Posted on 02/04/2003 3:55:46 PM PST by yankeedame
Charlton Heston Speaks Out On Clooney's Cruel Alzheimer's Joke
Gallant Alzheimer's victim Charlton Heston is refusing to react in anger to George Clooney's joke about is tragic medical condition.
"I don't know the man - never met him, never even spoken to him," the 78-year-old silver screen legend told The ENQUIRER in an exclusive interview. "But I feel sorry for George Clooney - one day he may get Alzheimer's disease.
"I served my country in World War II. I survived that - I guess I can survive some bad words from this fellow."
Clooney ignited a firestorm of fury while accepting a Special Filmmaking Achievement Award from the National Board of Review in New Tork by telling the audience: "Charlton Heston announced again today that he is suffering from Alzheimer's."
And despite the hurt he caused, former "ER" star was unrepentant.
"I don't care," he said defiantly. "Charlton Heston is head of the National Rifle Assiciation - he deserves whatever anyone says about him."
Heston has often been the focus of controversy over his leadership of the NRA, but he was universally praised for his courage last August when he went public with the admission that he was suffering from the incurable - and fatal - disease that has also stricken former actor and President Ronald Reagan.
"I've still got a busy life going," Heston said. "I have no problem remembering things or being aware of things at all."
But if Heston was inclined to forgive Clooney's callous mockery, many others were not so forgiving.
"We've been inundated with e-mails from people across the country expressing outrage," Elizabeth Wilson, of the Alzheimer's Association, told The ENQUIRER.
"It was a totally insensitive joke at the expense of a man who had the courage to come forward, reveal that he had been disgnosed with this tragic disease - and by doing so gave hope to others that attention would be focused on it and perhaps hasten a cure
"It was particularly hurtful to the four million Americans who suffer from Alzheimer's and the 18 million more who love and care for them."
I know it's warm and emotionally appealing to want to, "sympathize," with others, but this trite, threadbare adage is always applied in only one direction. Why is the streetbum never asked to walk in the shoes of the successful businessman, who employees others, and has put everything he has on the line to produce goods and services others desire?
You probably have one of those bumperstickers that read, "Mean People Suck." You are against people who have values and choose to live their lives in accordance with them and allow their values to govern the way they interact with other people. Yet, in your animosity towards them, you are embracing the ultimate hypocracy.
I would die for your right to disagree with me on any issue. Just don't expect me to agree with you.
Hollywood's socialists rant against America and our politicians and expect applause and respect for their "free speech" yet few of them are elected to any official capacity.
When they go "off script" and adlib, they reveal themselves to be empty headed actors.
As for me, I will under no circumstances ever see anything that this idiot appears in again.
I belong to the NRA.
And, my great-to-the-fifth grandfather fought King George.
I know what the Second Amendment is, and why it follows the First.
Americans defend the right of jackasses to destroy themselves.
LOL! Ain't that the truth. It's reaching that Orwellian level whereby hatred equals love.
Jane Russell recently commented on her conservativism (and listed off other old school Hollywood Republicans).
I've heard that Vincent Gallo is a conservative but I haven't heard enough of his positions to determine if he is a fiscal conservative, social conservative, more libertarian, or what.
All right, I've waited long enough. I'm going to share something I've observed while attending multiplex movie theaters (as if they still have the single screen versions anymore):
From what I can assume, the studios (and the actors) get their royalties and profits based on the sale of tickets. So, the multiplex theater has to have a different ticket for each movie they're showing.
BUT (at least from what I've seen) the usher who takes the ticket doesn't seem to care if you go into a DIFFERENT sub-theater after you give him/her your ticket. So, for example, I bought a ticket for "The Two Towers" but found it to be awful (please no flames) so I left and went to the sub-theater that was showing Star Trek Nemesis
In other words, I saw Star Trek but the studio never benefited from my attendance. Is this a big problem for studios, I wonder??
That's the only thing he played well. Must have come natural to him! Hope his career tanks.
Why don't they just call it Ocean's 12?
A good heist movie would end with the crooks all dead or else rich enough that they wouldn't have to pull any more jobs.
"I don't care," he said defiantly. "Charlton Heston Heston is head of the [insert any God-given or Constitutionally protected right here] . . . he deserves whatever anyone says about him."
Thanks for your post; it's the first I've actually heard or read exactly what it is he said; and the first I've read what he said, a second time.
Aside from the callousness of his remarks due to Charlton Heston's unfortunate disease.....this is really how the leftie liberal commies feels about all conservatives and their causes.
"Progressive" liberals: those who "promote tolerance" . . . as long as it isn't something they're intolerant of.
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