Posted on January 10, 2019

‘Green Book’ Controversy Continues as Screenwriter’s Anti-Muslim Tweets Surface

Olivia Ovenden, Esquire, January 1, 2019

On Sunday night Green Book defied the odds to take home three Golden Globes, winning in the ‘Best Screenplay’, ‘Best Musical or Comedy film’ and ‘Best Actor’ categories, the latter for Mahershala Ali’s performance.

{snip} The film has oscillated between huge award success – such as the prestigious People’s Choice award at Toronto film festival — and a series of escalating scandals and backlashes.

The hope that the Golden Globes wins might quieten — or at least distract from — the drama surrounding the film have been dashed after anti-Muslim tweets from screenwriter Nick Vallelonga surfaced online.

His comments are in response to a rally Trump held on his campaign trail that month where he said he had “watched in Jersey City, New Jersey, where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down.”

The reaction to Vallelonga’s comments been particularly damning given that Green Book claims to expose the ugly racism in America and that lead actor Mahershala Ali is a Muslim.

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This comes after an initial backlash from the film’s tone as treating racism as something that can be tempered by a buddy road trip with a white saviour figure.

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