Oh thank God, and Patron Saint Blythe Hunter, for confirming for us once and for all that we are now seeing a steady decline of sexual allegations against our male role models in Hollywood. So much in fact that Ms. Hunter is inclined to attack Bill Murray for assumptions he confessed toward Selena Gomez before meeting her in person. Pardon me but is it OK to assume the title of Ms. and not Mrs., or Miss, as I would hate to offend and be deemed a part of the problem. I have the privilege of only one title (Mr.) so I need to try harder to be sensitive to these things.
It’s been months since I have heard anything about a high profile man pleasuring himself at a dinner party or making suggestive comments to a female coworker in the workplace. Mind you, I don’t look very hard for this kind of thing but when I do come across an article like “Bill Murray’s Comments About Selena Gomez Are All Kinds of Bad”, I feel sad for rational women all over the world. It’s this kind of recreational outrage that gives women a bad name. That’s just my opinion, but that is what this article is…just an opinion piece.
You can have Bill Cosby, and maybe Louis C.K. but I still think his standup is the best. I am not sure about Franco and Anasari but you can’t have Piven, that lady just wanted money. What I can’t figure out is why Bill Murray?
Ms. Hunter quotes an interview where Murray answers a question about working with costar Selena Gomez who is most known for her work as a singer.
In an interview at the movie’s NYC premiere on June 10, Murray said that he had wrongfully judged Selena before working with her. “I learned that whatever preconception I had about someone that had 55 million, billion followers [or] something… I probably thought she was different than she turned out to be.” Then he said that, “if my mother were alive, I’d bring [Selena] home to her—‘Mother. I want you to meet Selena.’” Excuse me while I gag.
“Excuse me while I gag…” seems a bit harsh. Perhaps if that was Bill Murray’s response to what he thinks about working with Gomez he would take less fire from Ms. Hunter. Murray also made jokes that he would be Selena’s boyfriend if she wanted which Hunter deemed “Cringe Worthy” and assumed a “semi-sexual tone”. But what bothered her the most was how “totally condescending” Murray was being. Hunter wrote…
Okay, but *why* is Bill Murray shocked that Selena Gomez is talented and professional?
Hunter perpetuates the belief that as a Male Bill Murray automatically assumes his dominance over Gomez and assumes she is “vapid and untalented”. Moreso that she pines for his approval. She tries to further her case by reporting that Murray made similar comments towards Miley Cyrus when he worked with her on A Very Murray Christmas.
“…Miley Cyrus is really fu**ing good. She can sing. I thought she was a knucklehead crazy girl that you’d want to go on a road trip with, but she can sing.” – Bill Murray
Wonder what would make him think that after Hannah Montana took off all of her clothes, stuck out her tongue and started humping stuffed animals on stage. Not like she invented twerking or anything. I love Miley too but I arrived there through her music…just like Bill did.
In the end, the message that gets pumped out over and over again in the industry seems to be pretty clear: an older, more established man is pleasantly surprised when he meets a young woman who he judges capable of doing her job well! What a nice guy.
Well Ms. Hunter that is both presumptuous and condescending. Of course Bill Murray was surprised that Gomez could act because he knows her as a pop singer. My wife and I went to see A Star Is Born and both of us were shocked to learn that Bradley Cooper could sing like an angel. We were also pleasantly surprised that Gaga could act! Not because as a man I assumed she was a one trick pony, but I have always related to her as a premier singer. It’s not that I figured she couldn’t act but it still strange to see her on the big screen as someone other than Gaga, sorry. I think that would be the same for anyone, male or female. Sorry not sorry.
There was a time when a man could hold a door open for a woman and not worry about unintentionally insulting her. A time when you could refer to a girl as “the type you could take home to your mother” and it came with an essence of purity and well regarded as a compliment. Today Men are under the magnifying glass and women like Ms. Hunter will do their part to tilt their hand to the sun and burn everything in their path. Even Bill Fucking Murray.
Here is another writers take on Murray and Gomez that seems a little more rational.