Hasselbeck Suggests Matt Damon Sounds Sexist

September 13th, 2008 9:06 AM

Actor Matt Damon dismissing the Sarah Palin candidacy as a "really bad Disney movie" and "totally absurd," like she was "president" and would face down Vladimir Putin, drew criticism from Elisabeth Hasselbeck on ABC’s The View on Thursday. She thought it sounded sexist. She began with some jokey support for Disney the owners of ABC:

HASSELBECK: Disney does not make bad movies, number one...they don’t....and also as important is the fact that to say ‘uh, she’s a hockey mom, and all of a sudden she’s going to be vice president of the United States’....to make a statement like that (a) without research and (b) I don’t know where he’s been – I was a huge fan of Good Will Hunting.

WALTERS: And now will you go to see Matt Damon movies?

HASSELBECK: I will, but I might just feel a little bit of anger while watching.

She could have said Damon's character in Good Will Hunting -- the stunning genius with the really bad Boston accent who just wants to be a working stiff -- was much more absurd a movie cliche than Gov. Palin, and Damon wrote that script (with fellow genius Ben Affleck). Sherri Shepherd joked about his looks, "I don’t care what Matt Damon says," and the discussion continued:

HASSELBECK: He’s cute, but he can’t get away with saying she’s just a hockey mom, as if that statement in itself –

SHEPHERD: She said it!

WALTERS: Why can’t anybody get away with anything they want to say?

HASSELBECK: Look, he’s entitled to say it.

WALTERS: That’s right!

HASSELBECK: But I think to say ‘just a hockey mom’ itself is something offensive.