Wow, that’s some ironclad set o’ principles ya got there!
As i said before, i’ve never seen the logic in judging the art based on the artist’s real-life persona or politics. However, if you are going to do this, you’d have a bit more credibility if you didn’t cave in every time you got bored.
Eh, if it’s there and I don’t have to pay I sometimes will <shrug>. I didn’t anywhere say I was BOYCOTTING the SOB; or that I “absolutely could never watch such a thing”, I only said I didn’t much intend to. Not quite the same.
But hey, thanks for the condescension; I’m sure I couldn’t have lived another day without it!
I used to think Jackson Browne was a pretty decent songwriter. Haven’t been able to listen to him at all since I saw that picture of Darryl Hannah with the black eye.
I generally don’t let my feelings about an actor prevent me from watching a particular film or TV show. Music, however, is another story and I’m sort of at a loss as to why.
It may be because an actor is generally performing something that someone else has written and some other person is directing. Musicians (real ones, anyway), otoh, are more likely to be performing something that they themselves have created and so are more likely to be expressing their own feelings.
Btw, I missed what happened between Jackson Browne and Darryl Hannah, could someone fill me in?
I just realized that there is one actor I’m boycotting: Tom Green.
As I said earlier, most actors are performing the work of someone else, and even when they’re not their work is usually distinct from whatever it is that makes them personally distasteful. In Green’s case, though, his work is his own, and it is what makes him repulsive, in my opinion. His brand of ‘humor’ is not something that should be rewarded with an audience.
I also try to avoid Yujiro Ishihara’s work, on the off chance that any royalties paid to his estate end up in his brother’s pockets.
IIRC, back in the late 80s Browne and Hannah were an “item” and seemed like a happy couple, then, for some inexplicable reason, Browne beat the crap out of Hannah. Don’t recall if it was on-going thing, or if he just snapped and did it once. Anyway, she ended up in rough shape because of it. I believe she filed charges and Browne ended up with little more than a slap on the wrist.
Other spousal/partner beaters:
William Hurt physically and emotionally abused Marlee Matlin
Alec Baldwin was accused of physical and mental cruelty in Kim Basinger’s divorce papers
Harry “Col. Potter” Morgan was arrested for spousal abuse when he was in his 80s. Ray Walston’s wife of almost 60 years sued him for divorce when she got fed up with his verbal abuse.
IIRC, Harry Morgan’s got Alzhemer’s and it’s possible that could be the source for his abusive behavior.
What exactly are we talking about here?
Rhesus monkeys are not particularly genial creatures in the wild I am led to believe… but they are cute! I’ll toss a quarter to an organ grinders’ monkey! I have had zookeepers tell me that pandas are foul, mean creatures… but they are cute!! I’ll trot out to the zoo! I am here to tell you… with personal experience pigs are nasty, foul-tempered, mean… intentionally mean… smart enough to be mean on purpose mean… but Babe was CUTE! I caught it on video!
entertainers entertain.
Amuse me monkey-boy!
Sorry, it was my lame joke - ie Scientologists = “scientists”.
What’s tougher is realizing that the past year has proven people in America still think like this. That protesting a war waged by self-serving governments requires us to wish death on the fighting men who put their lives on the line to defend our right to protest. Do you really think that “the majority of Americans” feel that US soldiers fighting in Vietnam deserved to be killed? I have to wonder what grounds anybody would have to protest the war in Vietnam, if they thought it was okay to encourage the North Vietnamese to victory and kill as many Americans as they could. It’s definitely not a pacifist’s protest; that’s for damn sure.
Before the war in Iraq, I would’ve thought that a majority of Americans had enough intelligence to differentiate between opposition to the war and opposition to the soldiers. Now I’m not so sure.
I will say this, though: after seeing Fonda posing for photo ops during the war in a North Vietnamese tank, smiling while she mimicked manning an anti-aircraft gun shooting down American fighters, I realized that her actions merited far more than just a simple “boycott.” As said before, that’s treason, pure and simple. Legitimate conscientious objectors and war protestors show their protest by voicing their opposition, rejecting their “duty,” or providing humanitarian aid to the civilians of the invaded country. Not by encouraging victory to the other side. I only wish I had found out about her actions sooner – I was an infant during the war and grew up in the 80’s watching her achieve huge success in the mass media; it wasn’t until I was in college that I learned about what she’d done.
