But
Polanski drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl in 1977 and fled the country a year later after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. He's been living in Europe and was arrested last week as he attempted to enter
Entertainment industry elites rushed to his defense. Directors such as Woody Allen, (no stranger himself to sex scandals) David Lynch, Martin Scorsese and Michael Mann signed a petition to request the release of Polanski. Actress Debra Winger, a member of the judging panel for the film festival, declared, “We stand by and await his release and his next masterwork.”
“Little House on the Prarie” actress Melissa Gilbert claimed of Polanski to the ladies on ABC's “The View,” “I think he's tried to atone. I think the punishment at this point may be excessive.”
Also on “The View,” Whoopi Golderg, went so far as to assert that what happened to Polanski's young victim was not “rape-rape,” even though the victim's grand jury testimony clearly shows otherwise.
Others in
Yet in the midst of defending Polanski and excusing child rape, Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein still tried to argue to the Los Angeles Times that “
But Weinstein failed to note that
Last week, “Medium” star Patricia Arquette told CNN that Polanski's situation was “complicated.” At the same event, Jillian Michaels from “Biggest Loser” said, “Who are we to judge?”
If only celebrities would exercise the same agnosticism about their left-wing causes. Unfortunately, here's what
Gay Marriage
For a tour of
Actor Steven Weber of “Wings” fame, took to the Huffington Post last October to air his thoughts on the matter and those who subscribe to the traditional concept of marriage. He even got in a shot at Sarah Palin!
The reality is, anyone who decries same-sex marriage as aberrant or sinful or evil or whatever, is as informed as a glossolalic twit who would boast of international socio-political expertise merely because they live across a desolate strait from another country. While it is fairly assured that a large portion of "normal" marriages yield much familial discord, a high percentage of divorce, domestic violence and despair, just who do extreme, hyper-religious, xenophobic heterosexuals think they are, to create and impose legislation upon people that neither directly nor indirectly involves nor effects them adversely in any way? God?
Megan Fox expressed
Rosanne Barr also expressed that Hollywood “compassion” in a Nov. 13 blog entry in which she told those who voted for Prop 8 to return to the past:
Let's expose these evil doctors accountants dentists business owners, pastors who hate the
Sean Penn, upon receiving a 2009 Best Actor Oscar for his depiction of
Last January, Tom Hanks called Mormon supporters of Prop 8 “un-American.” He continued, in apparent support of releasing names of supporters, “A little bit of light can be shed and people can see who's responsible and that can motivate the next go around of our self-correcting constitution and hopefully we can move forward instead of backwards.” Hanks later apologized for his comments.
In May 2009, after the California State Supreme Court upheld the proposition, actor George Clooney told E!, “This just should invigorate people to get it back on the ballot in 2010 and 2012 and every two years until all people are allowed a basic civil right.”
Christianity
In
Comedian Kathy Griffin told Jesus to “Suck it,” when her show “My Life on the D-List” won an Emmy in 2007 for Best Reality Show. She mocked others who give credit to God or Jesus for their talents in her acceptance speech. “A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you know that no one had less to with this award than Jesus. Suck it, Jesus.”
Actress Susan Sarandon defended
I just said my God has a big sense of humor. It's much bigger than that. And I wonder if somebody had actually gone down and thanked Allah, what would have happened? I mean, a God other than the one that's accepted for the most part in this country, a Wiccan? I don't know. We're very specific in our gods, but I really think she has a much bigger sense of humor. [italics added]
There's also Bill Maher, the host of HBO's “Real Time with Bill Maher.” His 2008 documentary, “Religulous” aimed squarely at Christianity, and allowed him to make outrageous comments during promotions of the movie.
Maher reduced the story of creation to a fairy tale during a CBS “Early Show” appearance last fall. “My motivation is to make people laugh. I mean, religion to me is a giant elephant in the room of comic gold because you know, we're talking about a garden with a talking snake. If you can't find humor there … People are just used to it, that's why they don't laugh at it.”
During an appearance on “The View” Maher told co-host Sherri Shepherd, a professed Christian, that she should be committed to a mental hospital because she believed God had answered her prayers.
Maher insisted before his movie that Christianity is akin to mental illness. He stated in January 2008, “You can't be a rational person six days of the week and put on a suit and make rational decisions and go to work and, on one day of the week go to a building and think you're drinking the blood of a 2,000-year-old space god. That doesn't make you a person of faith … that makes you a schizophrenic.”
