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Clint eastwood takes on the disabled Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/story/277473p-237716c.htmlRoth says Eastwood's proposal would weaken the Disabilities Act. "He has become the poster boy for limiting civil rights to people with disabilities," Roth says.
Roth, whose organization has 13,000 members, says she just doesn't understand why a man who can make any movie he wants, chose to make one that is a companion piece to his House testimony.
Eastwood has denied the link.
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/story/277473p-237716c.html
Times is not right to spoil 'Baby' end
Ten days before Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" opened in New York in mid-December, I began an interview with the film's star, director, producer and composer by asking if he was concerned about the press giving away his ending.
"If it is, it is; there's not much I can do about that," Eastwood said, in the casual manner I'd come to know over the last 25 years.
Well, moviegoers, don't look, because the ending is being given away. And if you see it over the weekend, you'll have the same dilemma talking about it with your friends.
The culprits here are not the critics, who've had too many bites taken out of their behinds for giving away plot points, rather advocacy groups protesting the movie.
The headline above a story in Monday's New York Times contained a spoiler about "Million Dollar Baby," and the writer gave the ending away in her second paragraph - before the alert: "Those who have not seen the movie and do not wish to know the plot may not want to read further."
Thanks. Which brings me to my own, stronger warning:
If you want to enjoy a great movie, unspoiled, and experience an emotional ending you will never forget, stop reading here and head to a theater. (Then come back.)
"Million Dollar Baby" is adapted from stories by the late F. X. Toole, a boxing cut-man who patched up fighters and tried to save them from serious harm at the same time. His experiences led him to create Frankie Dunn, a trainer, and a 32-year-old Ozarks woman who came into his gym and insisted that he train her to fight.
As her skills improve, she and Frankie develop a deeply affectionate father-daughter bond, which is tested to the extreme when she suffers a spinal cord injury and begs him to kill her.
For Toole, Frankie's dilemma was the ultimate extension of his own conflicted feelings as a Catholic working in a violent sport.
But organizations advocating for the disabled accuse "Million Dollar Baby" of being a blunt endorsement of assisted suicide, and worse, of sending the message that the lives of disabled people aren't worth living.
"The prevailing message is that having a spinal cord injury is a fate worse than death," says Marcie Roth, executive director of the National Spinal Cord Injury Association in Bethesda, Md.
Roth also claims that Eastwood has a "vendetta" against disabled persons, resulting from a lawsuit filed against him in 1997 for violating the American Disabilities Act. A woman with muscular dystrophy sued Eastwood over the lack of wheelchair access at his Mission Ranch, a 19th-century dairy farm that he turned into a hotel in Carmel, Calif.
The lawsuit was eventually dismissed, but Eastwood testified last year at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Disabilities Act, arguing that owners of small businesses should be given 90 days to comply with its provisions before being subject to lawsuits.
Roth says Eastwood's proposal would weaken the Disabilities Act. "He has become the poster boy for limiting civil rights to people with disabilities," Roth says.
Roth, whose organization has 13,000 members, says she just doesn't understand why a man who can make any movie he wants, chose to make one that is a companion piece to his House testimony.
Eastwood has denied the link.
"I was given the script and I just thought it was a wonderful story," Eastwood says. "My wife read it and cried, and I cried. I figured if it affects us that way, I've got to do it."
Eastwood says the decision made by Frankie in "Million Dollar Baby" is not the one he would necessarily make, but "no one can say what they'd do in that situation."
Roth says she's a movie fan and understands why people may be upset with her for giving away the ending, but says, "That's just not my agenda. There are 30 new spinal cord injuries every day. We don't want people who become disabled to think that their lives aren't worth anything."
Fair enough. The advocates deserve their say, and to have it reported. But editors and reporters can do it without ruining the movie for the rest of us. Monday's headline in The Times was: "Groups Criticize 'Baby' for Message on Suicide."
Somebody ought to box their ears.
Originally published on February 4, 2005
http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/local/11020532.htm
Posted on Tue, Mar. 01, 2005
Mission Ranch regulars excited by Eastwood's hello
By KAREN RAVN
Herald Staff Writer
Everyone at the Mission Ranch party Sunday night expected Clint Eastwood to win an Academy Award... or two... or even more. But few of the guests expected a personal greeting.
Eastwood's "Hello to Mission Ranch" during one of his acceptance speeches was the biggest surprise of the night for most of the 80 to 90 people at the party. It didn't catch John Purcell, manager of the restaurant at the Eastwood-owned Mission Ranch complex, off-guard though. He says he saw it coming as soon as he saw the actor/director headed for the microphone.
Lena Bolivar, accounting and human resource manager for Mission Ranch Lodging, was surprised. And pleased.
"It made us feel good, that he would mention us, being a small property."
The party was for Mission Ranch regulars, employees and close friends of Eastwood, said Dan Tibbitts, who has been one of those close friends for 35 to 40 years. Many of the regulars are fixtures at the piano bar, where Eastwood has been known to entertain from time to time.
Even before their 1.5 seconds of fame, celebrators had been whooping it up, first when Eastwood took the Oscar for best director and then when "Million Dollar Baby" was named the year's best film.
"We were on a high," Tibbitts said, "yelling, cheering, whistling, clapping, screaming."
To Purcell, it felt sort of like a fraternity party.
"I thought, look at all these old people here going crazy," he said.
Eastwood's big wins came after Jamie Fo, the favorite in the competition, beat him out for best actor. Even then, the mood stayed positive, with people clapping for Foxx while waiting for their favorite to go ahead and make their night.
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