It’s an unfortunate fact that, as they age, a lot of men become even bigger assholes than they were when younger. Case in point, Richard Dreyfuss:
Appearing at the Cabot theatre in Beverly, Massachusetts on 25 May, Dreyfuss took to the stage in a house dress to a background track of Taylor Swift’s Love Story, shaking his hips suggestively and brandishing his walking stick like a baseball bat.
He then reportedly took on targets including Barbra Streisand, the parents of trans teenagers and the Academy’s new inclusivity rules.
No transcript of the event has been released, but social media posts suggest that he called Streisand a “genius” but that he didn’t listen to her as she was “a woman, and woman shouldn’t have that power”.
Deadline reports that he also said “you shouldn’t be listening to some 10-year-old who says they want to be a boy instead of a girl”. The Boston Globe reports that he continued by saying that allowing such young people to transition “was bad parenting and that someday those kids might change their minds.”
Anyway, I never liked him, but I thought he was a standard-issue moderate whose big cause was civics education. I guess a combination of age, #MeToo, an overdeveloped sense of entitlement, a loss of relevance and Fox News caused the worms in his brain to go into overdrive. I blame Trump, but I don’t think Trump suffers from OAS, just simply AS. Still, other old men look at Trump and think, “Why am I holding back? I have so much wisdom to share with the world. Let me start by putting on a dress.”
The picture is a screengrab of this ridiculous person from a YouTube video taken by an audience member.
OzarkHillbilly
My wife suffers from OAS. She has to deal with me.
Tony Jay
I heard about that.
Almost fifty years late, but finally the shark is revealed as the good guy in Jaws.
Harrison Wesley
Is becoming a dickhead really the only way a fading (or faded) celebrity can get noticed?
RaflW
Speaking of assholes, Sammy Alito has written back to Sen. Durbin and — no surprise — thumbed his nose in a fully dickish way.
And he put in writing that, while Sammy and the other Five can tell every woman in America “no abortion for you”, Sammy has no control over what flag(s) his wife flies over their house(s).
He’s a god damned Internet troll. Fuck him.
JML
He’s been well known as a massive jackass for a very long time, so it doesn’t surprise me a bit. Fine actor. terrible person.
laura
If only we could harness the power that white male grievance generates- it’d keep the power in in Texas winter and summer.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Nice.
SiubhanDuinne
@Tony Jay:
He got on that spaceship on Devils Tower and went off with the aliens.
They should never have sent him back.
twbrandt
Someone, I think it was Carol Burnett, referred to him as “Richard Dryface”. I wonder if his fragile ego couldn’t handle that and he turned into this raging lunatic?
Miss Bianca
I, however, actually used to like him.
Shame.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Not for my wife.
TaMara
@JML: This. Every story I’ve heard from folks who have worked with him is “major asshole”
Tony Jay
@SiubhanDuinne:
Retrospectively, the obsession with lily-white potato mash and conspiracy theories was a big clue.
Brachiator
I always liked Dreyfuss as an actor. He’s appeared in some of my favorite films, including a late career film like Mr Holland’s Opus.
I never knew what his personal or political views were and didn’t much care.
I still don’t much care. Is he using his celebrity to endorse anyone? Or is he just an old fart unleashing stinky into the wind?
Old School
Dennis Quaid has also decided to go full-MAGA. He was in Jaws 3-D, so hmmmm.
Steeplejack
I met Richard Dreyfuss at a press cocktail party during the filming of Close Encounters of the Third Kind in Mobile, AL, almost 50 years ago. He was affable, and we had a good chat, mostly about Civil War history. (No racist or neo-Confederate leanings detected; he seemed like a passably serious history buff.)
My two big gets as a newspaper reporter that year were interviews with Teri Garr—I had a long, funny dinner with her and a studio weasel at a great seafood restaurant—and François Truffaut, a cinematic god whom I idolized. Would have loved to interview Steven Spielberg, but he was behind an impenetrable wall of flacks and minions.
topclimber
My old man asshole problem is of a different sort.
Scout211
This Richard Dreyfuss person seems unwell. Should we call 911 and get
the swat teamsome help like a bunch of Trump supporters did to Michael Fanone’s mother when Michael Fanone called Trump an authoritarian?Yeah, Richard Dreyfuss needs some help.
