Moby, just send in a guest post if you feel so left out because of the breast reduction thread!
If you don't fix a hernia, you might need scrotum reduction surgery. Has Merryl Streep ever thought about that?
People shave their scrotums (scrota?) sometimes. This seems to me a terribly dangerous activity.
That was a good read. I'm always happy when people I like on screen turn out to be intelligent and interesting. Thanks, Van Wafer!
I believe Apo has mentioned his manscaping habits here before.
I'm assuming thats our VDub's less successful, stoner brother.
9 You'd expect the Dutch brother to be a bit different from the German.
Maybe not less successful, but certainly more stoned.
6: One doesn't use a straight razor, togs.
Not when hot wax is available.
Roger Sherman on accusations of Disney anti-semitism
Ask anyone who knew him, my father was a straight shooter, a no nonsense kind of guy. As a highly decorated World War II Veteran, present at the earliest stage of the liberation of Dachau Concentration camp in April 1945 (present with only 7 other soldiers, btw), and as a JEW... I can say without any reservation... My father DID NOT SUFFER ANTISEMITISM SILENTLY.Walt Disney's reputation is, simply put, the victim of an ongoing, vicious attack.
Thanks Wafer! I am not disappointed!
No Jews have ever been known to discriminate against Jews. No siree.
Could somebody have the Zamboni guy put down another layer or two of ice. The Canucks are coming tomorrow and those guys really dig into the ice enough that I fear for my frozen face.
I don't know if Disney was an anti-Semite, but when someone declares outright in a letter to be a bigot, and the letter is only produced after his death, I suspect the authorship. I do think Meryl always writes her own speeches though.
15: So the defense here is that when Disney founded the MPA he, unlike Sam Wood, was more interested in Red-baiting than in anti-semitism? What a mensch.
Also, the idea that an actress is obliged to choose only roles that will change the world in the specific way she thinks it should be changed is kind of, I don't know, self-important. And I'm not sure that it's very different from thinking about everything in terms of "me". But apart from that they're both good actresses, and I suppose good work forgives all types of acceptance speeches.
It's true that the specific charge of being anti-Semitic based mainly on Disney's membership in the MPAPAI is way way overblown. The MPAPAI was, especially when it was founded which is when Disney was most involved, primarily an anti-union group (remember the studios including Disney were all in big anti-unionization fights in the 30s and 40s) and was generically against radicals and leftists working in the industry and organizing the studio unions. It was a reactionary group of conservative aholes and Walt was certainly a conservative ahole in that context. But it wasn't an anti-Semitic org at the time (though it had some crackpotty anti-Semitic members, particularly as it became unimportant in the 1950s and 60s after Walt was involved) and given the ethnic makeup of Hollywood at the time you emphatically had Jews on both sides of the unionization fights, which were bitterly and intensely fought at every studio.
My own take is that Walt probably had a fairly mild anti-semitism common to many ordinary Gentile conservatives of the day, and of course was a gentile in what was then a dominantly Jewish industry, but that he wasn't a rabid anti-Semite (and he couldn't have successfully run his company if he had been). It's not like, say, Henry Ford.
Walt's involvement with the MPA peaked in 1947 when the group's members testified in Washington D.C. in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Disney was among those who spoke as a "friendly" witness and he called out the leader of the Disney studio strike, David Hilberman. Disney presumably felt vindicated after exposing who he believed were subversive elements within the Hollywood industry, because his involvement in the MPA--minimal as it had been--waned after his testimony. Disney's actions speak powerfully to the notion that his involvement in the group was to settle personal scores against those whom he felt had wronged him, and never an ideological stance against Jews.
Text in 23 is from link in 15 -- this is the best defense of Walt on the thing. Which, ok, only adds marginally to 22.
I do think Meryl always writes her own speeches though.
In the comments to the second link, there is a longish comments about how Streep's speech was a subtle piece of Hollywood Oscar politics, protecting Thompson's chance at a nomination while biasing voters against the movie (maybe). Supposedly done as a favor to Harvey Weinstein (what movies does he have on contention?), and at least partially ghost-written. The comment makes the point that Streep and Thompson are actually CEO's of mega-million dollar business entities.
