Washington, famously, is Hollywood for ugly people. Unlike Hollywood, no one in the federal has weighed in on the Roman Polanski matter, although Hillary Clinton has been getting phone calls from her French counterpart, who may himself be out of step with France. Bill – perhaps sensing a certain vulnerability on the issue of canoodling with younger females – has also wisely kept his tongue.
Politicians face re-election after all, and this particular issue is broadly toxic on a bipartisan basis. No one, left or right, will get re-elected on a platform of pardoning child rapists. I guess with all of the other divisions in our society, it’s pleasing to know that some standards still abide.
Which is only part of the reason why the clamorous tintinnabulation coming out of Hollywood proper sounds so jarring to my ears.
We don’t ask very much of Hollywood but that they entertain us, and we reward them handsomely for doing so. They transport us from the daily grind of our domestic routines. Their angels fly higher, their demons are more evil, their dramas are, well – more dramatic than our own. In his Bourne identity, Matt Damon faces more “other government agency” action than most of us will see in a lifetime. Even those within “other” government agencies. Everyone wants a Demi Moore/Patrick Swayze pottery scene, but none of us will ever have one. Very few of us will fly through space, and none of us, I think, will visit other planets. Unable to achieve these things for ourselves, we pay good money for Hollywood to give them to us, however ephemerally.
Highly paid screenwriters ensure that no one ever lacks for the mot juste in Hollywood cinema, the right thing to say always comes at just the right moment. For the great majority of us, the perfect comeback always comes a bit too late. Awkward silences are for dramatic or comedic effect, not a product of our inability to find the right thing to say.
Actors are physically perfect unless their role requires imperfection, in which case they are perfectly imperfect.
We forgive them their little peccadilloes, their tendency to make and break marriages for example. Hollywood stars are imbued with the resources that enable them transcend our bourgeois morality. After all, whomever is currently schtupping Madonna will probably be just all right when the new boy toy comes along. And if Brangelina go their separate ways, the kids will still have their trust funds. We may even envy them their outrageous parties, without begrudging them the experience. We live vicariously through them, to a degree.
We share, after all, a common humanity. Few of us may be gifted with the genetic advantages of a Kate Beckinsale or a Johnny Depp but if Christopher Walken and Judi Dench can get through the door to the casting room, then it could have happened to anyone, given native talent and the right breaks.
Hollywood is notoriously liberal and often not terribly thoughtful, which some conservatives find off-putting. Most of us understand that “artists” tend to be more sensitive souls, and forgive them their lack of consideration for the rest of us. It’s understandable for people sitting atop $200 million dollars to be willing to make do with a mere $100 million, even if it’s less forgivable for them to ask those of us with a net worth of say $200k to put our kids through college on half of that.
Still, we invite them into our homes night after night. And go to visit them close by in our neighborhood cinemas. When a celebrity dies an untimely death, we feel their loss in a personal way.
So no, we don’t “vote” for Hollywood stars. But we do pay them. And now Whoopi Goldberg has gone on record making the distinction between “rape” and “rape rape” in the case of a 13-year old girl that was unquestionably drugged, raped and sodomized by a middle age movie director. Deborah Winger has said that, oh, that was such a long time ago. As though the failure see justice done is not the fault of the child rapist who successfully fled justice.
The list of those who would apologize for child rape goes on; Martin Scorcese, Woody Allen (!), David Lynch, Tilda Swinton and Monica Bellucci.
And now the rest of us are forced to ask ourselves, who are these people? And what on earth can have compelled us to invite them into our homes? Why are we paying for this?
And how do we get them out?
Getting them out is easy, just don’t give any money at the box office, and turn the TV off.
I turned my TV off over 4 years ago and don’t miss the boob tub tube at all.
QM, I can’t live without Discovery, History, and NASCAR. Hard to give up Gator football, too. I just keep adding people to the /ignore list like Jane Fonda and Michael Jackson.
I will turn on Discovery when I’m in a motel room with nothing else to do (a very rare occurrence), but can understand why someone would want to keep the tube wired to the world. I let the two Grandkids I have custody of watch selected DVD and videos, but I disconnected the Dish back in 2006. They haven’t missed it either. I get my news on the net, and come here to poke at my peers, for the fund that’s in it.
Lex, as you may have guessed I’m far to the left of most that comment here (though not the Fliterman left).
That said, he admitted to plying a 13yo with booze and drugs and then having sex with her.
Long, long prison sentence in gen pop please, and anyone defending him needs to take a long hard look at themselves.
