speech and respect - College of Social Sciences and International ...

Notes
In an ironic footnote to the Skokie case, a California court upheld an
information charging a Jewish Defense League member with solicitation
to murder by addressing a Los Angeles press conference five weeks
before the planned march and offering $500 to anyone "who kills,
maims, or seriously injures a member of the American Nazi Party."
People v. Rubin, 96 Cal. App. 3d 968, 158 Cal.Rptr. 488 (1979), cert,
denied, 449 U.S. 821 (1980).
73 New York Times B1 (February 21, 1992); Pileggi (1986). James Caan
appeared at the 1985 trial of Carmine Persico and publicly kissed him on
the cheek. "I would never deny that my friend is my friend. Where's the
morality in that?" In 1992 Caan pledged his house as collateral for the
release of Ronald A. Lorenzo, charged with cocaine trafficking, robberies,
and kidnappings. He had met Lorenzo 15 years earlier during the
filming of "Chapter Two" and now calls him his "best friend." Los
Angeles Times F1 (September 30, 1992). After Lorenzo was convicted, a
juror commented that it was "a little ironic, this guy in the 'Godfather'
movie testifying here." Los Angeles Times B1 (October 16, 1992). Caan
received favourable reviews for his latest role as the big-time gambler
who loses the girl in "Honeymoon in Vegas."
There are endless examples of post-modernist confusion between
image and "reality," including Quayle's attack on "Murphy Brown" and
Perot's on "Doogie Hawser." The cast of "L.A. Law" are invited to
address lawyers on the fine points of advocacy and legal secretaries on
sexual harassment in the office. Dana Carvey's impersonation of Bush on
"Saturday Night Live" led to an invitation to the White House and a
request by the President's speechwriter for hints about Bush's mannerisms.
New York Times s.2 p.20 (August 16, 1992). Seeking to publicise a
movie in the 1930s, a producer hired a $5 a day extra, dressed her in
black, and sent her to the statue of Rudolph Valentino in Hollywood,
telling the press she mourned his death every year. Enjoying the attention,
she returned the following year, only to encounter a rival. Now, almost
60 years later, several women still appear annually, each accusing the
others of seeking publicity; they sometimes fight, grabbing each other's
veils and bouquets. Los Angeles Times B1 (August 17, 1992). Ozzy
Osboume maintained: "All the stuff on stage, the craziness, it's all just a
role that I play, my work. The closest I ever came to witchcraft is a Ouija
board. And believe it or not, I can't even watch slash films." New York
Times B1 (September 23, 1992).
Viewers might have been forgiven some scepticism when Woody Allen
denied any similarities between his personal life and "Husbands and
Wives": "Movies are fiction. The plots of my movies don't have any
relationship to my life." Defending his relationship to Mia Farrow's
adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn, Allen told Time: "The heart wants
what it wants. There's no logic to those things." In the film he says about
his relationship to Rain, a college student the same age as Soon-Yi, "my
heart does not know from logic." Conflating man and auteur, audiences
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