Roman Polanski. I've been mostly biting my tongue since he was arrested. Not anymore.
*to the people making excuses for him, fuck off. I realize a lot of these folks are longtime colleagues and friends and this can make objectivity difficult for them, but come on. It doesn't matter how long its been, how talented he is, or that he's been a model citizen ever since. He plead and fled. He's got some time coming to him.
*fair warning: if you ever use the word "Hollyweird" around me, I will punch you in the face. FUCK OFF with your putting all of this down to L.A. being some breeding ground of festering moral decay. The people in that business you so love to hate, who come to it for reasons ranging from genuine interest in film as art to being a simple attention whore, are from your backyards. Most of them move here from Minnesota or Tennessee or Florida. These Hollyweirdos are not the product of Los Angeles. Your state capital has just as many junkies, rapists, drunk drivers, sluts, opportunists, child abusers and idiots. The only difference is that people don't put out magazines chronicling their escapades. Try and imagine if every mistake you ever made was published in US Weekly and have a little fucking compassion before you rush to judgement.
*it's perfectly reasonable to appreciate an artist for their work and talent and still think they are a depraved shithead. I don't go into restaurants and ask the hostess how the owner voted in the last election or if he's ever been convicted of a crime before deciding to eat there and I doubt you do, either. I don't know why people seem to think boycotting artists is 1) going to make a fucking difference ("thanks. Keep the 0.00000000001 cents I would have earned in royalties. I can manage to cut back for two seconds to suffer the loss") 2) reasonable in any way unless you are spending your life making sure every penny you earn never falls into the hands of someone who dares to disagree with your personal opinions or engages in behavior you find reprehensible.
*everyone who reads or hears about some celebrity doing something stupid that immediately launches into an attack on their work or life can fuck off. "I never liked his music/films/books anyway." What the fuck does that have to do with anything? Look, you may not like Polanski's films. That's a matter of personal taste. But you cannot, without looking like a fucking philistine idiot, say that he has contributed nothing to the cultural landscape. The very fact that you've heard of movies like Rosemary's Baby and Chinatown refutes that. Even if you think they are crap, all these years later, people are still talking about them. That means something. It's a fucking contribution.
*Polanski's mother dying in the Holocaust and his wife and would-be son being murdered is not a fucking excuse for criminal behavior years and years later. Millions of people lost loved ones during the Holocaust. And this was the wife, by the way, that he married reluctantly, ran around and cheated on incessantly ("Roman lies to me and I pretend to believe him." She even fucking knew about it) and was disappointed by when she turned out to be an old-fashioned girl who just longed to be a wife and mother and not some swinging 60s full-time party dame. I'm not saying he didn't love her, but give me a break. If anyone doubts that, had Sharon Tate lived, she'd now be the ex-Mrs. Polanski, you're kidding yourself. By the way, if suffering a traumatic childhood and great loss is a viable excuse for committing a crime, give me my free pass right fucking now. I've earned it. I've got some banks to rob and some dope to smoke in public places.
*please knock it off with the "shut up and sing" crap. Entertainers are just as capable of becoming informed, educated citizens as your or me. The biggest idiot in the room being the loudest is not unique to Hollywood. One moron spouting off rubbish about how it's not "rape rape" does not an entire industry make. If you think they shouldn't express their opinions, then, my dear blogger, why don't you shut up and get back to your desk job or your lab, classroom, or making change at the fucking 7-11, because you're no more qualified.
If I pissed anyone off, I'll make no apologies here. I'm sick of reading all the Moral! Outrage! Christ on a peanut butter-coated crutch. Even most of the people defending Polanski are doing so on grounds that have nothing to do with his actions that day. You think it's bad to drug and rape a thirteen-year-old. Welcome to the fucking human race.
7 comments:
Nice one, Emily.
Bit of a personal one: the new Dermatologist I've been referred to about my lovely psoriasis, whose office is an hour away, and who cancelled my first appointment when I had already driven 45 miles, who then took all of 9 minutes out of his schedule to see me when he did deem it reasonable to see me...
Fuck off, pal.
I know that in the scheme of thing, my case of psoriasis is probably small potatoes, but to not even consult my history enough to find that what I've been prescribed isn't covered by my admittedly wanting health insurance is pretty lazy. To not even answer my questions about a specific treatment? Fuck you, pal. If what I'm asking is ridiculous, tell me so. My ass is by way of Blue Cross paying your ass...answer a fucking question, even if it is small potatoes...
The Hollywood elite (and there IS a segment of Hollywood who controls a lot of the money, and WILL use that power to influence people to act as THEY see fit) can fuck off with a flaming GPS receiver, because they say that they have the best moral compass.