1) I could care less about Disney, kinda hate him and his product, always have.
2) Don't know enough about Streep to have an opinion about her other than her work
3) Like Thompson a little better
4) Do know that Streep and Thompson are fiercely competitive professionals
5) Do know that Oscar season in Hollywood is famously vicious back-biting hell
6) Have always thought intellectual integrity involved using more than a single source, especially when extremely disparaging remarks about a person were being widely distributed. Also, check agendas
7) Discovered this stuff on a IMDB user thread while looking up Saving Mr Banks or whatever the oscar-bait is called. The more interesting stuff was about the character of Travers. Wow.
Text in 23 is from link in 15 -- this is the best defense of Walt on the thing. Which, ok, only adds marginally to 22.
Ok, how many of you claim to be me?
24:I thought the refutation in 15 of Disney's supposed gender bigotry was even more powerful. The list of women he put into power positions in the 30s was impressive, especially for the time.
25 -- it's almost certainly false, but the idea of Harvey Weinstein using his mouthpiece Meryl Streep to attack Walt Disney for anti-semitism as part of his ongoing fight with the company is just plausible enough to be an entertaining conspiracy theory.
27 -- the gender stuff is interesting. I don't know enough a out Disney in that context to add anything to the linked article. I will say that I had a case that involved looking at a lot of documents from the 50s and 60s from a major studio (not Disney) and was surprised to see how many women were in fairly prominent positions on the business side. I mean there was a clear ceiling -- no one at the very top levels -- but a good chunk of important mid-level executive work being done by women professionals, which I hadn't expected.
My new all-purpose response: "I've been rather scuppered."
I found the headline stupid, actually, but the appreciation of Emma Thompson quite lovely.
Going a little tangential, I have been watching Streep for almost forty years now, and Thompson since The Tall Guy, and have been interested in Streep as the best example of someone working to:
a) get "artistic" productions financed and distributed, out of a limited money pool mostly dedicated to Thor IIIs and a few scatalogical comedies
b) get her 5 million dollar paychecks.
I have watched this with DeNiro, De Caprio, Day-Lewis etc and the contradictions and compulsions are fascinating. The politics of flattering studio/green-lighters to get prestige "oscar-bait" films produced, and the ego that requires millions for an artist to work are also interesting. I have heard that if you accept 500k in salary for an indie you can't go back. "Art" is a lot easier if you work cheap. Or is it?
One reason I liked Thompson a little better than Streep is Thompson has done "smaller" films but that could be a function of where she works.
Would Jennifer Lawrence rather be doing Winter's Bone type movies? Was Olivier happy playing Zeus or Hopkins proud of his work as Odin? Kristin Stewart has six movies in stages of production, so my guess is that she has gone to art. Even though her net worth is 70 million.
Streep is worth 45 million. Mostly I don't care about rich shits.
I guarantee you that you have no idea at all what Meryl Streep is worth. I don't either, but I know that you don't and that website you're looking at doesn't either. No one but her business manager really does. She's probably quite rich though.
I have heard that if you accept 500k in salary for an indie you can't go back.
Completely false. You can do this without affecting your quote, and actors routinely do so.
I've repeatedly asked for a half million to do various jobs without any effect at all on my earnings.
Mostly I just hate that celebrity net worth site. So stupid!
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On other entertainment news:
Watching the Charter Hostile Takeover very closely.
"consisting of around $83 per share in cash and its own stock"
"The combined company would have to take on $20.5 billion in new debt, or $72.16 per share"
I hate America I love my TWC.
"Some analysts have said that No. 1 cable provider Comcast would be interested in some of Time Warner Cable's markets such as New York, Los Angeles and Dallas."
Oh fuck me.
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My hostility toward Streep stems from her role in helping to inflict Mamma Mia! and It's Complicated upon the world. On the other hand, Mamma Mia! made possible this review.