There are many ways to betray your people, but making out with a gorgeous movie star is probably the most fun. After the Egyptian actor Amr Waked portrayed a rugged French detective in Luc Besson’s Lucy, he became the target of a social media storm, with commenters from across the Arab world accusing him of being a spy, a traitor, and an Israeli agent.
The reason for this ire was a 12-second scene in which Waked locked lips with his co-star, Scarlett Johansson, she of the SodaStream campaign, which, in the crazy intersection of Internet hyperbole and political idiocy, was enough to make Waked a Benedict Arnold to the Palestinian cause.
This is not the first time Waked’s choice of roles landed him in hot water: in 2008, he co-starred in the BBC’s mini-series House of Saddam alongside the Israeli actor Yigal Naor, arousing the rage of the Egyptian’s actor union.
Thankfully, this time around, some of Waked’s fans remained clear-headed: “He has Egyptian blood,” wrote one astute observer, “so if we go back far enough, his ancestors are also our ancestors, which means we all kissed Scarlett Johansson. High five! We are all Amr Waked.”
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Liel Leibovitz is editor-at-large for Tablet Magazine and a host of its weekly culture podcast Unorthodox and daily Talmud podcast Take One. He is the editor of Zionism: The Tablet Guide.
