Entertainment

Platform: Daragh Reddin assesses the fallout of RTÉ’s payout over comments about homophobia by Rory O’Neill (aka drag artist Panti) on The Saturday Night Show for debate in Ireland on gay rights

In recent years, the popularity of drag artist Panti (aka Rory O’Neill) has begun to extend beyond the gay community, and her autobiographical solo show played to a sell-out crowd at The National Theatre last summer.

As such the appearance of the owner of Capel Street haunt Panti Bar on The Saturday Night Show had all the makings of a refreshing, if scarcely contentious, affair. When the interview turned to the Mayo man’s belief there was homophobia within Irish media, host Brendan O’Connor pressed his interviewee to name names – it’s important to remember O’Connor asked the unambiguous question ‘who are they?’

O’Neill (pictured) gave an unequivocal answer, namechecking Irish Times columnists John Waters and Breda O’Brien, as well as Catholic think-tank The Iona Institute, as those he believed worthy of that description.

Many audience members may have been heard cheering and clapping their approval, but those mentioned were significantly less enthused and began legal action against RTÉ and O’Neill on the grounds of defamation as they weren’t homophobic. The offending segment was later removed from the RTE website. Two weeks later, Waters resigned from his post with the Broadcasting Authority Of Ireland.

Why Waters was so incensed by O’Neill’s comments is not entirely clear. After all, Waters had the following to say of gay marriage in an interview with UCD’s College Tribune in August 2012: ‘This is really a kind of satire on marriage which is being conducted by the gay lobby. It’s not that they want to get married; they want to destroy the institution of marriage because they’re envious of it…’

Were a commentator to opine that women had sought suffrage merely to despoil the institution of democracy from within, wouldn’t it be fair to accuse them of being just the teeny-weeniest bit misogynistic?

Of course, the question of exactly what constitutes homophobia is a complex one. It’s a point taken up by Noel Whelan in The Irish Times recently. Whelan, who admitted not having seen The Saturday Night show on the evening in question, bewailed those in the gay community for their casual deployment of the term ‘homophobic’.

With recourse to a definition that deems the phenomenon ‘an extreme and irrational aversion to homosexuality and homosexual people’, Whelan reasoned that O’Neill had little reason to pin such a ‘horrible’ label on those named above and suggested liberal advocates adopt more moderate language.

Taking the definition Whelan deploys above, journalist Breda O’Brien’s oft-quoted 2008 statement that ‘equality [for gay people] must take second place to the common good’ may or may not be deemed homophobic.
However, those for whom the definition of homophobia extends to the treatment of gay people as – quite literally in this example – second class citizens would disagree.

To confound the situation, O’Connor later offered a contradictory and dispiritingly obsequious apology on behalf of RTÉ on The Saturday Night Show, closing with the laughable statement that: ‘It is an important part of democratic debate that people must be able to hold dissenting views on controversial issues.’

A debate on homophobia did take place on the show this weekend but it was deemed by many to be little more than a sop to appease those angered by its handling of the affair, over which to date RTÉ has received more than 1,000 complaints. Waters, O’Brien and other members of Iona declined to take part.

The fact that RTÉ had agreed to pay damages (€80,000 in total, according to reports yesterday) to the ‘injured parties’, only came to light in an email from the institute to its members last Tuesday.

Given the ramifications of the decision to make any kind of payment – regardless of the amount – both for the TV licence payer and those who voice contrarian opinions, the lack of coverage in print media as soon as the Iona email came to light marked a low point for print journalism in Ireland.

Aside from a lead story on the damages printed in this paper last Wednesday and ongoing debate online, the media has been glacially slow with commentary and even reportage of the affair.

The debacle has untold ramifications for public life in this country. That many liberal commentators may now baulk at the opportunity to speak and write openly and honestly about homophobia is the most obvious issue here.

Most worrying of all, however, is the question that with a referendum on the introduction of gay marriage on the horizon, how can we expect the national broadcaster to facilitate even-handed debate on the subject when they’ve already found themselves cowed before reaching the first hurdle?

