November 29, 2018

Film critic David Edelstein is fired from NPR's "Fresh Air" after he tweets a short butter joke on the occasion of the death of Bernardo Bertolucci.

The joke — accompanied by a photo of the famous scene in Bertolucci's "Last Tango in Paris" — was "Even grief is better with butter."

We're told, in the Hollywood Reporter, that there was "a backlash, which included actress Martha Plimpton." I can't see who other than Martha Plimpton wanted Edelstein fired for making a joke about the butter in that movie. That was such a common topic for humor when that movie came out. I still remember how one of my friends delivered her opinion of the movie: "It was excellent, albeit butter-covered." It was such a thing to connect Bertolucci with butter that if I'd written that modern "Dictionary of Received Ideas" I used to talk about, if I'd thought to put in an entry for Bertolucci, it would have been: Say something about butter.

So how did Edelstein go wrong? The movie has a man (Marlon Brando) and a woman (Maria Schneider) struggling through a sexual relationship, and in the "butter scene," the man tells the woman to get butter, which he uses as a lubricant for anal intercourse. I don't think any mainstream movie had ever had an explicit reference to anal intercourse, and here it was on screen, presumably simulated.

You might imagine that the problem with Edelstein's tweet was that it was too lighthearted, when a man had just died. But that wouldn't get you fired — Edelstein has done hundreds of film reviews on "Fresh Air" — and that probably wouldn't put a Hollywood actress into such a state of hostility.

But perhaps you remember what Maria Schneider said about what was done to her. As Hollywood Reporter puts it:
Schneider said in a 2007 interview that the simulated sex scene was unscripted and that she felt bullied by Bertolucci and unsupported by her co-star Marlon Brando. "I was crying real tears," said the actress, who died in 2011.
Edelstein says he didn't "didn't know the real-life story about Maria Schneider" and he didn't remember the scene as showing a rape. And he apologized:
"The line was callous and wrong even if it had been consensual, but given that it wasn't I'm sick at the thought of how it read and what people logically conclude about me. I have never and would never make light of rape, in fiction or in reality."
Is it believable that a big film critic like Edelstein missed the stories about Maria Schneider? I don't follow movies that closely, but I have 3 blog posts about Schneider's charges against Bertolucci, the third of which, from December 2016, has Bertolucci acknowledging the truth of what Schneider said:
"I wanted her to react humiliated. I think she hated me and also Marlon because we didn't tell her... to obtain something I think you have to be completely free. I didn't want Maria to act her humiliation, her rage, I wanted her to Maria to feel ... the rage and humiliation. Then she hated me for all of her life."
Bertolucci said he wanted "her reaction as a girl, not as an actress." Brando went along with this. He was 48. She was 19.

From the NYT obituary for Maria Schneider:
The role fixed Ms. Schneider in the public mind as a figurehead of the sexual revolution, and she spent years trying to move beyond the role, and the public fuss surrounding it.... “I wanted to be recognized as an actress, and the whole scandal and aftermath of the film turned me a little crazy and I had a breakdown. Now, though, I can look at the film and like my work in it.”

The famous butter scene, she said, was not in the script and made it into the film only at Brando’s insistence. “I felt humiliated and to be honest, I felt a little raped, both by Marlon and by Bertolucci,” she said. “After the scene, Marlon didn’t console me or apologize. Thankfully, there was just one take.”
How guilty is David Edelstein? He's at least guilty of not paying enough attention to the culture to have noticed and remembered this story. Why should people who listen to NPR receive his — rather than somebody else's — opinion of the various new movies that come out over the years? Why should we listen to any critic — or any radio show? I know why I'd listen to the radio show "Fresh Air" — because Terry Gross is a fantastic interviewer. Some movie critic gets to ride in her vehicle? That person is damned lucky. Should it be David Edelstein, a man who did not know of or remember what happened to Maria Schneider? Why didn't he notice? Why didn't it make an impression? Why is he so inattentive to the sexual abuse of actresses by powerful men — by Marlon Brando?!

ADDED: Here's the Martha Plimpton tweet:

ALSO:Last year, Edelstein got feminist grief over his review of "Wonder Woman." Here's his self-defense (in New York Magazine):
Last Thursday, my review of Wonder Woman was received with both outrage and ridicule, and reading those reactions, I felt sick. Some of the criticisms were unjust.... And it didn’t help that I reached out to Facebook friends with a gored-bull rant of my own that was then circulated. The lesson was learned on that score — and plenty of others....

All my life, I have spoken up against eroticizing violence onscreen, against women and men both. That’s why, a decade ago, I coined the term “torture porn.” I’m sorry that it wasn’t more clear that this line was meant as approving: “With a female director, Patty Jenkins, at the helm, Diana isn’t even photographed to elicit slobbers.”

