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February 10, 2007
Another moonbat moviestar
Proving that her film portrayal of doomed lunatic film femme fatale Frances Farmer cut uncomfortably close to home, comes this profile in the Belfast Telegraph of Jessica Lange.
The actress, who charmed moviegoers in "King Kong," "The Postman Always Rings Twice" and "Tootsie", has quite a bit to say, much of which will detract from the thinking-viewer's ability -- or willingness -- to suspend disbelief.
Here are a few highlights from an interview ostensibly about her return to the London stage, where she stars in The Glass Menagerie.
[Bob Dylan's] latest album is her constant companion: "It's uncanny," she says, "how each album absolutely connects to that exact moment in your life, whatever your age or experience. He's my idol. So is Che Guevara."
Whoa there; this might be too much information already. Next stop, George Bush - but he's definitely not on the dinner-party list: "Being at the mercy of that President for the next two years is going to be really frightening."
Before going on, I have to say a few things about Lange's "hero."
According to liberal American writer Lawrence Osborne, Guevara's political writing contained a "puritanical zeal and pure and undisguised hatred" that verges on the pathological. "This was a guy who preached hatred, who wrote speeches that were almost proto-fascist," Osborne said, quoting a Guevara speech that ends, "Relentless hatred of the enemy impels us over and over, and transforms us into effective and selective violent cold killing machines."
But it wasn't just words; Che personally murdered not just enemies of the people, but peasants, too, as he noted in his diaries. And when Castro swept aside Batista and seized power, he put Guevara in charge of the main prison, where Guevara oversaw the extra-judicial execution of more than 500 political prisoners.
Furthermore, he often administered the coup de grace himself, firing a bullet into the brain of the condemned man, after the firing squad had done their work.
Some hero.
And now, back to our esteemed deep thinker, Jessica Lange.
"George Bush really has whipped up the most poisonous scenario of neighbour against neighbour over the war in Iraq. It's disgusting. I can't tell you." But she does. "There were times when it was really lovely to be out there and against the war. But then I had anti-war stickers on my car and some big fucking pick-up with an American flag tried to drive me off the road. It was scary and I was scared."
I suggest that her mood was the result of her rather soft, hippie-liberal Democratic anti-patriotic fervour, and that perhaps she would be a whole lot worse off if President Bush wasn't defending her "way of life" and "civilised" (read privileged) values against the Islamic threat. The suggestion, I have to say, does not go down well.
"What? What are you saying here? I thought you were a nice person. My anti-war work started four years ago when the drums were beating. The few of us who really spoke out at the time took such a beating in the press - even the liberal press - and on CNN; I was on a CNN news programme with an arms inspector who had been in Iraq, and we were treated like shit. Everything he said - and it was all factual - has come to pass.
"There was talk at the time of blacklisting - it was the McCarthy era all over again - and a horrible, poisonous atmosphere. Now we are into an escalation of the war, and it's Vietnam all over again. It's gone beyond right or wrong. It's just become lunacy and danger. Especially now they're talking about Iran as the third front. You begin to wonder why we bring children into this world. We're on the precipice. No question."
[...]
"We've come to a dangerous spot, in more ways than one. Everything Al Gore is working for now [on environmental issues] is worthwhile and worth paying attention to." Really? "Oh yes. I don't have a car any more, for instance." She arrived at the hotel, of course, in a chauffeur-driven car.
[...]
"And I still really hate that stupid bastard George Bush!" she cries.
I'm most impressed; aren't you?
All the other nuttiness aside, I can't get past her moral depravity. While Pres. Bush is the object of her scorn -- hatred, really -- she cites Che Guevara as her hero. Given his role in the pantheon of the Left, and his function in the Cuban Revolution as the master of the abattoir, it's simply incredible that anyone who pays even the most token lip service to "human rights" would idolize this psychopath.
And that Lange is willing to proclaim her admiration for the murderous Guevara without hesitation -- and without consequence from her peers -- is an indictment of the entertainment biz, too.
Lange is either shamefully ignorant, or shamefully immoral; either way, she ought to be ashamed.
Posted by Mike Lief at February 10, 2007 09:23 AM
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