50 dumbest people in Hollywood

[opinionista]

The New York Daily News published a list of 50 stars they consider the dumbest in Hollywood. Lindsay Lohan tops it. I thought we could do our own list, just for fun.

This is the NYDN list:

Daily News lists Top 50 Dumbest People in Hollywood
BY JO PIAZZA
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Friday, November 30th 2007, 4:00 AM

And the most contrived list of the week award goes to ...

Entertainment Weekly magazine, which waded through the intellectual wasteland of Los Angeles to create a list of the 50 smartest people in Hollywood, released the list Thursday.

"Knocked Up" creator Judd Apatow leads the brainiac pack, with Ben Affleck holding up the back end at No. 50.

The mag asserts that smart could mean any number of things: "It encompasses book smarts and street smarts, financial genius and emotional intelligence."

Picking through the cerebral corridors of America's most vapid city seems a daunting task.

An easier route: The "Top 50 Dumbest People in Hollywood."

Dumb doesn't necessarily correspond to a low IQ. There are poor life choices, style slipups and mishaps under the influence to take into account.

Topping a highly unscientific Daily News list of the "Dumbest" is Lindsay Lohan. The reason: poor movie choices ("I Know Who Killed Me"), delinquent behavior and bad taste in men.

The rest of the top five:

2. Kim Kardashian - because it is sad when you leak your sex tape and nobody cares.

3. Spencer Pratt - who thinks his life on MTV's "The Hills" is reality - and believes we think so, too.

4. Jeff Kwatinetz - the man that gave the okay for Britney Spears' disastrous MTV Video Music Awards performance.

5. Shia LaBeouf - the 21 year-old "Transformers" star, for getting arrested while refusing to leave a Walgreens pharmacy.

The other "winners":

6. Heidi Montag, reality television star

7. Jessica Simpson, singer

8. Kiefer Sutherland, actor, recurring drunk driver

9. Tori Spelling, former teen actress/daughter of a media mogul

10. Rumer Willis, daughter of two famous people

11. Nick Hogan, son of pro wrestler

12. Courtney Love, aging rock chick, disaster

13. J.R. Rotem, music producer and possible Britney Spears baby daddy

14. Britney Spears, pop star, train wreck

15. Brad Garrett, comedian, paparazzi hater

16. Ken Paves, celebrity hairdresser, hanger-on

17. Jennifer Love Hewitt, actress

18. Brad Womack, indecisive Bachelor

19. Michael Jackson, former singer, mess

20. Cash Warren, celebrity boyfriend

21. Audrina Patridge, "The Hills" star, vapid conversationalist

22. Wilmer Valderamma, actor?

23. Vanessa Minnillo, former VJ, celebrity girlfriend

24. Mel Gibson, actor, drunk driver

25. Michael Richards, comedian, racist

26. Brandon Davis, party boy, racist

27. Isiah Washington, actor, homophobe

28. Charlie Sheen, actor

29. Denise Richards, actress

30. Alec Baldwin, actor, cell phone abuser

31. Chad Michael Murray, serial fiance

32. Steve-O, public nudist

33. Nicole Richie, directionally challenged driver

34. Janice Dickinson, big-mouthed former supermodel

35. Adrienne Curry, reality star and grammatically challenged blogger

36. Anne Heche, self-described crazy person

37. Bai Ling, fashion disaster, C-lister

38. Kevin Federline, serial sperminator

39. Shar Jackson, slept with Kevin Federline

40. Scott Baio, "Charles in Charge"

41. Dustin Diamond, washed-up teen actor and porn star

42. Tila Tequila, reality show bisexual

43. Russell Crowe, phone thrower

44. Kristin Cavallari, not even famous after "Laguna Beach"

45. Nick Carter, Backstreet Boy

46. Vanessa Hudgens, Disney star, nude picture poser

47. Michelle Rodriguez, public nuisance

48. David Hasselhoff, public disaster

49. Joe Francis, Girls Gone Wild creator, inmate

50. Tom Sizemore, probation violator

[email protected]

http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2007/11/30/2007-11-30_daily_news_lists_top_50_dumbest_people_i.html

[David In Indy]

Jessica Simpson. How could it not be? I don't think anyone in Hollywood is as ditzy as her. I still can't get over her "Is this tuna or is it chicken, because it says chicken of the sea on the can" comment. Or what about the time she refused to eat buffalo wings because she "doesn't like buffalo"?

