| Turn on any network last week and you saw famous people making excuses. It didn’t matter if it was Hollywood morons defending a rapist, David Letterman pretending he was a victim for treating his staff like a harem, or Barack Obama denying responsibility for the failed Olympic bid.
It looked like some nightmarish recast of an awful Family Circus cartoon with all of the major characters shouting “Not Me” with their hands fully in the cookie jar.
And the traditional media celebrated the excuse-filled comic atmosphere.
First came the surprise arrest of Hollywood icon and long-time jailbird Roman Polanski. After more than 30 years on the lam, the famous director of “Chinatown” and some Oscar winner no one saw finally encountered a police force willing to say fini to Polanski’s life of slime.
Hollywood idiots lined up to excuse him like they were in a Shriners clown parade. All they were missing were those tiny little cars. Harvey Weinstein, Woody Allen (This is the Mad Libs section of the column. Fill in your own joke here.), Debra Winger, Martin Scorsese and more. They even signed a petition demanding his release because it was just “a case of morals.”
Ah those uptight Americans and their Puritan ways about child rape. Gosh almighty. Yet, that was the rationale from the mindless on TV. Debra Tate, sister of Polanski’s murdered (by the Manson Family in 1969) first wife, pretended drugging and raping a child was “consensual.” She told NBC's “Today” show “There's rape and then there's rape.” Not to be outdone, Whoopi Goldberg, ordinarily a sane member of “The View,” said Polanski’s hideous crime “wasn’t rape rape.”
It took a comic to put the whole horrific display in context. Comedian Chris Rock nailed it, telling “Leno,” that “13 is 13.” He was stunned Polanski defenders tried to excuse the rape claiming Polanski’s film prowess mattered. “Even Johnny Cochran don’t have the nerve to go ‘Well, did you see O.J. play against New England?’”
David Letterman was nearly as unapologetic. In Letterman’s defense, he’s only a sleaze, not a rapist. He used his show to spin his own “creepy” actions – taking advantage of his status and having affairs with women on his staff. Letterman finally admitted what he had done almost eight minutes into a 10 minute 13 second segment on his show. Even then he played it for a joke. “I have had sex with women who work on the show. And would it be embarrassing if it were made public? Perhaps, it would. Perhaps it would. Especially for the women.”
No doubt. The TV funnyman managed to make his audience yuck it up over his indiscretions. Network after network helped excuse the inexcusable. CBS’s Kelly Wallace portrayed Letterman as a victim of a $2-million extortion scheme, not a guy who used his staff like Match.com. “David Letterman told his audience he had been blackmailed and then made a remarkable personal admission.”
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