This is another widely quoted bit: “She looks fabulous in her suffragette outfit with little specs, but it’s not until she strips down to her superheroine bodice and shorts, pulls out her sword, and leaps into the fray that she comes into her own. More focused on world peace than bombs and bullets, she’s on an ecstatic plane of her own.” That was meant to celebrate the liberation — the uncorset-ing — of a superheroine. The revelation of her costume comes after a long scene in which she tries on fabulous clothes and settles on a period suffragette outfit that covers her from head to toe. She looks great — it shouldn’t be a provocation to say that — but she’s only “Wonder Woman” when she strips them off and flings herself into battle. Is she amazing to look at? I thought that was the whole point. Or maybe not....

[I]n the context of this spate of comic-book movies (which I consider a blight, but that’s another subject) I underestimated how much a superheroine at the center of a woman-directed film would mean to many people, and descriptions I considered lively and complimentary would come across as demeaning. Moreover, if Wonder Woman will empower women at this moment in history — in which reproductive rights are imperiled, and an admitted groper is working to undo decades of gains for women — then some of the criticisms of my review are just. I reserve the right to think that this is not, overall, a very good movie. But it is an important one.
Edelstein reserves the right to say what he wants about movies, but he can't say it on "Fresh Air" anymore.

147 comments:

richlb said...

A) He knew. B) He had to feign ignorance if he had any chance to keep his gig. C) It wasn't enough, he was fired. D) More of the left eating their own.

Narayanan said...

He pretty much said ...
Rape? Or not -May as well lie back and enjoy it.

Darrell said...

Today, Maria could have purchased a Buddha Box. Through Althouse's Amazon Portal, most likely. Edelstein should look into it as he has all that free time on his hands now. And plenty of anxiety.

The Vault Dweller said...

Hooray, another disproportionate reaction to an, at most, unseemly comment. I really hope we remember soon that Free Speech, isn't just a legal concept in America, but also a cultural value. It should affect how you privately react to what other people say.

Tina Trent said...

We should not have to subsidize Terri Gross and the rest of her hard-left media outlet with tax dollars. If she is that good, she can support herself with ads and donations.

How would Edelstein know about the butter but not the controversy over the butter?

JPS said...

richlb,

"C) It wasn't enough, he was fired."

There it is, once again. In a sane culture, Edelstein makes that joke, and maybe a bunch of people tell him that's not cool and he's a jerk, then he says, Hey, I pissed a bunch of people off and I've decided they have a point. Sorry, everyone. That was a dumb thing to write.

In this one, all that is followed by, We're glad you said that. You are of course not forgiven. Now you're fired.

gilbar said...

rape?
since it was simulated sex, it was; at most, simulated rape: no rape rape

I can never remember When that distinction matters?

Meade said...

What a country crock.

Lloyd W. Robertson said...

Long before the controversy about whether Schneider was forced to participate in some kind of sex without her consent, comedian David Steinberg had a bit about watching Last Tango in a theatre. The whole thing was a shock--to see so much raw sex in a mainstream movie--and he claimed that when Brando said "pass me the butter," he (Steinberg) rushed up to the screen and pressed himself against it. This isn't the cool ironic detachment of an intellectual like Edelstein; it's more like wanting to take a personal part in such an intense experience. Maybe an anticipation of masturbating to the internet? Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: our civilization.

Shouting Thomas said...

I nominate this post for the most trivial #meToo bullshit yet.

They fired a guy for something he said about a movie made 50 years ago?

Jeff Brokaw said...

The best “fix” for these situations is a sincere apology from the perp and forgiveness by others. Firing people over one intemperate remark is much too reactionary and intolerant of the faults we all have within us.

I do agree that it defies belief that he did not know about the recent allegations.

mccullough said...

New York Magazine will have to fire him, too.

And Martha Plimpton must be scorned and shunned for her Transphobia. Not every woman has a vagina, Martha.

stevew said...

With the remark he established that he is either not very good as an expert on matters of film, or he is a crass and uncouth creep. Firing him was the only option for the Fresh Air power keepers.

Ann Althouse said...

"How would Edelstein know about the butter but not the controversy over the butter?"

He's 60 years old.

David Begley said...

When will Trump defund PBS?

Darrell said...

How would Edelstein know about the butter but not the controversy over the butter?

Perhaps Edelstein uses butter for his anal needs.

mccullough said...

This guy shouldn’t have apologized, much less have been shitcanned. It was a joke referencing a notorious part of a movie. A movie. Some people have lost their fucking minds. NPR is a joke. What a disgraceful organization.

Martha Plimpton is a worthless piece of shit like NPR.

Virgil Hilts said...

richlb, "C) It wasn't enough, he was fired."
richlb nails it. But I'll concede the guy could have momentarily forgot/not considered the abuse stuff (I am 100% sure he read about it). I just don't like the "one strike and you're exiled" rule for comments that are stupid/not sufficiently thought out. Everyone should be allowed at least a few strikes, including Roseanne. Even "free Palestine range from river to sea" CNN guy who claims he didn't know what it meant should have a 2nd chance (assuming he has not said a bunch of "let's wipe Israel off the map" stuff in the past). Social media doesn't have to make all of us act as though we were back in Junior High; everybody fucks up.

