Welcome to the forum Mel

^Gibson is a racist, anti-Semitic asshole, but he has not been accused of any actual crimes. Or has he? I cannot keep up with the deluge of male celebrities being exposed as sex predators.

As far as maxfisher's hypothesis that race is part of the reason for the public's strong reaction and the story's legs (such as they are), we Caucasians must always examine ourselves and consider such an contention, but I agree that it's specious. I hate to say this, but I am relieved that the victim of the assault was also black because, had it been a white man, I'm afraid we would be witnessing a far different, far more incendiary aftermath. The right-wing media and their viewers would be frothing unremittingly about "intrinsic black violence" and what should be done about it. For my part, the continuing outrage (when I do think about it) is over the fact that I don't know if I have ever seen such an impudent act of abuse committed with essential impunity in such a coruscatingly public venue. To do that, and then go on about one's evening with merriment, as if nothing happened, takes a to-me-unfathomable sense of conceit and entitlement.

I mean, the question is "do the sins of the performer affect your view of their art" and not "are all these sins the same level." From that perspective, if you believe Gibson is racist and anti-semite that probably does skew your impression/enjoyment of his work even if he has never been convicted of a crime.

Despite being able to “looked past” Gibson’s sins when watching his movies, I definitely look at his work differently now. He used to be one of my favorite actors, maybe my favorite, but it’s hard to watch his performances now without feeling anger and resentment toward the guy for his transgressions.

I certainly don’t get the same enjoyment out of his work that I used to even if I am able to continue watching his movies.

So you're more willing to forgive or at least forget about everything that Spacey and OJ and Jace have done but Smith's slap is too tough to ignore? Really??

I think out of all of these Cosby was probably the most surprising and difficult to ignore for several reasons. I don't think there were very many rumors about his behavior and if there were they didn't really get out in the general public. What he does so goes against everything that that he built a career on. How unapologetic he is. For me personally it's the most difficult to ignore.

I realize it’s not purely apples to apples, but we now have a Kiefer Sutherland appreciation thread. Which I’m not criticizing, but the dude has been arrested for DUI’s four times and broke someone’s nose with a headbutt a decade-ish ago. Again, not a perfect comparison due to the Smith incident being so much more recent, but I don’t recall anyone here bringing up Sutherland as someone whose ‘sins’ they have to overlook to enjoy his work. And I’d have been shocked to have seen him included on a list with Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, etc.

So you’re saying that if he punched someone live on the Golden Globes we’d all be like “well he’s white we’ll overlook it this time?”

Nope, in my original comment, I mentioned that it being televised and against another celebrity both play a role. My point is that lots of white actors have done things as bad or worse than Smith and, to the best of my knowledge, don’t have people questioning whether they can still appreciate those people’s art. Again, Sutherland broke a guys’ nose, has had 4 DUIs, has never had any kind of ‘oh, he got sober and is redeemed’ moment, but nobody thinks twice about whether they can enjoy his work. And it’s not like it’s just distance accounting for that, as lots of it was happening at the height of his popularity and people weren’t talking about not being able to watch his performances anymore.

For me, I don't know the people so I don't give any thought to an actor or musician etc etc's private life's of belief's. I watch their movies or what they do and pay no nevermind to anything else.

Jada Pinkett at the very least has narcissistic personality disorder, she might even be a full blown sociopath. I've seen enough of her red table talk, by way of my inexplicable addiction to the TMZ tv show, to know she is just a rotten human being. Why Will Smith has stuck with her for so many years, I mean, I have an opinion, but its just speculation, so I won't open that can of worms. But honestly though, I have a lot more sympathy through all this for Will Smith than I do Jada.

And while we're on the topic, their kids are the 2 most talentless, obnoxious, entitled shitbags in all of Hollywood.

i think another thing to consider is their public image before the “scandal”. Will Smith had a very wholesome image before his incident. It made it all the more shocking when he did what he did. Add to that the fact that it was internationally televised, happened at the Academy Awards, and was done to another very famous person and you have the media attention it got.

Aside from video surfacing of Sutherland diving into a Christmas tree, his transgressions all occurred out of the public eye. His image has always been one of a troubled jerk as well so no one was surprised when he had run ins with the law.

FWIW, I still like Will Smith and hope he can come out of this situation OK. It was a stupid thing for him to do but not enough to ruin his career over.

It's obvious that Will loves Jada but Jada doesn't love Will. Is he a cuck? I don't fucking know, but in the name of chivalry he's sullied his reputation for the time being. I read his biography a few weeks ago and it's a great read and he does talk about having personality faults. One of those is that he craves/aches to be loved. It doesn't always work out since it often comes off as needy and being needy is looked down upon.

It is clear, though, that she resents or has resented him for who knows how long.

Will is going to be juuust fine. And he likely won't get any good-natured ribbing over the incident either!

True. He's still filthy rich.

I do think he loved and seeked out the positive attention he got in the past. It's the first time in 30 years he isn't loved by everyone, but hated by many.

I don't give any credence to a performer's personal life. If it's a movie I like, I'll watch it. Kevin Spacey being a dickbag doesn't make his movies any less entertaining. I'm not going to take Se7en, The Usual Suspects, or Baby Driver off of my shelf because someone in the movie did bad things. If I did that, I'd never watch anything. The only thing that would happen would me robbing myself of some entertainment. Some of you are way too holier-than-thou...

I've come to terms with this some time ago. I literally grew up on Bill Cosby from I Spy to The Bill Cosby Show to Fat Albert and so on. My favorite western is El Dorado (John Wayne). My favorite action movie is Mad Max 2 (Mel Gibson). At the end of the day these are captured images and if I based my viewing on what the performers or creators might have said or did, there would be very little for me to watch.

I agree completely. I posted that as the worst story about Fred Rogers that I ever heard: Rogers holding a professional to professional standards. I guess my humor wasn't clear enough.

I left out the best part of the story. The pianist was getting a real dressing down by the boss, and the boss was doing it in the gentle Mr Rogers voice.

My friend's brother thought that was disturbingly weird.

I'll definitely admit I rewatched the Mad Max movies over the pandemic with no issues, but don't seek out his new stuff.

After some more thinking, the only actor that I can't stand to watch anymore is James Woods. He's such a douchebag, and it's a shame because he is really good in some roles.

I tried watching John Carpenter's Vampires the other day but couldn't do it. Every time Woods opens his mouth in the film I think back to some of his idiotic tweets.

I have Videodrome on my 'cheat list' of Woods movies I'll still watch, and his episode of The Simpsons.

I look at it this way; if you hired a professional tradesperson to drywall your brand new house only to find out several years later he committed a heinous crime, would you tear-out every last panel of drywall in your house to righteously declare your disdain for the guy? Would that really make sense?

Would you continue to recommend him to your friends and have him back to do more work on your house?