The current crop of “entertainers” – and maybe the one before them – has never been in my house (nor have I visited them in a theater), so I haven’t paid them a penny. They aren’t nearly as entertaining to me as books, good or trashy. Maybe it’s my age, but I don’t find most of their comedy humorous or their dramas very dramatic. I know we’re told not to judge, but I tend to do so anyway and I don’t like most of what I see and hear from them & I don’t think I’ve missed much. I know nobody asked for it, but that’s my cranky opinion, FWIW…
I’ll second this opinion, MissBLinAL. I quit movies well over 20 years ago, with VERY rare exceptions. But the industry doesn’t seem to miss my nickels and dimes very much if at all.
I invited that lowlife crowd out of my home long, long ago. No movie, no TV show including those slime have offended my eyes and ears.
I have Direct TV and choose my programs carefully. No, I don’t subscribe to any movie channel.
That company has recently given viewers the ability to see what the most popular shows are of the instant. I find that discounting the sports shows, those which appear in the top 5 (and often in the #1 or #2 spot) are: O’Reilly, Greta, Hannity, and Beck. Very interesting …
I am at a loss to explain how someone -anyone! – could lose their mind so completely that they think this is excusable in any way, shape or form. Even Hollywood’s self-centered navel-gazing does not explain such immorality and soullessness.
I’m eagerly awaiting flit to tell me why I’m dead wrong, but I’d sure like to get a look at that petition so I could see if any of the 2 or 3 actors or sports “heroes” I don’t currently boycott for one or more reasons are on it.
Timeshift technology allows you to review ahead of time what you want to watch and then watch it on your own terms.
A TV without a DVR is like a day without sunshine!
I no longer drink pepsi. I will not watch any law and order. I do not go to any nytimes or huffington post sites. Any ‘star’ whose name appears on any list supporting polanski will never see my butt in a seat for anything they do.
My list of don’t buy, don’t watch, don’t go, will not support just keeps getting longer and longer. I don’t have a blog so I speak with my wallet and what little I still have in it, which is getting smaller and smaller everyday congress is in session.
I got a look at that list and it appears that I only recognized one or two names on it and none of them have been invited to my home.
Well, since they think that drugging someone with drugs and booze is A-OK, perhaps they should be “invited” to experience it for themselves. As a first step to enabling their wish, no stalking prosecutions in association with anyone who signed that list. Make them live to their self stated standards.
Yes, I know I am a heartless bastard.
I must say I am really disappointed.
I’ve always liked Whoopi. And would have expected way better from her. Just goes to show what a disconect there can be between the characters they play and their true character, I suppose. Yuck…
Side question – How do these people look at themselves in the mirror every day?
with rose colored glasses, Love. With rose colored glasses…
MIchelle:
They look in the mirror to see that the makeup and hair are right for the character. They haven’t seen their real selves in decades.
It’s all an act.
this is kind of like farming. when one in the herd gets sick you go in and cull them out. What we need is some wealthy conservative type to invite the A-list of follywood – these for Roman and toss in those that are Chavez huggers, load them onto a first class only 747 for a wine and dine fest flight to DC to ostensibly meet with BHO, and then omigosh, the plane’s autopilot fails after the flight crew mysteriously disappears, and the poor 747 lumbers out over the Pacific to run out of fuel and crash. Would give them 5-6 hrs to contemplate their mortality and wouldn’t be a thing they could do to save themselves. A nice group cull and a fitting end to a load of human garbage.
Ok so maybe we can’t – yet. but economic boycott is a language they do understand.
It would be funny, but it isn’t.
“Rape” and “Rape, Rape” are world’s apart and one is apparently okie dokie for an auteur of haute film, whilst “Rape” and “Pubic-hairs-on-soda-cans” are so close that either one should be just as disqualifying for anyone who is not willing to bow to his betters when they stalk the corridors and aisles of power.
Looking and waiting, with hope, for some really scathing comments from the NOW gang, more than a few of whom in the past agreed with the statement that ‘all sex was rape’ to come out and blast Whoopee G. and the others who find drugging and having sex with an unconscious 13-year old girl to be OK so long as the naughty person (i.e., criminal pervert) held to their liberal way of thinking and who is part of their too-hip-to-be-bothered-by-silly-laws group.
Still waiting. And looking. But not hopeful.
The feminist blogs out there seem to be pretty unanimous that they want Polanski brought back here and dealt with in accordance with the law. And they have scathing things to say about Hollywood and it’s attitudes towards women in the bargain. The NOW crowd likes Hollywood’s money but not its movies.
As I said in your previous post, I’m nearly speechless. It is not just the French… it is Americans too. I keep reading and rereading thinking that surely I am wrong. I overheard last night as my husband watched the news, that Whoopi made the list of those I think cannot be of right mind. I was stunned as she always seemed a voice of reason, although I do not agree with her on many issues.
