You really need to select your homies with care, even if you're Hollywood royalty like Will Smith. In Compton, there are bad guys on the streets, looking to draw a young innocent into their world of gangs and drugs. In Hollywood, they dress better and hang out in hot spots rather than street corners.
There's little difference in motive. There are people who want what you've got, and if given a chance, they'll take it. Right down to your life, your sanity, your career, and your last nickel.
I always thought Will Smith was smarter than this. His rap was funny and witty. His tv show, Fresh Prince of Bel Air was pretty hip, and I always at least stuck around long enough to hear the intro music.
He's been in quite a few excellent, popular films. And he hangs out with Tom Cruise.
Apparently, he's been listening to Tom Cruise as well. He's donated money $20,000 to a Scientology front group called HELP, the Hollywood Education and Literacy Project.
You can't hang out with clams and not get up with space cooties, however. The taint of Scientology has oozed out to create a bit of controversy in Smith's life. His recent asinine comments about Hitler, and the root assertion that "all men are basically good," is straight out of Scientology's public relations propaganda. And don't forget, "The bible is no different from Scientology."
It won't be long before the media start assembling this stuff and linking his name with that of Scientology. People who start listening to this crap are bound to throw out a few idiotic sound bites sooner or later. He's been hanging with Cruise long enough for some of TC's insanity to rub off.
We have now seen Stupid Scientology Related Comment Numbers One and two. Neither statement received a whole lot of positive response. If he doesn't inform himself about the true nature of Scientology, it's going to be one of a long string of mindless inanities regurgitated from the pages of L. Ron Hubbard.
We know how much Hollywood and the press loves the cult. The Curse of Scientology has touched Smith's career and not for the better. Blogs are jangling as commenters express their disappointment in Will's lack of discernment. Nearly everyone is surprised. They thought Will was smarter than this. It's a long slide down a muddy hill to get to where Tom Cruise is, his stellar popularity at an all time low.
According to Smith, Hitler was basically an okay guy who was just a bit confused over what "good" is. Because people are basically good. Which is one of the sound bites representatives usually toss out when explaining what Scientology believes.
Taken to the absurd limit, if Will Smith continues down this benighted path to a Bridge to Nowhere, his popularity will plummet like that of Tom Cruise. He will share his newfound "knowledge" with the public as he gets in deeper and deeper, and the public won't like it. There are, after all, a host of other nonthreatening young African American actors who can fill Will's shoes if he gets too mired down in the clam bed to produce.
Tom Cruise has managed to alienate (heh) many powerful Hollywood players such as Sumner Redstone and Stephen Spielberg. He and his "applied religious philosophy" are going to drag others down in his vortex. It looks like Will Smith might be the next victim of Scientology's stank, and that's too bad.
I don't even want to watch Tom Cruise. I cannot forget that he's a blithering idiot, mindlessly jabbering Hubbard's "wisdom."
I like John Travolta, but now I can't see him without thinking of his poor autistic kid Jett, who can't even talk and is receiving no help for his condition.
People won't forget Jenna Elfman's ignorant comment about AIDS. Nor will they forget Tom Cruise's insufferably arrogant comments about PPD, a condition he will never experience nor understand.
Will Smith turn into another deluded actor known for blibbering out Scientology beliefs at inopportune times?
Will he wind up hopelessly entwined with Tom Cruise in a pathetic relationship linked with Scientology?
Or will he show us that he really is the bright bulb in the box and reject Scientology's enticement, and tell Cruise to take a long walk off a short Bridge?
Time will tell. It appears that Will wasn't very happy with the fallout from his Hitler statement. It probably shocked and surprised him. Well, guess what, Will. You'd better get used to negative publicity if you're going to kick it on L. Ron Hubbard Way.