I flew to Hawaii recently to shoot a film, fresh on the heels of being labeled a homophobic bigot by Andrew Sullivan, Anderson Cooper, and others in the Gay Department of Justice.
What happened is, a TMZ videographer ambushed me as I was putting my family in a car, and I chased him down the block and said, “Cocksucking motherfucker” or whatever (when I have some volatile interaction with these people, I don’t pull out a pen and take notes on what I said). I knew that guy. This was a guy who is on a bike usually, and when we get in a car, he follows us. Very aggressive. The same guy who followed my wife on a bicycle, and when she slipped and fell trying to dodge him and hurt her leg, he laughed at her and said, “See what I made you do?” At my wife. How would that make you feel?
I went to the opening of the play Machinal, put on by Roundabout, where I’m on the board, and I can’t tell you how frosty the reception was toward me. These are all people who are heavy-hitting theatrical artists in that community and many of them are gay. And I was thinking to myself, These people think I’m a homophobe. And that makes me incredibly sad.
Every time people throw this mud on me, there are very serious consequences in my life. The single most painful episode for me was last year when a New York Post photographer, an ex-cop, accused me of calling him a “coon.” This was totally false, as was revealed on his own tape. A D.A. in the hate-crimes unit called me in. At the time, I had just been asked to join the board of the Arthur Ashe Learning Center, so I had to call Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe and ask her, now that I was on the cover of the New York Post labeled as a racist, if she still wanted me to attend a coming event. Jeanne was her ever-gracious self and said yes, but that broke my heart.
Broadway has changed, by my lights. The TV networks, too. New York has changed. Even the U.S., which is so preposterously judgmental now. The heart, the arteries of the country are now clogged with hate. The fuel of American political life is hatred. Who would ever dream that Obama would deserve to be treated the way he has been? The birth-certificate bullshit, which is just Obama’s version of Swiftboating. And all for the electoral nullification that seems like a cancer on the American system. But this is Roger Ailes. And Fox. And Breitbart. And this is all about hate. It’s Hate Incorporated. But the liberals have taken the bait and run in the same direction—and it’s just as corrosive. MSNBC, in its own way, is as full of shit, as redundant and as superfluous, as Fox.
The Conservative sphere, as I recall, reacted to this by pointing out that Paula Deen was given the MSM full-monty of career ruination and the public stocks. For saying this passage here, during a lawsuit.
Lawyer: Have you ever used the N-word yourself?Meanwhile, Alec Baldwin was getting a PC hall-pass for allegedly screaming "faggot" at the above photographer on a public street and writing “toxic little queen” on Twitter about some reporter who lied (or just got stuff wrong) about Baldwin's wife. Getting a pass for generally running around New York being photographed and filmed behaving like a berserk Viking too. And doing stuff like this on Twitter.
Deen: Yes, of course.Lawyer: Okay. In what context?
Deen: Well, it was probably when a black man burst into the bank that I was working at and put a gun to my head.Lawyer: Okay. And what did you say?
Deen: Well, I don't remember, but the gun was dancing all around my temple ... I didn't -- I didn't feel real favorable towards him.Lawyer: Okay. Well, did you use the N-word to him as he pointed a gun in your head at your face?
Deen: Absolutely not.Lawyer: Well, then, when did you use it?
Deen: Probably in telling my husband.
It’s good-bye to public life in the way that you try to communicate with an audience playfully like we’re friends, beyond the work you are actually paid for. Letterman. Saturday Night Live. That kind of thing. I want to go make a movie and be very present for that and give it everything I have, and after we’re done, then the rest of the time is mine. I started out as an actor, where you seek to understand yourself using the words of great writers and collaborating with other creative people. Then I slid into show business, where you seek only an audience’s approval, whether you deserve it or not. I think I want to go back to being an actor now.
2 comments:
I'm right there with you in not liking Alec Baldwin at all.
In this particular circumstance, though, I have to say that I sympathize with him. I know what my reaction would have been to that reporter - he'd damn well have ended up with a broken nose, at least. (Mind you, I'm no Rambo, but fury can carry you a long way).
He could try suing me, of course, but it's not like I have much for him to win - Alec Baldwin, though? He'd get taken to the cleaners, and he knows it. That's got to grate.
I think it's time to bring back the 'fighting words' exception to free speech and allow duels again. Could you imagine that asshole getting away with what he said in 19th century America?
Heh. I'm imagining a bunch of Paparazzi tombstones engraved with 'Insulted the wrong person' right now. It's almost enough to take my mind off the depressing news cycle! Almost.
Sounds like he's over-quota with thoughtcrime, so he's been put on-notice.
We'll have to wait a year or so to see if he is deemed worthy of rehabilitation or not.
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