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Steve Martin is one cool motherf**ker. Now with a link that works

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by DanOregon, Mar 14, 2009.

  1. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    Re: Steve Martin is one cool motherf**ker.

    I thought that was a beautiful example of restraint. For one thing, that barb was in defense of his play, not about them as people or as a community. He could have written something like, "Jesus Christ on a pogo stick, you are a bunch of kindergartners who don't understand the world the way I do. I am more enlightened and brilliant than you are!" (without any evidence that he is). Or maybe he could have expressed his disagreement by calling them dipwads. In my experience, people who try to shout down others like that, often do it because their ideas don't have merit when they're put to the test. So they avoid confronting a disagreement head on, and they can't behave reasonably. Martin is confident enough to let his play speak for itself. Being reasonable doesn't mean he shouldn't have stuck up for his play, and done it pointedly, with something like the Hamet analogy. His reasonableness was in his approach. He was smart enough to know that just because you shout the loudest, it doesn't make you right. That approach rarely influences anyone, either. It may not make a difference, but he's more likely to reach people with the kind of letter he wrote and the offer he made, and even if he doesn't, he walks away looking like the more enlightened person to anyone who's objective.
     
  2. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    Sorry about the link - I was posting by a certain lake that is a popular tourist spot at SportsJournalists.com. For anyone not familiar with the area, LaGrande is east of the Cascades, a more rural and conservative area of the state, not far from a town where a mayor was recalled after pictures of her bodybuilding efforts were found on her Facebook page and her attire of a sportsbra was found scandalous.
    Here's an update from ew.com: The play is a go.
    Steve Martin: comedian, actor, playwright, novelist, and...first amendment activist? The multi-hyphenate may have to add this title to his job description now that he's helping Oregon-based La Grande High School perform Picasso at the Lapin Agile after its school board canceled the production due to parents' concerns over the play's content. Martin, who wrote Picasso back in 1993, sent a letter to the La Grande Observer's editor, which was published in its paper Friday, describing his intent with the play and offering a proposal to the school's director and his cast. "I will finance a non-profit, off-the-high-school campus production (low-budget, I hope!)...so that individuals outside the jurisdiction of the school board but within the guarantees of freedom of expression provided by the Constitution of the United States, can determine whether they will or will not see the play, even if they are under 18."

    According to the Observer's article on the decision, the school board's superintendent canceled the show after a parent filed a complaint accompanied by a petition signed by 137 community members. The parents objected to the play's bar locale and its sexual references. The play depicts an imaginary meeting between Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein at the Lapin Agile bar in Montmartre, Paris. The comedy has been performed professionally all over the U.S. and in quite a few high schools and colleges, too. Said Martin in his letter, "I have heard that some in your community have characterized the play as 'people drinking in bars, and treating women as sex objects.' With apologies to William Shakespeare, this is like calling Hamlet a play about a castle."

    La Grande's version of Picasso at the Lapin Agile will now be performed at the McKinsey Theater at Eastern Oregon University, May 16-18. Martin will not be able to attend. "His presence will be palpable even if he can't come," La Grande English teacher Kevin Cahill, the director of the play, tells EW. "We will leave a seat open to him in the middle of the front row."
     
  3. Angola!

    Angola! Guest

    That this happened in La Grande amuses me to no end.
     
  4. Bubbler

    Bubbler Well-Known Member

    You forgot that he was born a poor black child.

    I liked his "dumb" comedy period a lot ... especially since they were never as dumb as they outwardly appeared.

    He lost me a bit in the 90s when it seemed he kind of became a gear in Hollywood's marketing machine as far as movies are concerned, but he's an undeniable talent.
     
  5. SoCalScribe

    SoCalScribe Member

    I love the tagline at the bottom of the story. It's always amusing to me when famous people get tagged, e.g. "Jimmy Carter was the 39th President of the United States."
     
  6. He's good enough to make me forgive him for what he's doing to the Clouseau character these days.
     
  7. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    If you haven't seen it, rent "The Spanish Prisoner" by David Mamet. A great performance by Martin that will help you forget Clouseau and the father of the bride stuff.
     
  8. Simon_Cowbell

    Simon_Cowbell Active Member

    What a weird step into the quicksand for him.

    Incomprehensible.
     
  9. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    I'm encouraged that Martin (who's 63?) is appearing with Alec Baldwin (!) as two suitors for Meryl Streep (!) in another Nancy Meyers movie. I'm really hoping its funny. John Krasinski is also in it.
    Meyers is not known for edgy stuff so I'm somewhat concerned. Her movies are usually straight down the pike.
     
  10. fossywriter8

    fossywriter8 Well-Known Member

    Didn't Martin earn a Grammy for a banjo or comedy album?
     
  11. TrooperBari

    TrooperBari Well-Known Member

    Boy howdy, though it in no way surprises me.

    Good on the teacher for having the guys to try something ambitious like that.
     
  12. SockPuppet

    SockPuppet Active Member

    Good for Steve Martin. An well-written letter.

    He was great in the movie Parenthood.
     
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