Alyssa Milano rejects blackface allegations over Snooki parody

Alyssa Milano insisted her impersonation of Jersey Shore star Snooki was not blackface but rather ‘tanface.’ 

Milano, 47, recently faced accusations of doing blackface after her skin was significantly darkened for her 2013 Funny Or Die parody of Snooki. 

In an Instagram Live interview with Ziwe Fumudoh, Milano insisted she has never done blackface, and even saw the Funny Or Die skit as her way of making a political statement against the way Italian Americans were represented in the show.    

Milano, who is Italian American, said, ‘I’ve never worn blackface. I did a parody of, she doesn’t like me much so let me just say that, but I did do a parody of Jersey Shore on Funny Or Die where I played, I came in like this, light skinned, and then makeup transformed me into Snooki and my take was a how I felt was how that show was representing Italian Americans, and so there are pictures of me all over the Internet in “tanface.”

Though Milano initially wanted to make a statement with the Funny Or Die parody, she now realizes poking fun at Snooki’s tan ‘wasn’t the greatest move.’   

‘Tan face, and that’s what people are saying I did blackface. There are a lot of people who have done blackface though, you know? And I don’t know that hindsight that maybe making fun of Snooki’s tan wasn’t the greatest move, specially with the Internet. But I did feel at that time that I was making a political statement about how Italian Americans are depicted.’  

Alyssa also said she was told during her trip to South Africa that she was a descendant of slavery.   

‘When I was in South Africa, South African Black people kept telling me that I was from slave descent and I said, “I don’t understand, how do you know that?” And they said “It’s because your last name is Milano. So you were actually bought into a city and instead of allowing you to keep your last name, they gave you the last name of the city you were bought into.’

The controversy all started last month, after Milano faced accusations she was being racially insensitive in the Funny or Die video.  

Milano slammed the accusations, and asserted she was ‘parodying Jersey Shore and Snookie’s tan’ in the video, during which her face was significantly darkened.   

The Who’s The Boss? actress wrote, ‘Hey, a**holes. The below picture is me parodying Jersey Shore and Snookie’s tan.’ 

‘Snookie’s tan (she is a sweetheart by the way) is worthy of parodying as is Trump’s “tan”.’

‘So go f*** yourselves with your smear campaign.’

It accompanied an image from an article by conservative publication LifeZette. 

However a link to the original video proved that Alyssa was indeed portraying reality TV star Nicole ‘Snooki’ Polizzi.

The Jersey Shore actress is known in part for her distinctive tan.

The sketch was a parody of a Dove brand commercial which showed how the beauty industry manipulates images to set unrealistic beauty standards for women.

However in the FOD video, Milano was made up and styled to resemble Snooki, with the punchline being that Snooki’s tan and body had been manipulated to ‘distort’ perceptions of New Jersey, where her show is set. 

Milano seemed to make a veiled reference to the attack in a Monday tweet, in which she wrote, ‘Cancel culture is being weaponized by the right/Putin.’ 

‘Take notice of who they are targeting & what is trending. Are they trying to hurt Trump’s most vocal critics? Yup.’ 

‘The misinformation campaign has begun. Be vigilant in what you post on social media. Truth still matters.’

The actress has long been a vocal Trump critic.