31 Comments

1. Marcus Aurelius:

I’ve never met any famous personalities (the most famous I guess would be Ray Nitzchke and got close to Gorbachev) but it seems we try to project all sorts of perfection upon them — our desires for ourselves. The only reasons the heros of yesteryear do not disappoint is because they are dead and their lives are so far in the past the closet containing their skeletons is locked by time.

All people do bad things.

Christianity teaches man is fallen — but not to despair and strive when you cease striving for something can a fall be far away?

Jun 24, 2009 - 7:49 pm 2. Standing in the Shadows:

Sometimes I look on with pity, sometimes I look on with disgust. Most of the time I just look the other way because I’ve seen it all before.

Jun 24, 2009 - 7:51 pm 3. Charles:

Here’s some early reviews of out takes of James Cameron’s Avatars

Judging by the reaction of reviewers –Avatars will have the same kind startling imagery that Terminator, Aliens and The Abyss had.

Might be as moving as Titanic. Cameron is always a must see.

The movie is due out in December.

Jun 24, 2009 - 7:55 pm 4. Charles:

Here’s some out takes of‘Transformers 2′ Revenge Of The Fallen

This movie opens tonight.

Jun 24, 2009 - 8:06 pm 5. wretchard:

You don’t need a lot of defects, just the one big enough to cascade through the rest of your virtues and smash everything. What would be interesting to find out — though probably we’ll never know — is whether they always knew that whatever it was that would eventually break them would come for them. Maybe they spent their lives waiting for it to happen, like a man who waits for a ghost to come floating through a dark door.

Jun 24, 2009 - 8:13 pm 6. DW:

I think it boils down to character and self-discipline. Everyone of us is tempted to do something that could potentially, as Wretchard said, “cascade through the rest of your virtues and smash everything.” The difference lies in the character of those who can see where the behavior will lead.

Jun 24, 2009 - 8:43 pm 7. Charles:

Hey everybody, go to a family reunion somewhere. It’ll do you good.

Jun 24, 2009 - 8:45 pm 8. Standing in the Shadows:

1. Marcus Aurelius:

we try to project all sorts of perfection upon them — our desires for ourselves. The only reasons the heros of yesteryear do not disappoint is because they are dead and their lives are so far in the past the closet containing their skeletons is locked by time.

Actually, I think the opposite is true. I think our pop culture wants celebrities to flame out and crash.

5. wretchard:

What would be interesting to find out — though probably we’ll never know — is whether they always knew that whatever it was that would eventually break them would come for them.

My guess is that very few of them ever really see their personal train wreck coming and the ones that do will lie to themselves and deny there’s a problem. The one thing these people need, and the one thing they apparently don’t have, is someone…anyone that can get close enough to them, look them straight in the eye and with the love of a friend ask the immortal question, “WTF ARE YOU DOING?”

Jun 24, 2009 - 8:48 pm 9. Chiral:

Is this another “alphas are evil because I don’t get girls” discussion? Judging from Google images of the man — he finally got in trouble because he is old and creepy looking.

He probably did it for years and his “victims” were happy and willing, or at least walked out gracefully feeling flattered and charmed.

Jun 24, 2009 - 8:52 pm 10. Kirk Parker:

Standing,

Yes, but you never know how the intervention is going to work out. I know personally two men in my extended circles of family and friends who had good friends confront them about their affairs; these fellows told their friends STFU and went ahead with it anyway.

Jun 24, 2009 - 9:39 pm 11. Charles:

The church I went to on Sunday was on a road 10 miles outside in Abeline Kansas. The pastor preached a serman for father’s day. He said what a privilege it is to be a dad. Nobody but his son would come up to him and say “hey dad give me nooggie.” His own dad was a pig farmer.For many years his dad believed his place was in the pig pens on sunday mornings when his family went to church. that ended when a couple elders came to visit one morning and said he’d be welcome on sundays. so he came. He hasn’t missed a sunday since. The pastor said that changed his family entirely–from the moment his father went to church.

We sang:

Take me out of the shallow water. We also sang One Pure and Holy Passion(we didn’t do it like this gospel group but the words were the same.) The pastor preached from genesis 12:4. In sunday school he talked about how we sometimes want to be someone else without thinking that maybe the Lord designed us to be the way we are. From the pulpit he said the church was invaded by his wife’s family. The couple next to me asked who I was related to. I said well the last relation of mine left the neighborhood 100 years ago. They looked at me like they’d just seen a ghost.

