← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Valley Forge
Thread ID: 12549 | Posts: 15 | Started: 2004-02-29
2004-02-29 00:42 | User Profile
February 26, 2004 New Film May Harm Gibson's Career By SHARON WAXMAN
Editor's Note
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 25 ââ¬â Mel Gibson's provocative new film, "The Passion of the Christ," is making some of Hollywood's most prominent executives uncomfortable in ways that may damage Mr. Gibson's career.
Hollywood is a close-knit world, and friendships and social contact are critical in the making of deals and the casting of movies. Many of Hollywood's most prominent figures are also Jewish. So with a furor arising around the film, along with Mr. Gibson's reluctance to distance himself from his father, who calls the Holocaust mostly fiction, it is no surprise that Hollywood ââ¬â Jewish and non-Jewish ââ¬â has been talking about little else, at least when it's not talking about the Oscars.
Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, the principals of DreamWorks, have privately expressed anger over the film, said an executive close to the two men.
The chairmen of two other major studios said they would avoid working with Mr. Gibson because of "The Passion of the Christ" and the star's remarks surrounding its release.
Neither of the chairmen would speak for attribution, but as one explained: "It doesn't matter what I say. It'll matter what I do. I will do something. I won't hire him. I won't support anything he's part of. Personally that's all I can do."
The chairman said he was angry not just because of what he had read about the film and its portrayal of Jews in relation to the death of Jesus, but because of Mr. Gibson's remarks defending his father, Hutton Gibson. Last week in a radio interview the elder Mr. Gibson repeated his contention that the Holocaust was "all ââ¬â maybe not all fiction ââ¬â but most of it is." Asked about his father's Holocaust denial in an interview with Diane Sawyer on ABC, the movie star told her to "leave it alone."
The other studio chairman, whose family fled European anti-Semitism before the Holocaust, was less emphatic but said, "I think I can live without him." But others said there would be no lasting backlash against Mel Gibson. "If the movie works, I don't think it will hurt him," said John Lesher, an agent with Endeavor. "People here will work with the anti-Christ if he'll put butts in seats." Mr. Lesher added, "He put his own money where his mouth is. He invested in himself."
As Mr. Lesher implied, Hollywood is also a place of businesspeople, and Mr. Gibson is a proven movie star, popular with audiences. There are few actors with that kind of bankability, no matter their personal views. Mr. Gibson is also a capable director. So some of the initial reactions to his film may fade over time.
Mr. Gibson not only directed and helped write the $30 million film, but he also paid for it, including production and marketing costs, out of his own pocket, which Hollywood has filled.
As an actor and successful director, from "Mad Max" (1979) through "Lethal Weapon" (1987) and its sequels to the Oscar-winning "Braveheart" (1995), Mr. Gibson has long been a Hollywood pet. But he has also been known as a prankster and a self-confessed abuser of various substances. Many in the relentlessly secular movie industry see his recent religious conversion ââ¬â he practices a traditionalist version of Roman Catholicism ââ¬â as another form of addiction.
Last Friday the media billionaire Haim Saban, former owner of the Fox Family Channel, sent a concerned e-mail message to friends about Mr. Gibson and his father.
The message forwarded an article by the journalist Mitch Albom calling on Mr. Gibson to repudiate his father's denial of the Holocaust. Mr. Saban sent the article to, among others, Roger Ailes, who heads Fox News; Norman Pattiz, who runs the Westwood One radio network; and Michael R. Milken, the securities felon turned philanthropist.
Amid the daily dealings of Hollywood, the film and the star have been fodder for unfavorable gossip. Dustin Hoffman has talked to friends about what he called Mr. Gibson's "strangeness" during the ABC interview. The producer Mike Medavoy said Mr. Gibson's religious zealotry made him feel uncomfortable. Mr. Hoffman is Jewish; Mr. Medavoy is the child of Holocaust survivors.
"One question is, What propelled him to make the movie about the passion of Christ?' " Mr. Medavoy said. "It makes me a little squeamish. What makes me squeamish about religion in general is that people think they have the answer:I think my God is the right God.' How do you argue against that?"
But many non-Jews in Hollywood have also been unhappy about the religious divisions that the movie has exposed and could deepen. A public relations expert who usually works closely with Newmarket, which is distributing the film, said she declined to work on the film, though she is Roman Catholic. "This kind of thing tends to bring out the worst in people," she said, insisting that her name not be used.