Got an opinion? [email protected]

Watch Panti give ‘The Noble Call’ at the end of the run of The Risen People in The Abbey Theatre on Saturday night, which has already been watched more than 20,000 times on YouTube:

The Canadian-born, girl-next-door star of romcoms, Rachel McAdams, shows her darker side for John le Carré’s thriller A Most Wanted Man. By James Mottram

YOU probably think you know what Rachel McAdams has to offer. The girl next door – as long as ‘next door’ is Ontario, Canada, where she hails from – McAdams has ascended Hollywood’s A-list in a series of big-hitting romances. Think The Notebook, swooning over Ryan Gosling (whom she dated for two years). Or The Vow, The Time-Traveler’s Wife, Midnight In Paris or last year’s Richard Curtis movie, About Time.

Little wonder she got dubbed ‘the new Julia Roberts’. ‘I would say there’s a side of me that’s a romantic for sure,’ nods the 35-year-old McAdams, petite and pretty in a sparkling Valentino dress. ‘My parents are very much still in love and I grew up with that around me, so I’m a believer.’

While past relationships include actors Josh Lucas and Michael Sheen, she evidently loves a good fictional romance too. ‘I remember the first time I saw Giant or Gone With The Wind. They really stay with you for a long time.’ Still, judging by her recent output, for directors such as Brian De Palma (on erotic thriller Passion) and Terrence Malick (on To The Wonder), McAdams isn’t afraid to experiment with more challenging material.

Her latest is A Most Wanted Man, a taut John le Carré adaptation starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Robin Wright and directed by Anton Corbijn, the Dutch director who began his career shooting bands such as U2 and Depeche Mode. ‘He’s such a great visual artist,’ she enthuses, ‘coming with that photography and music background.’

‘Rachel has the potential to go darker and she still has incredible charm, so it was an interesting combination,’ he says. ‘She’s a very charming person. You can see why she’s so successful with these roles.’ Yet dubbing A Most Wanted Man a ‘very heavy drama’, McAdams clearly held no fears going up against her late co-star Philip Seymour Hoffman in one of his last roles. ‘There was so much electricity in every scene he was in,’ she says.

Then there was perfecting a German dialect. ‘Even just learning the dialect and the flavour of the German sound informs this new kind of person in me,’ she says. ‘Sometimes the further from what you imagine yourself to be the better, because then you find you’re probably closer to those people than you think.’ The daughter of Sandra, a nurse, and Lance, a retired truck driver and furniture remover, McAdams’s family bonds seem tightly knit.

The eldest of three, she talks about her sister Kayleen, a celebrity make-up artist, and their trips to London and shared passion for cream teas. ‘The second we touch down we don’t go from the airport to the hotel, we go for airport scones and clotted cream… then to the hotel!’ she laughs. ‘I’m in heaven here because every two seconds someone is asking for a cup of tea and I always say yes.’

While this might sound more like the McAdams we know from her romantic leads, it might be a while before we see her in another such role. She’s coming up in boxing drama Southpaw with Jake Gyllenhaal (fuelling false rumours that the two were an item) plus Every Thing Will Be Fine, with James Franco, a harrowing domestic drama about a couple coping with the loss of a child. ‘I’m not really a creature of habit,’ she grins. ‘I like trying everything out.’

A Most Wanted Man opens on Friday. @metrohnews [email protected]

BOLLYWOOD films can be strangely addictive. I mean, how could you not be mesmerised by the snaking dance routines and catchy song numbers which characterise the staple produce of the Indian movie industry.

Well, if you are a Bollywood fanatic and unable to turn away from any story line no matter how absurd, then Indian Superman and Spiderwoman in Love is the film for you.

While we are unsure of the actual title, the movie has everything: poor special effects, unlicensed characters and top-notch music. We just could not stop watching… it’s better than most stuff that hits our screens these days.

Hollywood hunk Sam Claflin came to  prominence playing Finnick Odair in The  Hunger Games. He stars opposite Lily Collins in  the new Cecelia Ahern adaptation Love, Rosie

On-screen chemistry is important in a film, especially when the actors have to portray a life-long relationship. How did you and Lily Collins capture that bond?

Our chemistry was quite a natural development. We were forced into a meeting early on and the director sat us down and told us to describe the little features in each other’s faces.

It’s difficult to explain, it was a very intense situation but we kind of laughed about it and there was an immediate bond. Later, we spent a few evenings out in London so by the time we got to filming it felt like I had known her for years.

Scenes for the film were shot around Dublin. Did you get a chance to explore much of the city?

