Hitting celbrity offenders where it hurts:

In this age of buying services which include films by said culprits, where do you draw the line? Netflix carries Polanski movies, pay cable run Mel Gibson films. Cancel the service?

Not to mention the fact that you're also punishing hardworking creators because they've thrown in with the "wrong" person. Do you not buy Chinatown or Lethal Weapon on blu ray? Both those films were made before the offending acts, so the producers of those films shouldn't be held responsible.

What about The Beaver? Jodie Foster is by most accounts a pretty awesome individual. She made a film with Mel before his troubles, but released after his troubles! WHAT TO DO???

What if the foley artist on INCEPTION killed someone while drunk driving ten years ago? Do we have to go through the credits of every movie we watch to make sure that the production is free from molesters and murderers?

I've heard people likening Polanski to Wagner, saying that if you're going to condemn Polanski and not watch his films, you need to stop listening to "Ride of the Valkyries" due to Wagner's anti-Semitism. Which doesn't strike me as an exact correlation, because Wagner isn't directly profiting from me picking up a CD of Siegfried. And being an anti-Semite in Germany in the 1800s isn't quite on par with raping a teenage girl.

To your larger question, it almost makes me wish Hollywood worked like the major sports leagues, with the power to suspend you for conduct detrimental to the whole. But there's not a National Movie-Making League that controls all production, so it'd be nigh impossible to enforce something like that.

If I boycotted every celebrity who had ever done anything I was offended by I would probably never watch a film again. When the petition to release Polanski came out I toyed with the idea of boycotting the lot of them. Then I realised that if I did that I'd need a completely new hobby.

But if it's bad enough, sure. I would not watch any Polanski movie now. I saw Rosemary's Baby when I was with my ex, it was his copy so I didn't pay anything for it, and at the time I knew very little about what Polanski had done (the ex said something vague about his career being ruined because he had sex with someone underage, I guessed he'd probably fucked a willing sixteen year old and didn't think much about it). Now I doubt I could watch one of his films even if I wanted to, separating art and artist is all very well but just thinking about him as a person makes me feel sick and angry, I couldn't just settle down and enjoy the movie.

I would not knowingly watch a film that involved someone who was openly racist, homophobic or misogynistic. I would not watch a film involving an artist or artists who had committed rape or murder, had been involved in domestic violence or child abuse of any kind, or done anything else I consider irredeemably evil.

Ah, this debate again. Should be "great," as there's so many shades of gray to consider here.

Good for you, Ken. I'm the same way with Polanski. I watched CHINA TOWN on VHS because I could get it for free from the 'brary, and I saw PIANIST because I was working at a movie theater at the time and saw it for free. I'd never give him a penny of my money now, and I think his Oscar was a sickening moment to be a fan of cinema. I think that years down the line, people in the industry are going to look back and feel ashamed about the way they coddled this rapist

Unfortunately, I think that's incredibly optimistic :/

As a rule of thumb, I always try to separate the artist from the art. I'm sure if I got to know a lot more of the people whose work I love and respect, I might hate them as individuals. In the case of Polanski and Gibson, I just happened to have found out all this illicit personal shit about them through the magic of the internet and a 24/7 tabloid media.

Knowing that Polanski was statutory raping this girl in the '70s, Mel Gibson is a brutal anti-Semite (or that Reifenstahl was a Nazi) doesn't diminish the power of their work, really, only the prism by which I view it.

Being able to separate the artist from the art is one of the most important things you have to do in your development as a critical thinker/cineaste/book reader/lover of music. Plus, as others have said, there's no way to tell whether a film is completely pure/devoid of sin behind the scenes AND you have to decide what is bad enough to stop supporting a celebrity. Matthew Broderick killed a woman with his car. Rob Lowe videotaped underage girls. Those are just two "lesser known" examples.

You have to make this decision, and I ultimately come down on being disgusted by the artist but trying to keep an open mind about the art. Because if you don't, you're in for a pretty boring life.

I know, but I feel the need to look towards the horizon and see a brighter day ahead when it comes to this sorry situation. The Switzerland verdict really bothers me and I don't see any upside to the way things currently stand in the here and now.

Otherwise-terrible people make great art. They don't have to be nice people to do so. You wanna judge the person, that is absolutely fine. But judging the art can be a separate issue if you want it to be.

I'm not berating you for making a decision to boycott someone based on a strong emotional reaction to that person - its the exact same reason I don't watch John Wayne movies (in his case, I find it too hard to separate the on-screen persona from the person). But then there's the question of whether you boycott John Lennon records or Bill Hicks albums because they were physically abusive people in their private lives; Russell Crowe movies because he used to attack and bite people.

Art > Artist

I think the distinction is a lot easier to make when it comes to music and musician. Plenty of total jerks in the music biz, and I'll still buy their albums if they sound great.

You don't have to be a rapist to be a horrible person, but it helps.

I think some of you would be pretty shocked if we started making a lists of artists/actors/writers/musicians that were total shits in real life.

Me? Not gonna deprive myself of a spiffy new Chinatown or Road Warrior Blu, or a Dave Sim or Doug Tenapel comic, or a John Lennon or Ike and Tina album. I can enjoy those without being pro-rape, pro-domestic abuse, pro-misogynist, or pro-homophobia.

Now, when the things I have a major problem with start to creep into the work (as happened with several of those listed above), it's a different story.