Mike Huckabee Slams Natalie Portman For Being 29 And Pregnant (And Single!)

Natalie Portman and Benjamin Millepied, engaged parents-to-be at the Oscars (AP)

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee is totally throwing himself into the national spotlight (and 2012 ring) with his remarks this week. After falsely claiming that President Obama grew up in Kenya, Huckabee, in a discussion about the Oscars, said on a radio program, "One of the things that's troubling is that people see a Natalie Portman or some other Hollywood starlet who boasts of, 'Hey look, you know, we're having children, we're not married, but we're having these children, and they're doing just fine.' But there aren't really a lot of single moms out there who are making millions of dollars every year for being in a movie. And I think it gives a distorted image that yes, not everybody hires nannies, and caretakers, and nurses."

He added, "Most single moms are very poor, uneducated, can't get a job, and if it weren't for government assistance, their kids would be starving to death and never have health care. And that's the story that we're not seeing, and it's unfortunate that we glorify and glamorize the idea of out of wedlock children. You know, right now, 75 percent of black kids in this country are born out of wedlock. 61 percent of Hispanic kids—across the board, 41 percent of all live births in America are out of wedlock births. And the cost of that is simply staggering."

The lack of comprehensive sex education (you know, sex education that discusses contraception, not the abstinence-only sex education that Huckabee has supported) and glamorizing of pregnancies at a young age—yes, we're looking at you, MTV—is definitely a problem. But why single out Natalie Portman as a bad role model? She was an Intel Science Talent Search semi-finalist when she was a Long Island high school student (and that was before she graduated from Harvard with a degree in psychology!).

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By Jen Chung in Arts & Entertainment on March 4, 2011 10:20 AM

Comments [rss]

aminakis

New York isn't doing much better at keeping teens from getting adult pregnant in the first place. Neither is California. Most people look at the birth rate only and think the "red states" are doing so poorly because they only teach abstinence and have limited access to abortion. Rather than make this a red state-blue state thing and declaring ourselves the winners we should look a little deeper into the data.

lizybeths

Wait you mean I'm not making millions this coming year?!?! Thank f*cking god I had Mike Huckabee there to explain that one for me.

ed_Extinct

She's 29, not 16. She's a strong woman and what she does with her body, single or married, is her business. For gods sake, she also is, may I remind you, filthy rich—I'm sure that child will be brought up just fine single mom or not.

Funny how this is more an issue for him than his dog-beating son.

Happeh

All of us would be filthy rich of the media promoted us too.

But our cousins don't own the media. Her's do.

ed_Extinct

Wow. Your pseudo anti-semetic comment just lost you that argument.

Happeh

Only among .005% of the population.

soxinthecity

Huckelberry should spend more time worrying about his own kid that hung a dog from a tree and stoned the poor animal to death.

Phil Davis

Look at his family. Is this what America looks like?

http://www.amnation.com/vfr/ar...

Ragingsemi

Unfortunately...yes.

Donna Trainer

We can't all be Bristol Palin now can we?

ANGRYGOD11

If Huckabee had any real beliefs he would bash Briston Palin, not just because shes a single mother, but unlike Natalie, used her only claim to fame to make money. But, his audience base is just about the same as Sarah Palin and they both work for Fox, so he won't.
Jon Stewart, do what you know must be done.

freddynyc

Hey, at least she doesn't pardon cop-killers you dumb hick dufus....

jibbly

I think if you were an inmate, all you had to really do to obtain clemency from ol' Huck was say how you found Jesus (particularly the southern baptist version who is a white male model) and that you believe that Jesus made you commit all these crimes in order to put you in prison to find religion (again, particularly the southern baptist kind) and be SAVED!

For those of you who want a little catching up: http://opinionator.blogs.nytim...

heresyourcopy

what he think about Bristol Palin?

Mr Mel

He may just have zero'd in on this, because of Bristol. He's making an issue of something that his loyal followers want to jump on. He may be trying to knock down (that sounds funny) Mama Palin who's the front runner for the GOP nomination. We'll be hearing more later.

Lola Hausman

He slams her being she is SINGLE and pregnant, not because she is 29.

Jen Chung

Right but why should her marital status have anything to do with it? She's got a job, she wants a baby, and she appears to be in a committed relationship—is a marriage license is the end all be all? And if she wasn't in a committed relationship, if she wants to have a kid, why not? Single people can adopt kids.

Isn't that what those anti-choicers are saying, anyway—that single women shouldn't have abortions but raise kids in spite of other factors in their life?

Crack Rat

Um, I think Lola is trying to say that Huckabee did not slam Portman for being 29 (as your lede erroneously indicates).

Jen Chung

Yeah, I know—I was trying to draw a parallel to MTV's insanely popular "16 and Pregnant."

RevWaldo

Well, where Huckabee's from 29 already makes her an old maid. She should be on her fifth child by now at least! Blame her lack of breeding hips.