More Hollywood jerks

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Gov. Joe Manchin and a miners’ union took offense Tuesday to a planned scene from an upcoming film starring Julianne Moore that stereotypes West Virginians as inbreeds.

The horror thriller “Shelter” is recruiting extras with unusual physical features for a scene in a West Virginia “holler,” according to the statement from Donna Belajac Casting of Pittsburgh.

The casting call said the film is looking for extras who are extraordinarily tall or short, those with unusual body shapes and unusual facial features, especially eyes, and even people with physical abnormalities as long as they have normal mobility. ...

The casting call also advertises for a 9- to 12-year-old white girl with an “other-worldly look ... could be an albino or something along those lines — she’s someone who is visually different and therefore has a closer contact to the gods and to magic. ’Regular-looking’ children should not attend this open call.”

Shooting for those scenes is scheduled to start Sunday in the Pittsburgh area.Casting agency director Donna Belajac didn’t immediately return a telephone message Tuesday.
The casting call prompted a seething response from Cecil E. Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers union.

“Why must it be automatically assumed by the surgically enhanced ’beautiful people’ who populate Hollywood that those who live in the hills and hollows of places like West Virginia are all afflicted with physical abnormalities?” Roberts said.

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