Actor Ernest Borgnine's SAG Lifetime Award... and controversy...

I typically will not address Hollywood stories here on Independent Word, since I work on films but I try to keep the politics out of it... since many of the people in industry are more far left leaning or they still harbor resentment over the House of Un-American Activities from the 1950's when many actors, directors and writers were blacklisted.

But, I need to address this one since he is one of my favorite actors and the controversy surrounding him is patently absurd. Actor Ernest Borgnine, one of the last remaining major Hollywood actors of the early days has been in some of the best movies ever made. He won the Best Actor Oscar for Marty, and appeared in classics like From Here to Eternity and The Dirty Dozen, and became a familiar face on television in McHale's Navy. He recently appeared with Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirran in the action/comedy Red.

At the age of 93, he is still working hard and hopes to continue working for many years to come.
After doing films and television for over fifty years, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) is going to present Mr. Borgnine with the Lifetime Achievement Award come this weekend, and hands down, Mr. Borgnine deserves this honor.

The Los Angeles Times thinks differently.  On August 19th, 2010, shortly after SAG announced Mr. Borgnine as the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, the LA Times' insider department, The Envelope which covers the entertainment industry, calls Mr. Borgnine's work ethic as "admirable, but his personal politics are less than laudable..." 

This is of course an obvious attack on the fact that Mr. Borgnine is a conservative and a comment he made back in 2005 concerning director Ang Lee's gay cowboy film Brokeback Mountain starring the late Heath Ledger.

Borgnine commented to Entertainment Weekly at that time, "I didn’t see it and I don’t care to see it. I know they say it’s a good picture, but I don’t care to see it. If John Wayne were alive, he’d be rolling over in his grave!" 

The Los Angeles Times apparently has a problem with Mr. Borgnine's comment there, but they don't have a problem with someone like Benecio del Torro dedicating his BAFTA award he received for playing a fascist like Che Guevara. Its not new news that Che Guevara was a racist and killed thousands of innocent people in Communist Cuba. If someone were to walk down Hollywood Blvd and say they admired Chairman Mao or Adolph Hitler, one might get very upset or possibly attacked or maybe even killed.

However, some Hollywood liberals, like del Torro and Sean Penn contradict themselves so many times in their far-left political belief system, its embarrassing.

All Mr. Borgnine stated at that time is he didn't want to see a film about a sexual relationship between two cowboys. Many people did not want to see that film when it first came out and many people still don't want to see it now! I really do not see why the Los Angeles Times wasted time trying to persuade SAG to change their minds, and they continue to put up a fuss about it.

After all, everyone in Hollywood at one point or another, has made some controversial remark.... the Los Angeles Times, as usual, is promoting a political bias to protect Hollywood, not to help honor a great actor.

So come this Saturday evening at the SAG Awards, here's to you Marty!