…because unlike cell phones, perpetual outrage doesn’t just sell itself.
So acting great Gary Oldman has sounded off to Playboy about showbiz’s political correctness in terms that sound like something Sid Vicious (whom Oldman played to perfection in 1986’s Sid & Nancy) might say.
Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi? She’s “a cunt…a fucking useless cunt,” according to Oldman, who also took the opportunity self-identify as libertarian. “I would say that I’m probably a libertarian if I had to put myself in any category,” he told Playboy. On behalf of libertarians, we say, er, thanks, Gary, for taking this precise moment to come clean about your politics.
But it’s not Oldman’s embrace of libertarianism or even his dissing of Pelosi (and Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, among others) that’s kickstarted the latest cycle of the Perpetual Outrage Machine.
That’s happening because Oldman, who was promoting his new film, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, defended offensive outbursts by rage-aholic actors Mel Gibson and Alec Baldwin.
“Mel Gibson,” said Oldman, “is in a town that’s run by Jews and he said the wrong thing because he’s actually bitten the hand that I guess has fed him—and doesn’t need to feed him anymore because he’s got enough dough. He’s like an outcast, a leper, you know? But some Jewish guy in his office somewhere hasn’t turned and said, ‘That fucking kraut’ or ‘Fuck those Germans,’ whatever it is? We all hide and try to be so politically correct. That’s what gets me. It’s just the sheer hypocrisy of everyone, that we all stand on this thing going, ‘Isn’t that shocking?’ [smiles wryly] All right. Shall I stop talking now? What else can we discuss?”
After the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) publicly took offense, Oldman quickly issued an apology that stated, “I am deeply remorseful that comments I recently made in the Playboy Interview were offensive to many Jewish people.”
To which the ADL responded: Not good enough.
And so it goes.
Whatever else you can say about Oldman’s comments, this flap does drive home the point that we all love a good p.c. spectacle.
About 30 seconds. Produced by Meredith Bragg and Nick Gillespie.
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