Matthew McConaughey and Beyonce Did More for Texas Than Ted Cruz
Hollywood has surely never seemed so far from Texans’ minds as in the last two weeks. Not only did the most brutal winter storm we’ve seen in generations sweep away any idle thoughts of movie stars sunning themselves along the Pacific coastline, it replaced them with curdled resentment as we warmed ourselves with propane grills and burning hatred toward our local utility companies. For the millions who lost power, it also completely shut off our screens, with movies, TV, and celebrity gossip becoming distant concerns as we spent our dwindling batteries on futilely refreshing outage maps.
Painfully aware of this shift in priorities, several Texas celebrities set aside their own privileged lives and stepped up to help. For most of them, simply not being Ted Cruz might have sufficed. But the bare minimum has never been good enough for Beyoncé. Instead, the Houston star set up a financial assistance program through her BeyGOOD foundation, joining with Adidas and the nonprofit Bread of Life to offer up to $1,000 in individual disaster relief payments. Naturally, the response was overwhelming, drawing more than 130,000 applications in the first 24 hours, forcing the program to shut down until all of those initial submissions can be reviewed. In the meantime, BeyGOOD continues to work on the ground in Houston, distributing water and hot meals to thousands in need. (Meanwhile, Cruz made sure to pose for photos while handing out water bottles, before heading to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) to complain about “cancel culture.”)
Like Beyoncé—and Cruz—Sandra Bullock no longer spends much time in Texas, having left her adopted Austin home for New Orleans some years ago. Yet she continues to give back to her erstwhile state nevertheless. Bullock, who memorably contributed $1 million to Hurricane Harvey relief in 2017, recently donated $250,000 to the Central Texas Food Bank on behalf of her Ocean’s 8 castmates, in a clever scheme to assist people in need and make Ted Cruz look like a feckless weasel. And although Kacey Musgraves has similarly left Austin for Nashville, the East Texas country star combined good deeds with dunking on Cruz by selling a “Cruzin’ for a Bruzin’” T-shirt, raising thousands for the Texas Red Cross and other local charities in the process. So in a way, maybe Ted Cruz helped after all.
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Still, whether it’s the collapse of our energy grid or our entire social order, there’s no celebrity Texans have come to rely on in a crisis quite like Matthew McConaughey. This week in McConaughey was an unusual one marked by solemn duty and humble servitude, as the Austin actor continued to plant the seeds under his gubernatorial grow-light by “sending prayers of resilience and the humanity of the helping hand out to all Texans that are struggling with the freeze,” while offering his slightly more tangible assistance to Meals On Wheels, the Austin Boys and Girls Clubs, and the Austin Urban League. McConaughey also released one of his ever-soothing video chats—set, statesmanlike, against a somber black curtain and an American flag—to announce an upcoming “virtual benefit” he’s putting together that will aid relief and rebuilding efforts. He also pledged that Matthew McConaughey will continue to be a daily voice of authority and assurance on how our state can “get back to livin’.” Overall, it’s a clip and message that would prove highly effective in any future campaign for governor—or hell, senator.
Read more: https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/matthew-mcconaughey-and-beyonce-did-more-for-texas-than-ted-cruz/
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