The Browser: News & links to raise your eyebrows & furrow your brow. New headlines may be added as the day goes on. Stay tuned.
1.
In other momentous news for our world, apparently an actor somewhere got mad and cussed at a guy.
Zounds!
My first thought when I saw the story was, “Wow, an actor with a temper? Stop the presses!”
Since then, it has turned into another —-ing opportunity for the world to nail a celebrity to a cross. I can’t hear myself think for the —-ing clamor of mockery, sanctimony, and judgment on this event, this thing we did not witness, things that aren’t any of our business.
I admit, I got caught in that current and had a few chuckles, but suddenly I stopped and thought, “What a —-ing shameful thing to do. Here I am, among the mob, a stone in my hand, all ready to throw it.”
I’m a big fan of this actor’s work, and I will continue to applaud his work, regardless of his mistakes off camera, just as I applaud Mozart’s music in spite of his apparent fondness for the crass, scatological terminology. There are plenty of other —-ing websites where you’re invited to join in and breathe deeply the stench of the scandalous implications emanating from this critical event in filmmaking history. I’ll leave that to those who experts who enjoy picking through and analyzing excrement.
Personally, I tend to assume that actors are human beings like anybody else and prone to occasional —-ups. Some measure of discussion about ethics, responsibility, and behavior are appropriate. But no, it’s not appropriate to snap pictures or make tapes of people in moments of compromise and then —-ing plaster them on billboards for all to see.
I promise: If I ever get a tape of one of your momentary lapses behind closed doors, I promise not to —- you up. I hope you’ll show me the same respect.
And by the way, no, I didn’t use any bad words in this post. Four letter words aren’t bad words if they’re used meaningfully and truthfully. Just ask the Apostle Paul.
1.b
That’s not to say that the event has inspired nothing but worthless talk. Kenneth R. Morefield, for example, has several worthwhile reflections here.
2.
“Beauty and the Beast” is a story that fascinates me in all of its permutations. Anybody who’s read Cyndere’s Midnight, or my latest entry at Image (about the film Penelope) knows I’m intrigued by the lasting appeal of the tale. So this caught my attention:
A teen romance set in New York, based on Beauty and the Beast. And it’s called Beastly.
Hmm… chasing the Twilight audience, are we?
3.
Now, it’s Martin Campbell who’s likely to direct Green Lantern.
4.
Orlando Bloom will star in the next film from the writer of Gattaca and The Truman Show.
(Thanks to Wayne Proctor for the link.)
6.
Anybody going to New York Comicon? Here’s what you might get to see…
It’s not quite a nerd Mecca like San Diego, but the New York Comicon has plenty going for it this year: For starters, there’s a 50-minute preview of Pixar’s new “Up” on Saturday. Director Pete Docter and producer Jonas Rivera will introduce the tentpole hopeful, which Disney has set for May 29.
7.
Forget about Oliver Stone. It’s Will Ferrell’s Dubya that I can’t wait to see.
February 5th, 2009 at 10:48 am
Thank you, Jeffrey, for your defense of human behavior. It’s ludicrous in the extreme that conclusions are being made that now we know what this actor is *really* like.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:10 am
It’s amazing how we’ll salivate over every last bit of juicy gossip – let alone, as you say, nail our target celebrities to a cross.
It’s always so deceiving when we wrest these bursts of anger (or whatever it might be) completely out of context and pick at them in an isolated state.
I still —ing like this actor. A lot. What these occurrences do for me, though, is keep my potential idolatry in check of certain artists – it reminds me that I admire their work and not idolize them personally as gods.
These kinds of “true color” moments caught on tape or camera would never have been revealed or widely distributed if it weren’t for the Internet – and it probably would be better that way.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:11 am
Come now, not all actors are as dashing as you make them out to be.
– end pun transmission –
February 5th, 2009 at 11:21 am
Actually, having just bought and read BEASTLY about six weeks ago, I can safely say that it’s nothing like TWILIGHT and I find it hard to imagine the screenwriters being able to make it so. It’s better written in some respects — tighter, to be sure — but doesn’t have the same visceral appeal. Whatever else may be said about Stephenie Meyer, she does a fantastic job of portraying the obsessive-compulsive nature of teen infatuation, where the Beloved’s every breath, word and gesture is endlessly fascinating and of monumental importance, and the Lover alternates helplessly between giddiness and despair. I don’t choose to live in that world any more, even fictionally, but I understand why a lot of teen (and some not-so-teen) readers are enthralled. It’s basically this generation’s WUTHERING HEIGHTS (the appeal of Heathcliff and Edward Cullen being just about equally disturbing and inexplicable).