HBO insisted, when asked by the Catholic League why it continues to give Maher air time, that Maher's remarks are a matter of “creative freedom.”
A November 2008 poll found that 43 percent of Americans believe there is a “campaign by
The lack of outcry by
Environmentalism
Celebrities quickly jumped on the “green is good” bandwagon. Its players often trot out to urge people to live greener lifestyles or to change habits in order to save the planet.
Singer Sheryl Crow's solution to help the environment involved limitation on toilet paper use. She stated in 2007:
Although my ideas are in the earliest stages of development, they are, in my mind, worth investigating. One of my favorites is in the area of forest conservation which we heavily rely on for oxygen. I propose a limitation be put on how many squares of toilet paper can be used in any one sitting. Now, I don't want to rob any law-abiding American of his or her God-given rights, but I think we are an industrious enough people that we can make it work with only one square per restroom visit, except, of course, on those pesky occasions where 2 to 3 could be required. When presenting this idea to my younger brother, whose judgment I trust implicitly, he proposed taking it one step further. I believe his quote was, "how bout just washing the one square out.
Others in
And when propaganda won't work, there's peer pressure. ABC's Sam Champion used this tactic in a January 2007 “Good Morning
Champion featured Diaz, who stated the obvious, “Every single human being on the planet depends on having fresh water, clean air and clean soil.” Brad Pitt implored, “We have to address this, especially as we see the changes in climate.”
“Practicing what they preach is critical,” noted Champion. “Cameron Diaz drives her own hybrid car. Leonardo DiCaprio produces TV programs on the environment. And Brad Pitt is helping environmental group Global Green rebuild ravaged
Champion did not point out how much energy DiCaprio's TV efforts used or that people could save energy by turning off the television completely.
Last spring, DiCaprio used the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards to recruit for an eco-army after winning the network's first annual “Big Green Help” award for being a “tireless promoter of green causes and events, and an avid environmentalist.” He told the kids viewing the show:
Do you like this planet that we live on? Is this an awesome place to live or what? I've got news for you. It's the only home we have, and right now, our mother, our mother, all of our mothers, mother earth, is hurting. And she needs a generation of thoughtful, caring and active kids like all of you, to protect her for the future.
Last month, ABC touted Harrison Ford's efforts to get in on the green game. Ford appeared on “Good Morning America” and urged people to do more for the environment by visiting a Web site. Ford stated, “You're all on Team Earth. You were born to it. But now we've gotta get everybody off the bench and into the big game …what's happened is that – that the environmental movement so far has failed, to – to motivate the great, you know, masses of people.”
GMA co-host Robin Roberts asked Ford, “You've said it's time for us to get off the bench. What can we do?” Ford replied, “Our first ambition is to get a million people to go to TeamEarth.com, which we're just launching.”
Few of the environmental reports that featured celebrities offer critiques of their solutions or even a statement that address their qualifications to make such solutions. Instead, they're cited as fact.
Anti-war films released in 2008 depicted
Actor Tim Robbins used a 2007 appearance on Bill Maher's “Real Time” to further perpetuate the idea of American forces killing with abandon. Robbins told Maher, in reference to
The Standard article cited numbers from an anti-war group, the Iraq Body Count Web site, that found the number of civilians killed to be 77,555, “one-fifth the number concocted by Robbin's overactive imagination.”
Robbins' romantic partner Susan Sarandon also took opportunities to falsely portray American troops as murderers and as unintelligent.
She told The Washington Post in 2007 while promoting her anti-war movie, “In the Valley of Elah:”
I think we need to acknowledge the toll that it takes on them physically and psychologically and spiritually. It's this surreal experience of going from this intense environment where you're just trying to stay alive and you're asked to kill children and women in order to stay alive. And then you come back into this world that had no idea what's been going on over there.
On a 2007 “View” appearance for more promotion of “Elah,” Sarandon noted, “It's just heartbreaking to see these photos of these smiling eager young, young kids who have been sacrifices and are not even clear why they're there.”
Culmination of Hollwood's Liberality
Unfortunately, these examples are not even close to being an exhaustive list of outrageous, bizarre, and downright stupid comments from celebrities on these and other topics. Held up against
George Clooney said during the 2006 Oscars,
I would say that, you know, we are a little bit out of touch in
When “out of touch” includes “defending a child rapist,”
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