California restaurant owner blasts Hollywood hypocrisy amid coronavirus restrictions
'Pitting us against each other for survival is not the way to go about' the situation, Angela Marsden argues
A Los Angeles restaurant owner blasted Hollywood on Sunday for reportedly arguing that the entertainment industry cannot be compared to restaurants and bars amid the coronavirus pandemic and the associated lockdowns.
“It is a sad day when there is a huge humanitarian crisis in your backyard and you want to bicker over who is wearing a mask or who isn't,” Pineapple Hill Saloon & Grill owner Angela Marsden said.
Marsden made the comment on “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Sunday reacting to Hollywood executives reportedly defending the continued operation of film crews during the pandemic while other businesses in Los Angeles, including restaurants and bars, are forced to shut down due to new regulations in the city and state of California amid a surge in cases and hospitalizations.
“We are not a bar where everybody sits around with their masks off,” Momita Sengupta, Netflix’s vice president of physical production, told The Hollywood Reporter.
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The outlet went on to report that “she and others contend that film and TV sets are highly controlled, closed-off environments thanks to the strict protocols created by studios, guilds and top epidemiologists,” adding that “sets require frequent testing, ample personal protective equipment and contact tracing when positive tests inevitably arise.”
Marsden noted on Sunday that she believes in wearing masks, adding “my servers wear shields, they wear gloves [and] they wear masks.”
“Hollywood, their careers are made in pubs and bars,” she added. “You start off as a waiter trying to be an actor.”
Marsden went on to say that “pitting us against each other for survival is not the way to go about this.”
“If anything, Netflix should be starting a fund to help save the bars and help feed the people that have supported their industry right here in their hometown of Hollywood,” she continued. “I don't understand why they feel they have to be defensive and try to attack me because it's not about politics, it's about people.”
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Netflix did not immediately respond to FOX Business’ request for comment.
Earlier this month, Marsden made an emotional plea on “Cavuto: Coast to Coast” to who she referred to as “out of touch” local officials in California, warning that the new shutdown orders will have devastating consequences for small businesses.
Marsden made the comments days after Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the most restrictive order since he imposed the country’s first statewide stay-at-home rule in March. Starting Dec. 6, much of Southern California, the San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Valley have been placed under a sweeping new lockdown in an urgent attempt to slow the rapid rise of coronavirus cases.
The new measures, which include the closures of all bars, hair salons, barbershops, casinos, and indoor and outdoor playgrounds, will remain in place for at least three weeks.
In a video posted by Marsden, which has gone viral, she claimed Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti had shut down the outdoor patio at her business -- while letting a Hollywood movie crew set up an outdoor dining area just a short distance away.
The shutdown at the Pineapple Hill Grill & Saloon came amid a county-ordered ban on outdoor dining, a mayor-issued stay-at-home order – and the state-level plans for business shutdowns.
CORONAVIRUS LOCKDOWN IN CALIFORNIA FORCES BUSINESS TO FLEE THE STATE
Marsden appears in a video in which she explains her situation – while walking over to the television crew’s setup of tents, tables and chairs to illustrate just how close it is to her business.
“Look at this. Tell me that this is dangerous,” she says in the video, pointing to her own patio, “but right next to me, as a slap in my face, that’s safe. This is safe? Fifteen feet away?
On Sunday Marsden stressed the current shutdown of restaurants and bars is a “huge crisis,” noting that five restaurants within a one-mile radius in Los Angeles are “pleading for any kind of funding or help because they literally cannot come back after this closure.”
She pointed out that one of those restaurants, the Valley Inn Restaurant and Bar, “has been here 50 years supplying food, love, kindness, support and comradery for the entertainment industry” and yet, she said the entertainment industry has been missing in action.
“All I'm simply saying is, ‘Where are you and where is the entertainment industry right now?’” she asked.
“I don't want to get into fighting and bickering over a piece of bread,” Marsden continued. “I literally feel like we're on an island and people are starving and they’re fighting over a piece of bread.”
“It's ridiculous,” she stressed.
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Fox News’ Dom Calicchio and The Associated Press contributed to this report.