The director David O. Russell, who described himself as areligious, said that although he had not seen the film, he was disturbed by the prospect that "The Passion" could feed anti-Semitism. "There are so many wonderfully provocative things about Jesus' life and death that challenge us to be better people," he said. "If it stirs anti-Semitism, then what a wasted opportunity."
Melisa Richter, a publicist who worked for one of the largest Christian movie production houses in the country, Cloud Ten Pictures, wrote in an e-mail message that the film "feeds into the culture of anti-Semitism that is out there, repeating it again and again in a popular format (the film medium), lacking vital historical context and background."
Several prominent people interviewed for this article said they were curious about the film but would not buy tickets to see it.
Still, some of Mr. Gibson's Jewish friends have been defending him and the movie. The producer Dean Devlin, who is Jewish, said, "It's a phenomenal movie about love and forgiveness, and I personally didn't find it anti-Semitic whatsoever."
Mr. Devlin said that he thought those in Hollywood who were angry would get over it. "I think it's a big issue today, as the movie is opening, but over time it will be seen as one of many beautiful renditions of the story," he said. "My hunch is this will pass, this film will be remembered as a beautiful film, and Mel will go back to making movies. That's my hope."
Alan Nierob, Mr. Gibson's publicist, is himself the child of Holocaust survivors. "I think Hollywood appreciates good art and will embrace the talent of a filmmaker," Mr. Nierob said. "I don't see a negative reaction."
[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/26/movies/26GIBS.html?ei=5062&en=ab23785e81e0ea8e&ex=1078376400&partner=GOOGLE&pagewanted=print&position=[/url]
2004-02-29 01:23 | User Profile
I read that with cussing rage yesterday. The filthy g-ddamned "mogul" kikes have got to be extirpated, by hook or by crook.
One good thing about that article is that it will make it plain to anyone with eyes to see that jewww control of Hollywitz is far more than just an "anti-Semitic canard".
2004-02-29 01:24 | User Profile
It's about time for white Americans to start their own entertainment and media. There are enough wealthy whites to fund such enterprise, and given the success of movies without zhid propaganda and pandering to minohties and portraying whitey stupid, its success is guaranteed.
2004-02-29 02:11 | User Profile
[QUOTE=madrussian]It's about time for white Americans to start their own entertainment and media. There are enough wealthy whites to fund such enterprise, and given the success of movies without zhid propaganda and pandering to minohties and portraying whitey stupid, its success is guaranteed.[/QUOTE]
You may be onto something there,.... I have seen the packed theaters over here in the hills concerning this movie and I am sure it will be a sell-out everytime it shows. People want good movies and related entertainment. What the jews and non-whites pass for entertainment is pretty crappy by anyone's standards. A White oriented media outlet is worth looking into.
2004-02-29 02:12 | User Profile
I did a search on (C)Haim Saban. Variety magazine describes him as a "liberal Jewish Billionaire."
Are Ailes, Pattiz, and Milken Jewish?
2004-02-29 02:14 | User Profile
Mel Gibson was contracted to star in Mad Max 4: Fury Road for Fox. (For 25 million)
Filming was supposed to have started April 2003, but was postponed allegedly because of the Iraq War.
Fox may just cut their loses and never film it.
2004-02-29 03:06 | User Profile
Don't know about the other two, but Milken is a Jew. BTW, Milken is a friend of Limbaugh's who been on his show before, obstensibly pushing his charity.
2004-02-29 03:23 | User Profile
The events surrounding 'Passion' are similar in their effect to zhids speaking out at Freak Republik, only on a much larger scale. It's very important to engage zhids and make them show their hand. Their obnoxiousness and hate-whitey agenda will guarantee a surge of "anti-semitism".
2004-02-29 03:53 | User Profile
[QUOTE=heritagelost]Mel Gibson was contracted to star in Mad Max 4: Fury Road for Fox...[/QUOTE]
He's too old to play Mad Max again anyway. The last one was what, 20 years ago?
If Fox reneges on the contract they'll be doing Mel a favor. A new Mad Max would be as bad as seeing poor old geriatric Sly Stallone trying to steroid himself into being Rambo again -- not a pretty thought.