Tank said...

in which reproductive rights are imperiled, and an admitted groper is working to undo decades of gains for women

Well, I wasn't sure what to think at first, but, with this, I'm glad he was fired.

Incidentally, killing unborn children is not a reproductive right, it's an anti-reproductive right. In any event, there are three lies in this short sentence fragment.

mccullough said...

On the other hand, Edelstein is a bit of a coward, though I can’t fault the guy for his groveling to keep a paycheck.

Get a Transwoman as The Movie Critic.

Darrell said...

since it was simulated sex, it was; at most, simulated rape: no rape rape

You are not going to get a "painal" facial reaction with simulated sex. Brando gave her the stinger. And Schneider had little recourse because Bertolucci was a Left-wing hero. He did a vampire film where the human saved themselves from attack by joining a hammer and a sickle and presenting it to the neck-biter. You can't be a truer believer than that.

Shouting Thomas said...

You see, Althouse, you and your Marxist feminist allies are the oppressors.

And you're proud of it.

Mary Beth said...

I was listening to public radio several years ago when the TV critic referred to a show as "sloppy seconds". Other than that phrase, I can't remember what he was saying or the show it was about, but it sounded like he meant to compare it to leftovers but went for something more colorful without any awareness of it being inappropriate. I wonder if it was the same guy.

gilbar said...

"All my life, I have spoken up against eroticizing violence onscreen"

by against, does he mean like (Steinberg) rushed up to the screen and pressed himself against it?

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

Such are the times. One "Oh shit!" wipes out a thousand "Ata-boy!"s.

We *all* make our living by blog'n'tweet these days, so the need becomes more frantic to find something edgier than the last. Past times, it was pushing the accepted boundaries of sexual expression. Now it is all virtue signalling and expanding the sphere of vicarious victimhood.

Bob Boyd said...

Edelstein probably did know about the rape, but he didn't think of it in the moment. His association of butter with Last Tango was the first thing that came to mind. It was probably a pleasant association in that, at an emotional level, he recalled laughing and getting laughs back in the day. So he just threw out a quick joke the same way he would have in a conversation with friends.
But Twitter isn't a conversation with friends.

I doubt the guy is callous towards rape victims in general or what was done to Maria Schneider in particular. Firing him seems very harsh. An abject apology should have been sufficient. That and maybe assign him to do a piece on the rape of Schneider and how it relates to what is happening today. Tell him to include some personal groveling.
It's not right to punish Edelstein for what Bertolucci and Brando did.

It's horrifying what happened to Schneider. The arrogance and entitlement of Bertolucci and Brando is genuinely outrageous. No different on a moral level than what some black market rape-porn producer does. Worse in some ways.
Fundamentally it's the same attitude Progs exhibit in politics. You have to break a few eggs, right? Once you decide it's okay to do wrong in the service of something you define as a greater good, where is the line? There is no line.

Bay Area Guy said...

Butt-fucking or butter-fucking or butter-butt fucking.

Whatever the case, That's not funny!

Pass the buttered popcorn - the Left is firing its own. Because ....men!

I am not Laslo.

Big Mike said...

And yet, if her agent gave her a call and told her that she was being offered a role in a major picture with a legendary director opposite a handsome and famous, but somewhat older, leading man, but the catch is it includes full frontal nudity and simulated anal rape, I suspect she’d take the role in a heartbeat. If she didn’t there’d be plenty who would.

AllenS said...

At least have the decency to use unsalted butter.

Darrell said...

Truer words, AllenS. . .

walter said...

"All day I’ve avoided noting this mans death precisely because of this moment in which a sexual assault of an actress was intentionally captured on film. And this asshole makes it into this joke."

Martha! "Asshole" in reference to a simulated anal scene?
For shame!

traditionalguy said...

Women as sexual objects for men is another thing that's not funny anymore. Where will it end?

Fernandinande said...

So how did Edelstein go wrong?

1 - Worked for NPR

2 - Film critic. That's even worse then "scholar" or "philosopher".

tim in vermont said...

I’m just a soul whose intentions are gooood...

Oh Lord... Please don’t let me be understood!


I almost made a joke about the actress being "butt hurt" about it, but I didn’t because it really isn’t funny.

Henry said...

The Wonder Woman update raises another question: How does a person in the media not know not to post Facebook rants?

Or anything ever on Twitter?

Shouting Thomas said...

This reminds me of the movie about Evgenia Ginzberg, a good party member and literature professor in the Soviet Union.

Her crime? Failure to denounce an article in a literary journal that once was deemed good by the party, but fell out of favor.

A decade in Siberia was her reward.

tim in vermont said...

