017 Not helping her case, by the way, is the fact that The Color Purple stars women of color, and as the Huffington Post and The Daily Beast point out, Banks&#39; movie Pitch Perfect is chock full of &quot;tone-deaf racial jokes.&quot;The color purple doesn&#39;t count? All women aren&#39;t white. https://t.co/FXzzCJzqbN&mdash; Zerlina Maxwell (@ZerlinaMaxwell) June 15, 2017 Why did @ElizabethBanks &quot;move on&quot; after someone mentioned Color Purple? Because #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen. What a shame. #OscarsSoWhite https://t.co/eUuQytIJyx&mdash; April (@ReignOfApril) June 15, 2017 After a Banks-defender apparently responded that The Color Purple was a &quot;flop,&quot; Twitter got even more heated.#BlackTwitter coming with receipts for all things The Color Purple related this morning like pic.twitter.com/HMkgu1Agzj&mdash; Matthew A. Cherry (@MatthewACherry) June 15, 2017 https://twitter.com/freeblackgirl/status/875327736956452865https://twitter.com/darleneturner53/status/875349088270790657If I see ANY ONE trying to defend Elizabeth Banks statement about Spielberg and women by panning The Color PurpleIWILLFIGHT pic.twitter.com/ciGUA2fQqh&mdash; Gh-ash-tly Perish (@adashtra) June 15, 2017 Someone called The Color Purple a flop? In 2017? In this economy? pic.twitter.com/FlnHzi8i8A&mdash; lauren folds her nyepkins to the left (@iamlaurenp) June 15, 2017 So far, neither Banks nor Spielberg has responded to the controversy. Although Spielberg doesn&#39;t have a Twitter, so we can&#39;t be sure he&#39;s aware of it.SOMEONE GET SPIELBERG ON THE PHONE AND MAKE HIM FEEL BAD.It&#39;s an emergency.