# Sean Penn brings personal photog on rescue mission
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sean-penn-brings-personal-photog-on-rescue-mission/320193
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [September 5, 2005, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sean-penn-brings-personal-photog-on-rescue-mission/320193 "2005-09-05T13:16:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sean-penn-brings-personal-photog-on-rescue-mission/320193/21 "2005-09-05T19:03:24Z")
It’s like a Far Side cartoon:
\*Ship of Fools.
Boat of Idiots\*.
I mean, I like Penn as an actor, but don’t you think they should keep him in cryo-storage until Clint Eastwood needs him again?
---
### Author:  [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sean-penn-brings-personal-photog-on-rescue-mission/320193/22 "2005-09-05T20:18:18Z")
I think it is inappropriate to criticize Sean Penn at a time like this. There will be plenty of time to criticize Sean Penn later. Besides that, the chief justice died.
Just another Sean Penn bashing thread. If Sean Penn cured cancer, you Sean Penn haters would criticize him for not curing Alzheimer’s Disease.
Besides that, it’s really Tom Selleck’s fault.
---
### Author:  [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sean-penn-brings-personal-photog-on-rescue-mission/320193/23 "2005-09-05T20:31:34Z")
I don’t have a cite because I don’t care enough to go look for one, but when I first heard of Sean Penn being there (it had to have been on either CNN or MSNBC because those were the only channels I was watching) it was said that he was there for two reasons. 1) he had some friends there and wanted to check on their house and 2) he’s been hired to write an article for a magazine. That’s all I know. Sounded reasonable to me and it would seem the photographer is there for article photos.
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### Author:  [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sean-penn-brings-personal-photog-on-rescue-mission/320193/24 "2005-09-05T20:31:49Z")
> [@Hentor the Barbarian](#):
>
> I think it is inappropriate to criticize Sean Penn at a time like this. There will be plenty of time to criticize Sean Penn later. Besides that, the chief justice died.
>
> Just another Sean Penn bashing thread. If Sean Penn cured cancer, you Sean Penn haters would criticize him for not curing Alzheimer’s Disease.
>
> Besides that, it’s really Tom Selleck’s fault.
Stop the presses!
Sean Penn says it is time to take action!
Video on the right side of page…
---
### Author:  [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sean-penn-brings-personal-photog-on-rescue-mission/320193/25 "2005-09-05T20:34:25Z")
> [@Equipoise](#):
>
> I don’t have a cite because I don’t care enough to go look for one, but when I first heard of Sean Penn being there (it had to have been on either CNN or MSNBC because those were the only channels I was watching) it was said that he was there for two reasons. 1) he had some friends there and wanted to check on their house and 2) he’s been hired to write an article for a magazine. That’s all I know. Sounded reasonable to me and it would seem the photographer is there for article photos.
In the video I linked to in the last post he said the water is toxic and you need shots if you go in, but he has been wading in so tsave people. He also called for people nearby in small boats to join his efforts. Also he claims that the Federal effort is 1/6 of what it needs to be.
Bush is hiding in his lair, giggling maniacly while wringing his hands…“Perhaps I will send another 1/6 another day! MUUAAA hooo haaahhaahahaHAAA.”
---
### Author:  [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sean-penn-brings-personal-photog-on-rescue-mission/320193/26 "2005-09-05T21:15:27Z")
Thank you, **newcrasher** , for being on the ball with the Sean Penn updates. It is very important for us to know what Sean Penn is up to at all times. Hopefully Sean Penn will fuck up again so we can all enjoy another good laugh. Stupid Sean Penn. What a national disgrace.
---
### Author:  [@Mama\_Tiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Tiger)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sean-penn-brings-personal-photog-on-rescue-mission/320193/27 "2005-09-05T21:21:19Z")
Crap, I tried to show my husband the photo of Sean bailing with the red plastic cup, and it’s no longer front and center on the Drudge Report. Anybody else know how I can find it for his entertainment?
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sean-penn-brings-personal-photog-on-rescue-mission/320193/28 "2005-09-05T21:34:57Z")
> [@Mama Tiger](#):
>
> Crap, I tried to show my husband the photo of Sean bailing with the red plastic cup, and it’s no longer front and center on the Drudge Report. Anybody else know how I can find it for his entertainment?
