Where do you draw a line?

I'd dissent to Gertrude Stein on that list because there's conflicting evidence. I'd dissent to Reifenstahl because I don't share the usual view of her artistic talents. I find her films, even the fictional pre-Hitler ones she made overwrought. Tom Cruise and Woody Allen are mostly guilty of bad behavior.

On the other hand, I'd add to the list Benvenuto Cellini, whose Autobiography has to be read to be believed. He makes all of those people look like small potatoes.
 
John Phillips is certainly one to add to that list, and there's a long list of rappers that I wouldn't invite to a jeebus, arguments for artistic status notwithstanding.

Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
originally posted by David Erickson:
The only names I can come up with at the moment are Ezra Pound and Richard Wagner.
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George Bernard Shaw (preferred dictators to parliaments)
Coco Chanel (Nazi spy)
Mel Gibson (holocaust denier)
Gertrude Stein (Vichy sympathizer)
Leni Riefenstahl (duh)
Michael Jackson (underage)
Roman Polanski (underage)
Peter Yarrow (underage)
Woody Allen (incest?)
Tom Cruise (wacko)
...etc.

As Lou said, and as I said, the only difficulty is defining what exactly is odious to you and your readership. After that, finding odious people is easy.

I'll leave you with a quote attributed to Cardinal Richelieu: "If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him."
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An excellent start, although "wacko" seems a bit broad.
 
originally posted by David Erickson:
An excellent start, although "wacko" seems a bit broad.
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How about "accessory" ? (The Scientologists are not a nice bunch of people.)

Salvador Dali was a Franco-phile.
Joan Crawford (child abuser).
Alexander Alekhine, a World Champion chess player, was a Nazi sympathizer.
Bobby Fischer, speaking of chess players, is not someone you want to invite over for dinner, either.
Erik Satie hoarded umbrellas.

Do let me know when to stop.
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
On the other hand, I'd add to the list Benvenuto Cellini, whose Autobiography has to be read to be believed. He makes all of those people look like small potatoes.
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How about Caravaggio? A murderer and a brawler with a police record as long as your arm in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily.
 
originally posted by Rahsaan:
originally posted by Florida Jim:
Man gets to say what he wants.
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(I'm not saying he didn't have the 'right' to say these things, just drawing out the broader point. And for what it's worth, this is not just nitpicking because hate speech laws are much tougher in Europe than in the US)
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I took the apostrophe before the word 'man' in Jim's post to mean 'The man,' that is, Bresson specifically, not, philosophically, humankind at large.
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I'll leave you with a quote attributed to Cardinal Richelieu: "If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him."
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Good quote! But there's a clear distinction between deliberate misconstruction and the very plain intent of a rant like Bresson's. BTW, Richelieu could have fared well as a partisan talk show host the contemporary U.S. political climate.
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
originally posted by David Erickson:
[...]
Bobby Fischer, speaking of chess players, is not someone you want to invite over for dinner, either.
Erik Satie hoarded umbrellas.

Do let me know when to stop.
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Fisher's dead now; but he crossed the line and fell off the deep end, sadly. Alekhine disputed his authorship of the articles attributed to him; has it been proven beyond reasonable doubt? Chessplayers, like boxers, aren't often distinguished by their charm - Anand being a notable exception.

Anyway, where the line is drawn seems to be largely a matter of individual sensitivity. I think Allen's behavior was atrocious, for example (though not strictly incest, because the young woman was his step-daughter), though many others aren't much bothered by it.

Unless actual harm ensues, Jim's precept might sum the situation up as well as any.
 
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
(though not strictly incest, because the young woman was his step-daughter)
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Technically, no. Mia adopted the girl so Soon-Yi is Woody's son's sister but has no legal relationship to Woody (as he and Mia never married).
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
On the other hand, I'd add to the list Benvenuto Cellini, whose Autobiography has to be read to be believed. He makes all of those people look like small potatoes.
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+10000000
 
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