Julianne Hough has already apologized via Twitter for donning blackface at a Halloween party on Friday, Oct. 25, but the Safe Haven star hasn't earned everyone's forgiveness just yet. During the Monday, Oct. 28, episode of The Wendy Williams Show, host Wendy Williams weighed in on the costume controversy during the Hot Topics segment.
The outspoken TV personality noted that Julianne, 25, "caused a stir" over the weekend. "We don't normally think of her as stirring! Just dancing and smiling and stuff," Williams said. "She showed her ignorant side when she showed up to a Halloween party wearing blackface. Like, who does that?"
Julianne—who went as Crazy Eyes from Orange Is the New Black—has said it was never her intention "to be disrespectful or demeaning to anyone in any way."
"I don't know what part of stupid—or, excuse me, less than smart—she is," Williams argued. "Who walks out of the house in blackface? Like, wow, Julianne. I don't know whose party she was at, but you have to figure this: This was, like, an intentional move. This was not something that happened all of a sudden and she was like, ‘Oh, is this racist?' You put thought into your Halloween costume. I've known what I've wanted to wear for over 40 days and I've been dieting accordingly...You talk about your Halloween costume. You don't just show up in blackface. Which means she's not just less than smart off the cuff—she's less than smart even when she thinks about it."
Williams then read Hough's apology aloud, though it didn't do the dancer-turned-actress any favors. The TV host also alleged that Julianne "grew up someplace where there weren't a lot of black people."
(Though Julianne was born in Utah, the dancer spent many years training in the United Kingdom.)
"She grew up Mormon. She only thought that there was one kind of alcohol until I guess she arrived to Hollyweird and discovered you can drink something different every minute of the day," Williams told the audience. "Does she get a pass if she grew up out there? Because I'm thinking there's books and there's internet and TV…the world is your oyster."
The bottom line, Williams argued, is that Julianne "should know better."