Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

People in the News for September 30

Sorry, already! How many times does a controversy-mongering director of violence-prone films have to apologize for one little historical inaccuracy in an old movie? At least twice, it seems. Oliver Stone has delivered a public mea culpa for a scene in "Born on the Fourth of July" -- a 1990 biopic about anti-war activist Ron Kovic -- depicting Syracuse, N.Y., police clubbing students during a protest rally. In fact, they did not. Syracuse cops were so angry that they threatened to sue Universal Studios, which released the film. Stone has already apologized once; he sent a letter to Syracuse cops renouncing the club scene shortly after the film's release. But now that he's in Syracuse promoting his new novel, he's apparently decided that nothing says "I'm sorry" like saying "I'm sorry" seven years after the fact. In that spirit, the Kennedy clan is no doubt eager to see Stone's book tour bring him to Massachusetts.

Briefly

Book trade

Nothing says "thank you for this fine gift" like a rude, self-righteous note. Just ask Paul and Linda McCartney. They had sent German Chancellor Helmut Kohl a copy of their vegetarian cookbook, "Veganissimo." In return, Kohl sent them a copy of his cookbook, "Culinary Excursion Through German Lands." So far, so good, just another pleasant example of cultural exchange through vanity cookbooks. Except that Kohl's volume had recipes for such distinctively (and, one hopes, exclusively) German dishes as sow stomach stuffed with spiced pork -- not destined to be a McCartney family staple. Still, most of us would have accepted Kohl's book as the entirely routine gesture that it was and let it be. Then again, most of us don't have the hubris that goes with once being bigger than Jesus. Kohl's cookbook "is much too full of meat dishes for our tastes," the lost vegans sniffed in a note released by People for the Ethical Whatever of Animals Blah Blah Blah. "We can't help thinking of the unnecessary suffering that must inevitably have taken place for these recipes to reach your plate." Snotty food memos as political propaganda -- it's enough to turn a sow's stomach. It may be a breach of etiquette too large even for pathetic shouts of Oh, please, can't we be friends to heal.

Compiled by Scott Dickensheets

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