Barbara
This kind of display is the ultimate self-own. It says SO MUCH more about Dreyfuss than any subject that he thinks he is opining on. And none of it says anything good.
I didn’t read Barbra Streisand’s biography — but I am told that the most interesting parts are about the New York theater and show business of the late 50s and early 60s and how determined Streisand was not to be swallowed whole by male impresarios. She apparently drove several producers and directors absolutely wild because she refused to sing a song in a show the same way every time, reserving the right to change tempo, mood, etc. if she felt like it. She is one gutsy lady.
TaMara
Hivemind question. AdBlock has stopped being helpful – even the paid version. Does anyone have a more effective recommendation?
Baud
@Old School:
So he’s going to vote for Trump because he likes him. Ok, so will many others.
But comparing Trump to Jimmy Carter is nutso.
zhena gogolia
@Tony Jay: hahaha
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack: Funnily enough, I met him once too. He was nice.
smith
I read that a substantial portion of the audience booed and heckled him and walked out. I wonder if he anticipated that reaction. So many of these old assholes either live in a bubble where those opinions are accepted as true, or have enough power to coerce underlings into not answering back, that they are unprepared to find that a lot of people think they’re just old assholes.
Thinking also of the Defendant at the Libertarian convention. The content of his speech made it seem that he didn’t anticipate any serious pushback. When he found he couldn’t win them over he resorted to lame insults. He didn’t seem to have anything prepared for the eventuality of a negative reception.
grumbles
At least Doofus had the good grace to wear a mu-mu while doing his “back in my day, sonny…” routine.
Maybe next time his handler remembers to affix the clown nose.
andy
the youngsters refer to this problem as the Lead Poisoning Stare. it does fit…
laura
@RaflW: thumbed his dick in a nosey way according to this salty gal- now with 50% less bodily autonomy.
Steeplejack
In other OAS news, I went to my substandard* Safeway this afternoon to get a few things (* = old, small, but good enough for 80% of my needs), and when I came out two guys (middle-aged, white) were screaming at each other in the parking lot. Something about somebody doing something to somebody’s car. Both with huge pickups, of course. They were out of their cars, standing facing each other and gesticulating wildly, getting closer and then backing up—oscillating.
I didn’t see any guns, but I thought about calling the police. Then I saw one of them step farther away and take out his cell phone, so maybe he was going to call the police. But they were still yelling back and forth. I left by the other end of the parking lot.
Manyakitty
@Old School: holy shit. That is repulsive.
Barbara
@Steeplejack: I once saw a collision in a parking lot where, I kid you not, two cars backed into each other as they were trying to exit their respective parking spaces, and all of the occupants got out and started yelling at each other. It was pretty clearly a no one or everyone was at fault situation — no one looked behind them.
I hate parking lots.
Baud
@Barbara:
I do love the rear cameras in modern cars.
Baud
Hey, you know who’s an old white guy that didn’t lose his mind? — Joe Biden!
I never appreciated how extraordinary he was.
John S.
@Baud:
There’s so much stupid (and wrong) in what Dennis Quaid had to say.
“Defeated ISIS in 3 weeks” is the kind of nonsense that only Trump and his MAGA cult actually think is true.
Baud
@John S.:
Sure, but that doesn’t distinguish him from any other Trump supporter. That’s my point. The Jimmy Carter thing was kind of out there though.
zhena gogolia
Reposting this from thread below, because I keep forgetting to post it:
Here are the two conspiracy theories I heard from a local (she doesn’t subscribe to them, she just heard them):
1. There will be no income tax next year. It was an emergency measure for WWII and it will be removed. My friend asked, “By whom?” The answer was, “People.”
2. Everything will be shut down for three months in advance of the election. Be sure to have three months’ worth of gas and non-perishable food.
Citizen Alan
@Brachiator: As an ex-band director, I viscerally hated Mr. Holland’s Opus and continue to do so to this day. I think they got nearly everything about the lived experiences of band directors completely wrong. And it ends with this stupifying twist that, on the eve of Holland’s music program being eliminated due to budget cuts and him getting laid off, it turns out that one of his former band members had grown up to be the state governor who shows up at the last minute … not to announce that she was committed to restoring funding to the Arts, but rather to give a bland speech before pulling out her old clarinet to play the incredibly banal song Holland had been working on his whole life (the titular “Opus”).
