Portia De Rossi's Aussie man ban is sexist, cynical and childish

The left-liberal film and TV stars of Hollywood are a pretty overrated bunch. Convinced that they are political heavy hitters on the world stage they are widely seen as colossal bores by their own countrymen, and nothing more than useful idiots by the ugly regimes they so often support. And they're usually not the brilliant actors they think they are, since it's often their political posturing as much as their talent as performers that attracts the spotlight and feeds their celebrity. But they are certainly world class when it comes to narcissistic hypocrisy, and capable of consistently surreal levels of politically correct sanctimony.

Take Portia De Rossi's recent requirement that she only be interviewed by women journalists in Australia. As Sunrise co-host Kochie, one of the unfortunate blokes to fall foul of this imperious diktat (or should that be no-diktat?) so accurately pointed out, if a male had done something similar there'd be outrage. But there's little condemnation from his fellow journos, male or female. That's the supine, right-on Australian media for you. (Actually, I suspect it might be more likely that it's Kochie who cops a shellacking - for his homophobia!)

Remember the almighty ruckus that occurred when Gordon Ramsay joked that Tracy Grimshaw was a pig. There were howls of outrage from all quarters, and the boorish Brit was forced to make a full apology.

But De Rossi's demands were arguably worse since she was being serious and was discriminating against an entire gender.

The stance is not only sexist but childish as well. She seems to have the emotional maturity of a kindergarten brat, revolted by the possibility she might catch "boy germs". At a time when gay rights activists are demanding all the rights of heterosexual grownups (like marriage for example) this is probably not such a great thing to have done.

There seems to be a geo-specific element in her posturing, too. Some Googling reveals no evidence of her making a similar demand back in America. The likely reason: Doing so might be deleterious career-wise. But it's worth the risk Down Under, since any offense caused will not be felt directly back in Hollywood.

Considering the pervasive anti-Americanism in Aussie journalism, maybe this implication that we are of no consequence when compared to the USA might be the thing to rile Aussie hacks? It will be interesting to see ...

In any case her behavior shows other inconsistencies: Being the poster girl for gay marriage, and a self-described champion of gay rights, you'd think that she might lift her man ban in the case of gay male journos, wouldn't you? They suffer enough discrimination already, surely!

And if she finds talking to blokes so abhorrent, then why does she continue to act opposite them? Well again, that would be career suicide ... She may be a misandrist, but she's still mighty fond of money! (Actually, I can imagine some of her fellow lesbian activists, even more zealous than she is, being more than a little miffed at this particular double standard. They probably consider her a traitor to the cause for not working exclusively on projects written, produced, performed and ultimately only watched by, er, wimmin.)

It's all pretty silly, and about par for the course when it comes to celebrity activism these days. But De Rossi's man ban reveals where she and her liberal fellow travellers are coming from most of the time. Their behavior is routinely childish, cynical and opportunistic; almost never principled and consistent. This is ironic, since they invariably claim their political statements and actions come from deeply held convictions, not mere ego.