I’m opening this here because with political motivations I’m sure someone will fuck this up and get it sent here anyway.
Forget liberalism/conservatism/any-ism.
This is about being honest and being true to your word.
In the summer of 2000 Alec Baldwin VOWED to give up his US citizenship should George Bush become President. I think he said he would move to Australia, but the country could be wrong.
Alas, tonight on The Daily Show, there he was promoting his latest movie that he expects the American public to spend money to see. I’m asking for no tax issues, election issues, etc.
He said he would leave, but he didn’t.
I just can’t respect that. It’s not as if he has to look for work wherever he goes, so why stay?
There was a website that was using Paypal to raise the money to buy Alec a plane ticket. Unfortunately, I can’t find it now. After seeing him smirk and snot his way through his Daily Show appearance tonight, I’d happily throw in a couple of bucks. Send him in style, first class even, just get him gone!
You know, I have nothing against Alec Baldwin, and I thought the whole war thing was a stupid idea (I agree that it’s nice that Saddam’s gone and all - but I hate the blatant, gargantuan lies that got us in there), and I don’t believe the election was resolved with anything resembling honesty… but I agree. He said, heatedly, publicly, that he’d leave if Bush got in. Bush got in. He didn’t leave. Asshead.
I though his appearance on the Daily Show was the funniest interview Jon’s had in quite a while.
He’s a talented actor. The rest? Meh. I never listen to what actors have to say off-camera. OTOH, as he pointed out last night, conservatives have no business criticizing actors like himself for publicly flogging their views, since it’s the Republicans which put actors with little to no administrative experience in office.
I think it was Jay Leno who asked him the same basic question a few months ago; Bush was elected, so why are you still here? To which his answer was, “Bush wasn’t elected he was Selected”. The line got a lot of applause.
Not like I endorse this sort of verbal parsing, but the notion that Gore received half a million more votes then Bush may, to him anyway, suggest that all is not lost in America.
Several celebrities (John Malkovich, Johnny Depp) already live in France because the culture there is more conducive to raising the bastards they’ve sired with their unwed lovers.
Is this relevant? Not entirely. I just like saying “bastards”.
Apparently, some of these celebs are deciding European socialism isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. This article says Malkovich was leaving France as of earlier this year because of the high taxes.
Even if he wanted to leave, the simple fact is that Baldwin probably couldn’t get much work in other countries. Even though actors have a lot of money, those that retire often find themselves going back to acting because they like it or they were bored in retirement (Anthony Hopkins had a short retirement in 2000, coming back briefly to be the Narrator in The Grinch movie, for instance).
Sure, Depp finds work even though he lives in France, but he’s a hotter commidity than Baldwin right now.
If the 2000 speech took place at all, it was a performance. And the credits rolled on that ‘performance’ 3 years ago.
[Ferris Buehler]What?! You’re still here? Its over. Go Home.[/Ferris Buehler]
Baldwin has denied saying it on several occasions, including during several appearances when Politically Incorrect was still on.
After that most recent SNL hosting turn of his I wish he’d leave, not because of his politics or personal beliefs, just because he’s so awful now and I’m tired of him. Honor Among Theives was probably the only film or project of his I’ve seen in at least the past five years that was worth a damn. Another three years and Stephen Baldwin will have a better film career than him.
It doesn’t say much for the state of his career that he’s most known these days for the “leave the country” mess, his voiceover work in all those damn commercials like the ones for GE, and dancing on the grave of Dr. Suess with that shitty new movie.
…But for those of you who are lost in America and think that Baldwin should keep his promise, I can help you out. Chances are you live in one of the light yellow parts of this map. You can double check by looking at this map. Different colors; strangely similar pattern.
It’s hyperbole. Kind of like when people say, “I’m going to DIE if X happens!” or “Do that one more time and I swear I’ll kill you!” Why does the right always insist that Alex Baldwin “live up to his word” when regular people every day make similar exaggerations and nobody bats an eyelash?
According to the Snopes article, Baldwin backpedalled a bit, claiming fist that he and Kim had never heard of Fcous magazine, much less granted them an interview, and then later admitting the interview happened, but denying the quote at issue.
I don’t know what happened, of course, but it doesn’t raise his credibility particularly to switch versions so smoothly. And Robert Altman is worse: according to Snopes, he denied having said any such thing despite the fact that his original remarks were captured on videotape.
missbunny: I’d be prepared to accept that it was meant as hyperbole if, upon being confronted, the speaker admitted the words and said it was hyperbole. Eddie Vedder, for example, isn’t denying anything; I am perfectly prepared to accept that his statement was hyperbole.
By the same token, if I said, “I’m going to DIE if X happens!” and was later confronted by someone asking how I was still alive when X has happened, the first thing I’d explain is that I wasn’t speaking literally when I predicted my own death… I certainly wouldn’t deny having made the original statement.
