Furthermore, he clearly believed his personal Facebook page was a semi-private space. But I’ll say this: I believe David meant his unfunny butter joke to be puckish and harmless, and sincerely did not understand why many people would find it offensive. I’m not going to serve as a character witness, nor deliver some kind of “Brutus is an honorable man” speech. We’ve been in innumerable screening rooms together, and participated in the secretive (but highly non-thrilling) awards vote at the New York Film Critics Circle. I was a film critic for Salon for years, in between stints as an editor. First of all: I know David Edelstein and we’ve always had a cordial relationship, although we’re not close friends. Why in the world is one ill-advised online joke about a movie made in 1972 endangering the career of one of the last big-name film critics? It’s a question that answers itself in some ways, but first let’s clear a few things up. After some dismayed responses, Edelstein took down that post and posted a fulsome apology in its place, writing that his original joke was “beyond stupid - grotesque,” and saying, “I’m sick at the thought of how it read and what people logically conclude about me.” That was not enough to save his job at “Fresh Air,” produced by WHYY in Philadelphia, which said in a statement that Edelstein’s post had been “offensive and unacceptable” and “does not meet the standards that we expect from ‘Fresh Air’ contributors …”Įdelstein’s status at New York magazine is unclear, but the publication hasn’t exactly delivered a fulsome vote of confidence, telling The Wrap it was “reviewing the matter internally.” There’s not much one can say to defend that comment, which even absent the latter-day controversy around “Last Tango” was juvenile at best.
“Even grief goes better with butter,” Edelstein wrote, alongside an image from the famous, or infamous, scene in Bertolucci’s “Last Tango in Paris” in which Marlon Brando’s character uses butter as a lubricant while having anal sex with the character played by Maria Schneider. This happened after he posted (and rapidly deleted) a tasteless joke in response to the recent death of legendary Italian filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci. Until this week he held two of the most prestigious paying gigs in the ever-shrinking world of film criticism, at New York magazine and NPR’s “Fresh Air.” Now he has himself become the subject of widespread debate and discussion on social media, not to mention in the real world. The third-most-recent post on film critic David Edelstein’s personal Facebook page involves a brief commentary on the recent New York Times opinion piece that posed the question, “ Do You Have a Moral Duty to Leave Facebook?” The irony: It burns.Įdelstein has been silent on Facebook the last few days.
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