Posted on 09/12/2006 10:01:19 AM PDT by MikeA
NEW YORK Sparks usually fly, from one quarter or another, when actor Sean Penn meets the press, and it happened again this week at a news conference for the Toronto International Film Festival. Chances were greater there as he was touting a long-expected political drama screened there, the re-make of "All the King's Men."
Among the highlights on Sunday, Penn asked photographers to stop snapping so he could hear questions, and he called President Bush "a Beelzebub -- and a dumb one."
Penn stars in the new movie as a Huey Long-type populist politician in Louisiana, with Jude Law playing a crucial role as his friend, an alcoholic reporter.
"One could make the argument that George Bush is a good politician," Penn said at one point, seemingly offering praise. Then he added: "I think the issue is how you define politician. Once upon a time, politics was the organization of things to benefit the people."
An early review this week by E&P's VNU sibling, The Hollywood Reporter, hailed Penn's "charismatic" performance, but added that the movie "doesn't seem to know how to contain it. Writer-director Steven Zaillian's questionable solution is to fit this rambunctious portrait of unruly Southern politics in a monumental frame where Southern Gothic meets Leni Riefenstahl." Variety panned it as "overstuffed."
At the press conference, a reporter returned to the notion of Bush as a good politician, and Penn said the definition has changed -- much as it has for "good actor" which now means, he said, "contest winner" (he is an Academy Award winner himself).
"So that's the level of politician I think he's good at," Penn said. "Out of context, he's Beelzebub -- and a dumb one."
Another query: Could he name a good politician? Penn said he wasn't about to "rattle off the cliches....It should be obvious, those people who sacrificed of their talents and their commitment to their country or their people . . . we know who they are and they're not currently in the White House."
Penn has written several freelance articles for the San Francisco Chronicle in recent years.
You know I was going skip this thread , but I knew right away this was going to be the POST of the DAY for laughs!
Spiccolli the brilliant one has spoken.
It hasn't disappointed so far. Let's face it, Sean Penn provides a target rich environment.
"Is there anything that movie starts don't know?"
- Homer Simpson.
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| Penn's bio states: Attended Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California (studied Auto Mechanics and Speech). Now I've only been to the University of Missouri and Stanford University, so I'm not an expert on all schools, but I certainly don't recall any "College of Auto Mechanics" among the "Colleges of Engineering, Journalism, Law, Business, Medicine" that exist at most schools. |
This coming from a man who beats his women...Why...he's a regular Einstein! How could we NOT listen to this brilliant specimen of a man. Surely he knows all. /sarcasm
Wow! What a huge ego.
I rented the original version of this movie starring Broderick Crawford and that movie wasn't that entertaining. No way, I would bother with the remake.
Do you work on your own car,or do you take it to a shop?Automobiles are getting more and more sophisticated as time goes on and it does take a degree of intelligence to work on them.As they get more complicated,the average person who doesn't have the special tools and diagnostic equipment to work on their own car, can't.
Good point. Could the actor be auditioning for another Hollwood farce.
That line caught my eye, too. Maybe Sean is lost in a fairy tale? Or just a communist.
"You forgot DOPER. "red diaper DOPER baby"!"
I thought that was a self evident fact. LOL
Oh my God...I can not believe this...Sean Penn is seriously discussing politics!!
Now about his visit to Castro and now his brilliant views on Iran. The guy is just soooo dumb. ha.
Me too....i should not have even begun to listen to this larry King interview cause now I can't see the movie...he has ruined it for me.
Ha. he is talking about macho ego...ha.
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