I just watched a National Geographic special about the shooting of Ronald Reagan, and I got curious and started reading about Hinckley and Jodie Foster. I guess she doesn't like to talk about Hinckley, but she wrote a piece in 1982 called Why Me? about the event and its effect on her life.
Funny how she barely even mentions the people who got shot.
I mean, it's her story and she has every right to tell it in her way, but...how freaking self-absorbed. No, she shouldn't feel any real guilt that what happened to Reagan was her fault, because it certainly wasn't, but in a 5000-word article, she never once mentions how she feels that these men got shot? That's just freaking weird to me. It was all about her and how the media took away her privacy and how having her picture taken feels like being shot. Um, you know what feels like being shot? Being shot. Ask Reagan, Hinckley, Delahanty, and McCarthy.
Look, what happened to Foster is really scary. Some nut thought he was in love with her and decided to reenact Taxi Driver. That's spooky, and I can see how she'd be freaked out. But if some nut who loved me shot the president, I would be wringing my hands about the president, not about myself. Or I would at least mention him in the huge article I wrote about myself.
Posted by Sarah at March 14, 2008 05:07 PM | TrackBack
My first thought after reading this was that you'd probably made a bad celebrity ;) I think it's weird, too, that she could compare having her picture taken with being shot...and then not acknowledge the people who were ACTUALLY shot during the whole thing. Sure the whole thing must have been scary for her but she wasn't even in any danger during the incident.
Posted by: Ann M. at March 14, 2008 08:19 PMHmmmmm lets see in 1982 Jodie Foster turned 20 on Nov 19, so she was either 19 or 20 when she wrote it, please tell me if you look back on the ages of 19 & 20 and tell you were not a self-absorbed asshole. If you do I'll call you a liar, we are all self-absorbed when we are 19 & 20, it is HUMAN NATURE.
Posted by: Bubba Bo Bob Brain at March 14, 2008 10:07 PMAnd we'll all float on, all right.
Posted by: Will at March 15, 2008 01:23 AMGee, Bubba doesn't even know me and yet he's ready to call me a liar. I wonder what kind of self absorbed little world you lived in Bubba... me, I was working in nursing homes taking care of people old enough to be my great grandparents. I loved talking with them about what they'd done in their lives. I worried about them if they got sick. (yeah - I was working for the money so I guess that should've been a tip off to me that I'm completely selfish).
Sarah, you're right. There are 2 types of people in the world. Those who think about things only in terms of themselves and everyone else can rot for all they care. And those with consideration for others. Never the twain shall meet.
As for Jodie Foster - it is possible she wrote some paragraphs about the men who were shot and the editor felt obliged to delete them. We don't know for sure.
Another thing to consider... she's been in that rare atmosphere of being a "star" from an early age, I'd have to wonder how she would learn to think of others. It is a business that inspires a person to think only of themselves.
Posted by: Teresa at March 15, 2008 12:22 PMWell gee so sorry teresa, when I was 19 I was in the USAF, yet I still managed to be be quite a bit more self absorbed than I am now as a 50, (yeah you read that correctly) a FIFTY year old father of two teenagers. Like I said it is human nature to be self absorbed when you're 19 & 20. So BFD you weren't as bad as the rest of your compatriot 19 & 20 years olds, if you look back and assess it honestly, you were more self absorbed then than you are now at what ever age you might be.
Posted by: Bubba Bo Bob Brain at March 15, 2008 10:51 PMBeing "more" self absorbed at 19 and 20 is one thing. Completely ignoring two men who were SHOT because someone had a crush on you is entirely another.
My son just turned 5, but he says please and thank you without prompting. And he does it because for the last 5 years of his life he WAS prompted constantly until it became second nature for him. My 5 year old, my 7 year old, and my 10 year old also hold doors for people as they enter or leave establishments. Once again, because they were TOLD to often enough that it stuck.
Oh, and two days ago my 10 year old ran out into a parking lot when she saw someone's shopping bag break to help them pick up the cans that were rolling all over the parking row. Again - she has been raised to think of others, so she does without much prompting.
My kids also say "excuse me" when they cough or sneeze and "I'm sorry" when they bump into someone.
People getting shot is a bit bigger deal than any of those incidences, so self absorbed or not I don't think it is too much to ask for Jodie Foster to have at least spared a thought for them
Perhaps some of the "self absorbed" behavior you're seeing is because of increasingly lower expectations many people have for their children, which then leads to what is being termed by sociologists as a "prolonged adolescence" in western adults.
I can't speak for anyone else, but I really wasn't happy as a teenager. I was glad to leave it behind. Real life is a lot more fulfilling.
Posted by: airforcewife at March 16, 2008 09:44 AM