George Clooney: Unadulterated Idiot?
I admire George Clooney, who's had an interesting career and seems determined to make some intelligent movies. Good for him. But I was surprised by his crude insult of corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff the other night at the Golden Globe awards.
“Who would name their kid Jack with the last words ‘off’ at the end of your last name?" Clooney said. "No wonder that guy is screwed up."
There's lots of good reasons to slam Abramoff, but making fun of his name is childish, and the fact that the room responded with laughter shows how easily supposedly mature adults can revert to schoolyard behavior, especially when it comes from someone as "cool" as George Clooney.
I guess Jack Abramoff's father, Frank, agrees with me; he tells the Palm Springs Desert News that Clooney is an "idiot" and his words were "pure, unadulterated stupidity."
Jack Abramoff was named after his grandfather, Frank says. “We’ve gone through quite a bit in our family. But the political end of it and the media end of it and all the other areas are one thing. When you see something like that on a show for 500 million people, it was not only a slap in my son’s face but in my father’s.”
As someone who used to be named "Blow," I can't help but empathize, and I know exactly what Frank Abramoff means. A few years back, when I was working at George, I went on Fox News to do some commentary about the Monica Lewinsky scandal. I was greeted, on air, by anchor Shepherd Smith, who said something like, "Our next guest is George magazine editor Richard Blow, and what an appropriate name that is for a discussion of Monica Lewinsky."
It was humiliating and infuriating at the same time—and unfortunately not something you can really respond to on national TV. ("Fuck you, Shep," would have been satisfying, but probably not helpful.) I was later told that Smith was dressed down by Fox News head Roger Ailes for the comment, but that didn't help me much; the joke had been broadcast to millions, the rebuke was virtually unknown.
All of which, I suppose, is a way of saying that even rogues like Jack Abramoff, when they are faulted, should be faulted on civilized terms, not by making vulgar jokes about their names and masturbation. I know such an appeal for manners and restraint is wildly improbable given the tenor of our popular culture, but still...Clooney is generally an elegant man, and you'd think that he'd be on board with the idea.
George's father, Nick Clooney, a former candidate for Congress, certainly seems to agree. “I understand what it is like to have one's son criticized in a very public way,” Clooney told the Desert News. “It's very painful and it's very difficult."
George Clooney's rep declined, of course, to comment on Frank Abramoff's words. I think that's cowardly; you use a podium seen by hundreds of millions to mock a man, and then you decline comment later.
Jack Abramoff is far from the world's most ethical man...and yet, somehow, George Clooney owes him an apology.