"if her agent gave her a call and told her"

All would be well if, if, if
Rang the sad bells of Cardiff

Fernandinande said...

"than". Ouch.

SWEDEN: Stockholm Enacts “Feminist” Snow-Plowing Strategy. Entire City SHUTS DOWN!

Mike Sylwester said...

I happened to be listening to my car radio when Terry Gross interviewed Bill O'Reilly.

What an obnoxious interviewer Gross was on that occasion. O'Reilly walked out during the interview -- rightly so.

O'Reilly's autobiography had just been published. All of Gross's questions were along the lines of ...

Person X says you are a fascist. How do you respond to that?

Question after question after question like that, until O'Reilly walked out.

I never have heard such an obnoxious interview anywhere else -- before or since.

Henry said...

And also: That joke makes no sense.

When Francis Ford Coppola dies, will Edelstein joke: grief goes better with napalm?

Grief goes better with horsemeat?

Grief goes better with fishes?

I'm trying out the jokes.

tim in vermont said...

That snow plowing story is right up there with the warship that Norway proudly proclaimed that 4 out of 5 of the navigators were women. No, this is a different warship that ran into a tanker, not the one were two of the officers on deck weren’t speaking to each other.

rehajm said...

Everyone should be allowed at least a few strikes, including Roseanne. Even "free Palestine range from river to sea" CNN guy who claims he didn't know what it meant should have a 2nd chance

With so many people being sentenced to life on Exile Island soon there will be enough of us to form our own society that's free to say something stupid on occasion or make jokes in poor taste. It should end up being kind of a nice place, like Australia.

Wince said...

"I like simple pleasures like butter in my ass, and lollipops in my mouth...

that's just me, that's just something I enjoy... call me crazy, call me a pervert
."

tim in vermont said...

When Coppola dies, it will obviously be “I love the smell of grief in the morning!”

Of course it also is so callous that it’s not funny.

Fernandinande said...

feminist grief over a comic book character

"To hear the lamentations of their feminists!"

rehajm said...

If you are of value, buddy up to the Clintons to avoid being exiled.

Harvey and All will be back soon...

rhhardin said...

Actresses always feel raped. It's their thing.

whitney said...

He identifies as Jewish but also as white and straight which puts his victim points in the negative. He's got to go!

tim in vermont said...

A Muslim refugee from Bangladesh was acquitted of the rape of a high school girl – with a French court excusing the sexual attack due to the young man’s “different cultural norms.”

The young Islamic migrant was also charged with sexually assaulting another young girl, but his defense argued that he should not be held responsible because he could have misinterpreted his aggressive sexual contact with the girl due to his Muslim “cultural codes.”
. via Instapundit

mandrewa said...

The message is submission. The message is your thoughts are not your own and they belong to the collective.

Edelstein's crime was that on hearing Bertolucci's name that he did not immediately think of Maria Schneider and then condemn Bertolucci.

This is the only thought that a 'good' person can have. If hearing the name Bertolucci you do not have this thought that proves that you are evil.

By making a joke about Bertolucci, Edelstein proved that he hadn't had the only correct thought one can have.

The message to the good people, the left, is that they need to try harder to channel and focus their thoughts and think only good things. They need to abase themselves to the collective and be joyful in their abasement.

I don't think it matters that much whether Edelstein had heard of the Maria Schneider incident or not. It's possible he hadn't. And then it's possible he did. If he had heard of it, he probably would have lied about it, because he knows the score and he has been a 'good' person for awhile.

He can't say, "Oh yes, now that you mention it, I do remember vaguely something about Maria Schneider. But I wasn't thinking about that at the time." He can't say that because that reveals he isn't a good person, because this proves his thoughts were not collective.

He can't say, "Yes, I do remember the Maria Schneider business, but the joke was funny!"

If he lied when saying "I never heard about Maria Schneider" then this is abasement and this is further evidence -- to him also -- that he belongs to the collective.

And then he can be turned on and denounced for not having the proper thought, and this can serve as an object lesson for all the virtuous.

Ironclad said...

Fresh Air has morphed into just another NPR propaganda hour with Terri Gross pushing the meme of the day. Yesterday there was a full hour "interview" with a lackey that told us how wonderful Nancy Pelosi was in a fawning description of her rise to power. Amazingly this "in depth" article never mentioned how her position has enriched her husband's business or her family wealth - but only praise must be given to the new Queen.

But the rule of NPR now is - one mistake and you are out. Prairie Home Companion died for that reason.

rhhardin said...

Put the butt back in butter.

Meade said...

"His association of butter with Last Tango was the first thing that came to mind"

Google searches in ranked order:

"last tango"

"last tango paris"

"last tango paris butter"

"last tango halifax"

RMc said...

It must be nice to have the kind of power that allows you to tweet "Fire Him. Immediately." and have the guy fired, immediately.

rhhardin said...

It's not nice to fool mother nature.

