Gilles Mingasson/TLCAlthough she's the subject of a new documentary called Undefeated, Sarah Palin is not winning in Hollywood.
The Republican vice presidential nominee turned reality star turned up in Pella, Iowa, Tuesday night, but it wasn't to gauge support for that rumored presidential run. Instead, she attended the premiere of Undefeated, a new documentary from filmmaker Steve Bannon chronicling Palin's rise to conservative superstardom.
So what did Mama Grizzly think about a montage featuring showbiz liberals bashing her?
"This is the first that I've seen much of that. It kind of takes you back," Palin told The Hollywood Reporter. "It makes you want to reach out to some of these folks and say, 'What's your problem? And what was the problem? And what is the problem?'"
The nastiness she's referring to reportedly takes place in the first 10 minutes of Undefeated, after Palin is unveiled as John McCain's 2008 running mate. The film then cuts to a shot of the Hollywood sign and a TV news anchor intoning sinisterly, "Hollywood has a new favorite pasttime: taking aim at Sarah Palin."
That's followed by a series of clips of celebs like Howard Stern, Louis C.K., Matt Damon and others taking angry, crude potshots at her in the media. In one, Bill Maher calls her a "dumb tw-t" on his HBO show; in another David Letterman calls her "slutty;" and in yet another clip, during her concert Madonna yells "Sarah f--king Palin" from the stage. Bannon also interspersed this with footage of Palin being hung in effigy. After the montage ends, a Bible verse appears onscreen: "By their fruits ye shall know them."
"What would make someone be so full of hate?" asked the former half-term governor. "What would make a celebrity, like you saw onscreen, so hate someone that they'd seek their destruction, their death, the death of their children? What would make someone be so full of hate and, I guess, a sense of being threatened that they would want to see that person destroyed?"
That's putting it mildly.
Palin has drawn scathing criticism these last two years for her own heated rhetoric, whether for her unfounded campaign accusation that Obama palled around with terrorists of for putting Gabrielle Giffords in her infamous "crosshairs" map before the congresswoman was shot in the head in Tucson.
But the onetime mayor of Wasilla, Ala., added that she hoped Undefeated would serve as a counterweight to all the invective coming from Tinseltown. Though she isn't counting on it.
"I think the movie does that for me," Palin said. "But you know, there's never really a venue that absolutely lets somebody set the record straight. I mean, there are so many false narratives about me, about Todd, about our kids, about my record, about my team that has worked so hard together, that there's never gonna be a way to absolutely set the record straight."