Tyler Perry (AP)
Kim Kardashian and her family may have reached their tipping point. A petition calling for E! to stop airing all Kardashian-related programming now has more than 125,000 signatures online. Meanwhile, filmmaker Tyler Perry has spoken out about why he decided to cast Kardashian in his movie “The Marriage Counselor” amid calls for a boycott of the movie.
Cyndy Snyder organized the “No More Kardashian” petition via the Web site GoPetition.com. Traffic to the site has been “very heavy.” On Wednesday afternoon, the petition had 70,000 signatures. A day later, the petition has 125,270 names attached. Meanwhile, 53,152 people have “liked” the petition on Facebook. The petition takes aim at the shows “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” “Kourtney & Kim Take New York,” and “Kourtney & Khloe Take Miami.”
The petition has gained steam in the public backlash stemming from Kardashian filing for divorce from Kris Humphries, apparently against his will, just weeks after E! aired a four hour special called “Kim Kardashian’s Fairytale Wedding.’ Snyder explained the petition in a statement.
“In a grass roots effort, we have collected signatures for a petition asking E! Entertainment to remove the Kardashian suite of shows from their programming,” Snyder wrote. “We feel these shows are mostly staged and place an emphasis on vanity, greed, promiscuity, vulgarity and over-the-top conspicuous consumption. While some may have begun watching the spectacle as mindless entertainment or as a sort of ‘reality satire,’ it is a sad truth that many young people are looking up to this family.”
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Tyler Perry is also feeling the wrath of the Kardashian ire. He says that he has been flooded with emails ever since it was announced that Kardashian would have a role in “The Marriage Counselor.” He has finally spoken out about the decision in a blog post.
“Can a brother get a word in?….LOL. Y’all gave me a new movie title, ‘Tyler Perry’s Diary of a Mad Black Woman Cause You Hired Kim Kardashian, Don’t Make Me Take Off My Earrings and Boycott Yo A**.'”
But Perry quickly got serious.
“After I finished writing this movie … I knew that this message was not only for my age group, but for all audiences, especially the youth … Long before I even heard about Kim’s marriage or divorce, I was trying to finish up the casting. I said to one of my producers, ‘Who else is out there that young people are looking up to?’ One of my producers showed me pictures that his daughter had taken of several hundred kids lined up around the corner to get into a Kardashian store. I thought, what better person?”
Perry, like actress Olivia Wilde, is asking people not to judge Kardashian for her quick divorce. “Why wouldn’t Kim Kardashian be invited into a film about faith, forgiveness and the healing power of God?” he wrote. “What is wrong with that??”