Jessica Alba is going head-to-head with Bill O’Reilly and TMZ in a war of words.
It all began last week when someone from The O’Reilly Factor caught up with Alba at President Obama’s inauguration, and asked her if she’d like to give O’Reilly a shout out. Alba declined, calling the Fox News Channel host an “a-hole.”
O’Reilly retaliated by airing the clip on the “reality check” segment of his show.
While in D.C. Alba blogged about the inauguration, and asked one reporter what he thought was Obama’s greatest characteristic, advising him to “Be neutral…be Sweden.” TMZ posted the video, calling Alba an “arrogant buffoon,” and O’Reilly called her a “pinhead,” commenting that she must have confused Switzerland with Sweden.
Alba fought back on her blog with the following post:
Hey Guys,
Jay_eh here. I wanted to share with everyone in the ibeatyou and MySpace communities my experiences at the inauguration last week, so I put together a little video.
Before I get to the video, I want to clear some things up that have been bothering me lately. I find it depressing that in the midst of perhaps the most salient time in our country’s history, individuals are taking it upon themselves to encourage negativity and stupidity. Last week, Mr. Bill O’Reilly and some really classy sites (i.e.TMZ) insinuated I was dumb by claiming Sweden was a neutral country. I appreciate the fact that he is a news anchor and that gossip sites are inundated with intelligent reporting, but seriously people…it’s so sad to me that you think the only neutral country during WWII was Switzerland. Check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden_during_World_War_II if you want to see what I was referring to. I appreciate the name calling and the accurate reporting. Keep it up!!
TMZ then posted a tongue-in-cheek apology, saying “She is absolutely correct. Sweden was a neutral country … 60 years ago.”
“We apologize for not considering the political climate of the world in 1942 when we suggested she may have meant, “Be Switzerland” — a country that is currently neutral.”
TMZ based their rebuttal on the fact that Sweden currently has troops in Afghanistan. It should be noted, however, they are there as peacekeepers, and are currently not members of NATO. Sweden is a member of the NATO Partnership for Peace project, leading some to argue that the country is no longer neutral, but Switzerland is also a member, rendering that argument a moot point.
Sweden maintains neutrality as a matter of deeply-held principles actually written in their constitution.
View videos below.
photo: WENN