Agreed. And Orson Scott Card. And a handful of others.
The reverse of this is, perhaps less true, but has some weight. If I meet an author (or other artist) who is really nice, friendly, cheerful, and good – I’m more likely to buy his stuff, although perhaps not more likely to like it.
The best of all is when a really nice chap is also a sterling and inspired creator.
well, for me, yes and no. celebrity can be a platform to get your message out and get some things done; anjelina jolie, and george clooney pop in my mind.
on the other hand, while i’m no fan of trump, i do find all these actors using every moment of their 15 minutes screeching “fuck, trump” to be incredibly annoying and message diluting. if you really hate trump so much use you valuable celebrity to actually do something. the award show thing really comes across more like, “look at me, i’m saying something important.”
mc
Boy, there’s a mixed message for you. I’m in favor of the first and against the second.
that comma will get you every time! :o
mc
How many top-drawer directors are not psychopaths? My hunch is that Ron Howard and Betty Thomas can be trusted around my children, but their work defines “mediocre.”
He may well have been an asshole, and even a sexual criminal, and there’s evidence that he did some of his performance on camera under gun-threat, but I would still vote for Klaus Kinski as The Greatest Actor Ever, and Werner Herzog the Greatest Film Director, respectively. Aguirre is, and will for long remain, the Greatest Movie Ever!
Who is to say they don’t? You assume that they just walked up and said “Hey, Trump sucks” and then thought “Well, that solves that!” but I’m guessing many of them are more engaged (if only through financial contributions, fund raising appearances, etc).
Besides, the same applies to everyone. I can find any random person on Facebook posting about, say, abused greyhounds and start haranguing them about how come they’re not spending every moment rescuing greyhounds if they really care so much. If you care so much about actors “misusing” their speeches, why aren’t you talking to the Academy about setting rules instead of screeching about it on the SDMB – see? 
Ultimately though, it’s their five minutes that they earned by winning the award so throwing a snit over how you think they should spend it seems rather petty. Just change the channel if it bothers you.
I never particularly liked Woody Allen, but then the whole Soon-Yi thing totally turned me off him.
On the other hand, Roald Dahl was a genius writer. And a horrible human being.
For that matter, Frank Lloyd Wright was a gifted and visionary architect, but a mooch who cheated on his wife, abandoned his children, bled his clients dry and sucked as an engineer.
Good question. I honestly don’t care too much about an entertainer’s politics, unless they are obnoxious about it (looking sideways at you, Madonna. :smack:) But when it seems clear that the entertainer is truly morally or ethically impaired, I do, eventually, have a hard time enjoying the work and might just avoid it altogether. C.F. Bill Cosby :(, Roman Polanski, Woody Allen, Anne Rice, Piers Anthony, Michael Jackson…
i never said they didnt do anything else, i said the award show stuff makes them look bad, imho, and possibly turns people off to their message. timing is everthing.
i’ve worked as a scenic technician for live theater for 30 years, and i cant count the number of times i’ve discussed this issue with my cohort; both informally over drinks and as part of groups at industry events. most of us have comes to the same conclusion: actors (and its almost always just actors, designers and techicians ussually are more quiet) should give it a rest, already! its not just their time theyre using, these award shows are expensive and time consuming for all involved, have a little courtesy!
mc
i’m all for using celebrity for advancing you cause; whatever your cause. but read the room!
celebrity can be a powerful weapon for change, but if you dont use it right, its just a stink bomb!
mc
It is their time. You win an award, you get to give a speech. Seeing the actors speak is a major draw to the show, otherwise you could just read the results in the next day’s newspaper.
It would have to be someone who’s actions truly repulsed me, the only example I can think of is literal baby-rapist Ian Watkins.
There’s a tiny handful of things I won’t listen to due to sheer offensiveness, although I can only think of one off the top of my head, a country song called “God Makes No Mistakes” claiming that babies born horribly deformed and suffering are still part of god’s plan and something we should be thankful for.
So anything short of actually torturing babies is fine, really.
i realize youre probably just egging me on, but ok, i’ll take the bait. . .
these award ceremonies all started out as small industry dinners, where mucky-mucks could pat themselves on the back for all the good work theyve done. not much different for the corporate events many businesses put on today. there where NO speeches.
in the golden age of Hollywood they would film the event and show some clips during the trailers at the movies. these were mostly silent with voice-over narration, “. . .and there’s joan fontaine accepting her award for suspicion; doesnt she look great. . .” still NO speeches.
when tv became the medium of choice, they would might show a highly edited ceremony as a half hour special, still no speeches.
then somebody got the bright idea to turn the oscars in to a star studded celebrity special by televising the entire ceremony. and they LET, the actors (and it was just actors at first, the academy gave out all non acting awards at a different ceremony) have a couple of seconds in front of the cameras to look glamorous and say thank you.
eventually the thank yous got longer and longer, with the actors trying to outdo one another! and the ceremony got longer and longer, almost immediately the academy tried to put out rules governing what was acceptable and how long they should talk, even going so far some years to turning mics off at the end of their time. but since most actors only exist when the spotlight is on them, they of course disregard these guidelines every year!
every year the academy does a nationwide telepoll after the event and thank you speeches are at the bottom of the list of the reasons people watch and what they like about the oscars.
so, the audience doesnt want these speeches, the academy actively tries to prevent them, most of the recipients abide by the guidelines and are embarrassed by those that dont, its not just me that finds these loudmouths annoying, its most everyone involved and watching that feels this way, too
its a few arrogant actors taking time thats NOT THEIRS to say things that most people would rather they didnt!
of course there are plenty of hollywood types that think any press is good press so they actively encourage these actors to go rogue; its all just a big game to them.
well, now that i’ve done just exactly what i’m ranting about by taking time out of a thread to spout off and make everyone listen to me, i guess i should stop the hijack.
mc
It depends on what the artist did that bothered me.
I won’t read Orsen Scott Card anymore due to his views.
I also recently decided I won’t read Stephen King and he has been my favorite writer for a long time. King doesn’t like Trump. No big deal, neither do I. However King went after anyone who voted for Trump and basically called them worthless, evil people. I know some exceedingly good people who voted Trump. King, instead of trying to understand, chose to instead get his hate and moral indignation on.
I wrote a rather long email explaining why I think King is wrong on this and emailed it off to everywhere I could that might bring it to his attention. Will he read it? Probably not but oh well.
I won’t buy any of his books, see any movies or otherwise give him my money from here on out. It won’t affect him much but, once again, oh well. There are plenty of other writers out there that i can read who won’t describe my family members (who are some of the most honest, helpful, generous people out there) as evil and hateful.
For other people, actors and such, I generally don’t care enough about them to notice.
Slee