Meryl Creep offered a whimsical, wacky defense of her prerogative to belong to a group in which her own kind is “over-represented,” a defense the actress would never afford to other, less privileged lily white Americans:
Actress Meryl Streep is indisputably a Hollywood icon, but her recent remarks regarding the lack of racial diversity on the Berlin International Film Festival jury are unlikely to win her many new admirers. The three-time Oscar-winning actress defended the all-white panel on Thursday, allegedly telling reporters: “We are all Africans.”
The seven-member jury, on which Streep is serving, determines the winners of the prestigious Golden Bear and is one of the most celebrated of Europe’s film festivals. In the wake of the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, where the Academy Awards failed to nominate a single actor of color for the second year in a row, Streep was questioned by an Egyptian reporter about the racial make-up of her panel.
“This jury is evidence that at least women are included and in fact dominate this jury, and that’s an unusual situation in bodies of people who make decisions,” Streep said, according to the Associated Press. “So I think the Berlinale is ahead of the game.” The festival jury does include three women in addition to Streep: French photographer Brigitte Lacombe, Italian actress Alba Rohrwacher and Polish director Malgorzata Szumowska.
Spike Lee, CNN has reported, is calling for quotas or racial set-asides in Hollywood, which is currently being convulsed by the idea that the Oscars are way too white. First, I like the idea of Hollywood’s self-righteousness being turned against its own, being hoisted by their own petard. Excellent. Let the pious pea brains of Hollywood devour each other and become mired in recrimination. I also welcome set asides and quotas for black actors—more of Gabourey Sidibe as the love interest.
Look, if black actors per se were in great demand among the movie-going public, moviemakers would be rushing to recruit them for more roles. It’s called market forces. Cultural arousal patterns are more likely involved. Perhaps strapping electrodes to a white man’s genitals, and shocking him each time Pamela Anderson appears on the screen will turn him on to black actresses for good. Somehow I doubt it. Hormones are politically incorrect. You can take away college placements and Oscars from white guys, but changing cultural and sexual preferences is a lot harder.
In any event, bring it on. If Affirmative OSCARS and racial set asides in film drive the industry into bankruptcy—that can be quite a cultural cleansing. There is so little talent in that cesspool as it is.
The work sailors do is so very dangerous and courageous. The cargo ship El Faro that sank in the Caribbean could very well have confronted The Giant Wave of “The Perfect Storm.” Vessel and crew went missing near the Bahamas last week, during a hurricane, Joaquin, which whipped up 130 mph winds:
Together with “Orca” (1977), “Jaws,” (1975) Towering Inferno (1974), (the old) “Poseidon Adventure,” where a straight priest gets to act as the hero, not the child molester (1972), “Earthquake” (1974) and the Airport films–“The Perfect Storm,” also of the older disaster film genre, is one of my favorite films. (Sorry to disappoint: The verbose, French, “Three Colors” trilogy is not something I was, and will ever, be prepared to sit through. “Dancing With Wolves” was bad enough.)
The Perfect Storm is a 2000 American biographical disaster drama film directed by Wolfgang Petersen. It is an adaptation of the 1997 non-fiction book of the same title by Sebastian Junger, which tells the story of the Andrea Gail, a commercial fishing vessel that was lost at sea with all hands after being caught in the Perfect Storm of 1991. The film stars George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, William Fichtner, John C. Reilly, Diane Lane, Karen Allen and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. It was released on June 30, 2000, by Warner Bros. (Wikipedia)
Thirty three men went to their watery graves providing for their families:
… The 790-foot ship, the El Faro, was likely swallowed by the Category 4 hurricane two days after it left Jacksonville, Florida for San Juan, Puerto Rico. When it set off on Tuesday, Sept. 29, Joaquin was just a tropical storm with wave swells of 7.5 feet and sustained winds of 65 mph.
More debris found as search for missing El Faro cargo ship continues 2:08
Four hours earlier, the National Hurricane Center had issued an advisory warning that the storm was moving toward the Bahamas and could reach hurricane status by Sept. 30.
An hour and a half after the ship left port, a new forecast put Joaquin even closer to the Bahamas and, fatefully, closer to the El Faro’s route. By the time the ship, built in 1975, passed the Bahamas the afternoon of Sept. 30, winds were at 85 mph.
The captain was keeping a close eye on conditions and was not alarmed.
“On Wednesday he sent a message to the home office with the status of the developing tropical storm he said he had very good weather … and that his crew was prepared,” said Phil Greene, president of TOTE Services, the parent company of the ship’s owner.
As night fell, Joaquin grew. Tropical storm winds had expanded some 140 miles from the center and hurricane force winds were sweeping out 35 miles, packing the punch of the Category 4 hurricane.
The storm itself was moving slowly at just 6 mph. That meant the same area of water was being hit over and over by the winds — the perfect conditions for building monster waves.
As Joaquin slowed and strengthened, the El Faro was in trouble. The crew reported on Oct. 1 that the ship — which had two auxiliary power generators — had lost power, was taking on water and was listing at 15 degrees.
That was the last contact made with the ship. (NBC)
Less repulsive than Kim Kardashian’s preoccupation with selfie taking is the fact that she goes unchallenged when depicting her obscene, whorish narcissism as an attempt to come to terms with her body. “Be a little easier on myself,” as she puts it. Kardashian is as heroic as the females mocked in last week’s “Heroism Or Hedonism?”
A voice in the wilderness is the “iconic French actress Catherine Deneuve,” who reminds us that real feminine allure and mystic are not to be found in the “new generation of celebrities addicted to social media.”
“A star is someone who must show themselves only a little and remain discreet. With the introduction of the digital age there is an intrusion of everything, everywhere, all the time,” she said.
“We see a tremendous amount of people who are very famous, with millions of followers, and who have done absolutely nothing.”
“Heroism Or Hedonism?” made similar points with respect to true heroism: it is private and discreet.
UPDATE I (5/11): More for the list: Victor Hugo, Gustave Flaubert, Ravel, Debussy, Degas, Monet, Chagall (not born in France), César Franck (also not born there), and many more. But you get the picture, and the use of humor (I hope) to make a point about a generally insufferable lot.
UPDATE II: Albert Camus, too, WAS WONDERFUL. He was born in Algeria but was French. The French dislike him and prefer that retarded, piece of rotting flesh, Sartre, who recommended ignoring Stalin’s gulag, so as to keep the morale of the workers’ of the world high. Yep. The French …
