Quoting a USA Today report from the event by Claudia Puig, Morrison let loose on Deschanel for allegedly speaking ill of downtown Los Angeles:
I can't believe Zooey Deschanel is really the snobby cow she came off sounding like Saturday evening.
The actress was a guest at the black-tie Hollywood BAFTA gala in downtown Los Angeles for the royal Cambridges, William and Kate. To my friend and former Times colleague Claudia Puig, now the USA Today critic and film writer, Ms. Deschanel worried aloud that the neighborhood around the fabulously restored Belasco Theatre might look shabby to the regal couple. "I just don't want them to see the worst of L.A.," said Deschanel.
Excuse me? Downtown, the worst of L.A.?
What, Ms. Deschanel, you don't have any homeless people there near your Westside home? Or does that not count, because they're on the beach, not the sidewalks?
Puig's original quote from her report of the event:
"I think they're bigger than stars," said Zooey Deschanel, in a gold tea-length Oscar De La Renta dress.
She worried that the area near the BAFTA event at the Belasco Theater in downtown Los Angeles might look shabby to the regal couple.
"I just don't want them to see the worst of L.A.," said Deschanel.
And finally, Deschanel with the last word, blogging on her own website, HelloGiggles:
Dear Ms. Morrison,
I feel compelled to respond to your recent blog post regarding comments I "allegedly" made outside the BAFTA dinner on Saturday night. I never spoke to you at this event; in fact, you weren't even there. I am completely and utterly shocked that a professional journalist, whom I have never met, would take a partial quote out of context and use it as the basis for a misguided personal attack. Further, I find it appalling that you would resort to name-calling to get your point across. In a court of law this would be called hearsay, and in journalism, I believe this should be the beginning of an investigation, not the end of one.
Let me be clear: the quote from USA TODAY that you used as the foundation of your piece was taken completely out of context. I NEVER said that Downtown LA was "the worst of LA". I did make a reference to a parking lot adjacent to the theater that had a lot of trash in it in an attempt to be humorous. I simply said, "It's funny they brought royalty here, there is a parking lot with trash around the corner." It wasn't an opinion. It was true. There was indeed a parking lot with trash around the corner. I thought that the juxtaposition of British Royalty and trash was amusing in a high-brow + low brow sort of way, but I never said that I, personally, didn't like downtown, the Royals, or even trash.
I LOVE DOWNTOWN LA and I relish any opportunity to spend time there. I have pride in my city, that's the reason why I thought it was kind of funnythat they didn't clean up the immediate surroundings before the Royals came through. In the end, of course, it didn't actually matter since those two crazy kids were flown in by helicopter anyway. Silly me. Regardless, I don't even think I need to defend my love of Los Angeles. I am a native Angelino, and had you done any research at all, you would have found that I have been quoted in the press on numerous occasions talking about how much I love Downtown.
In your piece, the character you've created of "me" is actually pretty funny. I don't know who this person is, but it seems as if you've borrowed her from the Susan Lucci repertoire. You make so many far-fetched conclusions; for one thing, you state, "go back to your house on the Westside." Well, I can't do that because I do not live on the Westside. You also open your piece by calling me a "cow", which might be your opinion, but I wish a journalist for the Los Angeles Times and KPCC had found a more sophisticated way of sharing a difference in perceived opinion.
It's hard for me to comprehend why you launched such a vile and toxic blow in my direction over a sentence fragment that you did not even hear for yourself. I do hope that in the future when writing about something, especially a human being, you will consider both the facts and context before publishing your opinion.
Sincerely,
Zooey Deschanel
Point: Deschanel. As of 3:30pm, The L.A. Times has updated the article with a correction: "As it turns out, Zooey Deschanel doesn't live on the Westside."