September 5, 2019

'Will and Grace' Stars Prompt Pushback, Clarify Trump Donor List Request

Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 5 MIN.

When "Will and Grace" stars Eric McCormack and Debra Messing sent out a request to know who would be attending a Hollywood fundraiser for Donald Trump's 2020 election campaign - information that they say they regard as being in the public domain - two non-shocking things happened. First, their requests became instantly controversial; second, Trump made it all about himself.

CBS News reported that Messing sent out a tweet on Aug. 31 referencing a Hollywood Reporter article on the fundraiser, along with the message "Please print a list of all attendees, please. The public has a right to know."

In what has become de facto presidential fashion, Trump lashed out the next day with a tweet in which he boasted about his reality show "The Apprentice" and recalled how Messing called him "sir."

But Messing proved herself unwilling to back down. taking to Instagram, she capitalized on the president's momentary attention to issue a plea for broader awareness on his part when it came to certain matters of true consequence.

Co-star McCormack also drew heat for his stated desire to know who in Tinseltown would be throwing their cash into Trump's hat. In a tweet directed at the Hollywood Reporter, McCormack requested the names of event attendees "so the rest of us can be clear about who we don't wanna work with."

Some of the criticism that met McCormack and Messing came from surprising quarters, noted political news outlet The Hill; Oscar-winning actress and current co-host host of daytime talk program "The View" Whoopi Goldberg fired off a response to McCormack and Messing's request on "The View," declaring, "Do not encourage people to print out lists because the next list that comes out, your name will be on and then people will be coming after you."

Yahoo News quoted further from Goldberg's comments:

In this country – people can vote for who they want to. That is one of the great rights of this country. You don't have to like it, but we don't go after people because we don't like who they voted for. We don't go after them that way. We can talk about issues and stuff, but we don't print out lists. And I'm sure you guys misspoke when you said that because it sounded like a good idea. Think about it. Read about it. Remember what the blacklist actually meant to people and don't encourage anyone, anyone, to do it.

The social media response called out McCormack for having said that he wanted such an account in order to know who he might not "want to work with" in the future, with commentators piling on to say that what McCormack was asking for was, indeed, a blacklist - or at least the makings of one.

Like Messing, McCormack refused to be bowed.

"I absolutely do not support blacklists or discrimination of any kind, as anyone who knows me would attest," McCormack declared on Twitter. "I'd simply like to understand where Trump's major donations are coming from, which is a matter of public record."

by Kilian Melloy

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