Until yesterday Brett Ratner was producer of the Academy Awards, in which entertainers congratulate each other for their success in diverting us. In an interview Brett said that rehearsals were for fags. Not exactly a household word before, Brett Ratner is now famous. Also fired. So is Eddie Murphy, apparently because he was Brett's pick for host.
I had to search the Internet for 20 minutes to find out what Ratner actually said, and when I did, the quote was rendered "Rehearsals are for f*gs."
The media has given almost as much coverage to Brett's mis-step as to Mariah Carey's 70-pound weight loss. Apparently the editors know that's what we want.
Five hundred have died in Thai floods. International economies are faltering. Unemployment is not improving much. Make your own list.
I can see why we need to be distracted by Mariah Carey getting a waistline.
But a producer saying "fag?" Especially when the producer in question is apparently a liberal with lots of gay friends? When some state legislatures are doing everything they can to show contempt for poor Mexicans, gay Americans who want to marry, and pregnant women?
Give me a break. We are surrounded by deliberate hate and division, disguised as "protecting our borders" or "protecting family values" or "protecting the unborn."
I don't think fags have nearly as much to fear from Brett Ratner as they do from ignorant isolationists who want to control and marginalize whatever scares them.
