SENDING SMOKE SIGNALS HERE WE GO AGAIN
THE OSCAR NOMINATIONS ARE OUT. Due to a missed deadline, my predictions for nominations were not in last week’s paper. But I was five for five in the Best Actor race as well as the Best Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress races. Alas, due to the Academy’s snubbing of the deserving and beautiful Keira Knightley, I was four for five in this race. Well now the real business is at hand. Obviously, Javier Bardem will win for his bizarre, villainous supporting role in “No Country For Old Men.”
Daniel Day-Lewis should have already received his statuette for his portrayal of fictional oil baron Daniel Plainview in “There Will Be Blood.” In the Best Actress race, Julie Christie appears to be a front-runner, but that is just appearances. Ellen Page, “Juno,” is in a $100 million film and very rarely does a sub-25 actress win this award. I predict it will happen this year. If not Page, Marion Cotillard I would seed second in this race. Christie has won before and rarely does an acting performance get honored in a film that was released in late April. Supporting actress currently is a race too close to call, but as it stands now, Amy Ryan for “Gone Baby Gone” could be what the populists of the Academy choose to honor.
I don’t care really... I am all for smokers’ rights. In fact, cigarettes are actually a good product if used sparingly. And I actually like smokers and feel bad that they have to man up in cubby holes and back alleys in order to smoke freely. Santa Monica, though, in all its infinite liberalism, is missing smoking violations left and right. Not surprising, as the city has moved on from that crusade to its quest to eradicate sickly trees from downtown.
What’s next? Changing the bulbs on every traffic light so they can be more eco-friendly and less clashing with the traffic poles?
I don’t know where I will come out on this contentious issue. The smoking ban probably started here, I am not exactly sure, but something gives me the impression from living in this city that it started here, then spread to Los Angeles County, then New York and wherever else. Smoking bans are cancerous to society. Anyone that can’t deal with second-hand smoke is a complete lightweight. People that smoke should be able to smoke in any bar they go to. It really is insane that they cannot. Cigarettes cannot be advertised on TV or on radio and yet they are still popular. The reason? Nicotine, of course, but also because they are not as disgusting and vile as smoking-ban enthusiasts would have you believe.
Next on the agenda, the city of Santa Monica will ban drinking in bars because weenies are getting upset about being belched on. I am proposing the “Annoying Strollers and Child-Carrying Device” ban next week, anyone care to join me? These dangerous and absurdly cumbersome items have hit my ankles for the last time. Secondhand stroller attacks lead to early paralysis and excessive frustration.
Liberalism has its rewards but intolerance is certainly not one of its virtues. Let the smokers smoke, let the homeless reek, let the illegal workers legally work without consequence and never let a city government get too “small town” with its silly ordinances. I am taking donations for my City Council run so feel free to send me all the money that you pay to the city for parking tickets and just forward the cash to me. Once I’m in, that whole Parking Violations Bureau will be sold for parts anyway, so I’ll take your donation and it’ll be all good. Who are we kid-ding, there’s enough money floating around in this city without the little motorcade-esque vehicles diddling around with their tickets and people’s windshield wipers.
First there was Brad Renfro, dead at 25 at his apartment in Hollywood. Then, Tuesday afternoon in Manhattan it was Heath Ledger at age 28. Though both had very different levels of fame, both were painfully aloof and often seemed “affected” when interviewed. One has to ask the question if there were warning signs shown during the stressful shoot of “The Dark Knight” (the second in the newest “Batman” series in which Ledger plays the Joker). I will never understand how drug usage is kept under wraps by the users to the extent that it is, or if the warning signs were just easily ignored because of the critical and financial success of Ledger’s recent films.
Renfro’s death will be over-shadowed by Ledger’s passing just as Renfro was often over-shadowed in his recent career. Unable to make his name stand out from other actors his age despite some hit films, he had acted sporadically the last five years. As Mark Sway in 1994’s hit “The Client,” Renfro had a major debut and as his character had witnessed a mob murder, Renfro then became witness to a career he never took control of. Perhaps to his credit, he never again chose such a front-and-center project, choosing a challenging role in “Apt Pupil” and showing the best work of his career in the quiet Joe Ezterhaas film “Telling Lies In America,” a criminally under-rated film.
He chose offbeat, small roles in “Ghost World” and “Bully” and apparently chose to do a lot of drugs the last couple years. The benefits of fame were intentionally avoided by Renfro in his short career although he trapped himself by way of under-achievement and heroin.
Accidents and overdoses happen, and in 2008’s case, apparently there are two major ones to start the year. Hopefully, suicide was not the case with either of these men. There should have been no case, however, and it is clear these men didn’t want to be perceived as normal actors or entertainers. In doing that, the result is that these men didn’t take responsibility for the only thing that really mattered – their lives.
KEN TARR is a student at Santa Monica College, an actor and writer and is also taller than 99 percent of the population. He telepathically or at
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 26, 2008. Read the original PDF.