I feel strangely vindicated that he has revealed himself to be the asshole he played in most movies. (Seriously, are there any Richard Dreyfus characters who weren’t pricks?)
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Three month holiday sounds kind of nice.
J. Arthur Crank
Christ, what an asshole!
Steeplejack
@zhena gogolia:
Maybe I need to visit the super (but inconvenient) Safeway. 🤔
zhena gogolia
@Citizen Alan: God, that one he plays in The Goodbye Girl! I made it through about 30 seconds. I’ve never seen Mr. Holland’s Opus, thank God.
He was kind of charming in American Graffiti, I guess. And in the recent stinker The Book Club.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I know actors are not the parts they play. But he does often play unlikable assholes, and do it well. First thing I ever saw him in was “The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz” in which he plays an unlikable 18-year-old asshole determined to make $1 million as fast as possible.
Martin
@Old School: “He’s my asshole” should be Trumps campaign slogan.
opiejeanne
@SiubhanDuinne: I was very satisfied when they smacked him around in RED. It felt like he wasn’t acting, he was so good at playing an asshole.
zhena gogolia
I guess dunking on Richard Dreyfuss is our Medium Cool for this week.
Melancholy Jaques
@John S.:
They talk about him like he’s Pecos Bill.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Another early one I remember was “The Competition”. He is a pianist in a competition, meets and falls in love with fellow contestant Amy Irving. They break up because she wins.
planetjanet
@Scout211:
Can we call swatting what it really is, terrorism?
Scout211
I just now did a google search on “Richard Dreyfuss is an asshole” because it sounded like something that was talked about many years ago. One thing I found was an article in Rolling Stone from 1978 written by Cameron Crowe. I don’t have a subscription but the article started by Dreyfuss defending his reputation at the time for being an asshole. So this may be a case of “young man, middle-aged man and old man asshole syndrome.” It sounds like he’s been this way a long time.
Jeffro
well, when one of our two major political parties elevates the old drunk guy down the bar* to the highest office in the land, yeah – they’re all gonna get ideas
*or ‘a wrestling ‘heel’ par excellence’, take your pick
Citizen Alan
@zhena gogolia:
Off the top of my head:
Jaws. His character made me root for the shark.
The Competition. The whole movie is basically him gaslighting the woman who is his only real rival for a piano competition. At the end, when she wins, he breaks up with her because he can’t handle the fact that she’s a better pianist (and says so to her face!)
The American President. He basically plays Dick Cheney.
Always. He emotionally abuses Holly Hunter from beyond the grave.
W. He LITERALLY plays Dick Cheney.
Just Some Flyover
Sounds like Richard Dreyfuss could use the services of DOCTOR! LEEEEO! MARRRVINNN!!
Jeffro
I dunno…let’s ask Scott Baio, Kid Rock, and Dennis Qu…er, never mind. I think we’ve answered the question. NEXT!
zhena gogolia
@Jeffro: Strangely enough, I think De Niro is probably a bit of a dickhead, but his politics are good.
JaySinWA
@Scout211: I just linked the Fanone swatting in the previous thread. No point in wishing this on anyone, even old assholes.
Speaking of old assholes, I’m glad to see this isn’t about Trumps diapers.
trollhattan
You hate to see it.
Byeee.
A Librarian
@TaMara: De-lurking just to recommend uBlock Origin. Found out about it a few years ago when AdBlock / AdBlock Plus started to let some stuff through, and haven’t looked back.
Warblewarble
No need to be an old white guy to be an absolute asshole. I give you “Me too genocideist Nickey Halley”.
Chip Daniels
Way back in the 80s when I was a conservative I learned to separate the artist from their work.
Just because someone is gifted doesn’t mean they are a decent person.
And yeah, as we age it does become important not to let wisdom curdle into incuriosity.
opiejeanne
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: That movie made me very angry. I forgot that he was the competitor.
