Actor Brosnan says Bush 'has a lot to answer for'

[iverglas]

http://www.metronews.ca/reuters_entertainment.asp?id=93542

Tuesday, September 06, 2005 8:47:56 AM ET

By Shiraz Sidhva

DEAUVILLE, France (Hollywood Reporter) - Pierce Brosnan was the only big star on hand as the Deauville Festival of American Cinema got off to a quiet start over the weekend, and he took advantage of the spotlight to blast the Bush administration's handling of the carnage caused by Hurricane Katrina.

"This man called President Bush has a lot to answer for," the former James Bond actor told reporters Saturday. "I don't know if this man is really taking care of America. This government has been shameful."

Huh, unbeknownst to me, Pierce is a tad political:

http://www.gsinstitute.org/archives/000210.shtml

A Message of Hope from Pierce Brosnan

Dear Friends:

When I look into the eyes of my children, I remember why I am committed to working for a safer world, a world without nuclear weapons.

Imagine a world without organizations like the Global Security Institute. Could we survive if the voices of conscience, reason, law, security, and morality, advocating the elimination of nuclear weapons were silenced? Such silence in the face of present dangers is unacceptable.

When our leaders are pressing for preemptive military use of nuclear weapons, resumption of nuclear testing, and the creation of new more “usable” nuclear weapons, clear, competent, morally coherent voices must be heard at the highest levels of power and politics.

I know personally that the Global Security Institute has the expertise, experience, and the political access to move policy and decision makers in the right direction. Please join me in supporting their work with as much generosity as you can afford.

In Peace,

Pierce Brosnan

And I see I'm just a silly foreigner anyhow; he apparently gets invited to vacation with the Clintons, and is involved in environmental causes and supported Grey Davis.

Anyhow, since his statement was made in France, I just figgered it might not get much play in the US media, although the Reuters report has been picked up in a number of other places:
http://news.google.ca/news?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&tab=wn&ncl=http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx%3Ftype%3DentertainmentNews%26storyID%3D2005-09-06T075827Z_01_FOR628617_RTRIDST_0_ENTERTAINMENT-DEAUVILLE-DC.XML

[AspenRose]

1. Woo Hoo! VERY good to hear. I like him.

:applause:

[Dr Fate]

2. Bush= shaken & stirred- GO 007!!!

!!!!

[Arkana]

3. Geez, if Bond's on his ass, then Duhbya better watch it.

:silly:

[defiant1]

4. Nice Pierce....

Kudos....

:toast:

[JoFerret]

5. Bring it on

bring it on. let all voices clamor to the very heavens and may they keep it up.

[Chicago Democrat]

6. Thank yu Pierce!

not bad at all!

[JAbuchan08]

7. Is he by any chance an American citizen

we could use more like him.

[iverglas]

9. must be

His political donations to Democratic candidate(s) are public record. He'd have to be a citizen -- ?

I can't get the danged site to respond, but maybe later:
http://www.newsmeat.com/celebrity_political_donations/Pierce_Brosnan.php

[LostinVA]

15. Yes, he is.

[daninthemoon]

8. Best Bond Ever.

[StellaBlue]

10. Pierce is SO much cooler than Sean Connery!

:applause:

[Jade Fox]

11. I'm starting to really appreciate these celebrities, who don't have to....

check polls constantly, speaking out. Our dear Democrats are so timid.

[Eurobabe]

12. I have loved this man since the O'Manions of America

1981, so yes, that dates me. And I loved every Bond film he's ever been in, and a a gazillion other movies. The only stinker he's done was Emily (I think that was the name, an indy he produced and wrote himself)

He can park his shoes under my bed anytime.

[iverglas]

13. They've got Tom Selleck

... ours is better. ;)

By the way, get hold of "Mr. Johnson" if you haven't seen it.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00000IBTH/002-9621512-5015218?v=glance

British East Africa, 1923. Harry Rudbeck, an ambitious army officer, wants to build a road to bring the outside world to the backwater town where he is posted. Struggling to find ways around Foreign Service bureaucracy, he relies on his resourceful African clerk, Mr. Johnson. But when Johnson's can-do attitude runs afoul of British law, Rudbeck must make a painful decision. The film is deliberately paced, and the topnotch cinematography, art direction, and soundtrack all conspire to immerse you into the sweltering heat of East Africa. Maynard Eziashi gives winning performance as Johnson, a man so intent on becoming important that it destroys him. Like many of director Bruce Beresford's movies, this is a clear-eyed look at the way a collision of two cultures can lead to tragedy. Rudbeck must ultimately face the fact that his own ambition leads to the death of his friend, and Pierce Brosnan (as Rudbeck) and Beresford refuse to sentimentalize the man at all. Among Beresford's films, this is much closer in tone to Breaker Morant than to the kinder, gentler Driving Miss Daisy.

Damned if I can remember the author of the book. But the story is much more subtle than some indignant suggestions of racist portrayals of Africans would have you think.

[genius]

14. Is he eligible to run for Senate in CA?

[LostinVA]

16. Yup, he's a US citizen.

[goforit]

17. 007 always.........Hats off to a great humane human being!!!

[renate]

18. I read somewhere online that he helped a father find his daughter

Not from Katrina--the man's daughter had been missing for years, I think.

I can't remember any of the specifics, and unfortunately even at the time, searching for more details online back when I knew the dad's full name, I only found three Google entries.

Pierce Brosnan was--obviously, and probably to his publicist's dismay--very modest about the whole thing, which means, unfortunately, that since I can't remember the dad's name now, I can't find anything at all about it online. But I definitely remember reading about it and thinking Wow, not just another pretty face AT ALL.

edited to clarify when I first tried googling the story

Update: Okay, I found an article here that says he got his daughter back:
http://groups.msn.com/ABDUCTEDDAUGHTERSHELBY-ll
And here's the link mentioning that Pierce Brosnan was involved in his case (not just serendipitously, as it might seem from the above link):
http://groups.msn.com/AbducteddaughterShelby/_whatsnew.msnw?pgmarket=en-us
(see the October 12, 2003 entry, plus I still can't find the article that I was originally thinking of in which he thanked Pierce for his help)

[Lithos]

19. Woo-hoo!

He always struck me as having a bit of a brain to him. Plus he seems fairly down to earth from the stories people have been saying.

Cool...

L-

[Deja Q]

20. He may be crap as Bond, but as a mouth on legs he's A+++.

:yourock:

[confludemocrat]

21. Have we heard anything like this from leading Democrats? just asking

Been away for a long weekend, but couldn't enjoy it with this disaster of disasters in all phases of our country's various "estates".