That woman doesn't have the sense God gave an onion.

[delalluvia]

Don't agree with many on the list, some just had bad days.

But it's a sad day when a famously dumb actor doesn't make the list - Stephen Dorf.

[dot-matrix]

These people are all self important, foolish and self indulgent.  Is they didn't court celebrity they would have nothing to show for their pathetic lives.  They are more to be pitied than scorned.

[delalluvia]

There are a lot of dumb people in the world.  But most of them can't really help it.  They are honestly dumb, and so I try not to hold it against them.  I'm sure I'm dumb compared to geniuses, but I hope they don't think I'm insufferable.

What gets to me are people who are willfully stupid.  So my vote goes to Mel Gibson.  He does have intelligence and lots of talent.  I've enjoyed several of his films a great deal.  And that's why it really bothered me when he called that female police officer sugar tits.  She was one of the officers that arrested him for drunk driving, and she was only doing her job and trying to keep the roads safe for all of us, including Mel himself.  I find it very upsetting that he went on to claim in his drunken stupor that Jews were the cause of all wars.  And it really made me mad when he included those homophobic elements in his film Braveheart.  What in the hell was he thinking?  He should know better, right?

Gary

Gibson is a recovering alcoholic.  He's also a jumped-up redneck, basically.  With his family's religious background, I'm not surprised he personally is anti-Jew, chauvinistic and a homophobe.  Most religious fundamentalists are.  That drunk tirade did not come out of nowhere.

As for Braveheart...well, wasn't it Randall Wallace who wrote the screenplay?  While we can speculate Gibson's homophobia influenced the script, the reality is Edward II was likely bisexual (or closeted as he and his wife had several children) and it's probably very likely Edward I didn't like his son's friends and the unsubstantiated rumor that Edward II was executed by having a red-hot iron shoved up his rectum may have more flavored the script than anything else.

[delalluvia]

It's been a while since I've seen the film.  I enjoyed it, but the gay charaters were cast in such a poor light that I've never been able to watch it again.  I recall how the prince and his lover were depicted as prancing nancy boys, and I remember how the prince had a servant walk around with him holding a mirror, so he could admire himself at will,

Well, some gay men can be prancing nancy boys, can't they?  From Wikipedia about Edward II

"It has been hypothesized that Edward's love for "low brow" activities developed because of his overbearing and ruthless father. The prince took part in several Scots campaigns, but despite these martial engagements, "all his father's efforts could not prevent his acquiring the habits of extravagance and frivolity which he retained all through his life...His main interest was in entertainment..."

Edward II 'good friend' was from the French court, which also had a bad reputation as a bunch of vain peacocks, so perhaps the portrayal isn't that far off the mark.

and I remember how the prince's lover was shoved out of a window, and how it was depicted in such a way that it caused the audience to clap and cheer.  I was mortified by the experience, and I wondered if this mob would clap and cheer if I had been shoved out of a window.

It was the audience you saw it with.  The audience I saw it with was appalled and openly gasped and you could hear the sympathetic murmur at the movie character Edward II's tearful, furious reaction against his father's cruelty.

It's true that films, especially films like Braveheart, are collaborative efforts.  But the director is the director.  Gibbson could have read the script and sent it back to the writer and said that he didn't want the gay characters to come across as villains because of their gayness.  And if this one writer couldn't get it right, he could have hired another writer.

Dunno.  Randall Wallace got all the accolades and awards for his script, so if he had help, they weren't mentioned nor ever spoke up.

I remember that Gibbson claimed that he didn't realize that the audience would have that kind of reaction to the prince's lover being shoved out of a window by the king.  And that troubles me.  He was working with a large group of people.  Could they all have failed to realize how hostile the story was toward gay men?  Or were they simply afraid to say something to Gibbson?

Gary         

I remember Gibson's claim as well, he was shocked because it was claimed the scene was a sign of homophobia.  He pointed out - rightly - that the king didn't just kill gay men.  He and his minions killed anyone who stood in their way.  I thought it was a good point.  Why isolate one character's murder and protest it?  There was plenty of killing by this king.

