No Rock And Roll Fun
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Should have gone to Spect-haters (sorry)
It can’t be often that TMZ reacts to a story in the Financial Times, but it’s all over David Mamet‘s interview with the pink ‘un.
Mamet is working on a biopic about Phil Spector, and he told the paper he doesn’t think Spector is a killer:
“I don’t think [Spector] is guilty. I definitely think there is reasonable doubt … they should never have sent him away … If he’d just been a regular citizen, they never would have indicted him.”
I’m not sure that Mamet really understands the way “regular citizens” with shot people in their hallways are treated by police – generally they get less room for doubt than Spector did.
Anyway, TMZ reports that friends of Lana Clarkson, the woman he shot in the face, are unhappy:
Clarkson’s friends have banded together — and have fired off a letter to the director, claiming his comments were “mind-boggling and wrong in so many ways.”
According to the letter, obtained by TMZ, the group’s main concern is that “the loathsome, lying, gun-abusing convicted murderer of our friend Lana Clarkson will be portrayed with some kind of sympathy.”
Lana’s friends want to remind Mamet — whose upcoming film stars Al Pacino and Bette Midler — that Spector was CONVICTED by a jury of his peers … and plead, “Please refrain from rewriting history for ‘creative license.'”
“Jury of his peers” isn’t quite right – they had trouble barking up a dozen hair-addled crazy music geniuses, especially as Arthur Brown was already busy that week.
You can understand Clarkson’s friends being upset, but there’s a slightly alarming suggestion in their letter than once a jury has handed down its verdict, then you can no longer discuss the facts of the case. There’s a lot of people who should never have been in prison who have been sent there by a jury of their peers. If Mamet believes he has a case, he should at least be allowed to explore it.
not a single frame filmed, and yet enough controversy to make every one curious: the guy not only knows how to write and direct, but also how the market works… I hope that my high hopes won’t be disappointed; Miss M: show them your acting skills; be subtile and dramatic and – different in an exciting new way! There still is some room left on your shelf for that little man called Oscar (not for this one; that would be an Emmy and another Golden Globe; not that anything is wrong with that!!!)