AnnaLynne McCord’s ‘Dear Putin’ Video Is Even Cringier Than Gal Gadot’s ‘Imagine’ Fiasco

The time has finally come: Gal Gadot has been dethroned as the celebrity with the most idiotic public response to a tragic global crisis.

On Thursday, actress AnnaLynne McCord decided to join in on the discourse surrounding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—and already, there’s her first mistake. Truly the last thing the world needs to hear right now is what the villain from the short-lived 90210 reboot thinks about a complex, terrifying international affairs issue. And yet, it gets worse. McCord shared a video of herself reciting an original poem addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin in which she blames the unfolding war on…his mother?

“Dear President Vladimir Putin, I’m so sorry that I was not your mother,” the 34-year-old actress begins. “If I was your mother, you would have been so loved. Held in the arms of joyous light. Never would this story’s plight. The world unfurled before our eyes. A pure demise of a nation sitting peaceful under a night sky.”

The verse is obviously challenging to make sense of, but the idea seems to be that she wishes she were Putin’s mother because she would have loved him and nurtured him so much that he would not have turned into the kind of man who launches violent attacks on another country. Basically, if Putin’s mom had hugged him more when he was a child, he wouldn’t have invaded Ukraine this week? Oof.

It somehow only gets worse from there. McCord claims she would have died to shelter young Putin from the hardships of growing up in the Soviet Union. She really gives the performance her all, throwing in some eyebrow acting and just the slightest hint of crocodile tears. If she had been Putin’s mother, she says, “Perhaps the torture of unwrit youth would not within your hard imbue ascription to such fealty 'gainst that world that you thought was so cruel. Perhaps you would hold dear human life, and on this night, instead of Mother Russia, you would call me.” First of all, what? And second of all, AnnaLynne McShakespeare, we see you with that “'gainst.”

Ukraine Invasion by Russia Is the Beginning of the End for Putin and His Friends

Twitter users are already drawing comparisons to the tone-deaf “Imagine” video spearheaded by Gadot at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, in which she and a slew of poorly advised celebrities sang along to the John Lennon song in a misguided effort to give us normies hope from the comfort of their luxurious homes. “Just sing ‘Imagine’ next time. It’s easier than whatever this is,” one person replied to McCord’s Twitter post.

The video is, incredibly, still active in spite of the swift, relentless backlash. Meanwhile, somewhere in Hollywood, Gadot, Kristen Wiig, and Matthew McConaughey are rehearsing an acoustic cover of “Where Is the Love?” by Black Eyed Peas. Lord help us all.

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