Early anal sex psa.

tcrosse said...

Oh, bugger!

rhhardin said...

#MeTooButter

Biotrekker said...

The actress was not raped. No one was raped. The character in the movie is bullied into doing something she doesn't want to do, but she allows herself to b in this shitty relationship. The problem for the actual actress - the real person - is that she was now associated with this scandalous scene in a scandalous film forever.

quote from Wikepedia entry:
"I regretted my choice since the beginning of my career would have been sweeter, quieter. For Tango, I was not prepared. People have identified with a character that was not me. Butter, about saucy old pigs... Even Marlon with his charisma and class, felt a bit violated, exploited a little in this film. He rejected it for years. And me, I felt it doubly."

Edelstein should not have been fired, but he had irked SJW/B's in the past (i.e., Wonder Woman) and he's a white male so he has no rights. Since this is a case of the Left eating itself, i am not sad.



Henry said...

The snow plowing story is from 2016 and it's basically a crock. Whatever plan Stockholm had in place was basically nullified by a big early-November storm that hit when most drivers still had summer tires on their cars. Big early-season blizzards tend to shut down cities no matter what the plan.

DrSquid said...

Man, talk about first world problems, this Plimpton babe sure has 'em.

Bob Boyd said...

What's getting lost in all this is that butter is a product of animal slavery. There are plenty of vegetable based products that are really slippery, yet this Edelstein character endorses butter. WTF? In a just world, NPR would hire him back and fire him again.

Sebastian said...

"The message is submission."

Exactly. Terry Gross is just one enforcer among others.

The incident also shows how the Old Left is losing to the New New Left: #MeToo prog identity politics squashes any affirmation of Marxist Bertolucci.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

I'm guessing the Martha Plimpton tweeter account is a parady account. Look at the photo. That is a stereotypical portrayal of a screeching feminist harpy. The use of a "trigger" warning on a tweet with a photo of rape. Wouldn't the photo just traumatize those she pretentends to care about. But she has to get her dig in! The overly emotional response to a minor issue. And the final bit of parady perfection is the howl that he fired nowwwww.

I'm calling it. 4chan will take credit for the parady and owning the stupid libs at NPR

rhhardin said...

Don't butter up women. There are thousands of them and one or two will always try to get you.

RK said...

Martha Plimpton is borderline ugly. Those are the ones who most get into the #MeToo thing.

rhhardin said...

P.G.Wodehouse _The Butter Did It_.

rhhardin said...

Superman felt typecast too.

Darrell said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ralph L said...

If it was simulated rape, shouldn't they have used margarine?

John Borell said...

mandrewa nails it. Wrong thought will get you fired. Lack of correct thought will get you fired.

At least it's only getting fired, for now. Eventually, it will get you executed (see the Cultural Revolution).

I hate the left.

The thing is, I do not want to get them fired, let alone executed. I just want them to leave us alone.

But the left never can just leave you alone. That's the whole fucking problem with the left.

MadTownGuy said...

ironclad said...

"But the rule of NPR now is - one mistake and you are out. Prairie Home Companion died for that reason."

In Garrison Keillor's case, it wasn't just one mistake:
For some who lived in it, Keillor's world wasn't funny

tcrosse said...

Crisco would have been more apt: fat in the can.

Darrell said...

The actress was not raped

And that CBS reporter was not raped during the Arab Spring riots in Egypt, either, according to her. Even though the cellphone videos of her gang rape were on YouTube (But you had to search in Arabic.)

Schneider took one for the team in order to keep working.

Ann Althouse said...

@Meade

I got Last Tango in Halifax too. Clicked on it:

"Last Tango in Halifax
British comedy series
8.3/10
IMDb
98%
Rotten Tomatoes
8.5/10
TV.com
94% liked this TV show
Google users
This romantic comedy involves Alan Buttershaw and Celia Dawson, two 70-something widowed people. After their respective grandsons put their profiles on a popular social-networking site, the two rediscover feelings for each other similar to the ones they had many decades earlier as teenagers. Their relationship is a celebration of the power of love at any age, but it comes with obstacles -- namely their families. Alan's daughter, Gillian, and Celia's daughter, Caroline, are polar opposites and, while neither would ever think about getting in the way of her parent's happiness, the situation is a bit disconcerting."

Buttershaw!

JZ said...

I agree with Althouse that Edelstein's comments were worthy of firing. He doesn't seem like much of a film critic -- and I've head his reviews. I also think that Terri Gross is a good interviewer when she stays away from political matters that reveal an astonishingly simplistic liberal point of view. But, that's NPR and this story is another example of why I find it irritating that NPR is tax exempt.

rhhardin said...

I remember feeling betrayed by vaseline as a kid. It was recommended for lubricating the propellers on wind-up model airplanes, which it did, but it also destroyed rubber bands that powered them. After you've papered and painted the model, you can't replace the rubber band. Shit, I thought.

walter said...