As I was leaving I said to the pastor.”Would you like to hear a funny compliment.” He said “yes” So I told him, “all the best preachers in my neighborhood are reformed drug dealers, but I believe the son of a pig farmer has them beat.”

He smiled bashfully and looked at his shoes. I would have liked to be there on the sunday he preached on the demon legion. But I passed on.

Jun 24, 2009 - 10:05 pm 12. Standing in the Shadows:

10. Kirk Parker:

I hear that. I have some friends and family that, even after being confronted (one even did some time,) still can’t stop doing stupid things. That said, i have to wonder how many of these celebrities were never confronted and told to stop, or if they were, had those voices saying stop drowned out by louder voices urging them even further.

Here’s an example. Who do you think did Britney Spears more good, the freakshow Chris Crocker crying and screaming, on YouTube, “Leave Britney alone!” or the judge that took away her children? I think you can guess my answer, what’s yours?

Jun 24, 2009 - 11:08 pm 13. trangbang68:

“President Clinton has thrown it all away- betraying his voters, his political mission, and his family- on a fling with an intern. Let’s hope he at least had fun.”

– Rich Lowry on Lewinsky scandal

“I’ve lain with the devil
Cursed God above
Forsaken heaven
To bring you my love”
– British singer P.J.Harvey

Jun 24, 2009 - 11:16 pm 14. wretchard:

I think people who wind up doing something stupid have been thinking on it a long time. A person just doesn’t do something out of the blue. He works up to it, a little at a time, often in stages of self-deception. As in “just a taste” or “just that far and no further.” Sure.

I once knew a alky who drank so much he nearly died from one particular bender. He was in bad shape, but survived. A physical therapist used to come by to help him walk for exercise, to recover. It seemed at first that he was getting better. He could walk one mile, then two miles. When I came to see him, I was delighted at his progress. I asked him if he had any particular physical goal. He gave some distance, I forget what exactly. Why that distance I asked? His answer was “because that’s how far the nearest bar is”. That physical therapist couldn’t help. His problem was somewhere else. He knew where he was going. The bar might as well have been the cemetery. But he was going.

Jun 24, 2009 - 11:42 pm 15. Beverly:

“Happy and willing” rape victims? Are you insane?

Jun 24, 2009 - 11:49 pm 16. Chiral:

Nothing in the summary suggests rape, although perception seems to mean everything here. If consent while drunk is the issue, then that’s something else to discuss.

Jun 25, 2009 - 12:02 am 17. PA Cat:

His problem was somewhere else. He knew where he was going. The bar might as well have been the cemetery.

I’ve heard this kind of destructive behavior referred to as slow-motion suicide. Hard to tell where self-deception leaves off and self-punishment begins. Unfortunately the folks who go down in flames all too often take someone else with them.

Jun 25, 2009 - 12:02 am 18. Robohobo:

My Dad was told by his doctor that one drink a day was good for him. So, he would save up all week for Sunday. His heart attack killed him.

There is no bottom to the bottomless.

IOW, those who believe in nothing will believe anything.

Jun 25, 2009 - 12:13 am 19. Leo Linbeck III:

Fame and sex appear to be closely linked, and this link is at the heart of celebrity culture. Who’s shagging who, etc.

In the case of Brooks, it looks like we have someone who had already made his investment (writing a famous love song), and was now harvesting his returns. But his crimes relied on attracting victims who were also seeking fame – that is the power of the casting couch. Unfortunately, like all Faustian bargains, it didn’t turn out well.

I’ve observed that, like drink, resistance to sexual peccadilloes starts with habitually avoiding the small stuff. Men and women who are flirts tend to get more easily get sucked in deeper, and before long they’ve crossed the line. Think of it as maintaining a design margin. For women, it seems to start with the way they dress; for men, the way they respond to sexual innuendo. Women who look trashy and men who talk trash. Once again, the importance of culture – this may explain why hip-hop is so popular in high-crime neighborhoods. This is all highly unscientific, just my own personal observation.

Vanity. One of the seven deadly sins.

