It may come as a shock to some of you to learn this, but not all Hollywood actors are card-carrying members of Mensa. Sometimes one’s enthusiasm for a particular role or one’s zeal for promoting one's latest film results in the insertion of one’s foot into one’s mouth. The most recent example comes courtesy of Rose McGowan, who made some comments she may want to take back in the course of talking up her new film, Fifty Dead Men Walking, in Toronto last week.
Based on an autobiography by Martin McGartland, a former IRA informer, the movie features McGowan as “an IRA femme fatale.” Speaking at a press conference before the film’s debut at the Toronto Film Festival, McGowan said, “My heart just broke for the cause. I imagine, had I grown up in Belfast, I would 100 per cent have been in the IRA. Violence is not to be played out daily and provide an answer to problems, but I understand it.”
Many were not so understanding of McGowan’s comments, including the movie’s subject, McGartland. The U.K. Independent quotes him as saying, “She must have taken leave of her senses. Can't she see that such remarks are incredibly insensitive to the families of victims of the IRA? She clearly doesn't know anything about Northern Ireland.”
As the Independent also helpfully points out, this is not the first IRA controversy to emerge from Hollywood. Current comeback kid Mickey Rourke “who sports an IRA tattoo, received approbation for allegedly claiming he donated part of his fee for the 1989 film Francesco to the terrorist group, though the charge was never proved.” As far as I can tell, the existence of the film Francesco has also never been proved.
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Rose McGowan: TCM's Latest Essential
Rose McGowan in Chains!