The way Ms. Foster has lived her entire life with integrity and anonymity is why I was thrilled that she was honored Sunday night with the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award at the Golden Globe Awards.
Her speech reminded me of why she has been fiercely, rabidly private throughout her 47 years in public life (she started out in show business at age three in as a model for an advertisement).
I thought La Foster was supremely true to herself in her speech and everything about her appearance on Sunday night to receive the accolades of her peers on Sunday night. The fact that she had that hateful, irate Mel Gibson sitting beside her (he snarled throughout the ceremony) at her table made me adore her all the more (although I despise him). She is true to her friends. And I also thought it interesting that for this distinguished ceremony she chose to be there with her at her table two of her friends who are also two of the most controversial men in Hollywood: Mel Gibson (is he ever happy anymore or just pissed off and angry?) and Robert Downey Jr.
And she had her two beautiful sons with her at the ceremony on view for the cameras, another way in which she "came out" because she has always sheltered them from the public eye.
She is true to herself, always has been. And that to me is one of the most integritous qualities in the world.
There have been few like her in the world who have been fiercely brave and also honest to her aspirations, standards, and lifestyle, at least of those people from my generation (I, like Ms. Foster, am 50).
Maybe she is the way she is because she started so very young in the public spotlight. And maybe, having a stalker who is obsessed with you whilst you're in college and then tries to assassinate President Reagan as a demonstration of his love, compounded by the fact that you're gay and the entire world is obsessing over your sexual preference during your teens, twenties, thirties, etc. (imagine how that would feel to be on such public display?)
I think that she did in fact, come out officially as gay in her Golden Globe speech and I thought she did it brilliantly. And she did it in her on smart ass, intelligent, and fuck you kind of way. ("I am Single!") Typical Tiger, no? (as in Chinese Birth Year of the Tiger: 1962)
Didn't we all know that Anderson Cooper was gay for all these years before he quietly announced it last year? Even he was equally blithe as Jodie in his statement (because they've both been "out" for so long, without saying it to a billion viewers on tv....which is what I think Jodie was trying to comment about Sunday night).
I admire her for the way she has bravely lived her life. And I admire her for her long, remarkable and distinguished career (as well as putting herself through Yale).
Liz Smith, the iconic news columnist, wrote a similar summary about La Foster's brilliant and emotional speech. Read it here:
If you missed Ms. Foster's speech here it is:
As an aside, I was THRILLED that Ben Affleck and his film Argo won the 2013 Golden Globe awards for Best Director and Best Film, respectively.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment