Baking Soda Blues

I hate to say I've been reading a lot (more than I should) about actor Armie Hammer and his supposed meltdown (and Twitter account deletion) over a scathing Buzzfeed article about him and his career. The crux of the article was that Hammer, despite having a string of flops behind him, keeps getting roles because he's a good looking white man. Yeah. He's in good company there. There are many white male actors out there who keep getting one chance after another to fail upwards while non-white men and women of all stripes are not given the same opportunities. I'll name just a few: Jake Gyllenhaal (give it up already), Tom Hiddleston (what's the appeal?), George Clooney (at least he had a successful run on TV). And the list isn't limited to actors. Look at Jeff Zucker. He was a disaster at NBC and is currently running CNN into the ground. Go figure. But back to Armie "Baking Soda" Hammer. I like Hammer and I think he's a decent actor. However, I agree with the Buzzfeed author's assessment that he blames everyone else for his career failures and he seems oblivious to the fact that he's received the opportunities he has because he's tall, white, young, and handsome. I wish he'd own this rather than run from it and act like the way he looks doesn't factor into the jobs he gets. Dude, you work in Hollywood. Of course your career is based on your looks. Duh. Rather than commenting that the Buzzfeed writer was bitter and shutting down his Twitter account, he should have acknowledged the parts of her article that were accurate and been honest about the breaks he's received in life. Or he could have just ignored the article all together. If I knew him, I'd tell him, "Buck up, Baking Soda, and learn to roll with the punches!"