Director Brett Ratner aplogizes for gay slur

[w8liftinglady]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31749_162-57320415-10391698/director-brett-ratner-aplogizes-for-gay-slur/

CBS/AP) Filmmaker Brett Ratner apologized Monday for using a gay slur during a question-and-answer session at a screening for his new movie "Tower Heist."

The 42-year-old, who is set to produce next year's Academy Awards, issued a statement saying he was sorry "for any offense my remarks caused."

Ratner used a derogatory term to describe gay men in response to a question asked at a "Tower Heist" screening.

"It was a dumb way of expressing myself," Ratner said in his statement. "Everyone who knows me knows that I don't have a prejudiced bone in my body. But as a storyteller I should have been much more thoughtful about the power of language and my choice

[meegbear]

1. For those of you playing at home ...

Apparently this weekend at a Q&A following his new cinematic turd Tower Heist, ... when asked if he rehearsed a lot, Ratner said, "Rehearsal is for fags."

<snip>

http://gawker.com/5857255/brett-ratner-barely-apologizes-for-using-gay-slur

[MuseRider]

2. IMO

anyone who would use that word so easily must use it normally. I doubt that word would ever come to my mind in any way. If it did and it started to come out of my mouth I would gag on it, it would never make it out.

I have no patience for this at all. An apology is nice but really, anyone who is a storyteller should know better if he really appreciates the power of language.

[joeybee12]

3. Exactly...and I'm glad his movie is bombing, the asshole...nt

[MuseRider]

5. I saw the previews

and thought that it looked horrible. Glad to know it is not doing well.

[joeybee12]

6. Seemed to me like a poor man's Ocean's Eleven...

Series-ly, like a total ripoff of that, with simply a different location.

[MuseRider]

7. Ocean's Eleven came to my mind too.

There was something kinda skeezy about the thing. I have not paid it enough mind to even wonder what that was but it left me thinking it would be a terrible movie making a terrible statement.

[Pab Sungenis]

10. Maybe if he'd cast more fags

then they would have rehearsed, and the movie wouldn't be such a piece of shit.

[Duct Tape]

13. +1 n/t

[Veruca Salt]

11. Sort of semi recently I was caught in traffic and was road raging

and I used the word 'faggot' in my spiel. I stopped myself short as soon as I said it and wondered where the hell that came from as I had beaten the use of that from my vernacular many years ago.

The only thing I can think of is it's still there from long ago when I was raised to not hate anyone BUT slurs against gays were fine.

It made me think because I was so sick at myself for uttering it. I'm a lesbian and was the reason my family stopped using such slurs.

So I think what I'm trying to get at is that even if someone truly does their damnedest to remove it from their use, depending on when they were raised it can still slip through every once in a while against the speakers wishes. I'm just happy I was alone in my car when I said that, I can't imagine the shame I would feel if I did it in company.

[Champion Jack]

4. Ratner was a coked up asshole when he was doing music videos

and is a bigger asshole now.

[MuseRider]

8. You know what?

This has just pissed me off to no end this morning. It always does but for some reason this has just pushed me over the edge. Here we are working for something that this country was founded on and denied. Working hard, losing kids to suicide. Working hard and making small gains but having to fight to defend them from being taken back or seeing them be taken back. Seeing my friends unable to collect partner benefits. Seeing my friends not able to talk about their lives for fear of losing their job or being hurt in one way or the other. Then some stupid fucking director with a microphone says this. Then some stupid fucking writer writes something like this into their teen movie (sadly not just teen movies but I think those movies are very damaging to equality). Then some stupid fucking politician talks about "lifestyle". Good god damn it. How you bear this?

Every tiny gain makes me so happy but in reality these tiny bites are taking so fucking long that the over-riding feeling is that of sadness and anger.

We need to shame, I mean really shame people who are still this clueless. If you "don't have a prejudiced bone in your body" you do not say things like this, even in the privacy of your own home. You take the responsibility to learn what to say, how to say it and how to be an advocate. Fucking clueless, careless people.

Sorry for the rant. We just introduced a DP registry last night with the city council. The newspaper journalist took our press release and wrote the most incorrect, damaging article with misinformation in it. It was quickly corrected but not until the baggers got the original and fired the rest of them up. Just a frustrated rant from me but seriously, we need to shame these people into being careful if they are truly not bigots. There is no excuse for this now, not after all this time. Nobody is so clueless as to not know this is harmful.

Whew, wish it made me feel better to write that. :(

[joeybee12]

9. Yeah, I agree...and it's amazing the Academy is doing nothing about this...

The guy is a simple-minded bigot, it's not a slip...and shame on the Academy for its endorsement of intolerance.

[MoralSyncretism]

16. The Academy's president was pressured, condemned his behavior

Text of an interview:

Academy president: 'I was appalled' hearing Ratner on Howard Stern

A day after announcing that Brian Grazer would take over as co-producer of the Oscar show after Brett Ratner dropped out, Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences President Tom Sherak answered questions about the debacle, the loss of Eddie Murphy as host, and efforts to get the broadcast back on track.

Was it the gay slur or the Howard Stern show that lost Ratner his job?

It was both. I had already said in a statement that I was going to give him another chance, but that he was not to do it again. The academy is a special place. It’s about integrity in every way, shape or form. It’s spent its entire eightysomething years trying to be above in what his mission is.

It was the accumulation. It wasn’t just one thing. He did everything he could. He apologized right away. I stood behind him. It was wrong, reckless, all those things. But I’ve been brought up that you give someone a second chance if they do not do it maliciously and he did not do that maliciously. I looked at it that way. When he looked at it the next day … he understood it. He got it. I appreciate that also. It had to happen. He went a step over the line in the accumulation of the things he did.

Did you receive a lot of pressure, phone calls from academy members upset with his behavior?

There was no question that a lot of people called and complained. The answer is yes. I got a lot of emails, 50 emails … People were upset. They had a right to be upset. It’s their organization, and people need to speak out when they are upset. They were upset by both things.

For more of the interview:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2011/11/academy-president-i-was-appalled-hearing-ratner-on-howard-stern.html

[meegbear]

12. He's no longer producing the Oscars ...

After a particularly offensive week—during which he called people who rehearse "fags" and told Howard Stern about "banging" Olivia Munn—Rush Hour director and physical embodiment of everything Axe body spray stands for Brett Ratner has quit his gig producing the Oscars under heavy pressure from the Academy. Hooray! ....

<snip>

http://gawker.com/5857703/brett-ratner-quits-oscars-will-still-suck

[Smarmie Doofus]

14. The movie sounds like a really progressive collaboration:

>>>"Tower Heist" opened Friday. It stars Eddie Murphy, who is set to host the 84th Academy Awards in February.>>>>

Ratner *and* Murphy.


Sheeeezzzz.

[beyurslf]

15. I really wish journalists would stop calling those statement "apologies."

An apology says "I am truly sorry and deeply regret the offensive thing I did."

However, if you say, "I am sorry for any offense taken at my remarks" you did not apologize. You nicely told people to get over it.