BS: DENZEL WASHINGTON POLITICS!!!

Subject: BS: DENZEL WASHINGTON'S POLITICS
From: GUEST,chuck hemrick
Date: 27 Aug 04 - 12:59 AM

Denzel Washington's politlics


Verrrrry interesting! Historically,   "you people" has usually
been construed as RACIST!!! and Denzel might have missed
a chance to drive in the nail a little deeper and bend it over.
Strange---somehow I would have had him figured for the
other side of the fence. HOOOYAH!!! for Mr. D. Washington.
I'll have to add Ms. Streep to my Xhit list along with W. Goldberg,
B, Streisand, A Baldwin, B. Springsteen, and J. Fonda.
Thanks for brightening my day!!

Denzel Washington's politlics


Did You See or Hear About This Did you see the Denzel Washington interview with Katie Couric on NBC last Friday morning (13 August
2004)?

Not many people are talking about it. They are wishing it would go away and are trying to sweep it under the rug.

But it's not going to happen! It basically went like this.

********************

Meryl Streep and Denzel were on the today show "live" with Katie Couric to talk about the movie "Manchurian Candidate."

At one point Katie asked Denzel, "have you seen Fahrenheit 9/11?" To which Denzel replied, "No, and I have no intentions on seeing it." Katie and Meryl were "so noticeably" taken aback! It was so cool!

Then, a discourse (or more preferably, a fight!) began between all three of them with
Denzel being barraged with all kinds of anti-Bush, anti-republican comments, but "the man stood his ground" and soon enraged the women so much that they couldn't get a word in edgewise. Meryl Streep turned blood red and she sat with her legs crossed and her one leg shaking up and down, fuming! Then Katie uttered the words that put the final nail in her coffin, she said to Denzel "you see, that's the problem I have with "you people."

She of course did not get to finish her sentence because Denzel pounced on her verbally by responding "YOU PEOPLE! YOU PEOPLE! Just what do you mean you people! Do you mean "You People" as in me as a Christian, or do you mean "You People" as in me as a REPUBLICAN? She then tap danced her way through the next minute of the show. But Denzel went out fighting and declaring that Fahrenheit 9/11 is nothing but propaganda and lies distorted to support a cynical democratic film director's views.

Woo whoo!! I love the man! There's a celebrity that deserves to wear the uniform in movies.

Subject: RE: BS: DENZEL WASHINGTON POLITICS!!!
From: GUEST,GROK
Date: 27 Aug 04 - 01:03 AM

Great actor. Dumb as a rock about politics.

Subject: RE: BS: DENZEL WASHINGTON POLITICS!!!
From: Amergin
Date: 27 Aug 04 - 01:04 AM

chuck, maybe you should get your facts straight before posting this bullshit:

snopes.com

Subject: RE: BS: DENZEL WASHINGTON POLITICS!!!
From: CarolC
Date: 27 Aug 04 - 01:28 AM

Chuck, do you ever look at people as just human beings instead of members of one "side" or another ("your side" or "their side")? Is it always "us" versus "them" for you?

Subject: RE: BS: DENZEL WASHINGTON POLITICS!!!
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 27 Aug 04 - 02:08 AM

So now that you know that he is a lot more reasonable and way less sociopathic than you thought do you still LOVE THAT MAN!!??

Subject: RE: BS: DENZEL WASHINGTON POLITICS!!!
From: kendall
Date: 27 Aug 04 - 06:13 AM

I don't love what they did to a great movie.

Furthermore, anyone who condemns Moore's film without seeing it first is a parrot.

Subject: RE: BS: DENZEL WASHINGTON POLITICS!!!
From: Bobert
Date: 27 Aug 04 - 08:04 AM

Actually, fir reason unknown to me, I did see the interview. At the end of it my only reaction was "What did he just say?"... The guy seemed to me to be trying to be a clever, independent thinker but came off, IMO, to look like "Exhibit A" in the "A little learning is a dangerous thing" debate...

Meryl Streep, however, was a lot more real and her responses made sense. And I don't mean from a stritly political viewpoint.

I mean really, just because a guy doesn't flame Bush doesn't make him Menza material... or vice versa, I might add brfore any one adds that.

