Sean Penn has shown up in New Orleans to save the day!
Spicoli showed up overnight with a boat to personally go rescue stranded children in New Orleans, but the thing sprung a leak and didn't get far.
He's just trying to help out The Children. Why do you hate The Children so much Al? It's a subtle distinction. It's not The Children in general that I feel contempt for, but the 45 year old manchild incompetently trying to commandeer our nation's worst natural disaster for a cheap public relations ploy.
For starters, he's showing up WAY late to be out on this kind of rescue mission, and has no apparent connection to organized rescue efforts. He just showed up with his entourage and a personal photographer with the apparent intent of just wandering around looking for a good photo op.
Did I mention that he shows up for a rescue mission with a PERSONAL PHOTOGRAPHER? Such a person would be not just useless, but obviously a positive hindrance- if your goal was helping out hurricane victims. Of course, if your goal was just to put on an act for the cameras and convince everyone that you're a HERO, this deal makes more sense.
You can easily imagine the photo that he was hoping for. Imagine Sean Penn standing in a boat with a Jesus look on his face, cradling a freshly rescued dirty, wet and miserable child lovingly in his arms- preferably a brown or black one.
Instead, the boat sprang a leak near immediately, and the image we end up with is Penn with his little red plastic cup frantically trying to bail the water out of his toy boat.
On the plus side, at least no real emergency response crews had to stop their work to go rescue the little boy out playing "hero" in the water.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - DJ Ham
So many of the Hollywood celebs' social concerns are fueled by a desire for self-promotion (i.e. photo ops, news clips, etc), and this is yet another example. Sean Penn blunders down there "looking for children." Why not set out to rescue anyone he finds? Oh...wait...children are MUCH better for publicity purposes! And look at that boat! It's a small hunting boat! He would barely be able to fit a few children in there! What did he seriously expect to accomplish in that little thing so many days after most people have been evacuated and professional rescue operations are firmly underway? And a personal photographer in tow? This is so clearly a publicity stunt it isn't even funny. (Though it is terribly funny to see Penn bail out his boat with a small cup)
It's sickening that Penn, an activist for various social causes, uses the death and pain of others to shamelessly promote himself for a photo-op for the public. His reckless attempted "rescue" was not about saving others as it was about his career and social standing. That is sick, and I lost even more respect for Penn. While the state, local, and federal government might have been too slow responding to the crisis, Penn's disingenuous response is the most morally depraved of them all.
2 - Al Barger
DJ Ham, thanks for the thoughtful comments, but I have to disagree with this part: "This is so clearly a publicity stunt it isn't even funny." Au contraire, this is certainly the funniest thing I've seen in a while.
3 - Black Met
Is that bullet proof vest he's wearing? What a freakin' dork...
I wonder how many refugees he plans to house in his LA mansion for the next six months?
Where are the looter/snipers when you REALLY need one?
4 - Al Barger
Woo-wee there, Black Met, you're more hardcore than me. If'n I was wandering around what's left of New Orleans, he'd just need a rotten tomatoe proof vest.
5 - ALEX
AND...just maybe he really does care and wanted to actually do something instead of most of the couch potatoes in this country. You know how much $$$ he has given so far to this cause? Me neither, he not tooting his horn like Celine Dion.
6 - RedTard
While it is a little bit over the top I have wondered myself why more personal watercraft have not been seen in the rescue effort.
There are probably tens or hundreds of thousands of boats, including ones designed to navigate shallow waters, in the area. I was quite surprised that I haven't seen many of them assisting in the rescue effort.
There may be some perfectly reasonable explanation though. Too much debris in the way, etc.
7 - Dan
He's just now getting there? What a sick twisted racist. If it were little white children needing rescued, he would have gone in days ago. And brought a bigger boat. But I guess he thinks black children only deserve a dilapidated, leaky dingy.
8 - uao
This is pretty funny, Al.
Well, he got his picture out now.
Had it not been for the personal photographer, I would've given him the benefit of the doubt. Might not be a smart idea, but if he was sufficiently moved that he felt he just had to do something hands-on, then swell. He woulda gotten photographed anyway; there's no shortage of cameras there now.
But the personal photographer was an idea that deserved to spring a leak.
9 - Al Barger
Dan, you're quite the wit today.
Alex, he's not tooting his horn? Did you miss the part about the personal photographer?
10 - Carl
I thought he was in Iran. At least this photo wasn't accompanied by an inarticulate Kanye-like "I went shopping first" rant. How disconnected from reality are these guys?
It's more clear to me than ever that becoming a millionaire without earning it has serious psychological ramifications that require serious study - if we could ever get a statistically signinficant sample of such people (pro athletes, "recording artists", tv and movie stars, Enron executives, etc.)