That situation reminds me of the Hollywood habit of killing off the black men in any adventure movie.  It's become so cliche that it was even a humorous line by a black character in a movie 'The brother always gets killed!"  Is that a sign of racial prejudice by the writers/directors? [shrug]

[delalluvia]

Hi Del,

But nevertheless the way in which the gay characters were portrayed in the film Braveheart was deeply and profoundly offensive to me.  And I am hardly the only one who had that reaction.  As I said, I have not been able to watch the film again because of the way these gay characters were portrayed.

BTW, I'm not a big fan of action/adventure films, so I've not seen enough of those kinds of films to notice any kind of pattern in regards to how often black characters get killed.  But in general I would say that Hollywood has not treated black people very well in their films.  I remember when that whole string of highly praised films about inner city life were being talked about.  Films like Boyz In The Hood.  Many of them were very powerful films, but after seeing several of them I began to wonder why is this the only kind of film about black characters being made?  I remember someone, I forget who, but it was a black man, asking why we hardly ever see black people making love in films.  I thought that was a good question.  It might be hard to pick out any specific film and say that it was racist.  But still, it's wrong when a disproportionate number of black people are portrayed as drug addicts and violent drug dealers.  Some black people are drug additcts and violent drug dealers.  But most are neither, and films should reflect that.  Some gay men may be vain and have a tendency to preen a lot, but I'm hardly vain, and I'm kind of a slob, and most of the gay characters I see in films bare little resemblance to me or the gay men I know.  There is something wrong with that.

Gary             

There is definitely something wrong with that, but there are many types of gay men.  Hollywood marches at a glacial pace at showing all types of people.

Look at how women are portrayed in movies.  How recently has it been since a woman has been anything other than a whore/madonna?  A bimbo, eyecandy or victim?

Look at the worst of those - victim.

Women invariably have to suffer and die in horrible ways for the main character - a man - to proceed with the plotline.

e.g. Braveheart.  Lest we forget, Wallace's young wife was strung up like a piece of meat and had her throat slit.

There - you have the sacrificial lamb, the flashpoint, now let's proceed with the important part of the story - the man's story.

I find that and the trend very disturbing.  I imagine most women do.  So that's 50% of any audience right there, but as was pointed out earlier, no one brings this up as a misogynistic portrayal by Gibson.

A representative of the entire half of the human species killed/brutalized over and over simply to give the hero something to do.

Where is the outcry?

Since the majority of literature throughout history and film starts or centers around this type of plot device, there's not a whole lot I can do about it.

You were very disturbed at Braveheart, wondering if the audience would cheer if you got thrown out a window.  I tend to sit there at almost every movie, rather disturbed that no one thinks women shown being victimized is anything other than normal.

 

[delalluvia]

That may be because there aren't very many gay characters.  I just don't see gay characters that often.  Most Hollywood films pretend they don't even exist.  So I'm sure you can imagine how hugely disppointing it is for me when I finally do see one, and he has a servant walking behind him carrying a great big mirror, and the film isn't even a comedy.

Gary       

I believe that is slowly changing Gary, though you may not be any happier about it. 

True equality means the ability to be portrayed as just as good, normal and empowered or just as evil, twisted and pathetic as anyone else.

Tragedy - happy lovers cannot be together and death comes to one or both (Romeo and Juliet, Out of Africa, BBM)

Comedies with gay characters as the 'joke' of the movie has already happened for all of us whether we be gay or straight, female or male

Drama/adventure - happy, loving couple has to be torn apart by violence in order for the hero to have something to do (you've seen what happened to loved ones in Braveheart?  Now imagine that happening in almost every movie where the hero is a gay/bisexual in a relationship).

Drama/social commentary -  happy, loving couple is attacked by bigoted outsiders, but because they are so saintly and stereotyped cannot even speak up in their defense because - well, they're just too nice! (almost any 'family' movie from before the 1960's and The Family Stone)

Action/adventure - married couple with problems, one kills the other with a 'funny' one-liner (gun pointed by hero husband at evil husband's head "Consider this a divorce." BANG!)

