There’s been an epidemic of naughtiness on the part of celebrities this past year ranging from Mel Gibson’s for making a Nazi-esk verbal assault on Jews to the recent videotaped blast of vitriol from ‘Kramer’. That last led to an on-air apology on Letterman. Others, including Gibson, who have been caught with their pants down in public have similarly publicly written or verbally fallen on their swords which may be sincere and/or inspired by publicists who want to keep their jobs as their clients lose theirs if something isn’t done.
A oddly humorous act and later apology came from Illinois Senator and potential presidential candidate, Barack Obama, at a news conference (two years ago) which led to this column by the aggrieved:
I don’t care, I’m not changing my mind on this one. Nope. I don’t like Sen. Barack Obama.
He might make a good president some day, but he won’t get my vote. At least not until he apologizes.
Some might say I’m holding a petty grudge but let’s see you become the butt of joke in front of 1,000 people.
[…]
“Wait a minute son, this is for professional media only,” Obama said to me.“What do you mean? I work for the local paper,” I said with a crackling nervous voice.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I thought you were a college student. You have such a baby face,” he said with an unremorseful grin.
[…]
Remembered that girl who I was trying to get with, well she was sitting next to me and guess what she was doing?Everyone was laughing except me.
That’s right. The act Obama got to apologize for was for, as he put it, “messing up your game.” The reporter then wrote his acceptance letter. Not on the level of using the N-word or spewing anti-Semitic hatred, but apology worthy nonetheless, especially if you want the press on your side as you look toward the White House.
This whole public gut wringing and forgiveness asking has led at least one writer to conclude there is a script going around Hollywood and Washington listing exactly how to do it:
Act 1: Star does something so remarkably stupid that even blind followers stop in their tracks and wonder what could have gone wrong in the universe.
Act 2: Friends announce they are shocked (or in some cases, not at all shocked) and recommend the star get some help.
Act 3: A higher power, perhaps in the form of public relations advice, arrives on the scene and recommends a general apology.
Act 4: The apology happens in an appropriate media space, followed in some cases by an announcement that there is a good 12-step program on the horizon.
Act 5: A career is revived by a talk show focusing on the art of contrition.
Is anybody buying this? Do the apologies look to you like they do to me — actors acting to save their (and their agent’s, studio’s, paycheck’s) skin? Wouldn’t you rather just one of them get up and say something like this: “No, I’m not like the nice, cuddly characters I portray. In real life, I’m an ass. I’m a real shit as a person. Get used to it.”
Be a man! Show some balls by being the unapologetically narcissistic loon that makes you a good actor. Revel in your asshatery. We sure won’t respect you any less than we already do.
Inspired by Mr. ‘Sincere Apologies’ Fusion
But there are some who don’t apologize. Russell Crowe, for instance (“The press can’t get it right, I didn’t do anything wrong”) or Sean Penn (“Sure I hit him. He needed hitting.”)
–Milton
The new act. Come into a performance very late. Make a lot of commotion and noise, forget common courtesy, heckel the performer. Then when he blows up at your outrageous behavior, you can sue.
I noticed you didn’t include the ones who started it in the armpit class I have been in a restaurant when this happened. And he got into trouble when he asked them to leave. It’s a setup.
Uncle Dave, if you really think Sen. Obama saying someone looks youthful is comparable to Richards’ call for a return to lynching uppity black people, you need to read some history and then, apologize.
I gather that whenever Curt Fields is insulted by anyone he responds with racial slurs. That is why he can’t grasp what is wrong with Richards’ behavior, blaming the victims instead.
As for Uncle Dave’s question, yes, the public figures usually apologize to protect their status. In a case like former Sen. George Allen’s, where there is a long history of racist behavior, what is really bothering him is having it exposed, not that he behaves that way. The GOP hopeful are saying Allen will make a comeback by running for retiring Sen. Warner’s seat two years from now. But, even in a conservative state like Virginia, I think Allen may have finally become the embarrassment he should have been all along.
Another way to get away with such racist/sexist behavior is to be big time Democrat support gay liberation, the death of babies and the elimination of the Christian Church. If you meet these qualification then you can pretty much say anything. At this point your actions will speak louder than your words. As an agent of change you’d be just to important to leave behind.
I wouldn’t want to encourage any free speech or the right to dissent, but really we must control those evil individuals. They say such things, unless they happen to be black, Asian, or any other minority then it’s just redressing the wrongs in their past, such as calling for the deaths of all whites, (http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=8063 ). Obviously this is only an attempt to adjust for centuries of Black Africans and White Northerners selling and transporting his ancestors into slavery in the south ( although it’s still happening in African Sudan today, we ignore that). Or even the La Raza group which has a college extension in every campus practically, you won’t see the KKK, though the ideas are the exact same just different colors.
Whatever………………..Can you say hyp•o•crite
#5, too often the severity of the offense is related to the closeness to home. I don’t really care what you say about the leading Chinese actress, but damn it, careful how you besmirch Kirstun Dunst.