It’s available [here](http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,16499174%5E954,00.html).
If the magazine article is a genuine story, it still begs the question "Why in the hell did they hire Sean Penn? He’s not from N.O. (he just finished a movie there, but…) and he’s neither a meteorologist, a First Responder, a writer, or, evidently, a sailor. If you’re going with a celebrity why not give Charlton Heston a couple of automatics and a boat and have him shoot some gangbangers from a pontoon boat?
---
### Author:  [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sean-penn-brings-personal-photog-on-rescue-mission/320193/29 "2005-09-05T21:40:41Z")
My God! Now Sean Penn and Niole Kidman are attempting to [oust Robert Mugabe](http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/kidman%20and%20penn%20accused%20of%20mugabe%20plot)!
Quickly! To the War Room!
---
### Author:  [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sean-penn-brings-personal-photog-on-rescue-mission/320193/30 "2005-09-05T21:48:24Z")
I will volunteer to shelter Nicole for the time she must maintain a low profile to avoid the evil minions of Mugabe. At times like this one must open one’s home to strangers, even if that does mean facing the possibility of accidentally walking in on Nicole Kidman in the shower.
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### Author:  [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sean-penn-brings-personal-photog-on-rescue-mission/320193/31 "2005-09-05T22:01:16Z")
> [@Sampiro](#):
>
> It’s available [here](http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,16499174%5E954,00.html).
>
> If the magazine article is a genuine story, it still begs the question "Why in the hell did they hire Sean Penn? He’s not from N.O. (he just finished a movie there, but…) and he’s neither a meteorologist, a First Responder, a writer, or, evidently, a sailor. If you’re going with a celebrity why not give Charlton Heston a couple of automatics and a boat and have him shoot some gangbangers from a pontoon boat?
Oh No, **Sampiro**. Fight the good fight. _Raises_ the question. _Raises_ the question.
---
### Author:  [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sean-penn-brings-personal-photog-on-rescue-mission/320193/32 "2005-09-05T22:16:05Z")
> [@Celine Dion](#):
>
> “I (turn on) the television, there’s people still there, waiting to be rescued, and for me it’s not acceptable,” she said on CNN television’s Larry King Live yesterday. “I know there’s reasons for it. I’m sorry to say I’m being rude, but I don’t want to hear those reasons,”
I’m really getting tired of celebrities. Shut up and write a check.
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### Author:  [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sean-penn-brings-personal-photog-on-rescue-mission/320193/33 "2005-09-05T22:25:08Z")
> [@Sampiro](#):
>
> … and have him shoot some gangbangers from a pontoon boat?
Am I the only Doper who read this as, “poontang boat?”
---
### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sean-penn-brings-personal-photog-on-rescue-mission/320193/34 "2005-09-05T22:31:03Z")
I don’t think I am exagerrating when I say that the photo of Penn bailing out his little boat is the greatest picture in the entire history of photography.
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### Author:  [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sean-penn-brings-personal-photog-on-rescue-mission/320193/35 "2005-09-05T22:36:52Z")
> [@Casey1505](#):
>
> I’m really getting tired of celebrities. Shut up and write a check.
And write one to me while you’re at it.
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### Author:  [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sean-penn-brings-personal-photog-on-rescue-mission/320193/36 "2005-09-05T22:38:06Z")
Look, I know that Sean Penn is a boogaman to conservative idiots (just like MICHAEL MOORE!! HILARY CLINTON!! BARBRA STREISAND!! _watches conservatives scurry like roaches_) but he did write articles for the San Francisco Chronicle about trips to Iran and Iraq.
[2nd act A year later, Sean Penn returns to Iraq and files a personal, candid report from the front](http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/01/14/DDGG048F0G1.DTL)
[SEAN PENN IN IRAN](http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/08/22/DDGJUEAF041.DTL)
I would imagine the photographer is for pictures for the Chronicle. Not that I give a fuck. He’s trying to do something instead of chortling on a message board. That’s nice.
