Zooey Deschanel vs. Patt Morrison: Westside Actress Disses Downtown L.A., Then Blames Times Columnist For Pointing it Out
See our update about how Deschanel's publicist says she lives in ... Studio City, here.
What she meant was that downtown was "duurty."
Zooey Deschanel fought back against venerable Los Angeles Times columnist and KPCC (89.3 FM) host Patt Morrison this week after the journalist called out the actress for dissing downtown L.A. during the royal couple's visit.
Deschanel's retort was acerbic and defensive.
She even called Morrison's journalistic integrity into question. (Well, this is actually de rigueur now that everyone has a laptop and a blog and surely knows how it's done).
But if you read between the bare-fisted lines, the actress's argument comes across as hollow:
Deschanel was present during the royal couple's visit this weekend to the recently restored Belasco Theater downtown. She was quoted by USA Today's Claudia Puig as saying "I just don't want them to see the worst of L.A."
Belasco Theater
Morrison, trusting Puig's account because she's a former Times colleague, tore into the actress, calling her a "cow" and writing:
Ms. Deschanel's remarks are all the more gob-smacking because the success of her 2009 film "[500] Days of Summer" is chiefly thanks to ... downtown L.A. The Times said the architecture is the star of the film, from the Music Center to the towering California Plaza and the haunting [and maybe haunted -- it was built on the advice of a Ouija board] Bradbury Building.Did Ms. Deschanel not look any farther than her trailer door?
Morrison even accused Deschanel of being a Westsider (low blow, Patt), a claim that was later corrected in the column.
The actress shot back via a site called HelloGiggles, claiming the quote was taken out of context, that she was misquoted, that "I love downtown L.A.," and that she's not, in fact, a Westsider.
Let's consider those points one-by-one:
-Whether or not Deschanel's words were taken out of context, or whether or not she was misquoted, we might not ever know: Only the reporter and the actress know for sure. We can say that 90-percent-plus of the time, in our experience, when a source claims to have been quoted out of context or misquoted it usually involves a not-so-flattering utterance that was accurate but which they'd rather just take back. (Ask any journalist about that).
And, in 2009, while promoting (500) Days of Summer, Deschanel told this to the New York Times:
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