Top Gear - Clarkson contract won't be renewed by BBC. Should there be one rule for talent, one rule for "the rest"?

[Andrew Reid]

 

Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson is to be sacked, bringing to an end a 27 year career with the BBC and an overhaul of the show. A BBC source told The Guardian - "There can’t be one rule for talent and one rule for ordinary human beings".

In 1999 the director David O. Russell head butted George Clooney on the set of Three Kings.

Allegedly Clooney responded by choking O. Russell with his hands around his neck.

That didn't seem to bother the Oscars, when O. Russell's film Silver Linings Playbook was nominated for 8 in 2012.

Read the full article

[mtheory]

The future is here.

 

 

[Lammy]

Gonna have to disagree on this one again.

O Russell and George Clooney and the Producers and Warner Brothers haven't all worked together since. They obviously had wanted to finish the film (whereas other films some talent simply walk away). And there was a 5 year gap for O Russell. 

In this parallel you suggest, yeah it would be nice if Top Gear could finish it's last two recordings with Clarkson as a proper send off.

Christian Bale, while bordering on verbal assault, he never actually punched the Shane Hurlbert and just ranted at him about "unprofessionalism" and the lights lol. 

Let's take this further... the director of Midnight Rider makes good films I think. But do you think that film should have been finished? Nah... him and his crew were idiots.

There's more to life than just appeasing fans and the money train.

 

[mtheory]

During his "5 year gap" David O'Russell put Christopher Nolan in a headlock, choking him until he agreed to release Jude Law from "Prestige". O'Russell then shot and released his film the following year. 

[Andrew Reid]

Statement from the BBC making it official

http://transmission.blogs.topgear.com/2015/03/25/bbc-releases-statement-on-clarkson/

What a bunch of morally posturing white suited little shits.

[Andrew Reid]

Let's take this further... the director of Midnight Rider makes good films I think. But do you think that film should have been finished? Nah... him and his crew were idiots.

​A truly over the top and quite frankly disgusting parallel to draw Lammy.

[Lammy]

 

​A truly over the top and quite frankly disgusting parallel to draw Lammy.

I'm not being entirely disengenius at all when we're talking about criminal  behaviour in the arts. Especially because your article is talking just that.

The question is where do we draw the line? If Clarkson's 20 second physical assault became manslaughter? Yes it matters and I haer to agree that people (no matter how creatively talented) are not above the law because fans like their work.

 

[Rog]

Simple really, the guy twatted somebody therefore he is a twat and should go. "Thow shalt not act like a nob."

[Andrew Reid]

First of all, show me the law that requires your employer to sack you if you have a fight.

It's a matter for the employer, not the law.

Involuntary manslaughter is one thing. A very tragic death is one thing. None of it has anything to do with Clarkson having a stress and alcohol related emotional breakdown due to production issues.

That's the end of that little curve ball Lammy. No more dragging this off topic like you did the last two.

[Andrew Reid]

Simple really, the guy twatted somebody therefore he is a twat and should go. "Thow shalt not act like a nob."

​You do realise don't you that this kind of thinking would exclude a lot of talent from the film and TV industries!!

[horshack]

Nobody should be allowed to keep their job after physically assaulting a coworker. The rest of the discussion is just moral relativism gobbledygook. Clarkson  isn't a scientist inventing a cure for cancer - the world will go on without him, including the careers of the victimized parties.

[Lammy]

Well Clooney and Russell were both willing to beat down each other no question. That works for them.

Clarkson and Piers Morgan were both willing too and I still want to see that charity fight.

Drunk Clarkson and the undefended Producer guy? Naaah that looks bad. Yes I'm too lazy to look for the BBC code of ethics and laws on punching people...

But seriously, what is this article really getting at? O Russell makes new and different films each time and it's not like him or Clarkson is banned for life. Charlie Sheen would be a better example than O Russell. There's still 15 years worth of Top Gear Clarkson to watch and whatever else he makes in the future!

