Lara Spencer Laughed At Prince George’s Ballet Lessons, And People Aren’t Having It
For a moment during yesterday’s broadcast of Good Morning America, Lara Spencer made sure the rest of her week was anything but good by laughing while reporting about Prince George taking ballet lessons. Something tells me Lara Spencer wasn’t laughing so hard when she was pulled into the Good Morning America producers office and told her to call up Megyn Kelly and ask her how well outdated beliefs go over in 2019.
Lara was reporting on Prince George’s new curriculum at his private school Thomas’s Battersea. Six-year-old George has more school activities on his plate this year. People says that Year 2s (which is George) focus on basic literacy and numbers. Oh good, George can help mummy and daddy add up how much money they saved on those discount commercial flights.
George will also be required to do a bit of homework, learn cursive writing, and reading poetry to his classmates. He’ll take a French class once a week, a drama class, twice-a-week music classes, and a ballet class. That last one was apparently really funny to Lara, who got snarky about it:
“In addition to the usual first or second grade things, like math, science and history, the future King of England will be putting down the Play-Doh to take on religious studies, computer programming, poetry and ballet, among other things. [Sarcastically] He looks so happy about the ballet class. Prince William says Prince George absolutely loves ballet. I have news for you, Prince William: We’ll see how long that lasts.”
Lara tried to backpedal a bit by saying, “I mean, between the religious studies and the computer programming, I just wanna go back to the Play-Doh.” And if she wasn’t watching her mouth so much, I bet she would have added: “But none of that sissy, sparkly pink Play-Doh. Actually, no Doh – it sounds too much like dough, and we all know Home-Ec is for girls!”
Since dancing is one of those things where the only restriction is that you have to have a body, lots of people got really mad at Lara. Dance Magazine reminded Lara that there are plenty of boys and men who take ballet, and that what she did was basically bully a six-year-old boy for liking what he likes, while an audience laughed along with her. They write:
“If that seems okay to you, I would recommend finding your nearest dance studio and enrolling in an open class, because your empathy could use a serious tune-up.”
Others, like George Takei, stressed that her attitude was a reflection of toxic masculinity.
Lara Spencer on @GMA mocked a 6-year old Prince George of the UK for taking ballet class. It shows that “toxic masculinity” can be spread viciously by insensitive women, too. As a fellow “George” and a lover of dance, I am very troubled and disappointed by her actions.
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) August 23, 2019
Lara Spencer heard all the haters and she apologized on Instagram today. Her apology was accompanied by a picture of mountains. If there was any outdoor picture to choose, it should have been a picture of the hole she’s having to dig her way out of. Because this apology probably isn’t going to do the trick.
A quick peek at the comments show not everyone was buying her apology. I have a feeling we’re about to get another apology on Monday when GMA returns. That, or the words “Lara Spencer is out sick today…”
But I do feel bad for the damage control team over at ABC. It hasn’t been a great week for dance-related PR nightmares. First their Sean Spicer DWTS stunt casting backfires and fellow contestant Karamo Brown is run off Twitter. Then Lara Spencer laughs at the future King of England because he likes ballet. What’s next? A leaked video of Kelly Ripa bumping and grinding with Mark Consuelos in her Live! dressing room? To be honest, they probably wouldn’t be bothered by that.
Pic: YouTube