JaySinWA
@TaMara: I use Ublock origin. It helps some, but I have to disable it often to make some pages work. Mostly shopping pages, or donation sites.
Ohio Mom
Richard Dreyfus has not crossed my mind in drecades. I would have assumed he was dead if I even remembered he existed.
I find it a funny sensation when a memory is triggered, what comes out of your brain’s storage. Like you hadn’t forgotten any of it.
Anyway, I know I have said this before, but the Ohio curriculum does indeed include civics, woven through the grades and culminating in a semester-long high school class in American Government. Founding Documents are taught.
The second semester of the year is dedicated to a class that combines economic principles (supply and demand, opportunity cost, etc.) with an introduction to personal finance.
Though both classes have right-wing slants, they do give lie to the oft-heard complaints, “We need to go back to teaching civics,” and “We should teach personal finance.”
Scout211
@trollhattan: I saw that yesterday and it made me so happy.
Thanks to AG Bonta for not allowing them to give the proposition a title that sounded like it would do the opposite of what it would actually do, and thanks to Californians who did not sign.
There will be more of these, but for now we can be relieved and happy.
PaulB
Which browser? I’ve used uBlock Origin for years and have been pretty happy with it.
ETA: Looks like I’m not the only one. Definitely give it a shot if it’s available for your browser.
Citizen Alan
@Warblewarble: Well, you see, like Tim Scott and Candace Owens, Haley reeeeeallly want to be white. So acting like a performative asshole is still on point.
Ohio Mom
Rereading through all the comments and being reminded of the many Dreyfus movies I saw once upon a time, I guess he was one of those actors who always plays themselves. In different settings and costumes, but the same basic character because that is the entirety of their range.
Chris
Not the most important conclusion to draw. I know, but it’s fucking impressive that Hollywood manages to remain one of those things that “everyone knows” is liberal despite the sheer number of movie stars who have always been raving right-wing nutjobs. And like, it’s not like this is anything new either. Back in the Golden Age you’ve got John Wayne, Charlton Heston, Gary Cooper, Jimmy Stewart, and oh yeah, Ronald Reagan. In the decades since we’ve had Mel Gibson, Bruce Willis, Jon Voight, Tom Selleck, Clint Eastwood, Kelsey Grammer, Vince Vaughn, Arnold Schwarzenegger has mellowed out into a much more reasonable old guy (he may be the opposite of OAS, come to that), but he sure as hell wasn’t for most of his career. And those are just the ones that are instantly recognizable household names, leaving on the table the less famous loonies like Kevin Sorbo or Gina Carano. Out of all of them, Mel Gibson is the only one that’s even debatably gotten any trouble over his politics, and that was only because he had an open mic moment that revealed him to be such a total Nazi that even the South Park crew felt compelled to turn him into a punchline (of course, that was twenty years ago; no way it happens today).
Yet “everyone knows” that Hollywood is Liberally Biased, and conservative actors just can’t catch a break. Just like higher education, or mainstream media, or the courts (at least that last “everyone knows” seems to have finally broken, but Christ, it took Dobbs to make that happen).
Citizen Alan
@opiejeanne: Honestly, I won’t watch the whole thing. I just skip to Amy Irving playing (or “playing”) the Prokofiev. That look on Paul’s face as he goes from thinking “She’s as good as me” to “She’s better.”
Chris
@Chip Daniels:
Oh, totally. I’m never going to get rid of my Lethal Weapon DVDs, or stop watching them either, but I wouldn’t pull over for Mel Gibson if I saw him hitchhiking, either.
Baud
@trollhattan:
Californians are the best.
catclub
How many beans is that?
NotMax
Gross encounters of the third kind.
//
karen marie
@RaflW: I read elsewhere that Alito’s excuse for his wife’s flag flying was based on false information. The argument with the neighbor didn’t happen until February – after the flag was taken down.
He just doesn’t give a fuck.
Raskin’s argument is sound but I’m not going to hold my breathe that Alito recuses.
IMO, both Alito and Thomas should recuse from all cases involving Individual-1. I’ve been surprised and puzzled that all the focus is on Alito in that respect. Anyone know why that is?
catclub
I love his music but am pretty sure JSBach would be a complete asshole.