11 - Matthew T. Sussman
Penn sure does look like an attention whore.
BUT, he did save lives, and like I've said in the past from the "other" side, now's no time to care about political favoritism when it comes to helping out.
BUT, how many other rescuers are getting front page news?
12 - RedTard
Carl,
I think you are onto something, but you forgot the largest group of non-earning millionaires. People who inherit their fortunes. This country needs to keep taxes on earners low and bring back high estate taxes.
13 - Anthony Grande
I wish his boat wouldn't have sprung a leak and he would have gotten there. So someone could have shot at him so he would know what it feels like to get shot at by the same people he is trying to rescue.
14 - Tan The Man
Good point Matt.
15 - Pam
Is there a blog on Celine Dion so I can rant on and on about how utterly dumb and ridiculous she looked on Larry King Live, waving her arms wildly, crying and talking about how "these poor people have never touched a big screen TV, so let them touch one"??? Does anyone think that if a band of roving looters knocked on her door and asked to touch HER TV, they'd be welcomed in with a smile? Am I the only one who noticed that she mentioned her million dollar donation NUMEROUS times? How altruistic and wonderfully heartwarming you are, Celine. Now I know why she picked that butt ugly backwards zoot suit a while back ... she IS just plain stupid.
I think it's sickening and reprehensible, these celebs and politicians who shamelessly use the suffering of others to get their faces in the media, pretending to be concerned about the poor people.
I agree. Where's a looter when you need one?
16 - DrPat
This is Celine Dion's Official Website.
Then there's Celine Dion USA, Celine Dion Magazine...
17 - John Bil
Redtard is a commie. I hope him and Sean Penn get looted.
18 - Tim Howe
Oh come on, I know this will fall on deaf ears, but give the guy a break...it is very easy to forget to plug up the bailer on his boat and then once that problem hits ya - its way hard to remember how to start the outboard - way hard! (I live on a boat - I often understand the cascading efects of water problems - though ending up with a cup in your hand means immediate trouble - yo) Your not gonna be getting an ironic remark for me...I applaud his desire (NO you know) and his heart...He went there with good intentions but ...it seems more interesting to wonder what is he gonna do next? Are smart ass comments from the media darlings and partisans gonna make him stop what he has started? There is Still a LOT you could do with that skiff in that town. Is he gonna stick? If he does Ill applaud him truly and sincerely. (Well, I already applaud him for giving it a try - no one should criticize who hasnt done it themselves) Wanting to muck around in very polluted waters is very, very unpleasent (and this is from someone who used to be involved in the annual `round- manhattan' swim, the east river is perrier compared to week left over flood water) There seems to be a bunch of people who are staying and any boat will be handy for the next couple of weeks or so...so theres a lot of good he can do...thousands of people have died down there....thousands... I hope he can take the ridicule and the beating he's a-taking (is there a joke yet?) and respond in the only way he should, by sucking it up and heading back out to help those `children' and their folks... Hope he does.
Tim
19 - billy
communism died a generation ago, shows how out of touch your typical republican is, they are still afraid of commie boogeymen. but why cap on penn, hes trying to help, why call kanye west a racist? he helped raise 30 million. these people are doing the right thing, helping americans. i guess that is foreign to rtepublicans, they prefer to help iraqis.
20 - Cerulean
If surliness could rescue children, this thread alone could lift a hundred into safety.
I agree Tim Howe and Billy.
Sean Penn went down there to try and help and that's a damn sight better then sitting around critiquing.
This weekend two Duke University students with fake press credentials rescued seven strangers in their Hyndai. [Per Fox News]
21 - RJ
If he had left the personal photographer off the boat, couldn't he have fit another desperate, starving child onboard?
YES...
So why did he have a personal photographer onboard?
Take a wild guess...
(FWIW, his parents were Communists, with the big "C"...)
22 - Gary
At least he tried to do something.
He should bring a photographer to further document the blundering rescue effort.
Why wasn't he there earlier? Maybe he thought, like most, that our govt. could handle this. Over a week has gone by and there are still more to be rescued.
Bottom Line: If Bush took care of things properly you wouldn't have to see Sean Penn in a bass boat at all.
23 - cam
What would you have wanted Bush to do? Send in the national guard while it was still a category one and wait for them to caught in the hurricane too. Its easy to call out mistakes after something happens but Bush been faced with many obstacles in his presidency and I am sure that he will handle things well.
24 - cam
Sean Penn has had this coming to him for a long time. He has some nerve to make rescuing children into a photo opportunity. Maybe we will get lucky and he will try to rescue on of those roaming gangs.
25 - sicboy
He has the means, and the motivation to do something positive. Why put him down for that? Maybe he's not trained in urban search and rescue, but I am, and had absolutely no desire to go there. I think that makes him a better man than me.