The content on this webpage contains paid/affiliate links. When you click on any of our affiliate link, we/I may get a small compensation at no cost to you. See our affiliate disclosure for more info -----------------------
Last updated on March 6th, 2018 at 12:29 am
Cate Blanchett joins the sorry:
Cate Blanchett loves living in her homeland of Australia – despite her frustration that Prime Minister John Howard was recently re-elected.
Despite the Conservative leader’s win, the Aviator actress believes good can be born out of political opposition as it forces people to become more aware of issues and forces them into action.
Blanchett says, “I do love it (Australia), but many people are very saddened by the recent re-election of PM John Howard – what it condones.
“But one has to be optimistic because good things can come out of a frustration with an administration. It politicises you.”
Interesting theory. Howard has now been elected four times. By the way, Alexander Downer today becomes Australia’s longest serving foreign minister. Tomorrow—barring the saddened masses suddenly rising up and forcing him from office—Howard becomes Australia’s second-longest serving Prime Minister. We might have a drink on Tuesday night to celebrate.
(Via Rafe Champion)
- Hmmm… did someone tell Kate that Vanessa Redgrave’s getting a bit long in the tooth and the part of “Leftie Harpy” might soon be recasting?Posted by richard mcenroe on 12/20 at 10:53 AM • permalink
- I suppose being an award-winning actress, she feels it necessary to throw out the occasional political comment, to keep the lefty media on side. Also it goes down well with the inner-city luvvies most likely to attend her movies.
Still, Cate’s too good-looking and intelligent to become the new Vanessa Redgrave. Just stick to what you do well, acting, and leave the political grandstanding to the has-beens and secondraters like Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand, etc.
- Is there some kind of psychological explanation for why so much “entertainment” “talent” leans left? Does acting inherently rot the brain?Posted by Crispytoast on 12/20 at 01:44 PM • permalink
- ‘Is there some kind of psychological explanation for why so much “entertainment” “talent” leans left?’
I’m sure there is, Crispy. I think you must have a desire to be loved by the crowd if you desire to be an entertainer. The concept that everyone should make their own decisions and be responsible for their own actions does not sit well with cuddly feeling of group love that entertainers want. Hence they tend to lean left where everyone is responsible for everyone elses’s mistakes, and no one judges anyone too harshly…..unless of course they say something politically incorrect.
Posted by Michael Sutcliffe on 12/20 at 02:16 PM • permalink
- It’s the only way to get a good review, especially from the likes of David (douche) Stratton, What’s her face, the old commie battleaxe with the ear-rings like Phillip Bacon mobiles, any dingbat writing for Fairfax or the new gerbils on SBS is to be a fellow traveller, and mouth the party line (among other things).
You don’t need brains to be an actor, just a good memory so you can parrot your allocated lines.
I wish they’d all shut the fuck up, and only come to notice when they kark from a bit too much chemical relaxation, an STD or anorexia.
- I remember when Cate Blanchett was starring in Elizabeth she made some ridiculous comments regarding being a republican while portraying Elizabeth I.
Interestingly, she prefers the monarchy of Elizabeth I to that of Elizabeth II (presumably because as the glorious revolution had yet to occur the monarchy back then more closely resembles her envisioned republic).Posted by David McBryde on 12/20 at 04:12 PM • permalink
- >Does acting inherently rot the brain?
Damned if I’m starting to wonder the same. How many people can you think of who died of drug overdoses? How many of them were actors or celebrities, and how many were people you knew personally?
And it’s certainly nothing new—I’m presently watching a serial from 1941. The female lead spent most of her life in mental asylums; the male lead was imprisoned for killing his wife.
Posted by John Nowak on 12/20 at 04:30 PM • permalink
- Just don’t let John Howard go swimming between then and now.
I don’t mean to make light of historical tragedy, but just imagine if, say, Lyndon Johnson had vanished while swimming. The idea of an American president getting LOST boggles the mind. The world would have come frickin’ unglued with all the implications.
