Monday Update: Matt Damon Says Researching Role as Red State Worker Was ‘Eye-Opening,’ Sen. Blackburn Fires Back At Taylor Swift, Sean Penn Trashes Trump, Team U.S.A. Swimmer Explains Why He Won’t Get The Jab Before Olympics-rs-mf

We’re tracking the conservative culture clash with woke Hollywood hypocrites to keep you up to date on who’s winning and who we hate. 

 Here’s what happened today:

Trump Trashing

Two-time Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn took time out at the Cannes Film Festival to bash the Trump administration’s COVID-19 response as a “let down.”

“When my team and I would come home from test and vaccination sites at night, particularly during testing under Trump, to maddening news — it felt like someone with a machine gun gunning down communities that were most vulnerable from a turret at the White House,” Penn, who runs a non-profit, commented.

He went on to laud President Biden’s administration, but not without a parting jab at Trump. “In the transition to the task force that President Biden put together, it was really that feeling like a sun was rising,” he remarked. “There was no effort of integrity coming from the federal government until the Trump administration was dismissed.”

Firing Back

Tennessee Republican Senator Marsha Blackurn, who has been feuding with pop star Taylor Swift since she refused to support Blackburn in the state’s 2018 midterm election, dealt the singer a reality check about her political views.

“When you talk about country music, and I know the left is all out now and trying to change country music and make it woke,” she commented in an interview. “When I’m talking to my friends who are musicians and entertainers, I say, ‘If—if—we have a socialistic government, if we have Marxism, you are going to be the first ones who will be cut off because the state would have to approve your music.’ And, you know, Taylor Swift came after me in my 2018 campaign.”

Swift voiced her political opinion for the first time when she gunned at Blackburn. “As much as I have in the past and would like to continue voting for women in office, I cannot support Marsha Blackburn. Her voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me … These are not MY Tennessee values,” she tweeted.  

“But Taylor Swift would be the first victim of that, because when you look at Marxist socialist societies, they do not allow women to dress or sing or be on stage or to entertain or the type music that she would have,” Blackburn continued. “They don’t allow protection of private intellectual property rights.”

Character Research

Liberal actor Matt Damon said his time researching “red state identity politics” to play an Oklahoma oil rig worker in the new movie “Stillwater” was “eye-opening.”

The Oscar winner explained that he spent weeks with oil rig workers and their families to understand the character.  “Being invited into their homes, into a backyard barbecue, a guitar comes out and they start singing church songs. It’s a very specific place… and very different to where I grew up,” he admitted.

“It was really eye-opening for me,” Damon continued. “They’re in the oil business, of course, he voted for Trump. These people were wonderful to us, they really helped us. These guys don’t apologize for who they are.”  

The film, which opens July 30th, is about “a father who sacrifices everything to help free his daughter from a French prison after she is convicted of murdering her roommate while studying abroad.”

Anti-Vax

Team U.S.A. swimmer Michael Andrew won’t be getting vaccinated before he heads to the Tokyo Olympic Games. 

“My reason behind it is I, for one, it was kind of the last moment, I didn’t want to put anything in my body that I didn’t know how I would potentially react to,” he said.

Getting the jab has the potential to affect his performance, and he’s not willing to risk it. “As an athlete on the elite level, everything we do is very calculated,” he continued. “For me in the training cycle, especially leading up to trials, I didn’t want to risk any days out, because we do know that there are periods where getting the vaccine, you have to deal with some days off.”

He’s taking team-sanctioned precautions to avoid infection. “USA Swimming and all of us here have been through a very strict protocol with lots of testing, masks, socially distant, obviously staying away from the crowds, everything like that,” Andrew concluded. “And going into Tokyo, the same thing, with testing every day. So we feel very safe and protected, knowing that we’re minimizing risk as much as possible.”

Fyre Forced

2017’s ill-fated “Fyre Festival,” which was billed as a luxury music experience in the Caribbean by con artist Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule, but turned out to be a tropical disaster complete with FEMA tents and cold cheese sandwiches, is finally in bankruptcy proceedings.    

Bankruptcy trustee Gregory Messer is attempting to get the celebrities who endorsed the failed festival to return their payments, so he can issue refunds to attendees who paid from $1,200 to $100,000 for the lackluster experience.

So far, he’s gone after Kendal Jenner for $275,000, model Emily Ratajkowski for $300,000 and rock band Blink 182 for $265,000.

Runway Diversity

The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit got inclusive during its annual Miami runway show over the weekend. In addition to standard-issue beach bodies, they featured women with diverse body types, ages, and races in the lineup. 

Several plus-sized models strutted down the Mondrian Hotel’s poolside runway, as did professional athletes, mothers, entrepreneurs, and 57-year-old Kathy Jacobs, who is self-described as the “oldest/shortest Sports Illustrated rookie ever.”

“Sports Illustrated Swimsuit continues to redefine the cultural conversation around beauty by celebrating a diverse group of women,” a press release stated.

Marie Finn