L3

Jun 25, 2009 - 5:09 am 20. Richard Aubrey:

The “casting couch” wouldn’t be a decades-old theme if it didn’t work.
Whether the women in this case were prepared to sleep their way to an Oscar, or at least a shot, is one thing.
How can they not have known that dynamic? Even if they were not going to fall for it, they had to know it existed. And someplace, somebody would be trying it on them.
Whether he crossed the line by feeding them too much booze and possibly drugs is another.

Jun 25, 2009 - 7:27 am 21. trangbang68:

There once was a hillbilly Gov.
Who traded his moxie for love
He once who was honored, now slime
Sure hope he had a good time!

Jun 25, 2009 - 8:22 am 22. trangbang68:

Sad tale of Mr.Brooks , but it is a clear metaphor for Hollywood and the Celebritard culture. Here’s a guy with arteries of stone, a stroke waiting to happen ,probably pumped up on viagra drugging and using gullible young women hungry for their own 15 minutes of fame. The scrapheap grows taller with the spent youth of Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, Nicole Richey,etc.

Jun 25, 2009 - 8:31 am 23. Richard Aubrey:

I dunno. What, exactly, did the women expect? Presuming we had a time machine and could get some sodium pentothal down them about two hours before the appointment, what would we hear?
IMO, without proof of drugs, this is a matter of the seduction of the not entirely unwilling.
On spec.

Jun 25, 2009 - 10:04 am 24. whiskey:

Wretchard, I’m reminded of what John Madden said about the players in the NFL. He said, something along the lines that almost all of them are fine, upstanding, disciplined, dedicated, decent men, who devote a lot of time to charity and don’t want it publicized. That we only hear, about the terrible things a few bad ones do, and never ever hear about all the good things the vast majority of the players do.

As these events unfolded, we learned after he died, that Ed McMahon was a Marine pilot in WWII AND Korea, flying hideously dangerous missions. Eddie Albert was awarded the Navy Cross for piloting an LST at Tarawa under machine gun fire. Don Adams was an Island hopping Marine during WWII. Charles Durning was an Army Ranger who fought at the Bulge and survived Malmedy.

While it’s true that often we don’t know or want to know about the self-destructive nature of people, we also often never know of their astonishing, absolutely unbelievable heroism. Yes men and women are capable of the most pathetically small, venal, and petty betrayals. But it’s not the whole story. The same coin’s other face has the most astonishing sacrifices by people motivated by love, duty, brotherhood, and faith.

We ought to remember that.

Jun 25, 2009 - 10:47 am 25. Lifeofthemind:

whiskey,
You astonish me. Just when I was getting tired of your idée fixe, even if your central tenet is correct it can be overdone, you come through with a post that assures me of your basic decency. You have the right priorities. All else is commentary.

Jun 25, 2009 - 11:18 am 26. black betty:

I have to agree with LOTM. Well said, Whiskey. What a wonderful post.

Jun 25, 2009 - 11:33 am 27. onetailtest:

Asking the girl to pretend she’s a prostitute, and then letting her hold an Oscar statue – this is rape?

Jun 25, 2009 - 12:34 pm 28. Charles:

One thing mentioned by the New Testament is that we can’t really change ourselves in meaningful ways. It is like a statue trying to carve itself. The best we can do is bring ourselves into the presence of God and let him change us.

Sometimes that means going into battle. Sometimes that means going to AA. Sometimes that means finding a frontier somewhere. Sometimes that means doing regular bible reading and prayer.

The way Jesus puts it is: Matthew 6
31So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Jun 25, 2009 - 2:42 pm 29. tattoolady:

If Brooks had actually gotten these women into the movies, he would never have been accused of rape. The crime here is fraud. He promised something he had no intention of delivering. His victims should be pitied in the same way as people who get taken in by mail fraud and turn over their life savings to flim-flam artists. Maybe the popular saying should be: a foolish girl and her virtue are soon parted.

Jun 25, 2009 - 3:30 pm 30. Charles:

all that said Michael Jackson makes Wretchard’s point today.

Jun 25, 2009 - 3:41 pm 31. sol vason:

Perhaps there is a song waiting to be born from this mess. Something like “Love for Sale” or “Jailhouse Rock”. Perhaps Mr. Brooks might get another Oscar which will lend fresh status to his couch or even his piano bench.

Jun 26, 2009 - 10:31 am

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