2004-02-29 18:43 | User Profile
[QUOTE=madrussian]It's about time for white Americans to start their own entertainment and media. There are enough wealthy whites to fund such enterprise, and given the success of movies without zhid propaganda and pandering to minohties and portraying whitey stupid, its success is guaranteed.[/QUOTE]
Great idea. If we could get 1,000,000 racially aware and culturally conservative Whites to kick in $100 each toward the formation of a new film studio and production company, that would yield $100,000,000 in seed money to get started. That would be probably be enough to set up operations and make, market, and distribute a quality pro-White, anti-Kike film. And just think -- the controversy alone would probably stimulate enough interest to guarentee the film's commercial success.
2004-02-29 19:31 | User Profile
[QUOTE=madrussian]The events surrounding 'Passion' are similar in their effect to zhids speaking out at Freak Republik, only on a much larger scale. It's very important to engage zhids and make them show their hand. Their obnoxiousness and hate-whitey agenda will guarantee a surge of "anti-semitism".[/QUOTE]
True.
And we know that there are three or four subjects that will cause the kike to show his hand every time.
Movies need to be made on all of these topics, and more.
2004-02-29 21:25 | User Profile
More Nonsense.
[QUOTE] Melisa Richter, a publicist who worked for one of the largest Christian movie production houses in the country, Cloud Ten Pictures, wrote in an e-mail message that the film "feeds into the culture of anti-Semitism that is out there, repeating it again and again in a popular format (the film medium), lacking vital historical context and background." [/QUOTE]
2004-02-29 21:42 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Faust]More Nonsense.[QUOTE][B] Melisa Richter, a publicist who worked for one of the largest Christian movie production houses in the country, Cloud Ten Pictures, wrote in an e-mail message that the film "feeds into the culture of anti-Semitism that is out there, repeating it again and again in a popular format (the film medium), lacking vital historical context and background."[/B][/QUOTE] [/QUOTE]
But we should buy into it. Race-mixing themes have dominated any number of Hollywood pictures for the past few years. ("O", Save the Last Dance, etc.) So every time it happens we say:
"Race-mixing movies feed into the culture of European destruction that is out there, repeating it again and again in a popular format (the film medium), lacking vital historical context and background."
Sooner or later we'll get just as good at it as they are. :thumbsup:
2004-02-29 22:16 | User Profile
[QUOTE]"....securities felon turned philanthropist...."[/QUOTE]
How am I supposed to take seriously the sobbing complaints of people who could type the above description with a straight face?
I mean, let me get this straight. My heart is supposed to break in solidarity with currency swindlers, academic frauds and nouveau-riche vulgarians (who chuckle at my degradation, at my outcast-in-my-own-homeland status that they helped engineer into being) because their comped, catered, cruise-control lives of comfort might be riddled with a seed of doubt that they're not universally feared and worshipped?
Give me a break.
The white antibodies are finally beginning to recognize and attack the virus, I think. Twig by twig and brick by brick, we're going to pull Shecky's kingdom down around his ears. You can only guilt-trip even a halfwit for so long before he starts to notice the "victims" he's "responsible for" are all far better off than [I]he [/I] is.
Team Shmuel's getting sloppy. To play the victim, you have to at least [I]look [/I] the part. Seeing Liam Neeson cry in black-and-white ain't cutting it any longer, rolling the file-footage clip of some liver-spotted Hebraic Miami Beach harridan with the "Holocaust survivor" subtitle underneath her is [I]way [/I] past its sell-by date, and you definitely shouldn't even [B]try[/B] to conduct your campaign for martyrhood from a table at Elaine's or Ma Maison.
They're crying victim louder than ever, but it's becoming more obvious than ever that these 'victims' enjoy a lifestyle and level of influence, and access to power, far beyond those of mortal men. People may be walking out of THE PASSION assuring themselves that what they just saw was in no way anti-Semitic, but that might be the wedge that leads them to wonder why it was ever of paramount importance to them that it wasn't...and who is it who [I]owns [/I] the newspapers and tv stations who put the idea in their head in the first place.
Lord knows that, by now, [I]any [/I] spark in the dry grass of Christian Zionist America is a vitally necessary one.
2004-02-29 22:36 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Ragnar] Sooner or later we'll get just as good at it as they are. :thumbsup:[/QUOTE]
Exactly. The Hollywood executives who swear they'll never work with Mel Gibson again are nothing but blatant Christophobes. We must insist that the problem with THE PASSION isn't its alleged "anti-semitism", but the rampant Christophobia that tried to censor it.
Forget about the Hollywood Ten. The Blacklist is alive right now, and Gibson is facing it.