Dolly Parton Explains Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda Trump Slam At 2017 Emmys
Dolly Parton is speaking out about her controversial 9 to 5 reunion with co-stars Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin at the 2017 Emmys where the actresses put President Donald Trump on serious blast.
Dolly, who stayed a little quieter while Lily and Jane took aim at the 45th President of the United States on stage at the award show, is now speaking out about her co-stars’ diss and the backlash they received for their words about the president during the live broadcast.
“They’re Lily and they’re Jane and I’m Dolly. So, they did their thing, I did mine,” Parton told People this week of the controversial moment, revealing that although she and her former co-stars got a whole lot of backlash for speaking negatively about the president that she’s actually not too worried about drama.
“Oh, we got a little flack from it,” Dolly said, “but you know, I can’t worry about all that.”
Parton also explained to the outlet why she decided to stay quiet and keep the show moving as her co-stars spoke out against Trump, admitting that she prefers to stay out of politics and keep things a little lighter.
“I don’t do politics. I’m an entertainer,” Parton explained of why she appeared to hold her tongue while reuniting with Jane and Lily at the award show last month. “When I’m out there, if all else fails, I just do a boob joke.”
Dolly did try to lighten the mood during the broadcast by joking about her chest size. While Lily and Jane took aim at Trump, the “Jolene” singer attempted to move things along amid the controversy by joking, “If it hadn’t been for good support, Shock and Awe here would be more like Flopsy and Droopy.”
The country music legend then denied in the interview that she was upset with her friends for the controversial moment and seemingly also denied that she was aware of what would happen beforehand. She told People that they reunited to “have fun” and not stir up drama.
As fans saw during the broadcast, the 9 to 5 cast reunited during the TV award ceremony to present the award for Best Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie when Fonda and Tomlin took the opportunity to call Trump a “sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot.”
Speaking about the original 1980 movie, Fonda told the Emmys crowd, “In [9 to 5], we refused to be controlled by a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot.”
“And in 2017, we still refuse to be controlled by a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot,” Tomlin then added as Dolly looked on.
The Emmys crowd then stood and cheered for their comments against Trump while Dolly attempted to move on from the moment and get back on track to present the award, which went to actor Alexander Akarsgård for his role in HBO’s Big Little Lies.
Fans were quick to call out all three stars for disrespecting the president and the singer quickly became a trending topic on Twitter.
As reported by Tennessean, Dolly’s fans in particular made it clear that they weren’t too happy about seeing her at the center of the controversy and tweeted out scathing messages to the country music legend.
Parton has never confirmed whether or not she’s a Trump supporter, but joked to CNN in August 2016 that she thought he and competitor Hillary Clinton are “both nuts.”
[Featured Image by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]