'Nuff said there.
The International Olympic Committee can fuck off for being the corrupt organization that it is. The Olympics are no longer an amateur sports competition, but a money making enterprise where sports come in second. At best.
The Obamas can fuck off for interfering with the selection of the 2016 Olympics. Michelle because she "sacrificed" to fly to Copenhagen, and Barrack because he just can't fucking stop campaigning. Narcissism in the White House is a ugly thing.
I really hope Brazil gets the 2016 Olympics. But I suspect that the IOC is in the tank for Obama.
David Letterman can fuck off for being the hypocrite that he is. Blackmail is an ugly thing, but he admitted to banging a number of his staff over the years. This is the same fuckwad who goofed on Mark Sanford (who deserves to be kicked down the street by a martial artist wearing snow cleats) over his affair, and rags on certain politicians and their families as "slutty".
The good news is that Letterman demonstrates why people living in glass houses should not throw rocks.
Two, one national, one personal.
The national one:
Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. I just want to slap his smug beefy face every time he comes on the television to tell us what we're supposed to believe today.
I realize my reaction to him is largely ME, in that there's just something about his tone of voice and the way he looks that bugs me, but still, he can FTFO.
And the personal one:
People - especially students - who decide to "phone it in" and then whine on the backside when their work is evaluated harshly: Grow up or F off.
You have two choices:
One: you can do your best. And then look at the evaluation of your work as an honest assessment of how good you are at whatever. If you are not happy with the assessment, either find an easier major, or decide to get help.
Two: you can "phone it in" and just accept that you're going to earn 10% on stuff. Oh, and don't come crying to me when you can't get a job. I TOLD you employers do actually check transcripts, you didn't believe me.
But don't come bitching to me - and ESPECIALLY don't bitch about me being "unfair" behind my back - because you decided that playing beer pong every night was more fun than doing your lab assignment, and when you handed in a POS you got the 10% that you don't richly deserve (because you actually deserve less and the 10% is a PITY 10%)
Dammit, I'm glad it's the weekend.
Jeff,
There isn't a single industry in the world where people don't use money and power to influence people. It is not something exclusive to Hollywood. And again, "they" didn't say it. Harvey Weinstein, one person who is a well established dickhead, said it. I got a great chuckle out of that quote when I read it yesterday. Best moral compass my ass.
Yeah, I don't think I'd tell the Hollywood-based industry to fuck off. I mean, an industry that rewards moral ambiguity (regardless of what Mr. Weinstein thinks) is going to produce some sycophantic jerks. I'm a died-in-the-wool capitalist, but it's a system that rewards people who can generate the most money. And a lot of the people that can generate the most money are those who have no or a loose, ambiguous, or rapidly changing "moral compass."
So I guess my real fuck off is to people who lack grounded values in that they can forgive a heinous act because of someone's contributions to society. And, I agree with Em, Polanski did contribute, like it or not. But, to paraphrase an Orwell comment about Dali, if Shakespeare came back to life and his new hobby was raping little girls, we shouldn't let him keep doing it because he might write another King Lear.
The three British teenaged thugs who made fun of a veteran crippled in Afghanistan can FUCK THE FUCK OFF!! How DARE you make fun of someone who's lost both legs and one arm in service to country FOR that service to country? I've heard that as Britain goes, so goes the US, but God, I hope we don't sink so low.
The UN treaty on the rights of the child can fuck off for enabling behavior like the above. Any time parents lose the ability to shape their kids' morals and behavior, THAT is the result. Oh, and the FUCKING Euro-weenie-wannabes in our OWN FUCKING GOVERNMENT who want to sneak the SAME FUCKING BULLSHIT past us can FUCK the FUCK OFF with the printed off treaty rolled up and dipped in rancid camel ejaculate with sulfuric acid added to make sure they feel every little paper cut.
Oh, and the nanny state governments who don't let neighbors and friends babysit, or let kids walk or bike to school can fuck off, too.
I'd like to offer a hearty FUCK YEAH to the girl in India that killed one Pakistani terrorist and wounded another. YOU GO, GIRL!!!
I'm just going down the list I've been compiling all week:
--Lousy drivers (that means you slow people in the passing lane!)
--Argumentative students (not to mention the swaggering seniors who just don't seem to have any work yet insist on coming to the library on their free periods to screw around)
--Constant technology failures at school. Disappearing printer connections, error messages, log-ins that don't work, etc.
I am so looking forward to that first cocktail tomorrow night at the swanky wedding reception.
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