Larry H. Miller, Locally
January 17th, 2006Larry H. Miller “grabbed a microphone” from a local radio reporter when asked if he had anything to say about the cancellation of Brokeback Mountain at one of his theaters. I can think of a few euphemisms, all unfortunate, for Mr. Miller in this instance. Not sure how many people still care about this story, but here are a few links covering the latest:
KUTV’s story featuring Rod Decker reporting. He’s a loud reporter. Pay attention about halfway through the video to the very awesome cowboy vibe Decker is rocking. Killer sweet. KUTV is owned by CBS.
KSL’s story. KSL is owned by the Mormon church. They quote a Survey USA poll, which I believe is located here. If you can’t get the stream to load, Crooks and Liars has the story in Windows Media and QuickTime formats. The also-owned-by-the-Mormons Deseret News has a story about the microphone grabbing incident as well.
I wonder where KSL found those 500 adults. Church rolls? That would be a joke. Mormon readers don’t get your sacred underwear in a wad.
UPDATE: Twink, according to Urban Dictionary.
UPDATE: The not so local ESPN’s take. Thanks Nicole for sending this in. Best part: “…coward and a bigot.”
I’m not surprised at the poll. Anything like that can be made to look one way or another. It’s just like the news and how it’s presented. I doubt anyone will change Larry Miller’s mind either. How sad and pathetic.
Just wait until Underworld 2 comes out. Next to homosexuals, vampires are next on the Conservative Christian’s lists. Oh, and Harry Potter.
And Rob Schneider.
The KSL story reminds me of how much I loathe local news in all its forms.
And it all shows that Larry H. Miller doesn’t even know how to insult people. What the hell is a “twink?”
And Pauly…. Rob Schneider movies should be on EVERYONE’S avoid at all costs list.
In response to Jon Deal: whatever you do, do NOT do a Google image search for “twink”!!!
I’m serious!
I went to the States for 17 days over the Christmas / New Year holidays. Brokeback was not playing in my parents town in South Carolina. I could not find the movie in all of Charleston, which is not small! I just looked, and it is still not there. There has not been anything said in the local media. In SC they just ignore things until it goes away. I live in Germany and Brokeback will not be released here until March 9! It is all very frustrating. I feel like someone is thwarting all my attempts to see this movie!
I too am from a conservative state. I’ve been a fag hag for as long as I can remember. I apparently shine like a beacon to closeted men thinking about coming out.
I say this because the only people I’ve ever known who knew what “twink” meant, who even knew the word, were either openly gay or would come out later.
Somebody get this man his membership card already.
Like Karen, I’m not surprised by the poll results. I don’t think they mean much, though, with a sample base of only 500 people. And as Jon hinted, the pool from which those people were pucked can make a difference (I’m going to guess most Salt Lake City residents don’t mind the film whereas folks from, say, Provo would be more likely to object to it).
And the wording of the question could skew the results. If you’d asked me if Larry Miller was wrong to drop the film, I’d say Jordon Commons is his business and he can run it the way he wants as long as he’s within the law. It’s not like Jordon Commons is the only place that would have shown the film (two or three other places are showing it now, I believe). I’d say this even though I think Miller’s either a homophobe or someone who caves easilly to other homophobes and I’ll avoid patronizing his various businesses in the future because of it.
Anyway, whatever. Miller has businesses in other states (Colorado, for instance) that I’m going to guess will be dinged by this move as well as his businesses in Utah. It’ll be interesting to see how it all pans out.
Claire, Brokeback Mountain has JUST started playing at the Terrace in Charleston, which mostly shows independent and foreign stuff. Doesn’t help you, I know, since you’re back in Germany. But it’s awesome for me.
What did Miller mean by: “I see the attention I’m getting is a lot more positive than negative,” Miller told the Deseret Morning News. “Those on the negative are from outside.” ? Outside of what?
Though I think had this been any other movie that he (Miller) had pulled, there would not have been the same reaction from oh, everyone, I feel it a tad bit hypocrytical.
Live long and prosper frackers!
So, colored peoples are OK but not gay people? Hope there is no gay guys on the Jazz team.
I believe if Mr. Miller had not booked the movie at all in the first place there wouldn’t be near the response.