I quit inviting these people into my home in October after 9/11. I quit watching TV, although my family still does. I rarely go to the movies anymore, out of lack of time as I always did enjoy going. I’m making a mental note as to who I will no longer pay to watch.
BTW, this was very well written. Once again, I finished reading wondering why I bother to blog.
Bou, periodically I toy around with the thought of starting a web page (blog). Not that I am opinionated or anything.
Then Lex once again reminds me of how good a really good blog is. And how much effort it takes to make it really good, natural talent aside.
So, the thought vanishes.
Darn him.
It’s amazing really. His use of language and how it all comes together. A rare gift, for sure. It makes me thankful I am in the ranks of the diarists, where people come to read about just the goofy and mundane. I could never have a blog in this arena. It is truly humbling at times to read.
Great observations as always, Lex. Been voting with my pocketbook for over two decades on what “entertainment” graces our abode. If it’s a movie or series worth watching and has actors/directors whose coffers I’m willing to pitch a dime or two towards, we buy it on DVD and fire up the ‘puter to see it. Been doing that for almost two decades, and don’t feel the least bit “deprived.”
Is Whoopi still on the view?
If yes, who are the advertisers on that show. I might just want to do some writing. See if Dobson or some such will turn some light on it.
Sorry Whoopi, Rape is rape is rape is rape. You can’t be a little bit raped anymore than you can be a little bit pregnant. And Polanski is an animal who deserves worse than he will every get…after all, he’s lived well the last 30+ years with nary a care.
I also wonder, what exactly did these actresses supporting Polanski think was worth enduring and keeping silent about in the climb to their own careers? I notice it is women of a certain age coming out in support. Their failure to condemn this behavior speaks volumes about how common this kind of thing must be in hollywood…they seem to have drank the kool-aid in a big way. I mean, Woody (kiddie twiddler) Allen thinks he has the moral authority to make a statement on this case??????
I think there’s a reason I like animation–particularly Pixar, who works down the street from me (away from Hollywood) and often uses their own animators to voice characters.
Whoopi has displayed her depravity for years. Her rape vs rape rape is par for her course.
I just saw this on NRO’s Media Blog:
Kirstie Alley on Roman Polanski:
If I CAUGHT someone raping MY daughter..”Justice” would come in the form of a 45 . . .
Hard to disagree with her, nicht wahr?
Kudos, Kirstie. Mega Kudos!
I asked in my statement in an earlier post why we should even need to have this discussion in a sane, rational, and law abiding society. I guess, for some, the standard has slipped not a little for all of that. Eh?
As for inviting these creeps into my home, Matt Damon and Whoopi Goldberg, just to mention a couple, are on my Persona Non Grata list; TV or otherwise. I refuse to fund their proclivity for asinine behavior, and believe that I can sacrifice watching any of their work ever again.
Laurie – Google “Ellie Nessler”, not 100% on the spelling. I’m with you. We’re in Ellie’s camp.
I have a beautiful shiney new too big for my family room flat screen TV. I have it for the sports mostly, and to better see the scars and wrinkles of what passes for local news casters in our area. As for the fools from Hollywood? Not so much. We do occasionally watch certain shows and movies, but for the most part, the on/off button is mostly off when those of questionable character show up.
Of course, my penchant for a good NFL, NBA, or MLB game occasionally has some rogue characters show up. We just tolerate them as best as we can, and point out to the kids that sometimes bad behaviour is in fact rewarded, and life is not fair.
Like that Eagles game the other day…
Lee, regarding those rogue sports figures, one of the remarks going around the Philly area is “Hide your beagle, Vick’s an Eagle”.
Now, that’s funny.
Hard to do that in the face of such a crappy subject as child rapist apologist’.
Guy’s let’s cut Whoopi some slack on this one. Nobody ever accused her of being the brightest bulb in the socket.
As to just how disgusting Roman Polanski is, I commend Steve Lopez’s column in today’s L. A. Times to you. He actually went down to the basement of the County Courthouse and read the thirty year old grand jury transcript.
A 44 year old man getting a 13 year old girl drunk on Champagne and Qualudes deserves a horsewhipping. And the girl and her family did come forward immediately after the incident and complained.
The District Attorney filed a criminal charge on at least three counts including rape, sodomy and oral copulation (as the Ace of Spades put it less delicately, Polanski “ran the table” on this young girl).
But the girl and her family and their lawyer said they did not want the girl to testify at the trial because it would further traumatize her.
The District Attorney and Polanski’s lawyers negotiated a settlement of the criminal case reducing the charge to the lesser crime of “unlawful sexual assault”.
