Listen, you can't pen Mean Girls without having once been a mean girl yourself. And it's totally believable that someone with as much meteoric success as Tina Fey has obtained it through sheer will and determination (and talent, duh) and it didn't just drop in her slacker lap. Even Judd Apatow and Kevin Smith pull all-nighters people.
But it's just a little…um…off-putting that every page of Tina Fey's profile in January's Vanity Fair is peppered with references to Fey's biting cruelty and efficient German work ethic.
Let's count the ways Maureen Dowd, of all people, can compare Liz Lemon's alter-ego to a fascist dictatorship.
• There’s a reason her former S.N.L. pal Colin Quinn dubbed Tina Fey “Herman the German.” She’s a sprite with a Rommel battle plan.
• "It’s the Leni Riefenstahl in her. She has such a German work ethic even though she’s half Greek. It’s superhuman, the German thing of ‘This will happen and I am going to make this happen.’ It’s just sheer force of will.”
• As it turns out, the 669-page autobiography of Leni Riefenstahl—chronicling her time as Hitler’s favorite filmmaker and the creation of the propaganda movie Triumph of the Will—is one of Fey’s favorite (cautionary) books. “If she hadn’t been so brilliant at what she did, she wouldn’t have been so evil,” Fey says. “She was like, in the book, ‘He was the leader of the country. Who was I not to go?’ And it’s like, Note to self: Think through the invite from the leader of your country.”
• “She’s half German, half Greek. That is just like loosey-goosey-crazy, and then you get, ‘Do the trains run on time?”’
• Fey’s father (the German side) is an affable Clint Eastwood look-alike who loves reading books about comedy and often drives up from the Philly area to visit Tina and Alice on the set.
• She is the Obedient Daughter, the German taskmistress, the kind but firm maker and keeper of rules. And what Tina wants, Tina gets, sooner or later, because she works and works and works for it.
German, German, German Fey! Actually, I always sort of wanted to be friends with Tina Fey (who doesn't?) but now I think I'd be too scared to. Definitely not going to take up her invitation of showering at her place anytime soon, either. Learned that trick first time around.
Is tina fey gay?
Jimbuc, Tina Fey is married and has a child. You read this entire article and all you could think of to comment was "is she gay?" Well, Is Jimbuc an idiot?
Yop.
In 2008, or even in 1808 for that matter, or any year or time, no one should be so lazy as to rely on stupid, over-generalized, ignorant stereotypes such as the dumb ones in this lame article. What, exactly, is a "German" work ethic, or whatever? COME ON, PEOPLE. For God's sake, they teach this in Journalism 101, literally: DO NOT USE STUPID GENERALIZATIONS AND STEREOTYPES BASED ON RACE, CREED, NATIONALITY OR RELIGION OR GENDER OR ENVIRONMENT. JUST DON'T. It's that simple. What–only Germans have some type of "work ethic?" Really? No one else on the planet? Come on. If a magazine such as this has to rely on cliched, ignorant generalizations and stereotypes, it's time for the editors and the writer to re-take Journalism 101. If Tina Fey works hard, then just say it: She works hard. She works long hours. She is dedicated, smart, intelligent, talented, and believes in what she is doing. There–that's all you need to do. You don't need to use generalizations and stereotpyes. Lesson over.