Not excessively so, I’m afraid. It was quite a tight shoot – we were filming all day and by the time we got home in the evenings there were only a few hours before we had to be back on set. We certainly explored a few of the local drinking holes.

You married actor Laura Haddock last year. That was quite romcom-esque, right?

We auditioned for the film My Week With Marilyn. She was reading for the part of Marilyn Monroe and I was in for the role of Colin Clark. I was immediately awestruck and rang my agent to tell him I had met the girl I want to marry. The next morning at 5.30am, I was getting off the tube and the doors opened and we bumped into each other. We stayed in contact and a few months later she came out to LA to visit. The rest is history… I told that to Richard Curtis once and he said ‘I need to write about this!’

Producer Simon Brooks has likened you to a young Hugh Grant. Is that a comparison that sits easily with you? That’s insane. I personally don’t understand the comparison but it’s a huge compliment. I don’t strive to achieve that necessarily – even though I’m a big fan of Hugh Grant and love his work. I’m not specifically pursuing the romcom genre – I wasn’t aware of Cecelia Ahern’s book, for instance, before I read the script – but I’m open to it. It’s good to keep your options open rather than pigeonholing yourself.

You’ve reprised the role of Finnick Odair for the third Hunger Games. What was it like to get the nod for the character?

I didn’t really know what I had gotten myself into before I went through the books. But I quickly became aware that I had been cast as a character with such physical prowess – which I wasn’t entirely in the mould of at the time. I was shell-shocked but I wasn’t going to complain.

Did you find fans of the book could be very precious about certain characters?

When I got cast there was a bit of uproar I didn’t look like Finnick Odair was expected to. People had the image of the perfect man – which doesn’t exist – and then when I was cast it was like: ‘No, no he’s fat; he’s not right at all’. But the Hunger Games world has warmed to me.

Is hacking and intrusion something you have had to contend with as an actor?

I’ve witnessed first-hand a lot of this having worked with Johnny Depp, Kristen Stewart, Jennifer Lawrence and guys who experience intrusion on a level that no one should ever have to. I’ve not experienced it personally and I don’t know how I’d deal with it if it did come my way. But I just hope and pray that things never get to the point where I can’t walk down the street. Assumptions in the media without any facts or evidence are what really upsets me about the celebrity lifestyle.

Luke Holohan Love, Rosie opens on Friday

Joe Berlinger was driving through the streets of Boston when he first heard the news. One of the witnesses in the trial of James ‘Whitey’ Bulger was found dead. Not long beforehand, this local liquor store owner had told Berlinger how eager he was to testify against the mobster. His murder shocked the normally unflappable film-maker.

‘Paranoid scenarios started swirling about,’ says Berlinger. ‘Who would have an interest in keeping him from testifying? When we got back to the courthouse, speculation about what happened was the number one topic. There was talk that Bulger interests knocked him off.’

The murder was not connected to the trial, Berlinger concluded. Nevertheless, the incident captured the depth of cynicism surrounding the conviction of one of America’s most notorious criminals: a man who ran Boston’s underworld for almost three decades without getting so much as a parking ticket. When he was eventually caught in 2011, Bulger sat next to Osama Bin Laden on America’s most wanted list.

Berlinger’s documentary, Whitey: United States Of America vs James J. Bulger, plays at Dublin’s Stranger Than Fiction festival on Friday: the ‘perfect platform’ for a story about an Irish-American gangster, according to Berlinger. Rather than profile Bulger, who was found guilty of killing 11 people, he wanted to explore the corruption that allowed him to exist.

‘The goal of the film was to give Bulger’s victims a voice,’ says Berlinger. ‘They have been screwed by the situation. Law enforcement didn’t take him off the streets. Allowing people to kill is not acceptable. If he was not an informant – and I think there’s compelling evidence to demonstrate that – then the level of corruption ran much deeper.’

From his feature debut, 1992’s Brother Keeper, to 2014’s television series The System, Berlinger has always been fascinated with criminal justice and injustice.

Paradise Lost: The Child Murders At Robin Hood Hills centred on the arrest of three teenagers for the murder of three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. Berlinger and co-director Bruce Sinofsky were initially assured of their guilt, but when they met the accused they started to have doubts. The trial was farcical. Damning prosecution evidence included the fact that one of the defendants wore Metallica T-shirts and read Stephen King novels.