Polanski admitted the crime and pled guilty—ain’t no trial after a guilty plea–so all you Hollywood morons moaning that he didn’t get a fair trial need to wise up.
Off Polanski goes to a funny farm for a psychiatric evaulation before sentencing–this is the 42 day period that he supposedly served.
Of course the sentencing judge does not legally HAVE to accept the deal reached by the prosecutor and the defense attorney.
And the sentencing judge (now dead) may have looked at the idea of a 44 year old man raping and sodomizing a 13 year old girl after he got her drunk as something more than “unlawful sexual assault”.
The judge has some discretion in setting the length of the sentence and I suspect Roman Polanski may have, quite correctly, decided that this judge was going to put the heavy screws to him (Go Judge Go!).
So Polanski beat feet out of the country–and has stayed out ever since.
Now if you look at Whoopi’s “not rape rape” in context, she was discussing the fact that Polanski had been convicted of “unlawful sexual assault”–not “rape’.
It’s a true statement–but it makes her look like the idiot I think she is. Still, cut her some slack.
If I want to have to parse Whoopie’s words like I do those of a politician into “that’s a lie,” “that’s exaggeration,” and “that’s a lie too but is backed by selective reading” I’d have elected her rather than watched her in an episode of Moonlighting.
When other people tell her what to say she is almost tolderable on a big screen. Without, well, there’s probably a reason she’s known for being, well, known rather than for her accomplishments.
– Max
MM…not me..people have been cutting these turds slack far to long..
Would it have been “rape rape” had it been Whoopi’s daughter or either of her two granddaughters that had been assaulted? I’m thinking it would.
And I’m with Kirstie Alley on this one – “justice” would have come at the end of my Beretta.
Lets be honest. The list of people supporting are some of the most SENTIMENTAL, weirdest/unconcentional/freakiest people in hollywood. Its no surprise they have different sexual morality than the general public.
Also Polanski ‘seduced’ a thirteen year old with the help of alcohol and drugs to have sex with him, or at least lose the will to resist. That is a LITTLE bit different to holding her down and forcing yourself on her. So Whoopi is just being the devils advocate here.
I think its pretty funny Woody Allen is on the list, that tells you all you need to know. And for the record Polanski’s movies aren’t THAT good.
The only problem here is that we are talking California. I look for Polanski to be brought back, taken to court and for the judge to give him “time served and community service”. Remember the Judge has to get re-elected to keep his job.
Subby, I do so hope you are being sarcastic in your second para…
Jim, if a judge does, in fact, decide to do that, I’d pose the same question to him that I would post to Whoopi Goldberg. Is it “rape rape” if it were YOUR 13 year old daughter?
I’ve got a few more for Whoopi-cushion: it’s not murder murder; it’s not robbery robbery; it’s not DWI DWI; it’s not assault assault. WTF is wrong with these people, excusing an admitted rapist and fugitive of justice?
But don’t you understand…Polanski is an artiste. How dare the justice system 30 years ago attempt to incarcerate someone who produces such highbrow work as he did. How dare they try to pursue him today after all, he’s won an Oscar! And please, don’t forget his wife was brutally murdered just 8 years prior. He was still dealing with such grief and such turmoil in his personal life. He just couldn’t help himself.
/sarc
I’m with Kirstie Alley and others here – justice at the end of a long barrel. My 9mm Beretta would work as well as Kirstie’s .45 I’m sure.
HF6,
I have seen, on Fox’s O’Reilly, some of his exposes of “judges” in Vermont and places like that who let much worse child rapists off with a tap on the back of the hand and not so much as a day of community service and some of them are recidivist child rapists.
I’m with Kirstie Alley et al, justice at the end of a long barrel. I’d probably choose the 22 though just for the justice in shooting them 11 times without reloading.
+1. My Mosquito isn’t the most reliable weapon in the world, but perhaps that would, um, enhance the experience for all involved.
Curt- I’d start at knee caps and work up. That way he can’t get away.
Kris … As my gun instructor told me, aim at the center of the body. Or, in this case, a little below the center. That’s a girl …
Marianne
Aim? I’m supposed to aim at something specific? That may be true elsewhere but in this particular case I think that would take the sport and spontaneity out of the experience.
Anyone who would harm a child in that fashion – in ANY fashion – isn’t worth more than one bullet.
Nuts – forgot to close my italics tag.
That’s why God created admins…
Interesting discussion y’all are having… Quite honestly, I’d like to see this guy thrown into the lion enclosure at the largest zoo. After they had been not been fed for several months.
If this tells you anything, the last movie I saw in theater was “Patch Adams” with Robin Williams.
And the only TV I watch is the Food Network and Disney channel when the grand-kids visit.