… athough, he was arrested for bringing a woman into the choir loft. I think he later married her.
Sid
@John S.: And he’s the sane Quaid brother: https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-saga-of-randy-and-evi-quaid-conspiracy-theorist-fugitives-in-love
For some reason the Dreyfuss story made me think of this story from 50 years ago:
“John Lennon went to the Troubadour to hear Ann Peebles, and for the occasion he wore a Kotex on his head. There were about 11 people in his party; he didn’t leave the waitress a tip, and in response to her scowl he said, “Do you know who I am?” “Yes,” she said. “You’re some asshole with a Kotex on your head.””
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@catclub: My wife went to a top music school. She’s very familiar with talented assholes. In fact the music world, as with much of our culture, seems to value assholery and mistake it for talent, giving the top jobs to less-qualified white males who know how to act “artistic”.
Needless to say, that behavior is not rewarded in females.
cain
I think the only movie I’ve seen with that guy was ‘Stakeout’ which I really loved. I thought Dreyfuss funny as hell in that.
Brachiator
@Citizen Alan:
It’s a fictional movie, not a documentary.
How is this vindication? Dreyfuss is an actor, not the writer or director of the movies he appeared in.
Eyeroller
@Chris: A lot of actors have been conservative Republicans (certainly not all, but they are well represented). The executives, directors, writers, etc., on the other hand, have tended to be (((globalists))) and liberals.
Maxim
@Sid: I believe that incident took place during John’s two-year “lost weekend” when he was separated from Yoko and drunk almost all the time. Which is not an excuse; he did plenty of assholish things at other times in his life, which tend to be glossed over because of his talent and his peace activism.
Geoduck
For anyone who dislikes Richard Dreyfus, there’s always the opening scene from the 2010 version of Piranha.
Brachiator
@Chris:
Years ago I took a film class that included sneak previews of upcoming films, often with someone from the film as a guest speaker.
One sneak preview was Mel Gibson’s Braveheart, maybe a week before its official Los Angeles premiere. Gibson himself showed up and spoke afterwards. He seemed genuinely interested to see how a real audience reacted to his film. I also noted that he did not have a group of ass kissing assistants surrounding him or separating him from the audience. He stayed for a considerable amount of time and even took photographs with people.
Here, at least, he was courteous and considerate. I guess it just proves that you never know what some people are hiding.
West of the Rockies
Dreyfuss and Quaid, same day revealing their badly aged selves. Dreyfuss surprised me much more. I’d have guessed him to b a better person.
Lumpy
I’m not trying to make excuses for bad behavior, but Richard Dreyfus is bipolar, and he may have been having a manic episode (I am not a mental health professional, or someone who understands bipolar disorder, so make what you will with that information)
Anoniminous
@zhena gogolia:
So the Revenue Act of 1913 that instituted the income tax was an emergency WW II measure.
They aren’t even trying any more.
Quadrillipede
@TaMara: I’m not seeing very many ads with uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger extensions installed…
Chris
@Brachiator:
As an actor, Mel Gibson’s best trick is that he’s got a persona that’s likable, charismatic, and charming, and a persona that’s totally psycho, and he manages to be completely convincing as both. (It’s why most of his best remembered characters are “good guys” with a real dark side, which fades when he has a support network of friends and family socializing him, but comes back with a vengeance when that support network starts to disappear).
Not a stretch to imagine that the reason he’s so good at that sort of duality is that the real person has it too. Just not so neatly separated.
sab
@Ohio Mom: Thanks for that information.
chrome agnomen
@Just Some Flyover: oh shit! first movie I thought of when the subject came up. “I’ll take over from here, bob.” trying to teach biggie to dive.
Odie Hugh Manatee
I liked Richard but now that he’s exposed that he’s a Dick not so much.
I had an OAS moment today when I was driving south on a street here in town. An old fuck in a PT Cruiser wanting to go north on the street but two cars were heading that direction and close to where he was exiting. Rather than wait for the two cars and myself to pass, the asshole pulled out in front of me and stopped in my lane. I had no choice but to come to a stop and wait for the asshole who was waiting for the two cars heading north to pass by him. Instead of waiting for both of the cars to pass the geezer instead cuts off the second car and yells at me as he’s turning into the northbound lane “I WAS HERE FIRST!”, as if that’s the proper way to do what he is doing. I yelled “LEARN TO DRIVE!” at him as he passed my window and he fired back with “FUCK YOU!”. I was polite and returned the favor before he was out of earshot.
