oh mickey, you're so fine...

...A fine man and actor that is. Ahem.

Recently Mickey made a statement on today's Hollywood that ties in with Wolf's recent commentary. He expressed distaste and disappointment in today's Hollywood. Today's stars "lack class and dignity". He further stated:
"Most of the people today... no-one can teach you how to act. Method acting! Huh! Spencer Tracy never went to acting school. Clark Gable, Jimmy Cagney, Edward G. Robinson... never. Today's stars, they don't know what it means to be stars. They have too much money too young. They don't care about people. The first thing they do, they hire a publicist and a lawyer, and they do whatever they damn well like, with a sense of entitlement.It wasn't like that in our day. We paid our dues, respected others, were courteous and decent. Today, they don't have the class or the sense of dignity. It really saddens me to see what stars of today have become."
(Quoted from Yahoo News, read article here.)

Yeah, Mickey. It's nice to hear a veteran and pro speak up. But this isn't the only time the outspoken...plain-spoken, Rooney has expressed his opinions. Almost 10 years ago, Mickey gave an interview to a Canadian reporter in which he expressed similar sentiments in response to the question "Is there anything about Hollywood today that really disturbs you?":
"Yes--everything. The studio system is the only way that Hollywood worked. Now there are only four or five celebrities. I won't call them stars, because stars were people like Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Bette Davis, you know what I mean? Don't give me Jim Carrey, who came from a comedy club." (read the whole article here)

Mickey's been around the block a time or two, and has never backed away from his problems and faults. But he also makes his opinions known. I appreciate his statements. The man has made more movies than alot of the current crop around today. And more hits. He's an Army vet to boot. He knows whereof he speaks. He is an icon. I mean the man was Santa Claus for goodness sakes. How many celebrities would you hear saying something like this: "Clinton was a Rhodes Scholar. Do you know who the scholars were? Marxists!" He doesn't hide his feelings behind what's currently hip in the political sense. I think he knows that that kind of public capital can't be spent for long. You could spend hours counting all the celebrities who said downright ignorant and terrible things about Bush and anyone who ever voted for him, or didn't see their movie. By the way, outside of perhaps New York and California, that's most of you out there.

Sure you might disagree with him. He thinks that's alright whether you are talking movies or society: "You and I think identically different. We take the same tack in many respects. I will close it off by this, by saying, you have the right to disagree. You have a right to your own opinion. That is a great gift. To have the right to do that."

Just wanted to share that with you. We see so many big mouths firing away on so much nonsense out there, it's refreshing and nice to see a pro who gets it.



The audience and I are friends. They allowed me to grow up with them. I've let them down several times. They've let me down several times. But we're all family