February 5th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
It’s hard to say what our culture loves the most…catching a celebrity in a bad moment or watching ordinary people humiliated on “reality” TV. Both spring from a dark place.
February 5th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Nice, “Bloom County”! I long ago despaired of “Opus”, and the best part of “Outland”, I think, was the way BC segued into it… But let the halcyon days of the Meadowcrat Party not be forgotten!
As for the new Niccol movie, let’s hope it’s as cerebral and purpose-driven as his other work. “Gattaca” is an all-time sci-fi great.
February 5th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
Jeffrey — which of Mozart’s “behavioral lapses” do you overlook when celebrating his music?
Not to say he had none, but Amadeus is fiction, not biography.
February 5th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
Heh.
Well, I can’t deny that I’m poorly educated on the subject of the personal lives of the classical composers. And my impressions have been, I’m sure, affected by the fictional stage play and the film.
But I’ve always assumed those productions were based, in part, on facts such as those noted in simple biographies. Even Wikipedia’s summary includes this juicy bit:
Want to read more? Here you go.
So, to be more specific, I have revised my original post and replaced the rather general phrase “behavioral lapses” with something more particular.
Now, a fondness for scatalogical humor is far from a heinous crime, but it’s enough to give me the *impression* that Mozart was rather… shall we say, liberal?… with his language and humor. That doesn’t detract from the glory of what he composed.
Perhaps I should find a better example?
Whatever the case about Mozart, I was striving, perhaps not as effectively as I would have if I’d spent more time on the post, to suggest that the effect of amplifying one ugly incident in an artist’s life may end up doing far more destruction than it should, tarnishing our ability to enjoy his strengths, and fouling the air around the work he has done.
How about Wagner, who tore down Mendelssohn’s popularity and reputation by saying he could not be great because he was a Jew. I don’t think people who enjoy Wagner need to bear that ugly reality in mind as they enjoy the music.
I’ve had an employer lose his temper and call me names before. I could have published the details of that incident, but I don’t think that would have been fair. I know the fellow was under considerable pressure and stress, and while it wasn’t one of his better moments as an employer, it wasn’t worth ruining his life and career over.
February 6th, 2009 at 4:14 am
Jeff,
Thanks for your comments. I was having the same thoughts yesterday, albeit regarding Michael Phelps, not this actor. Our society today revels in raising celebrities to the level of gods and goddesses, then when they’ve put them on Olympus, revels even more in throwing them down to Hades, all the while crying, “See! We were right all along – they’re not as great as we said they were all along.” Ha! Now that’s crazy logic.
February 6th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
There’s no denying Mozart’s taste for the bawdy, and you’re quite right to assert that it needn’t interfere with enjoyment of his music. (Not everyone agrees — Mozart’s widow, Constanze, later married a man who proceeded to censor some documents left behind by his predecessor. One of them survives, with a large section of it scribbled out by the new husband.) But Amadeus also depicts Mozart as an adulterous alcoholic — a depiction that lacks a solid factual basis.
As for Michael Phelps, Glenn may have a point about how society treats celebrities, but what Phelps did and what Christian Bale did are different things. It’s one thing to lose your temper and cuss someone out; it’s another thing to deliberately break the law and try to excuse yourself by saying you’re only 23.
February 6th, 2009 at 10:27 pm
A more exact parallel to Christian Bale can be found in an anecdote about Franz Schubert. Two musicians approached him in a Vienna beer hall and asked him to compose solo pieces for them. Here, according to historian Nathan Haskell Dole, is how he replied:
“Artists, you?” he cried. “You are musicians, and
nothing else. One of you bites the brass mouthpiece of
your wooden stick, and the other puffs out his cheeks
over his French horn. Call that art ? That’s a mere
trade. . . . You, artists! You are blowers and fiddlers,
one and all. I am an artist! I, I am Schubert, Franz
Schubert, whom everybody knows and names, who has
done great and beautiful things above your comprehen-
sion, and will do still more beautiful ones: cantatas and
quartets, operas and symphonies. For I am not merely
a composer of country waltzes, as it says in
the stupid paper, and as stupid fellows prate. I am
Schubert, Franz Schubert, I would have you know, and
if the word ‘art’ is spoken, it concerns me, and not you,
worms and insects, who want solo pieces but I will
never write them for you, and I know why, you creep-
ing, gnawing worms which I would crush under foot,
the foot of a man who reaches the stars. Sublime
feriam sidera vertice—translate that!—yes, the stars,
I say, while you poor, puffing worms wriggle in the
dust!”
If it proves nothing else, this episode at least suggests that the public’s appetite for celebrity tantrums is a very old one.