- Hello Crispy, on the topic of luvvies leaning left, the old Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises wrote a book on the anti-capitalist mentality. He suggested that show biz people have such individualistic, narcissistic,cut-throat careers that they try to compensate in public by making out that they are really caring folk.
- Well, if there is somebody who will be getting on the piss it will be old Bob “silver bodgey” Hawke, but probably not to celebrate.
A lot of our “elite” (for want of another over-used term) really have no respect for the Australian people or democracy, do they?
Why do they assume they have more of an insight into politics than we average Aussies?
When did NIDA start teaching political science and not how to pounce around in a pair of tights?
Posted by Darlene Taylor on 12/20 at 06:42 PM • permalink
- The actor is required to manufacture a reality for an audience. If things look and sound right for the task then it is fine and it IS, when you are making a performance. It is natural that they will use these techniques in their everyday thought. They build cities and create histories in their imaginings. If at a dinner party amongst their friends or in an interview what comes out of their mouths sounds good then it is good. They will be against war because war is nasty and leads to death and destruction. They support peace because they do not choose imagine that peace can mean the doing of nothing while your enemies strengthen or that peace can mean the turning of an eye to an injustice faraway.
Performers and their non performing fellow travellers of the liberal/left are utopian, as a rule. We of the right tend to be highly cynical of utopian dreams and imaginings and believe we talk to realities even if they are ugly.
Posted by James Hamilton on 12/20 at 07:00 PM • permalink
- Crispytoast asked Does acting inherently rot the brain?
Elaine Showalter in her fine book Hystories postulated, if I recall correctly, that a defining characteristic of the the actress is a hysterical personality (in the 19 century sense of a “bodily expression of unspeakable distress”). Rarely has an actress any experience of trade or commerce, i.e., is generally disconnected from the real world.
As it happens, CFS, ME, gulf war syndrome, MCS, and so on, are all hysterical manifestations no different from the shell shock of WW1.
Posted by walterplinge on 12/20 at 08:18 PM • permalink
- BTW- what do you expect when she hangs out with all those dirty goddamn Green Left Weekly hippy elves– poncing about Middle Earth hugging trees, nary a real job in sight.
- Not all actors are on the luvvy left. Cate’s LOTR co-star John Rhys-Davies sounds more like Mark Steyn
- TimT: I’m working on the individual links to comments.Posted by Andrea Harris on 12/20 at 11:23 PM • permalink
- Downer presented in drag of course- as you would by ABC news to recognise his many years of service to his country. However it was a blast watching MS Kostakidis on SBS news choking on the announcement of “W” being Time’s Person of the Year!Aunty coped by gratuitously pointing out previous winners-Hitler and Stalin.
- actually, once upon a time, actors had themselves a pair.
Jimmy Stewart and Clark Gable flew daylight bombing raids over Germany.
Alec Guinness commanded a landing craft under fire on D-Day.
David Niven was a forward air controller with the paras at Arnhem.
A whole generation of B-movie actors had their careers cut short because they went and served in uniform, and not on USO tours.
James Garner got his ass shot off (literally) in Korea.Even portly Dennis Franz did two tours in Nam with the Marines.
Try fitting the words “Brad Pitt”, “Ben Affleck,” “Martin Sheen,” or “Matt! Damon!” into any of those sentences.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 12/21 at 01:43 AM • permalink
- Galadriel a moonbat? Say it’s not so.Posted by Callmeteem on 12/21 at 06:58 AM • permalink
- richard,
Don’t forrget that James Coburn and Robert Mitchum were both in the Marines in the Pacific during WWII. Probably why their toughness on screen didn’t seem like an act; it was real and it was earned the hard way.