[jhoepffner]

Hello, Sorry for my bad english…

Until now I came every day on your site because you give interesting information on filming. But your pathetic defense of a TV animator is really without interest and make only noise on the net.

I was ignorant of the guy and the program, since then I watched a bit and mama mia, what a lost of time, money, petrol, air! In other places, there is so many interesting people not able to do their second or third film and you say nothing? So many people killed for interesting and generous ideas and you say nothing?

So childish…

And your selfish critic of "political correct" when people have some view on how can work relations between people and you prefer mysoginist, racist behaviors?

That's all for today.

Jacques Hoepffner

 

[Andrew Reid]

Drunk Clarkson and the undefended Producer guy? Naaah that looks bad. Yes I'm too lazy to look for the BBC code of ethics and laws on punching people...

​

I have to wonder, does all this moral posturing make you feel better?

And what have you done to be so defensive about your ethics anyway?

So it's ok for two stars to punch each other then?

I am not condoning any bad behaviour, like I made clear in the blog. It's all wrong. Any kind of physical or verbal abuse is, no matter who does it or where.

It's wrong.

The problem here is that it should have been sorted out as the small spat it was, behind closed doors. Why get lawyers involved, investigations, pandering to the press and Twitter? To be so dramatic and political about it is bad management.

The BBC ride roughshod over what the audience wants time and time again.

It's a split lip. It's not manslaughter. It's not serial sexual assault.

In over a decade the producer and Clarkson had a positive working relationship.

I am sure they will put a token eco-friendly feminist in charge of restructuring a guy's motoring show and ruin it for everyone even more.

I can only hope the current production team and presenters go to Sky.

The BBC ruined F1 coverage and they will now ruin Top Gear.

What do the key players have to say now the news has broken?

Captain Slow - James May...

"Well apparently they have shot him. I’ve only found this out by prising the information out of various BBC sources, nobody has actually told me officially until a few moments ago when they emailed. I don’t really have anything to say about it. It’s a tragedy. I’m sorry that what ought to have been a small incident sorted out easily has turned into something big... I have only known for the past few minutes and if you excuse me I have to write the eBay listing for my Ferrari."

The producer with his swollen lip...

"I respect Lord Hall’s detailed findings and I am grateful to the BBC for their thorough and swift investigation into this very regrettable incident, against a background of intense media interest and speculation.  I’ve worked on Top Gear for almost a decade, a programme I love.  Over that time Jeremy and I had a positive and successful working relationship, making some landmark projects together. He is a unique talent and I am well aware that many will be sorry his involvement in the show should end in this way."

 

This is also worth reading...

"...it’s further evidence of [the BBC's] self-emasculation, its sheepish, apologetic jettisoning of anything that might rile right-thinking viewers or make Hampstead-dwelling licence fee-payers choke on their Ovaltine. With the elbowing aside of JC, we are witnessing not simply the sacking of an employee over a scuffle, but the willingness of a scandal-stung, crisis-ridden BBC to ditch anything that has the whiff of controversy and to bend its knee to the bland, larks-free worldview of the right-on."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/top-gear/11494207/The-dogmatic-liberal-elite-have-finally-kicked-out-Jeremy-Clarkson.-I-hope-theyre-happy.html

[maxotics]

First of all, show me the law that requires your employer to sack you if you have a fight.

It's a matter for the employer, not the law.

Involuntary manslaughter is one thing. A very tragic death is one thing. None of it has anything to do with Clarkson having a stress and alcohol related emotional breakdown due to production issues.

That's the end of that little curve ball Lammy. No more dragging this off topic like you did the last two.

​Yes, the law requires nothing.  Yes, it's a matter for the employer.  But does it (harm) have nothing "to do with Clarkson having ... alcohol related emotional breakdown"?