FWIW:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/last-tango-paris-cinematographer-nothing-happened-shooting-953391

Freeman Hunt said...

You can't make a joke funnier than the idea that anyone would feel empowered by Wonder Woman.

Ralph L said...

Rhhardin, you're such a dope.

Speaking of margarine, are transfats OK now?

mezzrow said...

Thanks for watching this episode of Wednesday Night Calvinball. Tune in next week to learn the identity of our new Patriarchal victim. It could be you!!

Watch your step, and check today's set of rules. Revisions are constant in this living document.

rhhardin said...

The pics from the film look like Madrid 1987, whose plot if any I don't remember but an old guy and a young lady journalism student are trapped naked in a bathroom for a weekend and talk a lot. I don't recall any butter but there was a lot of standing around. Seemed long to me. It was probably about character development.

Bob Boyd said...

Poor Ned Beatty. In the interest of authenticity, John Boorman ruled there wasn't any butter out there in the wilderness when they filmed Deliverance.

Darrell said...

are transfats OK now?

No.

rhhardin said...

Vaseline was recommended, probably, because kids could usually find it in the house.

tim in vermont said...

"g early-season blizzards tend to shut down cities no matter what the plan."

Not in Vermont or New Hampshire.

Bob Boyd said...

Did you hear about the newly wed couple that didn't know the difference between Vaseline and putty?

Their window panes fell out.

Ralph L said...

Bob Boyd, a little DAP will do ya.

Wince said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Wince said...

"Moreover, if Wonder Woman will empower women at this moment in history — in which reproductive rights are imperiled, and an admitted groper is working to undo decades of gains for women — then some of the criticisms of my review are just."

Three lines Brando's character made Schneider's character repeat during the "butter scene".

The children are tortured until they tell their first lie.

Where the will is broken by repression.

Where freedom is assassinated by egotism.

Meade said...

"Speaking of margarine, are transfats OK now?"

Yes. Just remember, it's not okay to use the term "transfatted." That can give hurt feelings. And we don't need to go over "transfatso" again do we?

wild chicken said...

The actress was not raped

She wasn't? I'm so confused. She was but pretended she really wasn't?

But still felt violated because feigned assrape was bad for her brand?

Here I thought it was just one of the many popular, harmless types of Health Sex.

Rory said...

Henry said: "I'm trying out the jokes."

Try cannoli.

Meade said...

Fellow cyclists, out of respect for all victims everywhere, please boycott the following:

here

tcrosse said...

"Speaking of margarine, are transfats OK now?"

OT: It's a good thing Trans World Airlines no longer exists.

Henry said...

Not in Vermont?

I was going to joke that Vermont doesn't actually have any cities, but it has a few, I know.

Providence, RI had a slush blizzard about 10 years ago that hit just before rush hour and gridlocked the city. Kids were stranded at schools and on school buses for hours. People lost their jobs over that one.

Meade said...

Searches related to butt butter

"butter my butt and call me a biscuit"

Rory said...

Rob McLean said: "It must be nice to have the kind of power that allows you to tweet 'Fire Him. Immediately.' and have the guy fired, immediately."

Third generation of the Carradine family. If you grow up in it, arrogance is like air.

Take the NPR money and devote it to CGI to replace actors and AI to replace movie critics.

Doug said...

Long before the controversy about whether Schneider was forced to participate in some kind of sex without her consent, comedian David Steinberg had a bit about watching Last Tango in a theatre.

I saw Steinberg's bit about "Last Tango", and his punch line went something like: "But I was really disappointed when Brando took the stick of butter to her ... and a crown didn't appear on her head!".

If you are old enough to remember TV commercials for Imperial margarine, you will get it.

Meade said...

Ann Althouse said...
@Meade

I got Last Tango in Halifax too. Clicked on it:

"Last Tango in Halifax"
-------------------------------------------

Hmm. My ass is chapped and that's just from watching the trailer. Someone needs to be fired.

Dude1394 said...

Tough.. the democrats have made everything off limits. I applaud his firing. The democrats should be forced to abide by their own rules.

Bob Boyd said...

wild chicken said...
"The actress was not raped

She wasn't? I'm so confused"

Me too. Was she raped or just buttered unexpectedly?

Freeman Hunt said...

"They only told me about it before we had to film the scene and I was so angry. "I should have called my agent or had my lawyer come to the set because you can't force someone to do something that isn't in the script, but at the time, I didn't know that. "Marlon said to me: 'Maria, don't worry, it's just a movie,' but during the scene, even though what Marlon was doing wasn't real, I was crying real tears. "I felt humiliated and to be honest, I felt a little raped, both by Marlon and by Bertolucci. After the scene, Marlon didn't console me or apologise. Thankfully, there was just one take." Many believed that the sex scenes between Brando and Schneider were for real, but she insists: "Not at all. There was no attraction between us. For me, he was more like a father figure and I a daughter.