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: DENZEL WASHINGTON POLITICS!!!
From: Rapparee
Date: 27 Aug 04 - 09:16 AM

Please stop shouting.

Thank you.

Subject: RE: BS: DENZEL WASHINGTON POLITICS!!!
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Aug 04 - 09:51 AM

I saw that interview, and a much more interesting interview with the three (Washington, Streep, and Demme) on Charlie Rose, where they also discussed politics. Denzel came across more articulately on Charlie Rose.

Anyway, I think the point that Denzel made about being black in America, so not being surprised at what is in F9/11, is a legitimate position to take, I just wish he had been more articulate about what that meant in the context of what was being discussed in that conversation. It is a 'two Americas' sort of thing he was referring to, ie that the black experience of the US is drastically different from the white experience of the US. Which is true for many, but not all, blacks and whites. The thing is, I don't understand why he was making that reference point a justification for why he felt he didn't need to see F9/11.

I think Denzel was on the defensive. In the past, he hasn't been very public with his political views, which is what Katie Couric was getting at. She wasn't very articulate either, though. She could have just said what I just did, and framed her question in that context. The thing was, she accused him of trying to portray her as asking loaded questions racially. Denzel (and I do love Denzel, regardless of his conservative worldviews) stuck it to Katie but good, with the "those folks" thing by responding stridently to the stereotypical suggestion that he was "Hollywood" in the sense that the right wing nuts use the stereotype to paint someone negatively.

Meryl Streep is smarter than Denzel (I mean, the woman is highly intelligent--graduated from Vassar, and like another highly intelligent film actor Angela Basset, Yale). That did show in both the interviews I saw. But I wouldn't say she was a whole lot smarter than Denzel. The guy is very intelligent too. And has something Streep lacks: street smarts. Streep has led a sheltered life. But at least she is smart enough to know that.

Denzel is a conservative Baptist, as I recall, so the banter between Denzel and Meryl had more to do with their religious views, I think, than their political ones.

And Denzel's point about the need to support the troops when they get home--again, I wish he could have been more articulate about that. He was talking very much like a father of a 19 year old son, which was very moving and potentially powerful. It also said to me that he didn't want to play the political blame game over Iraq, he just wanted to be sure that the returning vets would get the assistance and support they need, which IS a political hot potato right now, because the current crop of returning vets (especially the wounded) are feeling pretty used and abused right now.

But I think the main mistake made in that interview was by Katie Couric when she tried to turn the interview about a movie about presidential politics, into a poll on where the "Hollywood folk" stood on the war and F9/11. If I were doing the promo for my film, and the interviewer kept trying to get me to talk about some other guy's film, I'd be pretty perturbed. That is what I think Denzel was actually reacting to, was trying to be forced to reveal something that had nothing to do with why he was there.

Finally, if we are reacting to one another as humans, instead of as partisans on one side or another, we can always find the places where we agree, and that is always going to come down on the side of most things that matter, I think. I'm far to the left on the political spectrum, but that doesn't mean I'll boycott Denzel because he has a conservative black Baptist worldview that is very different from my own. That is just silly.

Subject: RE: BS: DENZEL WASHINGTON POLITICS!!!
From: Nerd
Date: 27 Aug 04 - 02:25 PM

Good analysis, GUEST.

Subject: RE: BS: DENZEL WASHINGTON POLITICS!!!
From: Once Famous
Date: 27 Aug 04 - 02:41 PM

Good job, Denzel Washington!

Subject: RE: BS: DENZEL WASHINGTON POLITICS!!!
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Aug 04 - 02:52 PM

Brilliant actor, fine man. Nuff said....

Subject: RE: BS: DENZEL WASHINGTON POLITICS!!!
From: GUEST,GROK
Date: 27 Aug 04 - 03:02 PM

Chuck seldom allows fact to get in the way of his arguments.

Subject: RE: BS: DENZEL WASHINGTON POLITICS!!!
From: Once Famous
Date: 27 Aug 04 - 03:04 PM

Even if it was just a theory, I like it.