Posted by David Crawford on 12/21 at 08:52 AM • permalink
- I meant to say Lee Marvin, not James Coburn.Posted by David Crawford on 12/21 at 08:55 AM • permalink
- dont forget dear naomi watts who threatened to slash her wrists if jwh was reelected, unfortunately hasn’t followed thru with threat.Posted by vinnyboombutts on 12/21 at 09:08 AM • permalink
- Don’t forget James Doolan (Scotty) who landed in Normandy on D-Day, Earnest Borgnine who served in the US Navy in the Pacific, George C Scott who served in the USMC, and Donald Pleasance who fought with the RAF and was shot down.
One notable B-actor is a fellow called Charles Durning who earned a Silver Star and received a Purple Heart for his actions with the Rangers at Omaha Beach.
- What about Audie Murphy? Rod Stiegr lied about his age to enlist in the Navy. Chuck Bronson was a tailgunner in heavy bombers. There’s a whole list here– they make the current crop of stars look like they sit down to piss, which they probably do.
What a pack of self-important pansies.
- Christopher Lee (Saruman and Dracula) was a commando in the second war. There is a lovely bit on the DVD extras when he discusses Saruman’s death with Peter Jackson, and says “I know what a man stabbed in the back sounds like.”
And of course we can add Ronnie Reagan and John Wayne into the “left wing moonbat actors” camp as well.
- BruceW � He was wounded in the posterior by an explosive 20mm shell fired by a strafing Navy fighter.Posted by richard mcenroe on 12/21 at 03:45 PM • permalink
- David Crawford � When Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune made Hell in the Pacific, they spent their offcamera time drinking together and ignorning the rest of the cast and crew. Turned out they’d been on some of the same islands…Posted by richard mcenroe on 12/21 at 03:51 PM • permalink
- Pauly � Reagan at least put on the uniform and went where he was told.Posted by richard mcenroe on 12/21 at 03:53 PM • permalink
- Lee Marvin got shot in the arse by the Japs on Saipan. Nearly his whole platoon were wiped out. Even Miss Hathaway did a stint in the navy.
- Yes, Murph, poncing is it.
But be assured, young man, they pounce when you least expect it.
Thanks jlchydro.
Now I am going to ponce and pounce right out of this comment box, hopefully with my dignity, if not other things, intact.
Posted by Darlene Taylor on 12/21 at 06:56 PM • permalink
- Of modern performers, we do have the following:
Scott Glenn (US Marine Corps)
Drew Carey (US Marine Corps)
MC Hammer (US Navy)
Ice T (US Army)It’s funny that in Britain, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand, there are absolutely no popular performers under the age of 50 who have been in the military – at least that I have ever heard of.
Drew Carey, for example, credits the Marines for turning him into the man that he is today.
Ice T credits the time away from the ‘hood with giving him a greater appreciation of the larger world out there.
MC Hammer gave credit to the Navy for the self-discipline he has.
Posted by David Crawford on 12/21 at 09:56 PM • permalink
- About Reagan and the military. He had been a reserve officer before th ewar (he was originally a calvary officer and that is how he learned to ride).
He did not have to serve. He could have gotten out easily. He was older, married and a father when the war began.
He was also practically blind. His eyesight was terrible.
But he showed up for his physical when ordered and fully expected to be sent to the Pacific. His eyesight was so bad, however, that he was declared fit for duty only in the continential US.
He turned away from his movie career (which was really gaining momentum in 1941). He made training films for the military but also was an intelligence officer later in the war. His job was to bring to modern movie techniques to intelligence.
At the end of the war, his most important job was changing the way bomber pilots were briefed. On a Hollywood sound stage, the special effects types built a three dimential model of Toyko. The model was updated as new intelligence came in. The model was used to produce breifings for bomber pilots over Toyko. Reagan oversaw the upkeep of the model and produced (and narrarated) the breifings using the model. The briefings were filmed and rushed out on planes to the pilots in the Pacific.
- Anthony—and yet, oddly, we only ever seem to hear about the training film where he mispronounced the Japanese plane names…Posted by richard mcenroe on 12/22 at 12:37 PM • permalink
