Contrasting Two Tales of Mistaken Celebrities

Recently, there have been two instances of mistaken celebrities.  The way both handled not being recognized for their celebrity status tells about their temperament and character.

On the one hand, Oprah Winfrey was attending Tina Turner's wedding in Switzerland and wanted to see an expensive handbag. The Oprah seemed to have used her recollections of this incident as a vehicle to promote her new film "The Butler" , which has a subtext of black civil rights as told through a butler who served eight contemporary Presidents. 



 

When Oprah was impeached on the details by shop owner Trudie Goetz on a BBC interview , Oprah then gave what TMZ labeled as a passive aggressive "b.s." apology for having the matter blown up. The Hollywood gossip news site reasoned that going to the national media and crying racism was bound to blow up the incident, whether or not the Swiss shop was named.

On the other hand, Jase Robertson of Duck Dynasty was in Manhattan to promote the fourth season of their A&E series.  Trump Tower staff mistook the bearded Jase as a homeless man and he was kindly escorted out of the hotel.







Jase's wife tried to straighten things out with Trump Tower and he was allowed back into the establishment.  Jase jocularly shrugged the incident off as "facial profiling".

Jase's case of mistaken identity at Trump Tower occurred AFTER the season premiere of Duck Dynasty, which drew 11.8 million viewers for a cable reality series broadcast at 10 PM Eastern time.  The Butler was number one at the box office last weekend drawing an audience of $25 million, but it opened in wide release of nearly 3,000 screens for what is thought to be a very good drama.  Alas, the same can not be said for the eponymous OWN- The Oprah Winfrey Network. Discovery lent Oprah $509 million for her fledgling network but it was not drawing the viewers and Oprah admits to being at the edge of a nervous breakdown with the financial pressures and the lack of success.

Personally, I may not enjoy watching bearded rednecks who live relatively unpretentious lives do their antics, but it seems authentic.  And where else is the Bible directly quoted on the boob tube?  However, Jase Robison's self-deprecating response to an instance of mistaken celebrity shows good character and a temperament that should be emulated amongst celebutards.