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67 thoughts on “Tilda Swinton”

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  • John Goss

    Поздравляю с Днём Рождения!
    .
    Is it to do with ‘We need to talk about Kevin’ that will create hate, or the fact that she is wearing a scarf supporting Palestine? There won’t be much, if any, hate on your blog.

  • craig Post author

    John,

    I didn’t mean from this blog. Anyone in Hollywood who supports Palestine is going to be given a very nasty time and is (I am sure bravely and knowingly in this instance) going to suffer serious career damage.

  • Jon

    Happy birthday Craig, and well done Ms. Swinton. I expect Craig is right about the Israeli-firsters, but I continue (naively I am sure) to find such behaviour perplexing. In the long-term, does it not act hugely *against* Israel’s security and viability?
    .
    I am somewhat hoping however that Tilda is sufficiently recognised as an established and serious actor that avoiding casting her would just be akin to shooting ones own production company in the foot. Indeed, I wonder if they would shun a De Niro or a Pacino if they were to come out in support of Palestine? It’s a moderate enough position…

  • John Goss

    Taking political stances is important for actors and actresses. It shows the stern stuff people like Tilda Swinton, Vanessa Redgrave, Tony Booth and Glenda Jackson are made of and it enhances their profile in the minds of many, though perhaps not many minds in Hollywood.

  • mary

    Many happy returns Craig and bravo to Tilda Swinton for her stand with the Palestinians. Both of you are one-offs.
    .
    Her birthday is close to yours. I wonder if she is related to Arthur Balfour in which case she might see her stand as making amends.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilda_Swinton

    I do not believe in astrology but wonder how close this is to Craig who is a Libra! {http://www.kellystarsigns.com/starsigns/libra.aspx}

  • Nextus

    Expect Ms Swinton to appear in more “independent” films and stage plays from now on …
    .
    I’m reminded of the Woody Allen film “The Front”, about the Hollywood blacklist. Woody’s character makes a living by posing as a screen-writer, getting a commission for submitting work written by people who were blacklisted. Eventually, he is so offended by the injustice that he takes a moral stand; and then predictably takes a fall. Many of the people involved in the film (including the inimitable Zero Mostel) were actually blacklisted. It was a government-backed McCarthyite phenomenon back then; now it’s all about curtsying to financiers – many of whom have overt Israeli allegiances. Does anyone know of any screen stars who have been shunned due to Palestinian sympathies?
    .
    Many happy returns, Craig!

  • ingo

    Tilda Swinton is made of sterner stuff, she would have thought about the implications of nailing your colours to the mast, good on her.

    Happy birthday Craig, enjoy!

  • Courtenay Barnett

    @John Goss:-

    John,

    “Taking political stances is important for actors and actresses.”

    Also for some lawyers too. The good lady is perfectly entitled to stand for what she sees as a just cause. Following on from that, I find myself in greater and greater disbelief at the cyncical abuse of power in the world. There are the clear and well known instances of the abuses directed against the Palestinian people – the Nabka; the Apartheid wall; the settlements built beyond the 1967 borders etc. Yet, in a world where we happily embrace, support, and fund “humanitarian wars” – does any mass killings and inhumanities across the globe really shock us anymore (E.G. HAS ANYONE HEARD OF THE MASS DEATHS IN THE CONGO?):-

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4evwAMIh4Y

    PEACE!

  • Herbie

    Up until around twenty years or so ago any human being worth the name would have borne witness to the grotesque suffering of the Palestinian people as a human duty and without much fear of rebuke.
    .
    Humanity hasn’t changed much in the meantime, but what has changed is the power of the neocon and pro-Israeli lobby to ensure any and all criticism of Israel or favour for the Palestinian plight is nipped in the bud.
    .
    Even whilst peoples feelings haven’t changed. they’re now afraid to voice them openly. They’ve seen what happened to others who spoke out.
    .
    Look what happened to poor old Tony Bennett recently!
    .
    We can but hope that this fascism is coming to an end, as people now challenge its gangsters in every financial centre across the planet.
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    A perfect storm is brewing.
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    And without the connivance of the major media organisations the rise of these fascist elites would not have been possible. Let’s not forget that.
    .
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr1s_wxN0qQ&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=AVGxdCwVVULXdZFzC7iDHw4CRjB3sPvF8o

  • John Goss

    Courtenay, it makes you wonder if any of the facts on which NATO goes to war has basis in truth!

  • glenn

    [Repost – nothing happened on last attempt]

    Just in case anyone missed it, even art from Palestinian children is The Enemy and must be stopped. An exhibition of same was due to be displayed in San Francisco, until objections from the usual suspects apparently became overwhelming for the hosts.
    .
    http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-09-10/bay-area/30138074_1_oakland-museum-museum-board-member-exhibit
    .
    In yet another success for censorship, an ad campaign with the message, “Israeli war crimes – your tax dollars at work!” was banned in Seattle:
    .
    http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/King-Co-feared-terrorism-if-Israeli-War-Crimes-1012927.php?source=rss
    .
    The notion that Israelis could be anything except innocent victims must not be allowed to trouble the American people. (Or anyone else if they continue to get their way.)
    .
    [Mod: Glenn, it’s the “Two Links” rule! I’ll delete the other, it’s identical.]

  • havantaclu

    Courtenay – we don’t hear about these things because it isn’t in some people’s interests that we should do so e.g. the Congo. For example, I knew about Southern Sudan as far back as 1965, but no-one took any interest until the possibility of controlling a new country with rich mineral resources came apparent.

    Bravo to Tilda! She’s put herself, very bravely, in the line of fire of far too many vested interests here.

