have you heard the rumors floating around Hollywood that john nash, the person that the film a beautiful mind is based upon, is an anti-semite ? it's not true. check out this ny times piece about "ugly oscar tactics." if you don't want to register for the site here's the nutshell - apparently there's been an attempt by other studios to tarnish nash and the film's reputation where it counts - with the mostly jewish academy voters. these "other" studios, like miramax, which was caught, hire guys who cultivate these rumors, feeding them to pariahs like matt drudge, then tip off columnists at the nytimes and latimes to follow the story. the right people catch wind of the words anti-semite and john nash, and then stay away from voting for it. in an effort to control the damage and speak the truth, the author of the book of which the film was based wrote a piece to the la times wednesday discounting the rumors, and now nash himself is appearing on 60 minutes this sunday.
I hope the program will expose these dirty tactics. but I really hope it will expose people like drudge, to show people that his page is as reliable as the enquirer. I can't stand that guy.
but there is another issue, hovering above this story, not concerned with whether or not he is a bigot, but moreover whether the movie should be punished for something the man did. the movie is not the man, and the man not the movie, so why should it matter? ron howard, jennifer connelly, russell crowe, and the other actors and producers of the film aren't anti-semites, so why should they suffer? john nash went on set once, very briefly, and met everyone involved, that's it. I dunno, why am I getting worked up about this on a sturday morning? look, if you haven't seen the movie, go and see it. if you have, and you're riled up - talk to me !