Ah, Hollywood

Special consultant for this episode: Liz Allen. Not really, but ...

A coming episode of the acclaimed FX drama “Rescue Me” will tackle what may sound like a far-fetched plot line: that the attacks of Sept. 11 were an “inside job.” The actor who espouses the theories on camera, it turns out, also subscribes to them in real life.

“They’re not discussed a lot in the press,” Daniel Sunjata, the actor who plays Franco Rivera on “Rescue Me,” told reporters at a television press tour last month. He predicted that the episode would be “socio-politically provocative.”

In the episode, Mr. Sunjata’s character delivers a two-minute monologue for a French journalist describing a “neoconservative government effort” to control the world’s oil, drastically increase military spending and “change the definition of pre-emptive attack.” To put it into action, he continues, “what you need is a new Pearl Harbor. That’s what they said they needed.”

Mr. Sunjata surprised some of the TV reporters when he said that he “absolutely, 100 percent” supports the assertion that “9/11 was an inside job.”

Peter Tolan, an executive producer, said Mr. Sunjata is “well read” and has “done a lot of research.”

“Look, obviously not all of us buy in,” he told reporters. “But we went: ‘Wow, that’s interesting, and he’s passionate about it. Let’s use that.’ ”

Yeah. It's "interesting." It's also bat-shit crazy.

Nevertheless, this is modern pop-culture, where TV shows like "Rescue Me" pontificate about a 9/11 inside job, and where movies offer wild speculations on presidential assassinations ("JFK"); yet, the brakes get put on projects that actually have a semblance in reality because they may offend some groups, most recently, and notably, Muslims.

Tom Clancy's novel The Sum of All Fears was significantly altered for the film version by making the baddies neo-Nazis instead of radical Islamists. The show "24" carries disclaimers before episodes air. Frank Miller has difficulty getting "Holy Terror, Batman" to publication. Why? 'Cuz Batman goes after -- GASP! -- al Qaeda.

Remember, legitimate threats and political issues aren't as important as who might be offended by discussion of such.

Posted by Hube at February 3, 2009 03:40 PM | TrackBack