aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Friday, January 13, 2006

Shalit apologizes

SoVo blog yesterday:

“Today Show” movie critic Gene Shalit apologized this week for language he used in a review of “Brokeback Mountain,” in which he referred to Jack Twist, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, as a “sexual predator.” [...]

Shalit responded on Jan. 10 in a statement sent to GLAAD in which he wrote, “I certainly had no intention of casting aspersions on anyone in the gay community or on the community itself. I regret any emotional hurt that may have resulted from my review of ‘Brokeback Mountain.’”

“In describing the behavior of ‘Jack,’” he continued, “I used words (’sexual predator’) that I now discover have angered, agitated, and hurt many people. I did not intend to use a word that many in the gay community consider incendiary.”

His gay son came to his defense:

“I am hurt by your mischaracterization of my father, a man who does not have a molecule of hate in his being,” Peter Shalit wrote. “It does not speak well for GLAAD, and it is not helping our community. “

“He may have had an unpopular opinion of a movie that is important to the gay community, but he defamed no one, and he is not a homophobe. It is you who have defamed a good man, by falsely accusing him of a repellent form of bigotry.”

I don’t think Shalit homophobic, but those words are incendiary and his apology is welcome and appropriate.