At this point, I’m all for shutting down the publicity tour for The Avengers: Age of Ultron. Failing that, just send out Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo and… James Spader, I guess. Spader has been nowhere during the tour and we’ve seen too much of Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. RDJ has actually fallen fast and hard in public esteem in the past week. The first incident was when he walked out of an interview with Krishnan Guru-Murthy (an incident in which I defended RDJ). The second incident was where RDJ threw some majorly racism-tinged shade at Alejandro Inarritu. An incident that has no defense: RDJ was just a douchebag in that moment, and he still hasn’t really explained, apologized or clarified.
So, what’s new? RDJ appeared on Howard Stern’s SiriusXM show yesterday to shill Ultron. They ended up discussing the Guru-Murthy interview – RDJ doesn’t apologize for walking out. In fact, he says “I just wish I’d left sooner.” More from the interview:
“I’m one of those guys who I’m always assuming the social decorum is in play, and that we’re promoting a superhero movie, a lot of kids are going to see it, and that just has nothing to do with your creepy dark agenda.”
Downey didn’t like the dark turn the interview took, though, and explained to Stern he hated “feeling all of the sudden ashamed and obligated to accommodate your weirdo s–t.” He also pretended to address Guru-Murthy, saying, “You know what? You are a bottom-feeding muckraker.”
Stern pointed out that asking the now-sober star about a touchy topic in his past seemed unnecessary. “It’s not like you’re running for president,” quipped the shock jock.
As Downey noted, though, “the assumption is that there’s a button that because you’ve sat down [for an interview] there you’re going to be scrutinized like you’re a kiddy fiddler who’s running for mayor. What I have to do in the future is give myself permission to say, ‘That is more than likely a syphilitic parasite and I need to distance myself from this clown’. Otherwise I’m probably gonna put hands on this clown and then there’s a real story!”
Eh. I defended RDJ initially because the way Krishnan Guru-Murthy went personal so quickly was creepy and awkward, and if a celebrity (or anyone else) isn’t comfortable, they should just say “no comment” or walk away. That’s still how I feel, although now I’m uncomfortable with the way RDJ is going after Guru-Murthy – the journalist isn’t a “bottom-feeding muckraker” or a “syphilitic parasite”. Guru-Murthy asked some awkward questions but it was nothing that RDJ hadn’t discussed before in previous interviews, and Guru-Murthy is not a terrible human being for, you know, DOING HIS JOB. Incidentally, over the weekend Guru-Murthy wrote a piece for The Guardian telling his side of the story – go here to read.
And here’s audio of Stern’s interview with RDJ. He also talked about running into his ex-girlfriend Sarah Jessica Parker, and why he ended up pulling out of Gravity a few years ago (he hated the space simulator). Beware: NSFW language.
Photos courtesy of Instagram, Fame/Flynet and WENN.
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