So there was no rape. She was using the word "rape" to describe a feeling, something people could do prior to the Me Too Witch Trials.

chickelit said...

Overheard in in a '70's TV margarine commercial:

Butter!

Pourquoi?

Butter!!

Pourquoi?

Butter!!!

Pourquoi!!

Darrell said...

So there was no rape. She was using the word "rape" to describe a feeling,

First off that's one interview. She did others. Secondly, she is protecting a Leftist icon and the sleazy industry that lets people like him do as they please . The masseuse that was raped by Al Gore got a hundred Tweets telling her to take one for the team. Explain to me how a simulated sex scene can elicit the horror the director was looking for. Sex scenes were in the script she saw before she signed on.

Bay Area Guy said...

Why do you build me up ... Buttercup
Just to let me down?

chickelit said...

I may be misremembering, but I believe that "Mag Magazine" did a spread on "Last Tango" ca. 1972. That is how we kids kept up on what the "adults" were watching in theaters. "Last Tango" was especially interesting because it carried an X-rating. Well that and Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" which "Mad Magazine" also parodied. Bill Gaines was a genius.

gilbar said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Michael Fitzgerald said...

Fire him immediately. The poor oppressed handmaiden demanded, and it was so.

William said...

It was a lame joke. i don't get it, but it doesn't seem to make fun of rape or Maria Schneider. What Bertolucci did was wrong, and he deserves to be mocked, but the joke doesn't ridicule him either. There's something ridiculous about a stick of butter and anal sex. That was what the joke was about. As we see from the above comments, there are many fine jokes to be made about butter and anal sex, but Edelstein didn't make one.

gerry said...

Leftist autophagy is always better with butter.

Darrell said...

My "Unfortunately for Bertolucci (and Brando), there's no butter in Hell" joke from the other day WAS appropriate, though. And read (or see) Cold Comfort Farm if you don't the the cultural reference.

Rob said...

He worked for “Fresh Air.” And he issued a groveling apology. On the basis of either of those facts, he gets no sympathy from me. The left consuming its own is more fun than humans should be allowed to have.

Known Unknown said...

Ralph wins.

William said...

Tippi Hedren was mistreated by Hitchcock during the filming of Birds. I forget the exact details, but she was really attacked by birds to get an honest reaction and then was made to repeat the scene a few more times. She found the scene harrowing. She had rejected Hitchcock's advances and there was an element of payback or maybe even sadism in his treatment of her on the set........The plus side of being pecked by birds is that it doesn't have the comic potential of anal sex with butter. Hitchcock ruined her career but was not able to ruin her life. She faded into obscurity but was not part of an ongoing joke.........Nonetheless, I think Hitchcock's offense against Hedren was far greater than Bertolucci's against Schneider.......There's a moral lesson to be learned from this, and I willl post my findings in the near future.

William said...

Wasn't Wonder Woman conceived as an erotic figure? Her creator was into bondage and kinky stuff. He drew her to express these interests. Why would anyone want to diminish her sex appeal?......I saw the movie. It was entertaining. I don't remember any kinky sex, but that Wonder Woman's outfit looked sexy, or maybe it was just Gal Gadot.

Marty Keller said...

Edelstein should be happy the children of the Revolution don't use real guillotines these days . . . yet.

Chris N said...

There can be only one Silverback at NPR headquarters. I think it’s Robert Siegel.

At Peace Pavilion West, our leader determines work detail, attitudes toward the environment, and breeding celebrations.

Marcus said...

Terry Gross is a terrible interviewer. She routinely asks closed-ended questions. And her way of pronouncing "Fresh Air" as "Fuh-reshhhhh Air" is annoying as hell.

THEOLDMAN

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Get rid of them all. Yes, even Terry Grotesque. I don't need my tax money funding that commie network.

GatorNavy said...

Unfortunately, Marlon Brando and Bertolucci are unavailable for a reBUTTal.

Freeman Hunt said...

"Sex scenes were in the script she saw before she signed on. "

No, that was the most objectionable thing. This one was not because they came up with it later, and she didn't know that she could refuse. So they made her feel that she had to do a particularly humiliating sex scene that she had not agreed to do. That is terrible, but it is a different kind of terrible than being literally raped on camera for a movie.

rcocean said...

Couldn't have happened to a nicer SJW. I'm beginning to like the #metoo era.

Edelstein loved joining the lynch mob and going after anyone who expressed "bad think" and now he's got sent to the Gulag.

So sad.

He was a crappy film critic too.

rcocean said...

The only thing funny in the whole business is this:

Snider was paid lots of $$$ to have fake sex on film with Brando. Pauline Kael would've done it for free.

rcocean said...

"So they made her feel that she had to do a particularly humiliating sex scene that she had not agreed to do"

Poor baby. Once again, women are the equal of men, except when they don't want to be. Then we're supposed to sympathize with their lack of courage and backbone.