Every side is always culpable with their hypocrisy. However, if one takes a moral stand, it raises the bar. Mr. Miller has no problem showing hetero sex. So it does appear that he’s got issues with the gay love.
This became a huge story because of those issues, not because of hypocrisy of the critics of Mr. Miller.
Ah! It’s all a money making scheme anyway. As deplorable as Miller is, I’m sure his dollar-sign eyes are raking in the conservative customers. Nothing makes people more loyal than a shared value system.
As to “twinks,” it surprises me that they would refer to a player in an MMORPG. This confirms my suspicions about those RPGers, those hedonistic bastards have gone too far this time!
Seriously though, “Into No Kink” makes no sense. It’s should be “Not Into Kink,” thus making them TWNIKs. This is obviously a failure of our education system.
I can’t believe anyone is actually surprised by his attitude. After all, it’s still illegal in this country for gay men to donate blood or bone marrow. I have a twin sister. She needed blood for an operation. I was the perfect candidate to give blood for the operation. I was denied. Why? Because I am gay. Our blood type is kind of rare. AB+
I still can’t believe a bought a car from that asshole. grrrr.
Totally off this topic, but I was so excited to flip through my Psychology Today issue and see the little column featuring Heather (page 54)!!!
She’s really getting to be so famous now! Congrats!
PS- I still love the picture of her, she looks so gorgeous in it!
Sam, I bought a car from him too. I loathe shopping for and buying cars, and getting one from him left me feeling more dirty than usual. Mark Miller in SLC (no relation, I believe, but I could be wrong) gets all of my service business now.
LM’s dealership still owes me a full tank of gas for purchasing a fairly gasless car. I have so far refused to drive down to the dealership to pick it up. It’s been about three years… Petty, yes, but it’s annoyed the hell out of the dealership which has been calling and writing me letters trying to get me to take the gas from them. It makes me giggle.
Nope, never again. He’s lost my business.
The funny thing is…I had written off Brokeback Mountain as another lame cowboy/hick movie. As soon as I heard that it was about “those two gay cowboys”, I instantly said “I’d like to see that”.
Keeps things interesting, ya know?
I agree with you Jon. If he had chosen to not show the movie at all, this would have been a non-issue. However, because of his actual decision he is showing his lack of tolerance…and his lack of class.
Jon, I wonder — did any of Larry Miller’s theaters show Felicity Huffman’s film, “Transamerica?” Haven’t done any research about it…but figured he would also see that film as too “close to home” for his tastes!
Okay sorry to do this to you Jon, but:
Larry Miller: not funny.
Heather’s post today about you caterwalling in the grocery store: priceless. You DO know she rocks, right?
Not funny? Dude, you just got called out.
But that’s okay. What people don’t get is that you aren’t supposed to be funny, so your swashbuckling blog-momma can play you as the straight man. It’s been a marital device for eons!
One thing that’s I’ve been meaning to ask, do you ever fight over who gets to post what? How did she get the snowboarding and you the bacon?
He didn’t write about the snowboarding because he’s too good at it for there to be any discernable drama.
“We went snowboarding and again I performed flawlessly.”
Tiggerlane, good question. I was wondering the same thing.
Tiggerlane and Laziza…
I doubt Miller’s theaters played Transamerica, anyway. That’s a pretty “high brow/art” film and his places are pretty mainstream.
And on a slightly separate note, our studio blows off an afternoon once or twice a year and we all go see a show. Usually we’d go to The Gateway (a LHM place) since it’s downtown. No more. Not that 16-17 tickets of a matinee (plus popcorn!) will make a huge difference to him, but it’s the thought that counts, I think.
I didn’t mean Jon isn’t funny…I meant Larry Miller isn’t funny. It wasn’t meant to be a call-out or whatever. Just a compliment to Heather. When I said sorry to do this to you, I meant sorry to comment on Heather on Blurbomat. I’m so tired….sorry for not making sense either…
I was just teasing, Karen!
Back on topic, I tried to do a search to see if the Gateway played any other movies of a homosexual nature (i.e. Philadelphia, In & Out, Latter Days, et al.), but the search was fruitless.
I don’t really know why I bothered. Everyone knows Miller’s a hypocrite, so it’s not like it would be news or anything…