Subject: RE: BS: DENZEL WASHINGTON POLITICS!!!
From: Cluin
Date: 27 Aug 04 - 03:15 PM

Whatever his opinion, he's just another guy. Why is his opinion any more important than anybody else's? This Cult of Personality thing is idiotic.

Subject: RE: BS: DENZEL WASHINGTON POLITICS!!!
From: Once Famous
Date: 27 Aug 04 - 03:26 PM

Michael Moore is nothing more than just another guy, also.

Just another fat guy.

Subject: RE: BS: DENZEL WASHINGTON POLITICS!!!
From: Alaska Mike
Date: 27 Aug 04 - 04:03 PM

It tickles me that so many right wingers refuse to watch Moore's film. Instead, they condemn it based on the neocons rhetoric. I found it very enlightening. Even if you chose not to believe the multitude of factual evidence of wrong doing by the Bushies, watching the 7 minutes of our illustrious President sitting dumbfounded in the elementary classroom after being told of the attack on the twin towers speaks volumes on his ineptitude. How any intelligent, non-millionaire could possible vote for the moron is beyond my understanding.

Subject: RE: BS: DENZEL WASHINGTON POLITICS!!!
From: GUEST,GROK
Date: 27 Aug 04 - 05:08 PM

Alaska Mike:

That was said very well. The one thing about the 9/11 documentary that made me go wow was that scene. Seven minutes: Where the hell was the guy's head at? I feel so safe with a person like that being the most powerful man in the world. Right.

Tell me a story, mommy.

Subject: RE: BS: DENZEL WASHINGTON POLITICS!!!
From: Fishpicker
Date: 27 Aug 04 - 07:56 PM

Alaska Mike writes:

"How any intelligent, non-millionaire could possible vote for the moron is beyond my understanding."

Hey, the bluegrassers need to have somebody to vote for!

                           FP

Subject: RE: BS: DENZEL WASHINGTON POLITICS!!!
From: Don Firth
Date: 27 Aug 04 - 08:30 PM

He reminded me of a seven-year-old who had messed his pants and didn't know what to do next.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: DENZEL WASHINGTON POLITICS!!!
From: DougR
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 01:14 AM

Wow! I wasn't aware of this interview! I can't imagine why all of the news networks haven't picked up on it (snicker, snicker).

Denzil, I'll never miss another one of your pictures!

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: DENZEL WASHINGTON POLITICS!!!
From: GUEST,GROK
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 03:40 AM

Hi, Doug.

Definitely don't miss his movies. Especially "Remember the Titans". Oh, yeah, the boy can play. But, Doug, what WAS bush thinking for those seven minutes?

Subject: RE: BS: DENZEL WASHINGTON POLITICS!!!
From: Once Famous
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 05:58 PM

Maybe he was thinking that he shouldn't just scare the shit out of all of those little kids. I find it fascinating that he did not over react and freak out.

Subject: RE: BS: DENZEL WASHINGTON POLITICS!!!
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 06:09 PM

Why would anyone see a film because they agree with the politics of the actor, DougR?

Are you saying you only consume right wing proscribed, Republican approved entertainment?

Subject: RE: BS: DENZEL WASHINGTON POLITICS!!!
From: Once Famous
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 06:17 PM

How about because the guy has a spine?

You under the assumption that everyone who saw this far fetched movie agreed with it and liked it.

Subject: RE: BS: DENZEL WASHINGTON POLITICS!!!
From: Once Famous
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 06:17 PM

In reference to the Michael Moore movie.

Subject: RE: BS: DENZEL WASHINGTON POLITICS!!!
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 06:39 PM

"I find it fascinating that he did not over react and freak out."

So, we gonna nominate Bush for an acting Oscar? Best SEVEN MINUTES OF MIME?

Subject: RE: BS: DENZEL WASHINGTON POLITICS!!!
From: Once Famous
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 08:58 PM

No,

We are probably going to name you for one, Guest.

Most obvious regular poster posing as a guest.

Subject: RE: BS: DENZEL WASHINGTON POLITICS!!!
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Aug 04 - 12:03 AM

Thank you, Martin.

As always, I do appreciate that we can disagree on this issue and still get along. That's likely because we both suspect I'm right, but I don't think I'll be waving that cat in the air too much. Have a good weekend, buddy. What's left of it.