I sort of think you didn’t see “Stealing Harvard” then? I didn’t even know who the guy was until that flick and he had me PMSL. In fact, I almost posted on the “strangely amusing moments” thread a little while ago that any “Tom Green” moment in Stealing Harvard would qualify 
I know damn well there IS someone I’m boycotting besides Moore-on, but can’t remember it right now. Hope I don’t get bored and accidentally watch something by them before I remember!
Sol…what about human shields or idiots who lay down in front of moving bulldozers? That’s humanitarian aid that sometimes ends up getting killed and people ATTEMPT to make them saints and martyrs against the US. Just curious what you think of that crap.
I boycott the films of people who suck. I refuse to watch movies that feature shitty actors/writers/directors, etc., and generally try to keep my personal politics to myself. However, there are a few stand-outs here, all of which have been mentioned.
Jane Fonda: She encouraged the NVA to kill American soldiers. This is heinously bad- as has been said, it’s one thing to protest a war, to give humanitarian aid, etc. It’s quite another to be publicly calling for the deaths of thousands of young people who commited no crime other than being unfortunate enough to get drafted. My father was drafted into Vietnam. He saw active duty and served his country well, for better or worse, and the idea of that spoiled little bitch calling for his death makes my blood boil.
Mel Gibson: Complete wacko. Apparently has some issues with anyone who is not white, male, straight, or sedevacantist Catholic. In fact, he seems to despise anyone who is not actually Mel Gibson. I am not giving this man my money so he can use it to keep himself and his crazy father in guns and right-wing conspiracy literature.
Roman Polanski: Child rapist. Need more be said?
Billy Bob Thornton: He once said in an interview that he wants all Komodo dragons to be killed, because they represent everything that is evil the world. Obviously a dangerous psychopath. (Okay, so he hasn’t actually done anything all that bad, but he scares me, and it scares me more that anyone could actually think like this.)
Another subset of ‘entertainers’ that I boycott are criminals looking to cash in on their infamy. I refuse to buy paintings done by serial killers, books written by Mafia hitmen or convicted drug dealers, or videos put out by David Berkowitz encouraging people to accept Jesus as their personal savior.
What is a sedevacantist?
What I don’t get about Roman Polanski is that he’s a child rapist, yet he pratically gets standing ovations at the Oscars this year. Elia Kazan, on the other hand, helped in the blacklisting of Hollywood and gets booed when he gets an Honorary Oscar a few years ago. Sure, ratting out your friends isn’t good either, but it sure isn’t child raping.
This was when Hannah was going back-and-forth between Browne and JFK Jr. Apparently she finally told Browne she had decided to stay with Kennedy, and he beat the crap out of her. She ended up in the hospital, with Kennedy by her side. I don’t know if this was a one time thing or what.
Also, Browne’s first wife committed suicide. Infer what you will.
I agree about Jackson Browne and Daryl Hannah, and I can’t enjoy him anymore either, but still the thing about his first wife is a cheap shot.
Small hijack: Victor Salva, the director/writer of Jeepers Creepers. He’s a convicted child molester, and while I’m sure he has talent, I just can’t rent that movie. Especially since he has a commentary on it. Just hearing his voice would freak me out, I know.
I am not making any judgment about on-screen performance. I think it is perfectly reasonable not to want to direct income towards someone whose actions you find to be vile. Even if you are not paying to get into a movie, you are funding someone indirectly by watching them on TV/DVD.
“Art” is not something special that transcends this judgment. If you saw a shop with a sign in the window saying “blacks and faggots not welcome”, would you not understand people’s desire not to bring custom to the owner? Or should they just judge the quality of the merchandise on sale?
My response to the OP was Mickey Rourke for his open support of the IRA, including financial assistance. The IRA killed some 1,800 people. I remember going shopping, or to pubs and restaurants in England with the knowledge that there was a chance, small but real, that I may get blown up.
If an actor openly supports Osama Bin Laden and sends Al Quaeda money, could you still not understand people not wishing to direct income towards that actor? Would you still judge him purely on the merits of his on-screen performance?