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### Author:  [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sean-penn-brings-personal-photog-on-rescue-mission/320193/37 "2005-09-05T22:48:22Z")
I should clarify that I didn’t hear them say he was _hired_ to write an article.
It was just an offhand remark, something like “And actor Sean Penn is here checking on a friend’s house and writing an article,” by one of the reporters in the street during a general report about things that are going on. It was either on CNN or MSNBC and it was either yesterday or the day before. I just made a mental note that that’s cool and forgot about it, which is why I don’t remember more details.
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### Author:  [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sean-penn-brings-personal-photog-on-rescue-mission/320193/38 "2005-09-05T23:10:33Z")
from here: [http://www.ejectejecteject.com/archives/000129.html](http://www.ejectejecteject.com/archives/000129.html)
> [@](#):
>
> …But Sean Penn can take himself, an entourage and a personal photographer – that’s three or four people in a four-person boat – and show us all how incredibly big and down-home he is by sailing off a few feet to rescue people, before the boat sinks from the incompetence of failing to put in the drainage plug. He wore a very nice white flak vest, instead of the passé orange life preserver, because getting shot at is a lot more macho looking, if a million or so times less likely, than drowning because you went out into the water with a lead vest rather than a life vest. It’s a scene in the trailer that runs incessantly in their heads: In a world run by evil corporations, a rebel who plays by his own rules starts a deadly game of cat and mouse with an all-powerful conspiracy in this searing portrait of extraordinary courage in a life under siege, starring…me!
>
> I was actually ready to publicly commend the guy, until I heard about the personal photographer. If he wanted to help people – and that’s all – he could have paid for that boat, and a few hundred others, manned them with reasonably competent recreational boaters, and sent out a flotilla. But no. It’s not about having people saved. It’s about something else entirely. It’s about having people saved by Sean Penn. That’s when I realized that whether it’s the Murderous Regime in Iraq, or the Murderous Regime in Iran, or the Murderous Storm in Louisiana…ultimately, it’s all about Sean Penn.
Says it all pretty well.
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### Author:  [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sean-penn-brings-personal-photog-on-rescue-mission/320193/39 "2005-09-05T23:49:55Z")
> [@Equipoise](#):
>
> Look, I know that Sean Penn is a boogaman to conservative idiots (just like MICHAEL MOORE!! HILARY CLINTON!! BARBRA STREISAND!! _watches conservatives scurry like roaches_) but he did write articles for the San Francisco Chronicle about trips to Iran and Iraq.
>
> [2nd act A year later, Sean Penn returns to Iraq and files a personal, candid report from the front](http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/01/14/DDGG048F0G1.DTL)
>
> [SEAN PENN IN IRAN](http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/08/22/DDGJUEAF041.DTL)
>
> I would imagine the photographer is for pictures for the Chronicle. Not that I give a fuck. He’s trying to do something instead of chortling on a message board. That’s nice.
From his stories:
> [@](#):
>
> It’s the week preceding presidential elections. Candidates attack one another’s credibility. Activists push to boycott the vote. Traffic and pollution choke the cities. Leftists support a no-win idealist. Preachers guide their flocks toward political starboard.
> [@](#):
>
> A woman opens her eyes and stands.
>
> “Sean?” she says.
>
> “Yes, are you Medea?”
>
> She rubs her eyes and nods. She is a diminutive blonde with delicate features, with a reputation for having ridden out the U.S.-led bombing campaign in Afghanistan, interrupting Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s news conferences, consistently putting herself on the line – in South America, the Middle East and Washington.
> [@](#):
>
> Doc Birnbaum filled the last of three receptacles with my blood… then slid the needle out of my vein as my phone rang. I answered as the doc pressed a cotton ball onto the puncture in the crook of my arm. It was Medea Benjamin, the co-founder of Global Exchange, a San Francisco human rights organization. I had put out the word that I wanted to return to Iraq to write a piece for The Chronicle, having been granted a press credential by its editor, Phil Bronstein.
Looks like he’s read a bit too much Dashiell Hammett.
---
### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sean-penn-brings-personal-photog-on-rescue-mission/320193/40 "2005-09-05T23:51:03Z")
I forget to plug the drain hole in my boat from time to time. Of course, as an inflatable it doesn’t matter. 😛
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