astro
October 12, 2002, 1:24pm
1
Nimoy sees no logic in cancellation of talk
The Federation has dumped Mr. Spock.
Not the United Federation of Planets, though. The Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle has canceled an appearance by Leonard Nimoy over a dispute concerning nude images in the former “Star Trek” actor’s new art-photography book.
“I’m shocked by it,” Nimoy said, following what he described as an “unpleasant” conversation with the federation’s director, Barry Goren. “It may be an anomaly. I hope it is. We have not had this kind of reaction anyplace else.”
“Shekhina” features ethereal black-and-white images of women — some of whom are partially dressed or nude — based on the Kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism.
“It’s a photographic essay on the subject of the Shekhina, which is the feminine presence of God, the feminine aspect of divinity,” Nimoy, 71, explained in a phone interview from his Los Angeles home. “This is not some figure that is a foggy mist in a cloud somewhere. I have depicted her as being a flesh-and-blood woman.”
Hmm, while reading his quotes I could not help but hear his voice (think of his appearance on The Simpsons) and it just struck me how much I liked it. I don’t care what he was talking about I’d go just to hear his voice.
Oh, it was for a fundraiser . That explains it. To continue the article:
“…I have depicted her as being a flesh-and-blood woman.”
And it’s not what prospective donors at the Oct. 23 fund-raising event needed to see, according to Goren. He describes the federation as “sort of the Jewish United Way here in town,” with about 4,500 regular donors. It raised $10 million last year.
“When we started to get some expressions of concern, I brought it to my leadership,” Goren said. He declined to say how many people had objections. As for the concerns:
“I think it’s pretty self-explanatory. If you were running a charity fund-raising dinner and there were going to be images of naked women or naked women with Jewish ritual objects draped on them, that might be offensive to some folks.”
The book’s cover, for example, shows a woman with a nipple visible through a translucent garment, and with phylacteries — a traditional Jewish prayer accessory — wrapped around one arm.
Um, yeah, if I were in charge of a fundraiser that was hoping to raise millions of dollars, and started to get phone calls “expressing concern”, I’d probably play it safe and replace Nimoy with someone innocuous like Al Franken. People come to that sort of thing expecting to eat filet mignon and make small talk, not to have possibly blasphemous naked women thrust in their faces (there are other venues for that sort of thing…
And apparently when the deal first went through, the book wasn’t on the agenda.
According to Goren: “We invited Leonard Nimoy because he’s a well-known Jewish person that would be a draw for our donors. The truth is that we invited Leonard Nimoy back in July, not to talk about his book but to talk about his ‘Jewish journey,’ a speech he has given in Jewish organizations before. That’s what we contracted for.”
Neither Nimoy’s publicist nor the Jewish Federation would release a copy of the contract.
One way or another, Nimoy said he volunteered to negotiate with the federation on which images in his slide show would be acceptable. (Copies of the book were to be available at the event.) But the two sides couldn’t reach a compromise and called it off Wednesday.
So, I’m sorry, but it looks to me like Leonard saw a chance to plug his book.
For a second, I thought they meant naked pictures of NIMOY himself! Scary!
I mean, I think he’s really cool and all, but…um, ew.
Maybe his ears aren’t the only things that are unusually pointy…
Naked pictures?
Maybe back when he WAS Mr. Spock.
Well, the young, non-wrinkly Mr. Spock, anyway.
He says it may be an anomaly. Would that be a SPACE-TIME anomaly? And are we going to have to mess around with the deflector dish to destroy it?
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