FluxVlog

Last week Jessica Alba made the mistake of telling a reporter, “Be neutral! Be Sweden about it!”. I say she made a mistake not because she was technically incorrect, but because it’s started a whole e-feud over the accuracy of her comments. Which has expanded into an argument over what she likely meant by the comments, which is something only Jessica knows.

The common phrase is to be neutral like Switzerland – which hasn’t been involved in a war since 1815. Never have I heard someone say “like Sweden,” – though they were neutral during World War II. When I first heard the quote, I tried to give Jessica the benefit of the doubt and consider that she might have just chosen an unusual country for her example. And that’s what she’s still claiming.

Jessica Alba is disappointed in all of us for paying attention to her during what she blogs is “perhaps the most salient time in our country’s history.” (Don’t worry, Jess, we’re more disappointed in ourselves than you’ll ever know.)

She’s speaking, of course about the “a-hole” episode, when Jessica called out Bill O’Reilly and then harassed a reporter who didn’t want to answer her questions—taunting him with “Be neutral about it, be Sweden!” This, of course, gave TMZ a chance to call her a ditz for not saying Switzerland.

But Jess isn’t going to sit around and let people call her stupid, especially when Wikipedia and MySpace exist to clear her name. This is her defense of giving Sweden the neutral shout-out:

“Last week, Mr. Bill O’Reilly and some really classy sites (i.e.TMZ) insinuated I was dumb by claiming Sweden was a neutral country. I appreciate the fact that he is a news anchor and that gossip sites are inundated with intelligent reporting, but seriously people…it’s so sad to me that you think the only neutral country during WWII was Switzerland. Check out: [Wikipedia link] if you want to see what I was referring to. I appreciate the name calling and the accurate reporting. Keep it up!!”

Well, we can’t argue with Wikipedia. You win, Jess. You’re totally smarter than TMZ.

[From E! News via Jessica Alba’s MySpace blog]

However TMZ actually makes a really good argument against Jessica. And I hate to ever agree with TMZ… though I generally don’t like to agree with Jessica Alba either. And I really hate to give Bill O’Reilly any more fodder. Rock/hard place/me.

Jessica Alba is fuming at TMZ for calling her dumb when she called Sweden a “neutral” country last week … even though it currently has troops in Afghanistan.

She is absolutely correct. Sweden was a neutral country … 60 years ago.

Even though she was engaged in a debate about the current political situation in America when she advised a reporter to “Be Sweden … be neutral” — Alba is swinging back at critics, like TMZ, on her blog saying, “It’s so sad to me that you think the only neutral country during WWII was Switzerland.”

She is absolutely correct — when the Nazis were waging war on anyone who opposed Hitler’s evil rule, Sweden remained neutral and stayed out of the war. After the war, Winston Churchill referred to Sweden as “that small, coward country.”

We apologize for not considering the political climate of the world in 1942 when we suggested she may have meant, “Be Switzerland” — a country that is currently neutral.

Our sincerest apologies.

[From TMZ]

Damn you TMZ! Clearly they brought in one of their smarter people to write this argument, since it’s thought out much better than their usual drivel. I really can’t argue with it. If you want to talk about a country that’s been neutral for almost two hundred years – and that’s also the country that’s always referenced in the “neutral like…” comparison, then you’d say Switzerland. And it’s the country that’s still neutral.

If you want to reference a country that was neutral during World War II, then you could say Switzerland or Sweden. But Sweden still wouldn’t be your best bet, because they’re currently involved in the Middle East. And Jessica didn’t say anything about WWII in her comment.

Maybe she really did remember that Sweden was neutral during World War II, but that would easily be the greatest display of celebrity intelligence in the last ten years. Though she did use the word “salient”… so who knows. I think in all likelihood Jessica mixed up her countries, yet managed to do it well enough that she could still argue about it. Next time, I’d tell Fox News to keep on walking.

Here’s Jessica enjoying a day in the park in L.A. with daughter Honor on Sunday. Images thanks to WENN.

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