This is a small town and I really look forward to seeing this old asshole again. I’ve seen the car around town before and I drive this road multiple times just about every day.
SteverinoCT
@Citizen Alan:
Funny, just last night I had that tune she was trying to play in my head, and watched some movie clips where he was teaching her (nice double-take when she said she had been playing for three years). I also watched the ending, until he began conducting. I’m not a music snob, but I too didn’t think his opus was all that special.
Manyakitty
@zhena gogolia: what?
Juju
@Anoniminous: I guess they’ve never heard of the 16th Amendment.
Quadrillipede
@Quadrillipede: A consensus emerges 😅
Brachiator
@Chris:
Mad Max. Not a good guy.
I have been to many special screenings and over events where actors and other celebrities have no problem being total asswipes and who arrive and leave with a long train of ass kissers.
At one screening a well known celebrity emerged from an expensive car wearing tight green leather pants, and could not begin walking towards the event before every flunky was lined up and accounted for.
Gibson, on the other hand, was already a bigger star than this other person, but did not need the retinue of butt kissers.
But he had his other issues. You just never know.
Another Scott
@zhena gogolia: #1 – That’s what “they” want you to think.
#2 – That’s what “they” want you to think.
That comeback works in so many situations!
:-/
People are weird.
Cheers,
Scott.
Scout211
Thank you for writing this. I hadn’t heard this before but I did find a People Magazine interview that he did in 2013 speaking candidly about his struggles with bipolar disorder.
I was a mental health professional until my retirement and I can say that the angry agitation that he displayed highlighted in the post could definitely be caused by bipolar disorder.
But in the People interview, he talked about the medications he was taking and the talk therapy he was doing that helped him get back to “being Richard” again. The medications and the therapy do help but you have to keep taking the meds and you have to keep working on your coping skills. And sometimes the medications stop working as well as they did so you may need other meds or different meds.
So I will give him some leeway for his asshole behavior now that I know he is bipolar. But I do wonder if he’s stopped taking his meds or he needs (at the very least) to have them reassessed by his psychiatrist.
Poe Larity
@TaMara: If you’re iOS, I had to open it up and update it last week. I do pay a little for the DNS add-on.
Another Scott
@Chip Daniels: Obligatory – Rachael – How to be a fan of problematic things.
I can’t stand Spielberg’s movies, so I didn’t like the huge blockbusters with him.
“What about Bob?” was a cringefest, also too.
Sorry for the folks who liked and respected him. As you and others say in different words, the work has to exist beyond the people who put it together. If we all liked, or hated, the same things, life would be pretty boring. And horrible people can do some pretty amazing things at times…
Cheers,
Scott.
laura
@catclub:
How many beans is that? I’m guessing a couple few handfuls, give or take.
Tehanu
@Citizen Alan:
I’ve never seen the movie, but because my late dad was a music teacher I contribute to the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, which pays for musical instruments in schools. I don’t think it has anything to do with either the movie’s producers or with Dreyfuss, but even if it did I would still support the foundation.
Soprano2
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Of course she won, she played the Prokovief 3rd concerto! I love that piece. I did love when Dreyfuss’ character showed up the conductor.
Soprano2
@catclub: I’m sure Beethoven was a total asshole. My music history teacher said there are plaques all over Vienna that say “Beethoven lived here” because he kept getting thrown out of apartments. I think it was Vienna, it was a long time ago that i had that class. Mozart was probably hard to live with, but he wrote sublime music. Harlan Ellison said you don’t want to meet your heroes, and that’s probably true.
Soprano2
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Ugh, no kidding. I’m lucky, both of the MSU choir conductors are great people. The previous one was kind of an asshole. He should have retired 10 years before he did.
Ella in New Mexico
What, no talking to an empty chair? Pshaw he’s got nothin on Clint Eastwood.
Ryan
Isn’t this why FDR created Social Security? So we didn’t have to deal with situations like this?