Nathan Lane, who famously played an obsessive Maria Callas fan in Terrence McNally’s play The Lisbon Traviata, had some harsh words for the opera- and ballet-bashing Timothée Chalamet on today’s The View.
“Oh, what a schmuck,” Lane shot when moderator Whoopi Goldberg asked his thoughts about Chalamet’s CNN town hall comment that “no one cares about” ballet and opera anymore.
With mock seriousness, Lane continued: “You know, one doesn’t want to give this more attention than it deserves. And yet, and yet, it was kind of kaleidoscopic in its stupidity and insensitivity yet strangely telling about where we are in this country.”
And then … and then: “First of all, one should remember people will be going to see Swan Lake and La Traviata long after someone at a dinner party says, ‘Who was Timothée Chalamet?’ It’s the show business circle of life.
“And the bigger question is: Why was there a town hall meeting with Matthew McConaughey and Timothée Chalamet? I mean, who deemed this meeting of the minds necessary? Why isn’t there a town hall meeting with Democrats discussing how to get this lunatic out of the White House?”
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Lane continued: “Then I realized, ‘Oh, he’s still promoting that movie, that endless ping-pong movie [Marty Supreme].’ And, you know, I got news for Timmy: If you think nobody cares about opera and ballet, I can’t tell you how much we don’t care about ping-pong.”
But Lane did have some comic speculation about what was going on behind-the-scenes of the CNN & Variety Town Hall Event with Chalamet and McConaughey: “I’m thinking some weed was smoked before,[or] this may just be a tragic case of terribly unfunny people trying to be funny, which always ends in disaster.”
Lane, who was promoting his new Broadway revival Death of a Salesman — he teased that director Joe Mantello’s production is “non-traditional” and “more abstract and psychological” interpretation — is merely the latest celebrity to criticize Chalamet’s comments.
Continuing in his take-no-prisoners approach, Lane moved on from Chalamet to relate an anecdote, first told by his friend Jesse Tyler Ferguson on a podcast, in which Lane met Ferguson’s young son, who was duly dazzled by The Lion King star.
After singing “Hakuna Matata” for the child, Lane was relaxing with the other guests when the boy ran in and said, “Guess what I have?”
“And I said, ‘Hepatitis?,” Lane related. “And everybody laughed. The next day all these outlets picked it up, and said, “Nathan Lane makes unhinged remarks to 5-year-old. Like I was Timothy Busfield.”
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