SCHLUSSEL: "The Interpreter" - Sean Penn's U.N. Mash Note

DebbieSchlussel.com ^ | April 22, 2005 | Debbie Schlussel

[Cool Chick]

“The Interpreter”: Sean Penn’s U.N. Mash Note April 22, 2005 By Debbie Schlussel

The last time I wrote about Jeff Spicoli a/k/a Sean Penn, he sent me an e-mail calling me the c-word.

In the past, Penn reportedly shot reporters with a squirt gun filled with his urine, so I got off easy. Classy guy.

I critiqued Penn’s absurd interview in the thankfully defunct Talk Magazine. It was just months after 9/11, and Spicoli was deluded from smoking too much pot, again. He didn’t just insist that President Bush, Rupert Murdoch, Howard Stern, and Bill O’Reilly were as bad as Osama Bin Laden and Hitler. They were worse.

Since then, as we now know, Penn transformed himself into failed emissary to Iraq—a Baghdad Spicoli a la Hanoi Jane.

But now Penn’s gotten smarter. His propaganda doesn’t work when he’s playing himself in real life.

So he’s turned to the silver screen to do it for him, in “The Interpreter,” debuting in theaters today. The United Nations is the setting, but it’s also the main star of the film. Penn and Nicole Kidman are merely the co-stars.

As for promoting the U.N., Leni Reifenstahl (Hitler’s propagandist) couldn’t have done better—even if it’s hard to believe Spicoli as Secret Service Agent. (When he tries to fake crying, all you can hear is his yearning for “tasty waves and a cool buzz.”)

Just when the U.N.—the bizarre confab of Third World republics and America haters—is getting its due in the media, Director Sydney Pollack comes to the rescue. “Interpreter” portrays this fraudulent former League of Nations as the idealistic body it never was and nothing close to the International House of Bozos it’s been for at least half a century.

Kofi Annan is one smart cookie.

[Fudd Fan]

many actors are like that: savants! Richard Gere can't put 2 words together without a script to read.
My husband did a movie promo with Gere years ago, and he came home saying what a jerk the guy is.

[Fudd Fan]

I just don't get what people saw in Mystic River. It was depressing and worst of all for me, predictable. Oh well.

[Mr. Blonde]

If I had to choose between showing Sean Penn or Nicole Kidman I know who I would pick every time too.

[uncitizen]

I guess for me it had to do with the fact that Penn was very convincing as the father of a 19 year old. At the time i was the mother of a 19 year old daughter so i was able to relate to how a parent would feel if their 19 year old daughter was murdered.

[uncitizen]

Right. Kidmans a LOT prettier than Penn. But i wonder if they're deliberatly hiding Penn's appearance in the film because that's a dead giveaway that the films a propaganda piece.

[TheMole]

(In real life, they have found DNA that exonerates some people who have already been executed.)

I have never heard of an actual case like that. Can you provide a link or reference?

[uncitizen]

No i can't provide any proof of that. it's something i saw reported on once or twice. I could be mistaken. Maybe they're still looking for a case of this nature.