Posted on 02/25/2004 3:29:59 PM PST by SauronOfMordor
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 25 — 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 — Jewish and non-Jewish — 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 — maybe not all fiction — 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 — he practices a traditionalist version of Roman Catholicism — 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?"
The Soviets lost 20 million, including 5 million under Nazi occupation. That doesn't add in various Serbs, Czechs, and even Croats (Franciscans, esp).
I believe that we are counting different things. I look at those targeted for death, as opposed to those who died in the war.
No, the Slavs were to disappear along with the Jews and Gypsies, much like the German's successful elimination of the Prussians (a Baltic people like the Latvians who ceased to exist).
The Tuetonic Knights destroyed the ethnic grouping of the pagan Prussian peoples. They were conquered and became German over time, especially as Brandenburg took over Prussia. Of course, virtually all of these were forced out of Poland after World War II.
They tried to get him to water it down -- he stuck to his guns
They tried to kill it by making sure no distributor would touch it -- Mel found an independent distributor and put up more of his own money
They tried to get the reviewers to pan it so people wouldn't see it -- Mel bypassed them all and got the pastors to review it for their congregations
They predicted it would flop -- it's having one of the hottest and most profitable opening nights ever
They hoped Mel would lose his shirt -- he'll come out of this as one of the richest Hollywood producers ever.
The Hollywood Left is GOING INSANE right now!
Great post!
Sounds to me like much the same I learned from the Bible. With God, all things are possible! Glad Mel was listening to Him!
No, but a good leftist would. All socialist states of the 20th Century had a moral parable about a true-believing child who denounced his parents to the State. The Soviet Union's was Pavlik Morozov. [pravda.ru]. (Appropriately, George Soros is a fan of Morozov).
PBS's Version from here:
Pavlik Morozov (1918-1932)
Pioneer martyr. According to the legend that every Soviet child was taught, Pavlik was a good Communist boy, a Pioneer, who always did what the Party told. When his father, a "kulak" peasant, did not want to join a collective farm, Pavlik patriotically denounced him to the Cheka, who promptly arrested and shot him. Other kulaks later killed Pavlik in revenge. This story taught Soviet children that it was their patriotic duty to squeal on their parents to the secret police. Recent evidence has cast doubt on the several aspects of the Pavlik Morozov legend.
The Nazis had a similar story, which might have been real, and might have been a rip-off of the Communist legend. Unfortunately, I've forgotten the kid's name.
Of course, recently, during the Clinton Administration, a new push to get American kids to do a Pavlik Morozov on their parents got underway. It's a standard technique of the Left, break intergenerational bonds.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
Perhaps Maia Morgenstern will get a nomination, hopefully not just because she's Jewish, either. But probably none of them will get a nomination. It doesn't seem to matter what the public thinks of a film, as much as what Hollywood thinks when those Oscars and other awards come around.
If the public had a choice between the pap that is served up by those unimaginative, worn out, has beens who recycle crap because they can't think of anything new and something decent, the public would choose decent every time.
Well, that's true, but I was responding to a dispute going on between two FR members about various genocial events in history... I was referring them to a place where they can find definitive numbers and settle their argument.
Fair enough, though, it was pretty far off-topic. I had already posted my opinion about the Great Gibson Blacklisting of 2004.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
Sure. Leftists who make a career out of creating difficulties between groups of people, see a target of opportunity.
Leftists are becoming alarmed at what I would call an increasing understanding between Christians and Jews; let's face it, it won't be Christians running out of theaters after seeing "The Passion" looking to propagate such violence.
These types are simply afraid because they have been promoting the most shameful of lies.......that Christian religious groups are the enemy of Jews, when indeed it has been secular leftists who have sought to suppress the expression of any form of religious faith.
The Passion, and Christians potentially inciting some anti-Semitic uprising in this country?..........don't make me laugh.
What I see is a group of cynical, exploitative scheming leftists seeking to create a rift between what are natural allies.
Where will the leftists be if some person tries to impose some new Holocaust, where religious freedom is subject to the depraved reasoning of the new old religionists?
On the side of those trying to impose such a tyranny, of course, and a couple hundred yards downfield of me and a rifle, where they belong.
Not True! Is there any doubt The King of Kings can beat "The Lord of the Rings"?
They live in a world where abortionists, euthanasiasts, and other proponents of a culture of death are the vanguards of a new, 'superior' morality.
I'll tell you what kind of money is FU money. Its the precisely the amount of money it takes for you to buy a ticket for this movie! That's the kind of blackball Katzenberg and Geffen are gonna lick!
Wow - what a concept! I guess I'll have to go see that one for that one brilliant stroke of cinematography. Do you think there'll be some gratutitous shootings and some sex to accompany that? Oh, probably no sex. Adam wouldn't feel up to it - unless he has private parts of steel.
:-)
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