Stacey Dash cut from Fox News lineup, Twitter lights up – NJ.com

Stacey Dash may continue speaking her mind on politics and the news of the day, but it won’t be for Fox News. 

Fox News has decided not to renew Dash’s contract, The Hill reported on Saturday. The network, which recently announced the hire of former U.K. Independence Party head Nigel Farage (“Mr. Brexit,” to Donald Trump), also terminated the contracts of columnist George Will, who left the Republican Party in June, Republican strategist Ed Rollins, journalist Martin Kalb and columnist and radio commentator Cal Thomas.

Dash, the conservative-leaning actress and alumna of Paramus High School most widely known for her role in the 1995 film “Clueless” opposite Alicia Silverstone, joined Fox News as a contributor in 2014. During that time, Dash, who appeared on various Fox programs including “Outnumbered,” often drew the ire of social media. She was criticized for her controversial statements about the Oscars (she rejected a boycott of the ceremony due to lack of diversity in the nominees and later appeared in a Oscars bit as the new director of a minority outreach program, Black History Month (she doesn’t think it should exist) and BET (she doesn’t think it should exist, either). 

In 2015, Fox suspended Dash after she used profanity in criticizing an address President Barack Obama delivered in the wake of the San Bernardino shooting. In 2016, Dash suggested that transgender people should go to the bathroom “in the bushes” rather than use bathrooms corresponding to their gender.

Dash’s memoir, “There Goes My Social Life: From Clueless to Conservative,” addressed the advent of her relationship with Fox, which arrived at a good time for her, after she endorsed Mitt Romney for president in 2012 with a highly scrutinized tweet. (Dash said she had voted for Obama in 2008.)

“On the day that I spent my very last dollar,” she wrote, “the Fox check came.”

So far, Dash, who turned 50 on Friday — she shares a birthday with Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway — has not addressed her contract with Fox on her Twitter account or blog. (As of Sunday evening, her last tweet was about a story from the Women’s March on Washington.) Her Twitter bio still described her as a “@Foxnews Contributor.”

When Twitter got wind of the news on Sunday, the reaction from Dash’s critics had her name trending for hours. Some figured the actress was just trending for another controversial comment, but when they learned the real reason, they said there was cause for celebration — or at least mockery. 

Here’s a small cross section of the lively response:

Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook.

 

Stacey Dash cut from Fox News lineup, Twitter lights up – NJ.com