  • Iain Orr

    Craig

    As a birthday tribute to a friend who both studies and makes history, here are a selection of 17 October events before and after 1958 to which you, your familiy and friends might also wish to raise a glass (with cheers or sighs as appropriate). I’ve included enough to ensure that the bottle gets emptied.

    On 17 October 539 BC – King Cyrus The Great of Persia marches into Babylon and issues what has been called the first Human Rights Declaration (but see also http://tinyurl.com/y9k6ek5 )
    1346 Battle of Neville’s Cross: King David II of Scotland is captured by Edward III at Calais, and imprisoned in the Tower of London for eleven years.
    1492 Columbus sights isle of San Salvador.
    1604 Kepler’s Star: German astronomer Johannes Kepler observes that an exceptionally bright star had suddenly appeared in the constellation. Ophiuchus, which turned out to be the last supernova to have been observed in our own galaxy, the Milky Way.
    1660 The Nine Regicides, the men who signed Charles I’s death warrant, are hung, drawn and quartered; another is, in simpler fashion, simply hung.
    1662 Charles II sells Dunkirk to the French.
    1777 General Burgoyne surrenders at Saratoga, NY
    1781 Cornwallis defeated at Yorktown
    1787 Black Bostonians petition legislature for equal school facilities
    1805 Napoleon breaks camp at Boulogne, proceeds by forced marches into Germany, forces the surrender October 17 at Ulm of a 30,000-man Austrian army under Baron Karl Mack von Leiberich and caps the victory by taking Vienna
    1806 Former leader of the Haitian Revolution, Emperor Jacques I, assassinated
    1850 James Young obtains a patent for the extraction of paraffin from shale, the beginning of the paraffin industry in West Lothian
    1854 The Australian newspaper The Age, is published in Melbourne
    1855 Bessemer steelmaking process patented
    1860 The Open Championship first held, in St Andrews.
    1907 Guglielmo Marconi’s company begins the first commercial transatlantic wireless service between Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada and Clifden, Ireland.
    1912 Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia declare war on the Ottoman Empire, joining Montenegro in the First Balkan War.
    1917 First British bombing of Germany in World War I.
    1917 First train over the Quebec Bridge over the St. Lawrence. This was constructed by the Dominion Government for use by the National Transcontinental Railway. The bridge fell down twice during construction: On August 29, 1907 the south cantilever arm collapsed killing 65 or more workmen.
    1918 Yugoslavia proclaims itself a republic
    1931 Al Capone convicted of income tax evasion.
    1933 Albert Einstein arrives in the US, a refugee from Nazi Germany
    1937 Huey, Dewey and Louie, Donald Duck’s three almost identical nephews, first appear in a newspaper comic strip.
    1941 First US destroyer (Kearney) torpedoed in WW II, off Iceland
    1945 Juan Peron becomes dictator of Argentina
    1956 UK’s first large scale nuclear power station, Calder Hall, opens
    1957 Albert Camus awarded Nobel Prize for Literature
    1961 MOMA NY hangs Matisse’s “Le Bateau” upside-down(corrected 3 December).
    1968 Olympics Black Power salute by Tommie Smith and John Carlos.
    1979 1,800 Marines land in Guantanamo Bay as a demonstration of naval power in the wake of the Soviet refusal to withdraw the USSR combat brigade in Cuba.
    1979 Mother Teresa awarded Nobel Peace Prize.
    1981 Number one on UK charts – Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin – It’s My Party
    1987 Number one hit UK charts – Bee Gees – You Win Again
    2000 Train crash at Hatfield, leading to collapse of Railtrack.
    2006 US population reaches 300 million.
    2009 President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives holds the world’s first underwater Cabinet meeting, to highlight the threat of global warming.

  • Courtenay Barnett

    @ Craig,

    At your advancing age ( like mine – on 4th October) – a good piece of advice is to pick an age and stick with it. If you don’t go about it this way, then each year you will find yourself having to add a number – then you will age.

    Having shared the secret of perpetual youth – that’s my gift – and – HAPPY BITHDAY.

    Courtenay

  • Courtenay Barnett

    @ John,

    “Courtenay, it makes you wonder if any of the facts on which NATO goes to war has basis in truth!”

    Going from memory:-

    – The ship blown up in Havana harbour ( Cuba)
    – President Johnson forgetting the international date line and announcing the attack on the vessel in the Bay of Tong Kin staged incident ( Vietnam)
    – The Colin Powell WMDs statement to the Security Council ( Iraq)
    – The lies about 6,000 killed by Gadafffi, rapes, attacks across the country, bombing from planes etc. ( Libya)

    On the last note, the “humanitarian war” – what I find both tragic and ironic, is the fact that Sirte and other cities have been bombed by NATO to assist their chosen ones consolidate power, and civilians have been the majority victims of the bombing. Gadaffi never did the bombing that it was announced to the world he had done – but NATO comes on and does precisely to civilians what it had lied about – saying Gadaffi was bombing. So, what international law; what ICC ( having issues warrants with absolutely no supportive facts); what humantarian laws; what justice from whom to whom? Now – ain’t dat some shit?

  • Jack

    John Goss – “…it enhances their profile in the minds of many, though perhaps not many minds in Hollywood.”
    .
    They have minds in Hollywood??? Not judging by much of the dross they’re churning out these days, which says little for Hollywood and less for the the viewing public who tolerate it. If I were Ms Swinton I wouldn’t lose much sleep over anyone who can’t grasp that she is one of those actors whose presence in a movie almost guarantees – for many of us – a certain minimum standard. For many, that’s what stardom means, as opposed to most ‘stars’ who have little talent other than a high profile in gossip colums.
    .
    In any case, Hollywood not only isn’t the centre of the world – it’s not even the centre of the quality movie industry any more. They’re producing better movies these days in … well, almost everywhere!

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