There seems to be a bit of a controversy-not-controversy brewing online. Sebastian Stan has said that he wanted to do a Variety’s Actors on Acting but none of the publicists wanted their clients associated with him so he could not do it. I hate to break it to Mr. McKay but welcome to the new normal. This is the monster you and everyone else have created where it’s perfectly fine to shun people, unperson them and obliterate them out of fear of blowback or pushback or being associated with someone who is deemed “toxic.”
Says Adam McKay:
Now, I know Adam McKay and others don’t view this as the same as, say, a story about me in the Hollywood Reporter that I was too friendly with MAGA and having Apple request to pull their ads THAT DAY and my getting “benched” from Gold Derby, disinvited to the Patron’s Brunch in Telluride, and ghosted by nearly every high-profile publicist in town. Or Gina Carano losing her job at Disney for a tweet. We don’t count because we’re on the “right side,” right, Adam? It’s only those who are in the #resistance who are given the grace of having someone like you give a damn.
Extreme solidarity? Get through what? You’re a rich Hollywood filmmaker. What in the world do you have to “get through”? The Left has lost its mind over Trump. There has been no coming to terms with any of it since 2016 when the mass hysteria began. It’s ongoing now. MAGA is to today’s Left what Communism was to the people of the 1950s, or witches in Salem if you prefer.
I remember hearing that Julie Huntsinger of the Telluride Film Festival was worried that when they played The Apprentice MAGA extremists were going to storm the town and wreak havoc. I thought to myself, they should be so lucky for ANYONE to care that much about the movie or the film festival.
Your problem, Hollywood, is that NO ONE GIVES A SINGLE SHIT about anything you do or say, least of all MAGA. Might these actors get into some memes by online trolls? Probably. But they will anyway, I hate to break it to you. Nearly ALL OF YOU are hated by most people in this country. It will kill the film business if it hasn’t already. I’m sorry you have no one around to tell you the truth but that’s the cold, hard, ugly truth.
Your “extreme solidarity” means shunning 76 million people who voted for Trump, including me. I was a lifelong Democrat but they lost me — I won’t go into it here but so what? It should no matter how I think, what I say or how I vote. But it DOES matter, Adam. It DOES to the same people you’ve been ignoring for what, eight years now?
I’ve been writing about the Oscars for 25 years and because I had to vote against the Democrats, a party I now view as corrupt, and I wanted to see certain issues bulldozed over, does not make me “toxic” or a “MAGA extremist” or any such thing.
YOUR INDUSTRY IS IN A STATE OF COLLAPSE. You have LOST YOUR AUDIENCE. No one is going to SEE YOUR MOVIES. Do you have any idea how many people have seen The Apprentice? Let me show you:
Here is how many:
You want to see how much the Oscar movies have made this year? Check it out:
Inside Out 2 – $652 million
Dune Part Two – $282 million
Civil War – $68 million
Furiosa – $67 million
Joker Folie a Deux – $58 million
Challengers – $50 million
Reagan – $30 million
Monkey Man – $25 million
The Bikeriders – $21 million
The Substance – $15 million
Here – $10 million
Saturday Night – $9 million
Anora – $8 million
The Apprentice – $3 million
Sing Sing – $2 million
Lee – $1.9 million
Yes, I’m sure Wicked and Gladiator II will make money but that’s not saying much. Your “extreme solidarity” means that you are okay with treating over half the country like HUMAN GARBAGE, including the working class you once pretended to care about. You know what people are talking about in the real world? How bad movies are now, how unwatchable the Oscars have become. You need proof?
Here you go:
2.4 million views on this–
And 2 million:
Hollywood threw its support behind the Democrats — all of them. The A-list. Studio moguls. Steven Spielberg. Netflix. Donald Trump won the popular vote. WHAT DOES THAT TELL YOU? The entire empire backed them and the bottom dropped out, man.
“Extreme solidarity” means what exactly? Peering up the backend of yourselves through all of eternity? This is a monster YOU helped create and one you have SAID NOTHING ABOUT because all of you are cowards. You have never stood against “cancel culture.” You have never taken a brave stand against people losing their jobs because of “wrong-think.” So these publicists are trying to protect their clients by doing exactly what they’ve been doing to me — not advertising on this site, not inviting me to screenings, etc. You can’t blame Trump or his supporters for this mess. This is what Hollywood has become. A town ruled by fear and paranoia. If you want that end you should start now. Demanding “extreme solidarity” against anyone who might have voted for Trump is exactly what will help sink the ship. And honestly, by now, I’m having a really hard time finding a reason to give a damn.