 

[oilgun]

I'm with Gary on this one, Mel is one of the worst

An interesting rant about Mel Gibson from a poster at http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=221x39083

[...]
And so we turn to Mel Gibson and his now-undeniable anti-semitism -- and to my next obvious question:

Why didn't anyone care that Gibson has a history of verbally bashing gay people?

Why did it take an attack on Jews to make people see that he's a hater?

Believe me, nothing would give me greater pleasure than to personally deliver a hard kick in the nuts to anyone who says, "Fucking Jews... The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world."

But in truth, that's the worst thing he's ever said openly about Jews -- despite his apologia for his Holocaust-denying father, despite his cinematic portrayal of Jews in "Passion of the Christ" as (to paraphrase Loretta Haggers in "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman") "the people what killed our Lord," despite all the dodging, the weaving, the ducking.

Oh, it's horrible, what he said; there's no denying that. And he's never said anything like "Fucking fags... The queers are responsible for all the AIDS in the world."

But there's also no denying that Gibson is a homophobe of the first water, and always has been.

Now, listen: I am not playing the "my persecution is worse than yours" victim game. As far as I'm concerned, all persecution is equal; when you're the one getting lynched, or burned at the stake, or herded into a gas chamber, your victimhood is 100%. And it doesn't matter if you're gay, or Jewish, or black, or even an Australian in the wrong place at the wrong time when a bomb goes off in an Indonesian pub. You're just as dead as everyone else, and your family is just as destroyed as any other.

You could argue that Jewish persecution has occurred on a larger scale, and you'd be right; e.g., the Nazis gassed some 6 million Jews, and "only" about a million male homosexuals. But persecution is persecution, and dead is dead is dead.

Matt Shepard is just as dead as Anne Frank.

Anne Frank is just as dead as Emmett Till.

Emmett Till is just as dead as Brandon Teena.

And only by the grace of God (or providence) is that 17-year-old Texas boy not as dead as any of them.

Dead is dead is dead.

And hate is hate is hate. And while I can fathom the many reasons for it, I don't think I'll ever be able to accept the fact that the general public just doesn't care much (or at all) when it's the queers who are being bashed, murdered, or verbally assaulted.

Think I'm making too much of this? Fair enough. Let's play the old substitution game: Read the the following statements below, and imagine the speaker is talking about Jews instead of gay people:


"They take it up the ass." (pointing to his own ass) "This is only for taking a shit."


"(W)ith this look, who's going to think I'm gay? It would be hard to take me for someone like that."


"Do I sound like a homosexual? Do I talk like them? Do I move like them?"


(on the above remarks) "I don't think there's an apology necessary, and I'm certainly not giving one. ... If someone wants my opinion, I'll give it. What, am I supposed to lie to them?"


(after GLAAD brought his homophobia to light) "I've been chased by automobiles doing dangerous things on the freeway. People have tried to spit on me. It's made me totally paranoid."


(claiming he had been confronted by a "gay group") "They had signs, they were screaming and frothing at the mouth -- pure hatred. It was wild."

Those are all public statements by Mel Gibson over the years -- when he wasn't drunk.

And I haven't even touched on the way "Braveheart" portrays Edward II as an evil, fey bitch, or the way Eddie's alleged lover was thrown out a window (which is total fiction),  or the way Gibson de-gayed "Man without a Face" or his mincing-faggot "gay barber" schtick in "Bird on a Wire," or.....

But nobody -- besides us uppity homos and our loved ones -- gets upset about things like that. It takes open attacks on Jews (and, in Phelps' case, dead soldiers) for the general public to experience genuine outrage.

In the end, I'm always glad to see any 'phobe, of any stripe, brought down, and I can even be grateful regardless of the means it takes to make it happen.

I just wish that the rest of the world would listen to us when we keep trying to tell them: "This guy is mad. This guy is a hater. This guy may be dangerous."

I grow weary of saying "I told you so." And I don't get any satisfaction out of being right.

[Kd5000]

I don't know if I'd call Gibson dumb. However he would be #1 on my list of Hollywood's biggest bigots.  Who hasn't he offended?

15 worse bigots in Hollywood. M. Gibson and I. Washington would be #1 and #2 and anyone who refused to watch BBM because of the love scenes and that's just for starters