<p>I know there’s a whole thread about Michael Jackson going on, but I was thinking about this even before he died. </p>
<p>I think Woody Allen is a creep–but I still love many of his movies. I think Michael Jackson is a bigger creep than Woody Allen–and didn’t listen to his music for a long time–but since he’s died I’ve been re-discovering his brilliance.</p>
<p>It’s made for some very strange conversations with my younger sons–ages 9 and 13. My 13 year old was awed by MJ’s dancing in the videos that were running constantly and really wants to listen to the cd’s in the car too. But kids are not so familiar with the murky mess that life can be. </p>
<p>So, can you love the art but loathe the artist?</p>
<p>Kind of along those lines…My kids are really into rap music and I have to admit I like some of the music, but the words are disgusting. For instance, “Do the Helen Keller and talk with your hips” has a very catchy beat.</p>
<p>That’s funny Toledo. My son has never been a rap fan until this summer. He and a buddy have been listening to the old Wu Tang Clan music. He asked me,“Have you ever heard of Ol’Dirty ■■■■■■■?” I said I knew many old dirty bastards and he’d have to be more specific.</p>
<p>R. Kelly. I can’t listen to his music either even though it’s always good–I just keep feeling like he’s singing about sex with 12 year old girls.</p>
<p>I can enjoy the work of someone whose life I find disgusting. BUT…if the person is a living artist and there is a chance that $.05 of my money may end up in their pocket, I will not got to their movie, attend their concert or buy their book. Most of our biased and judgmental behaviour is
dictated by my H’s direct experience in the entertainment industry (worked one on one with hundreds of artists), so we have a long long list of people and products we avoid (but also an equally long list of events and products we seek out)</p>
<p>Helenback - Certainly. I have been “defending” Michael Jackson’s brilliance as a performer since long before his death, and have been his watching videos (again) since, simply recapturing his mesmerizing ways. I don’t know if I think he was a creep, but many of his ways were certainly creepy.</p>
<p>For some reason I cannot stand to watch John Travolta’s movies and I don’t know why…I loved Saturday Night Fever and Face Off and Grease is ok but the rest of them forget it. </p>
<p>I have to admit that I paid to see the remake of The taking of Pelham 123 and wasn’t as turned off as I usually am about Travolta…go figure??</p>
<p>I do not know any famous people personally, so I cannot form any opinion about their personality. I can only judge their certain behavior, but that is only one side of them. Like socially person might be a creep, but be and awesome father, for example.</p>
<p>It’s all about our celebrity driven culture. We are spoon fed press releases from the public relations firms hired by these people and we have an impression that we “know” them and that we have insight into their lives. Nothing could be further from the truth. When I was in my twenties I worked for a producer at a major studio and part of my job was acting as a liaison with PR people to keep the public images clean and happy.
I generally felt pretty dirty at the end of the day.
WORST JOB EVER!</p>
<p>^this being said. We have also worked for some wonderful, truly good people who don’t feel compelled to advertise their normal lives or their benevolent gifts.</p>
<p>I tend to believe Pete Townshend’s explanations of why he downloaded child porn, because there’s lots of evidence in his songwriting and elsewhere that he really has been concerned about child sexual exploitation from early on. But even if I thought he was really just a garden-variety kiddie porn consumer, that wouldn’t have much effect on how I feel about his music. For me, the beauty and spiritual power in his songs transcends his personality and whatever flaws there may be in his mental health or moral character.</p>
<p>The Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo would be another example–not a nice guy, to put it mildly, but his music fills me with awe.</p>
<p>Oh yeah…my favorite painter, Caravaggio, MURDERED someone!
One can still be a great artist (write sensitive music and APPEAR to care for children and the world in general) and still be a pedophile or in Caravaggio’s case, a murderer.</p>
<p>I know there’ve been several, can’t remember them all. I didn’t buy any Herbert von Karajan recordings while he was alive. Roald Dahl would’ve made it into that only-buy-when-they’re-dead category, but I’d bought most of his books before I found out about his anti-semitism.</p>
<p>This is going to be a little reductive and cliched, but . . . </p>
<p>It is much harder to find examples of great artists who were good, well-adjusted people than it is to find the opposite. The ambition that leads artists to attempt great work, the perspective that brings something new to the world, the dissatisfaction with what is already present that requires creating something different . . . those can come, and often do come, from a dark, dark place.</p>
<p>It’s known that Degas, Cezanne, Rodin and Renoir were anti-Semitic, particularly demonstrated when they sided with the French military court which falsely convicted Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army captain. Degas in particular continued to denounce Dreyfus even after the real traitor was identified.
Cezanne’s close friendship with Zola was destroyed due to Cezanne’s bigotry.
Renoir refused to have his work exhibited in the same show with Pisarro who was Jewish.</p>
<p>Picasso wasn’t the nicest person either the way he treated his women. Steichen didn’t treat Georgia O’Keefe very nicely either. Reubens apparently was a bit of a pervert exposing himself in theatres.
Fra Fillipo Lippi raped a nun but his standing as an artist didn’t suffer.</p>
<p>As for the criminal Caravaggio, he never lacked patrons. Cardinal Scipione Borghese, the guy closest to the papal throne, was his most enthusiastic sponsor.</p>
<p>Among artists, composers, writers who created masterpiece works, there are a whole lot of questionable and downright immoral characters. You just have to separate the personality from the art.</p>