Harry Connick all but Happy about Saturday
Serving as a guest judge for the Australian style talent/variety show “Hey Hey it’s Saturday Night”, Harrry Connick Jr. was all but happy. The singer/actor voiced his opinion when a group of men calling themselves “The Jackson Jive” performed a Jackson Five song in “Blackface”.
“If they turned up looking like that in the United States … it’d be like ‘Hey, hey there’s no more show,” the singer said after the skit.
A fellow judge, however, described the group as “very cute” and praised the performance for “great choreography and terrific singing.”
At the end of the live program, host Daryl Somers apologized to Connick Jr.
“I know that to your countrymen, that’s an insult to have a blackface routine like that on the show, so I do apologize to you,” Somers said.
“I know it was done humorously, but we’ve spent so much time trying to not make black people look like buffoons, that when we see something like that we take it really to heart,” the American responded.
The Nine Network, which aired the program, apologized for causing offence, as did Anand Deva, the Sydney-based plastic surgeon who led the performers. However, Deva blanched at accusations of racism.
“I am an Indian, and five of the six of us are from multicultural backgrounds and to be called a racist…I don’t think I have ever been called that ever in my life before,” Deva told Australian press.
The Man Report 