OPINION:
Cher has a new autobiography, “The Memoir,” which is just over 400 pages long. However, apparently, that’s only half the story. We know that because the book’s subtitle, published in mid-November, is “Part 1.”
“Part 2”—due out in mid-November 2025, but already available online for preorder by Cher’s biggest fans—presumably will be equally hefty. Why else would there be a second volume?
The pop diva, 78, apparently is trying to give fellow chanteuse Barbra Streisand, 82, who in November 2023 came out with an autobiography of her own, “My Name Is Barbra”—which weighs in at a whopping 992 pages—a run for her money. (Why anyone, even the most devout Cher or Streisand fan, would want to read that much about either of these self-indulgent narcissists is anyone’s guess.)
In Cher’s case, however, won’t “Part 2” of her “tell-all” have to be written in Canada, Mexico, Europe, or perhaps Australia? After all, didn’t she vow to leave the country last year if former President Donald Trump were to win reelection?
In a mid-October interview with the Guardian of London, the singer-actress whined, “I almost got an ulcer the last time,” allegedly from the political stress. “If he gets in, who knows? This time I will leave [the country].”
My response?
“Here’s your hat. What’s your hurry?” as Jimmy Stewart’s iconic George Bailey character remarked in the 1947 film classic “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
Other entertainers—among them, singer John Legend and his wife, model Chrissy Teigen; actresses Sharon Stone, America Ferrera, and Amy Schumer (a cousin of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.); actor Samuel L. Jackson; and singer Bruce Springsteen—had all hinted darkly of plans to become expatriates if Trump were to return to the Oval Office.
Schumer, Jackson, and others had made similar vows in 2016 prior to Trump’s first election but obviously didn’t make good on them then or since.
We will find out soon whether it’s a threat or a promise that any of them will make good at this time. One can only hope that at least some will follow the lead of Ellen DeGeneres and her wife, Portia de Rossi, who recently moved to the United Kingdom in protest.
Mr. Trump will be sworn back into office in just days on Jan. 20, so presumably Cher, Streisand, and all of the other Hollywood lefty actors and musicians who flamboyantly vowed to flee the country have by now renewed their passports, printed their boarding passes, and booked their Ubers and Lyfts to L.A. International Airport.
The only question is, will all the smoke from the wildfires—which California Gov. Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass did less than nothing to prevent and are still engulfing large swaths of Los Angeles County—delay their outbound flights? Those of us tired of their pious political grandstanding hope not.
As an aside, if he were still alive, it’s doubtful that Sonny Bono—Cher’s husband and singer-songwriter duet partner in the 1960s and 1970s—would have joined the leftist would-be exodus. Sonny Bono—not to be confused with that other Bono of U2 fame—was a conservative Republican who served as mayor of Palm Springs, Calif., before being elected to Congress in 1994. Bono had a promising political future that might have taken him to the California governor’s mansion, the Senate, or perhaps even the White House, had he not died tragically in a skiing accident in January 1998, halfway through his second term in Congress.
It’s interesting to note, however, that no prominent conservatives in Hollywood such as Clint Eastwood, Chuck Norris, Jon Voight, James Woods, or Kevin Sorbo, for example—ever threatened to leave the country during the far-left presidencies of Barack Obama or Joe Biden.
As for Cher and Streisand, both of whom were famous for their multiple, unending “Farewell” concert tours, how can we say goodbye if you don’t leave?
Sayonara, Cher. Bye-bye, Babs.
At any rate, it’s time for all of the denizens of the Hollywood Left afflicted with Trump Derangement Syndrome to put up or shut up and exit stage left. Do us a favor, though: Wherever you decide to go, make it a one-way flight.
• Peter Parisi is a former editor for The Washington Times.
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