Susan Sarandon has branded fellow actress Debra Messing “self-righteous” in a bitter war of words, after the stars came to blows over Donald Trump on Twitter.
Reigniting their long-running feud over the US President, Will and Grace actress Messing, 50, slammed 71-year-old Sarandon after she gave an interview to Variety at the Toronto Film Festival recently where she appeared to credit Trump with unintentionally “energising” women to run for office.
“This is a revolution,” she told the news outlet. “Maybe things had to get so bad before real change actually could happen. We just have to stay awake.”
However, having seen the headline of the video on Twitter, Messing hit out at Sarandon and wrote: “STFU [shut the f*** up] SUSAN. Oh yes, PLEASE let’s give Trump CREDIT. I mean how else are you able to walk out on the street.
https://twitter.com/DebraMessing/status/1039918630962487296
“Convince yourself that that this CATASTROPHE of a President who you said was better that HRC IS NOT ripping children away from parents seeking asylum, holding children… INDEFINITELY in internment camps with their new policy, DESTROYING all attempts to protect our environment (yes the water you properted to care about), endangered animals.”
She continued to accuse Trump of taking away women’s access to health care and legal abortion, destroying good will across the globe and putting his “pro-Russia” agenda before his duties in the United States.
Not done there, the actress went on to slam Sarandon for failing to ever apologise for claiming that Hillary Clinton was a riskier choice than Trump for the presidency in 2016.
Messing added: “And LAUD the effect Trump has had. Out of DESPERATION & PANIC for the DESTRUCTION of the Soul of our country. But you don’t want to look at THAT part of the equation. Because then you’d have to admit you were dead WRONG running around bellowing that HRC was more dangerous than Trump. Only a self righteous, narcissist would continue to spout off and not – in the face of Americans’ pain and agony -be contrite and apologise for your part in this catastrophe. But, you do you Susan.”
Without waiting for a response, she then re-shared the original video from Variety and added: “Yeah. That’s right. She had the GALL.”
Apparently seeing the final tweet, Sarandon responded directly to Messing and claimed the headline on the original tweet had manipulated what she actually said in the video. She wrote: “Debs, before you get yourself all self-righteous try clicking on the video and listening to what I actually say, not @Variety’s clickbait headline, which btw has no quotation marks. That’s a clue..”
She later added: “I understand why @Variety’s clickbait headline would be upsetting, but after you actually watch the video, you’ll see that’s not what I said. Now that you’re riled up, use that energy to call Collins, Murkowski & those Dem Senators still on the fence & tell them to #StopKavanaugh.”
It’s the latest in a long-running feud between the two actresses and speaking about their animosity previously to Entertainment Tonight, Messing insisted politics was always at the forefront of their exchanges.
“I did not intend or expect it to become anything the media would be interested in,” she said in 2016. “But having said that, I think from my point of view, the politics was always at the forefront of conversation.”
Meanwhile, Sarandon wasn’t as diplomatic when she was asked about the feud, and made another dig about the actress on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen in 2017.
“She’s not very well informed and so sometimes she gets in areas that she really hasn’t thought through, maybe? She’s Trumpian a little bit like that,” Sarandon said at the time. “So, I don’t have anything against her personally. I just sometimes I have to say, ‘But you don’t have the information’.”