The flap over Cameron Diaz carrying a handbag with Maoist symbols and "Serve the People" on it is a reminder of how out of touch Hollywood stars--the ones who feel compelled to tell the rest of us how we should behave--really are.
Cameron Diaz apologized Sunday for carrying a bag with a political slogan that evoked painful memories in Peru.
The voice of Princess Fiona in the animated "Shrek" films visited the Incan city of Machu Picchu in Peru's Andes on Friday carrying an olive green bag emblazoned with a red star and the words "Serve the People" printed in Chinese, perhaps Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong's most famous political slogan.
The bags are marketed as fashion accessories in some world capitals, but in Peru the slogan evokes memories of the Maoist Shining Path insurgency that fought the government in the 1980s and early 1990s in a bloody conflict that left nearly 70,000 people dead.
"I sincerely apologize to anyone I may have inadvertently offended. The bag was a purchase I made as a tourist in China and I did not realize the potentially hurtful nature of the slogan printed on it," Diaz said in a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press.
Shining Path isn't ancient history, but Diaz wouldn't even bother apologizing if the fracas didn't tarnish her image as a conscientious lefty. I suppose it goes with the Che Guevara T-shirts. Maybe add a hammer and sickle belt buckle. After all, those symbols don't mean anything, right? It's all just fashion!
It's amazing that the same people who constantly remind us that the U.S. backed Saddam Hussein in the 1980s (and will quote Noam Chomsky about all the other horrible aspects of American foreign affairs) have the convenient memory to forget the horrors of communism.
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