The only people who would find the BBC's actions completely wrong are those who have never employed others, or been employed in a larger organization for which everyone depend on to put a roof over their head, food in their mouth, send the kids to school (not to mention they want people to focus on THEIR work, not some guys' boorish behavior).  It is a real risk that if they kept him on and he ran someone over while drunk most managers would lose their jobs and many people lose their jobs--not to mention the person he killed.  It's hard to fix things behind closed doors when the other person is harming others in front of a world-wide audience.

Maybe BBC management over-reacted, maybe they didn't.  We'll never know.  TV is a collaborative effort.  It is never all about one person.  Why should he risk everyone's happiness on one man's alcoholic problem which is getting worse, not better?

My 2-cents is they tried as hard as they can to keep the show going.  At some point, you have to draw a line.  How to you reign in a guy who has all the money he wants.  Can get laid by just showing up to the local bar.  Has people who want to be around him everywhere?  Can get invited to the best parties?   

What you want to recognize is this is NO victory for BBC management.  This is a failure for all concerned.  

 

 

[Andrew Reid]

"I’m sorry that what ought to have been a small incident sorted out easily has turned into something big"

Also...

The normal rules of the office 'workplace' do not apply to rock stars.

[justin ジャスティン]

Andrew, I don't really get this issue and all this talk about nanny states and mollycoddling and self-emasculation and the triumph of cowardice over creativity.

yes, you're coming around to the fact that what Clarkson did was unacceptable, but you still seem to think that Clarkson was singled out for something since Clooney or whoever is still working. why do you think Clarkson is being singled out?

with all the ranting, it comes off as slightly unhinged Fox News-esque raging at Political Correctness, which in its essence amounts to "think before you speak". there is no "dogmatic liberal elite" coming for the rights of white men over the age of 30 to say what they want about blacks, women, the French, and automobiles. your concern for the crew seems disingenuous since your biggest bone is approximately "why can't we make the jokes my grandfather used to make?"

[Andrew Reid]

Nobody thinks what this storm has done to the producer.

This incident was something, which after 10 years of working together, he and Clarkson could easily have sorted out man to man over in a couple of days. Clarkson in fact met him in person to apologise and that was accepted.

But the BBC and the press had to barge into it didn't they... And make a massive shit storm out of it.... and shoot him.... and most importantly of all send out that signal that 'Workplace Bullying' is unacceptable. We all know that, but thanks for the lesson in ethics Vicar Hall! The liberal press have been scandalous, painting Clarkson as a figure of pure evil in the UK, as a personal friend of the prime minster they've pulled out all the stops to fan the flames and do a character assassination.

[Andrew Reid]

You must understand this...

It's not rocket science...

 

"Witness how seamlessly all the “Sack Clarkson” commentary moved between saying “You can’t punch your work colleagues" (which is true) to slamming Clarkson for his “xenophobic remarks" (that is, his off-colour jokes) and for "pushing the boundaries of… political correctness”. 

They pose as caring protectors of BBC staff from physical abuse, but in truth the Clarkson-bashers are pursuing a culture war, a moral crusade, against the presenter they love to hate and against the words and ideas he projects from the TV into the little people’s heads. 

Their glee with Clarkson’s sacking is deeply dishonest. Under the cover of supporting the stamping-out of workplace harassment, they've actually instituted a media kangaroo court trying Clarkson for joke crimes. 

Their main interest is not in protecting a BBC producer’s face from Clarkson’s fists — it’s in protecting the public’s ears, and our allegedly putty-like brains, from Clarkson’s words, from his consensus-pricking, fast-car loving, two-fingered salute to modern liberal orthodoxies."

[wondo]

​You do realise don't you that this kind of thinking would exclude a lot of talent from the film and TV industries!!

​sorry andrew, but now you`re really loosing it....

NOBODY needs that kind of "talent" on screen or in the industry.

this is clearly a case where fame went to somebody`s head and made him think that he can get away with everything.

now the bbc told him that this is not the case, bravo!

best,

wondo