‘When those guys were led away in chains, it was devastating,’ says Berlinger. ‘We were the only media saying they were innocent. When the film came out in 1996, they had been in prison for two years. To the world, they were vicious baby killers.’

Berlinger followed his documentary with two sequels: Revelations (2000), and Purgatory (2011). These films led to a worldwide campaign to secure freedom for the West Memphis Three.

But their 2011 release was a pyrrhic victory. Under a plea deal, they could only be released if they acknowledged their guilt. ‘[The state of Arkansas] know these guys are innocent,’ says Berlinger. ‘It’s the same thing with the Bulger case – the avoidance of accountability. Exposing that is what motivates me.’

Berlinger himself was held accountable for his first non-documentary venture into feature film-making. Blair Witch 2 (2000), a follow-up to the seminal found footage horror, was an unmitigated disaster, which the director attributes to the lure of the Hollywood dollar and final-cut forces beyond his control. On the other hand, Some Kind Of Monster (2004), a queasy yet ultimately uplifting profile of rock group Metallica, was a critical triumph.

With every high in his career, there have been lows. His 2010 environmental documentary Crude, about Amazonian tribes suing Chevron, ended up in a torturous lawsuit over the film’s content. ‘Everyone involved, including myself, underestimated the risks and what could happen.’

Berlinger is now planning a return to working with actors, albeit on familiar ground. Facing The Wind, his next film, is about a man who murdered his entire family and argued the insanity plea. He was sent to a psychiatric hospital and walked free after two years. ‘What is the line of retribution? Should this guy have been allowed to start a new family? I don’t know what the answers are,’ says the director.

From the West Memphis Three to the trial of Whitey Bulger, Berlinger consistently reads between the lines. ‘I am fascinated with how the media tends to reduce things to black and white,’ he says. ‘Life is much more nuanced. Often we are presented with a false story. The truth about most situations is much more complex than a daily headline.’

Whitey: United States Of America V. James J. Bulger is being screened at the IFI on Friday as part of its Stranger Than Fiction festival. www.ifi.ie

A SURVEY carried out by independent research firm iReach Insights has found that more than 80 per cent of us would like to see another series of Love/Hate.

More men than women want to see Nidgey and the lads back. Only 76 per cent of women surveyed want to see the series return compared to 93 per cent of men.

iReach Insights MD Oisin Byrne, MD said:  ’This just goes to show the phenomenal popularity of Love/Hate.  Even though it looks like the main stars of the show are dead, with Nidge and Síobhan gunned down and Fran seemingly tortured to death in the season finale, we still want a sixth season.’

The survey covered many topics including who are people’s favourite characters and which characters they fancy.

Nidge proved the most popular character on the show with 30 per cent of those surveyed saying he was their favourite. Fran was the second most popular at 20 per cent and Síobhan came in third at 18 per cent.

One in five women admitted to having a crush on one of the Love/Hate characters. Despite the fact he has remained in a coma for the entire season, Tommy is a big hit with the ladies. Of  those who admitted to having a crush on one of the characters, 50 per cent have a crush on Tommy. Darren came in second at 30 per cent with Elmo coming in third at ten per cent.

The survey also showed 52 per cent of Irish adults asked said they watched Love/Hate and  80 per cent of those watched all five seasons.

METRO Herald was this evening forced to admit that no amount of mislabeled photo captions would bring back the legendary funk musician Bernard Edwards.

The shock admission came after it emerged that one photo editor had apparently been trying to summon the spirit of the bassist, songwriter and producer in an article on page three of the daily newspaper.

An unofficial spokesperson for the publication said: ‘Despite what readers may have read in a photo caption about the recent Electric Picnic festival, sadly Bernard Edwards is not with us, and has not been for nigh on 18 years.’

He added that he could only speculate as to why the incident occurred, but suggested that perhaps the photo editor had been stuck in a wonderful time warp, or indeed just a doofus with little taste in quality music.

Some Twitter users took umbrage at the label with one radio presenter calling it a ‘balls up’.

Metro Herald would like to put on record that no offence was intended and that they really didn’t mean to caption the wonderful Jerry Barnes (current bassist with Chic) with the equally brilliant Bernard Edwards.

That last pic was too big, here is the balls up in question: pic.twitter.com/6KQdQQ2saK

— Joe Donnelly (@kildarejoe) September 1, 2014