The Sound of the Crowd

The New York Times has a story that Tony Hendra’s daughter says his bestselling, confessional book Father Joe contains a rather large sin of omission: Namely, that he molested her when she was a child. He denies this.

Is it true? I don’t know, obviously. I don’t have enough information. But to the extent that it is credible, it’s credible because of other things about and by Mr. Hendra that I have read over the years.

Hendra has long been a more-or-less unknown yet key figure in both British and American comedy. Born in Britain, he attended Caimbridge and performed with future members of Monty Python Graham Chapman and John Cleese. After moving to America he became a major contributor to the National Lampoon of the early ’70s, where he met and became friends with the brilliant writer Michael O’Donoghue. A friendship that went in the dumper when Hendra slept with Amy Ephron, sister of Nora and O’Donoghue’s ex-girlfriend. Shortly therafter he put together the Lampoon stage show Lemmings, which gave many future movie stars including John Belushi, Chevy Chase and Christopher Guest an early break. Since then he has written one or two books on comedy, and reportedly was working with George Carlin on the comedian’s autobiography, though that was several years ago and no such book has surfaced.

I remember disliking one of Hendra books on the National Lampoon generation of comedy, though not the specifics of why. But what really stays with me about Hendra, at least as far as reputation and perception goes, comes from Dennis Perrin’s biography of O’Donoghue.

He quotes Lampoon collaborator Sean Kelly’s description of Hendra: “Tony knows good and evil, and he chooses to do evil in a Graham Greene, fucked up way to affirm its existence.”

The time Kelly knew Hendra best and from which he presumably draws this description coincides with the time Hendra’s daughter says the molestation began.

Again: Absolutely not stating that I believe her accusation to be solid fact. I simply don’t know. For one thing, according to the article some of her charges stem from recovered memories through hypnosis, and I’m always very skeptical of these.

I guess I’m just saying given what I know, or think I know, about Hendra, I wasn’t able to dismiss the posibility without a second thought. Or at least not without typing this out.

Who will serve John Kerry best? Column from The Raw Story liberal news site with suggestions of potential Kerry cabinet members.

The Cardigans. Bring to me my big old sweater, nothing more will make me better…

One of my favorite political writers, Eric Alterman, as well as his readers, have some interesting things to say discussing Fahrenheit 9/11 and Ralph Nader in his MSNBC blog.

Sex ‘n’ violence comes to the opera house.

About time, if you ask me.

…with these comments on onetime supporter Michael Moore’s alleged resemblance to a beach ball.

Do you suppose Nader has seen the statistics for how many more fat people there are in this country than thin? If I were running for President, I wouldn’t be shooting my mouth off in such a way that could lose me my single-digit following.

Well-written article on the risk Bush is taking with the hand-over in Iraq.

Certainly according to this poll, American hopes are not high.

Fahrenheit 9/11, that is. Assorted, random thoughts:

The words that came to me during the screening, honestly, were “powerful” and “brilliant.” Based on what I have read about Bush (which is more than some but less than others), I could find no major gaffes in Moore’s presentation; he seems to have learnt something from criticism of Columbine and his other films. A lot of it is information that was avalible to those who read the papers, watched The Daily Show and hit the right web sites (God bless The Memory Hole). But the controversy surrounding this movie may mean it will get out to millions of more people. And considering how few people it takes to tip an election…

I think it’s going to be interesting in the next few weeks watching who attacks the film with credible criticism, and who just tries to paint Moore as a wild-eyed radical.

Which he may be, but he’s also taken a big step forward as a filmmaker with this movie; it is his best. He wisely underplays the pranks that have put me off his work in the past and largely lets his argument speak for itself. Where he does interject it seems appropriate and truly funny, such as inviting Congressmen to sign their children up for military service.

Should be interesting to see what effect this film will have at the polls, I expect it’ll have some. When a film like this is number one at the box office…well, I can’t help but think George W. Bush is going to lose the election. But of course, that’s where my hope lies.

On a personal note, the film also provides the visuals for some things I’ve written about both here and in reviews, such as Bush’s infamous speech about his dedication to fighting terrorism being followed by the words “Now watch this drive,” and a slice on the golf course.

At the beginning, strangely, you actually feel some sympathy for George W., the little boy lost. Not by the end, of course. Not after your heart has gone out to a woman who encouraged her son and daughter to enlist in the military to make a better life for themselves, and was rewarded with the loss of her son in the oh-so-necessary war in Iraq.

A scene of her visiting a small, one-person protest near the White House and being harassed by a bitch (it’s the only word for it) who says the death reports are “staged”…well, it’s hard to know what kind of person says things like that to a bereaved parent.

So many controversies are false; you know, where you can’t imagine people are really that outraged about something–they just feel they should be. This one is about something real. This is a film that deserves and earned it’s controversy, and should be seen, taken, and talked about seriously.

Kevin Drum asks the embarrassing question: Was this really the best the Republican party could do in 2000?

…now that the parade is here. What’s weird is that I’m sudenly flashing on what Colley, Annabel and Keitha did there…