[tomdkat]

Originally Posted by piratehunter

Why can’t it be both? Why is it wrong to wonder or worry that nude stills might damage someone’s career? If you want to continue to see that person work, why not be concerned?

In this specific case (Natalie Portman), that concern is completely unrealistic and almost laughable. Taking a step back and looking at it from a more general standpoint, you have no reason to "worry" unless that person's career has already shown signs of being shaky. Those signs should be evident (kinds of roles being landed, frequency of roles, etc). At the very least, your worry about something that's not an issue could be considered mis-placed, at the very least, and possibly paranoid at the very worst. In either case, it's inappropriate given the nature of your "relationship" with the person in question. Your concern has nothing to do with their work and while you want to raise the possibility of them not working as a result, that really doesn't work to legitimize your concern, especially since we've been talking about fair big names thus far.

The difference between the two "kinds" of concern I illustrate above is appropriateness. One concern focuses on the actor's work and the other focuses on the actor, which makes it personal. Why, because the focus is on a person, the actor.

This is where I think the misunderstanding lies. My concern is not the same concern family or friends would feel.

But it is. Ok, I don't necessarily mean literally since I don't know any actor's family feels about them or their work but things you're expressing concern about are clearly the kinds of things family and personal friends would be concerned about. I'm not equating your feelings and concerns with the actual feelings and concerns (if any) with the actor's family but you're definitely in that arena, which I feel is inappropriate for fans.

[quoet]My concern is for the actor, their career and the idea of have of that person (from articles, etc).[/quote]Obviously, this is true which is why I keep saying you're concern is more on a personal level than it really should be, at least IMO. Again, I fully respect your opinion even though I disagree with it and I'm not saying you should change your view.

but for other actors I’m solely concerned that a misstep could cause them to work less or get less quality roles. That’s all.

I understand that. That doesn't change the nature of your concern and doesn't change my position.

It’s the same concern I have when I don’t see Timothy Hutton working. I wonder why he’s not working as much and what caused the lack of work, etc, etc.

Maybe he's chosn not to work in a while. That's his business and none of ours.

How is that outside the sphere of fandom? As someone who has been part of the “business” and is working to get back into the business, these hypothetical/ theoretical/real situations, are of interest to me. I could very well be faced with some of these situations, so I see no reason not to look into them. Even for “casual fans,” these subjects can be of “normal” interest because human beings are always curious about other human beings.

They are outside the sphere of fandom because they aren't related to what it is that caused you to be a fan in the first place: their work. The only hypothetical possibility that has been raised in this thread is the impact of stills from a nude scene being posted on the Internet causing "damage" to one's career. The possiblity of that helping one's career hasn't been raised. Interesting. Casual fans who are male want to see naked female celebs. This is something we all know, so nude pics won't steer these guys away. Casual fans who are female will shake their heads at the males drooling over the pics and say, "Men " and send out more "men are idiots" joke e-mail messages.

I see where you're heading but it's just too thin for me.

I agree, but I am not one of these fans. If an actor or filmmaker did something I didn’t agree with or that hurt their career, scorn is the last thing they’d get from me. There seems to be this need to tear down celebrities and I am no party to that.

Really? I didn't get the impression in this thread. You stated DeNiro was a "bad example" because you knew what kind of card he had.

Again, this is where I think the confusion is. I feel like you guys are projecting onto me and making my “concern” more than it is.

We're just responding to what you're posting here.

Peace...