Guest at 10:56.   You make some good points, but I think you are missing one critical point.   I don't think this is a case of celebrity worship where people won't accept criticisms.   This is a case where some people are just spouting made up or erroneous statements. That is different than expressing an opinion.   When someone posts a note that people who worked with Hope failed to say how funny he was - that is plain wrong. There are tons of comments to the contrary and if that guest would open up his or her eyes they would have found them. Instead they made a statement, not claiming it to be their opinion, but stating it as if it were fact. If a newspaper, TV or radio reporter did that we would be all over them. Instead, because it is the "internet", some people think that those rules don't apply.   Wrong.

The other statement you made, that no one here knew Bob Hope COULD also be wrong. You can't make that assumption. I did not know him, but I do know people that did. (I've worked in television production for 23 years.)   The stories I've heard do not make him out to be the bully that some people make him out to be. He understood the business and what was expected from each person. His control over his productions was not unusual and merely the mark of a man who knew his craft.

Your note does point out something. While there area people who do not like to see their idols with feet of clay, there are others who refuse to see anything good about someone they don't like. You will never convince these people to see that someone may have been genuine in their committment and actually did good. The glass is always either half empty or half full but rarely do people realize it is just a glass of water.

Ron