No one *forced* Schinder to do anything. Did they use a gun? She had a lot of fake sex scenes with Brando. The fact is she was a bad actress, and if you take out her fake sex scenes, she's a zero in the movie.

Laslo Spatula said...

The obvious thing to do is to remake the film with the script updated to fit our current society.

So: two transgender actors and a tub of artisan organic goat butter.

I am Laslo.

Darrell said...

I've heard lot of stories of on-camera rape with French and Italian directors. The rationalization is always something like "keeping it authentic" and "an artist has to suffer for their art."

Believe what you want.

How would simulated anal sex be different from the simulated vaginal sex she signed up for? If anything, there'd be less direct stimulation with the former. UNLESS penetration occurred.

Bay Area Guy said...

If Brando uses margarine instead of butter, the entire flick loses its buzz.

But, as noted by our cinematic politico historian, Laslo, organic artisan goat butter probably entices the Vegan crowd to give up Netflix and come to theater.

Darrell said...

Caligula has a scene where Caligula takes a bride groom and a bride using a softball size glob of something from a barrel at the wedding--droit du seigneur, Roman style.

Lloyd W. Robertson said...

Edelstein reminds us that show biz people are expected to get something entertaining out of bad circumstances, even at the risk of making those circumstances seem normal or acceptable, instead of something we should be condemning and trying to stop. Bob Einstein's joke on a recent Seinfeld video: it's not so funny when it's your mother, is it? I like the idea that it was the reference to butter that really got Edelstein in trouble. No dairy products, please.

Ralph L said...

Every butt's better, with Blue Bonnet in it.

Rick said...

Excellent. Show everyone you intend to police every utterance. Prove nothing except destroying their livelihood will assuage you.

Sam L. said...

Libs and progressives don't like diversity of thought.

Bay Area Guy said...

I object to making Mr. Edelstein the butt of our jokes.

n.n said...

A hole is a hole, of course, of course. Whether served with butter, margarine, or petroleum jelly.

In the spirit of Portland: weird, weirder, and weirderer.

Bill Peschel said...

FWIW, she was 19 when she was told to do the sex scene. Girls that age don't have their BS detectors installed.

It reminds me of Patricia Arquette talking about doing Blake Edwards' SOB when she was that age, and before one scene told to lose her top. Can't remember if she did it, though.

Freeman Hunt said...

"How would simulated anal sex be different from the simulated vaginal sex she signed up for?"

You can't imagine why someone might agree to pretend to have sex on screen but balk at pretending to be sodomized? The issue isn't stimulation.

rcocean said...

"FWIW, she was 19 when she was told to do the sex scene. Girls that age don't have their BS detectors installed."

She was Ok with the other 4 sex scenes with Brando, and getting nude.

But yeah, she was 19, just a child.

Its not like she was a grown woman, who could vote, sign contracts, or get married.

rcocean said...

BTW, she gets to pretend Kill Brando at the end, so that should make up for the pretend sex with butter on it.

FIDO said...

Art and beauty are pain. Whether it is a woman doing that 10,000 squat, that artist sitting flat on his back on unsanded boards with paint dripping in his eyes, or one of Marlthorps Gay Models having a fucking huge dildo shoved up his rectum!

Achillies DIED so his name would be remembered.

I feel bad at how cowardly this woman was. She depended on men to make her choices? She depended on other people to decide what she is willing to do?

In this situation, you either embrace that role like Mae West or Pamela Anderson...or you get up, brush yourself off, and fucking GROW! 'Wow, that was stupid and uncomfortable! Not going there again. How did I do in the scene?'

She is as morally pathetic as Ashley Judd, willing to sell her soul knowingly but now bitching about the trade after she got the fame and cash.

DavidD said...

Why do pro-aborts call them “reproductive rights”?

Isn’t it more like anti-reproductive rights?

Ken B said...

William
Hedren's charges seem to be bogus. They are contradicted by others on the set, etc.

Doug said...

Fire them all at once, or one at a time ... I'll wait.

Bunkypotatohead said...

Plugra European Style would have been my choice.

Marcus said...

She wasn't raped. End of story. Stop treating it as such. Because of FEELS.

THEOLDMAN

FIDO said...

Yes. Men never feel coercion in a job. They laughingly climb down a mile below ground to shake hands with the devil. No force involved except starvation.

My daughter thought about quitting her job because it is getting in the way of drama club.

Does her father have that option? Was this actress starving or strung out on drugs?

EVERYONE is coerced. Sometimes you stand fast and other times you capitulate.



FIDO said...

So this 'coercion is rape' is trying to avoid the fact you don't want to make a hard choice.

tim in vermont said...

You can't imagine why someone might agree to pretend to have sex on screen but balk at pretending to be sodomized? The issue isn't stimulation.

Look what it did to Ned Beaty’s career. He never shook it.