Madonna 'banned' from movie theatre for texting

[traherne]

While I do not dispute that texting during a film is bad - especially in this case, where she was apparently personally invited by the director - I'm not sure that tapping a complete stranger on the shoulder to lecture them on etiquette is much better. And I won't even touch Madonna equating being told to turn her phone off to slavery (let's hope for her sake she was being ironic), but I love that she thinks it's ok to do it because it's "for business". Although at this point I guess I shouldn't be surprised by her sense of entitlement.

That said, haven't been to the movies in years - 99% of what Hollywood puts out these days is utter garbage anyway, and for the other 1% I'd rather wait a couple of months for the DVD - but I guess at least texting is a step up from engaging in actual conversations.

Madonna banned from cinema for texting during film

Attending the New York Film Festival screening of 12 Years a Slave, the 55-year-old was reportedly asked to stop texting by an audience member.

Tim League, CEO of the Alamo Drafthouse chain, tweeted: "Until she apologizes to movie fans, Madonna is banned from watching movies at Alamo."

Indie Wire reports that film critic Charles Taylor, who also attended the screening, said in a post on Facebook: "A woman next to me tapped her on the shoulder and told her to put her phone away, and the blonde hissed back, 'It's for business. Enslaver!'"

Directed by Steve McQueen and starring British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave is a true story about a free black man kidnapped and sold into slavery.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/24532648

[Twik]

How is asking someone to put away their phone "lecturing"?

[Winterlight]

Since it didn't actually happen at Alamo Drafthouse theaters, their ban seems pretty silly and attention-piggy.

[Twik]

Since it didn't actually happen at Alamo Drafthouse theaters, their ban seems pretty silly and attention-piggy.

It's a business, and they're advertising. "No cell phones at Alamo Drafthouse!" Which is, actually, a pretty good ploy.

[Virg]

Twik wrote:

"It's a business, and they're advertising."

It's still attention-piggy, because they're attaching their wagon to a story that has only the most tenuous connection to their advertising.  If they'd responded to this by putting together an ad where they showed Alamo employees ejecting famous people for cell phone usage, then I'd give them a chuckle and a nod, but simply making an announcement on Twitter because of this gives me the feeling of jumping in the spotlight.

Virg

[Twik]

Twik wrote:

"It's a business, and they're advertising."

It's still attention-piggy, because they're attaching their wagon to a story that has only the most tenuous connection to their advertising.  If they'd responded to this by putting together an ad where they showed Alamo employees ejecting famous people for cell phone usage, then I'd give them a chuckle and a nod, but simply making an announcement on Twitter because of this gives me the feeling of jumping in the spotlight.

Virg

Well, yes. But as they say, "We're talking about them, aren't we?"

[QueenfaninCA]

Even though the shoulder tapper was a stranger, it sounds like it was the person sitting next to her. I think it's totally OK if your neighbor in a (movie) theater does something that is generally frowned upon in this environment and is distracting you I think it is absolutely not rude, to gently let the person know to stop doing what they are doing.

[BeagleMommy]

Calling the person who asked her not to text during the film "Enslaver" was OTT.

However, Madonna needs to follow the rules like everyone else.  My uncle has to keep his cell phone active because he's a physician and sometimes gets called for emergencies.  If he happens to be at a movie he sits on the aisle, puts the phone on vibrate and leaves the theater if he has to take a call.  If Madonna HAD to keep her phone on during the film she should have done the same.

[Twik]

I've never cared for Madonna or her music, but I truly hope that the report of comparing being asked to turn off her cell phone with the horrors of actual slavery was either a misunderstanding or a malicious embellishment. Because if she's that far gone into celebrity entitlement ... wow.

[heartmug]

Calling the person who asked her not to text during the film "Enslaver" was OTT.

However, Madonna needs to follow the rules like everyone else.  My uncle has to keep his cell phone active because he's a physician and sometimes gets called for emergencies.  If he happens to be at a movie he sits on the aisle, puts the phone on vibrate and leaves the theater if he has to take a call.  If Madonna HAD to keep her phone on during the film she should have done the same.

Same for the surgeon who attends our church.  When he comes, he nabs a seat in one the last 2 rows and has his phone on vibrate.

Madonna should be banned.

[ishka]

I've never cared for Madonna or her music, but I truly hope that the report of comparing being asked to turn off her cell phone with the horrors of actual slavery was either a misunderstanding or a malicious embellishment. Because if she's that far gone into celebrity entitlement ... wow.

I think it must be a misquote.  Not because I don't think Madonna is capable of being that entitled, in fact I'm pretty sure she is at least that entitled, but because it doesn't make any sense to me even as an expression of entitlement.

"Enslaver" is just such a strange word to use, I don't think I've ever heard it or even seen it used in writing.  I would not have been suprised if she called the person "fascist" or "nazi" but something about "enslaver" suggests to me someone whose first language is not English.

[Virg]

heartmug wrote:

"Madonna should be banned."

My issue is solely that she wasn't in an Alamo Roadhouse theater when this happened, so Alamo Roadhouse's CEO tweeting about it (or banning her from a business she wasn't even in) makes him look like one of those "look at me!" chumps that goof around behind a newscaster during an on location segment.


ishka wrote:

"I think it must be a misquote.  Not because I don't think Madonna is capable of being that entitled, in fact I'm pretty sure she is at least that entitled, but because it doesn't make any sense to me even as an expression of entitlement."

Take note of the film that was screening when this took place.  Her use of the word was topical to the movie in progress.

Virg

[Corvid]

She was texting during "12 Years A Slave"?  What next, making out during "Schindler's List"?

[KenveeB]

Even though the shoulder tapper was a stranger, it sounds like it was the person sitting next to her. I think it's totally OK if your neighbor in a (movie) theater does something that is generally frowned upon in this environment and is distracting you I think it is absolutely not rude, to gently let the person know to stop doing what they are doing.

Exactly. It's not an etiquette lecture to ask someone to turn off their cell phone. I've done it in a movie theater when someone kept checking their texts or emails or whatever. A bright little screen suddenly popping up right next to me over and over? Ugh. "It's so rude to use your phone in a theater, you need to be more considerate to the people around you, don't you care about anyone but yourself?" would be a lecture. "Please turn that off" is not.

[ishka]

[quote author=Virg link=topic=130632.


ishka wrote:

"I think it must be a misquote.  Not because I don't think Madonna is capable of being that entitled, in fact I'm pretty sure she is at least that entitled, but because it doesn't make any sense to me even as an expression of entitlement."

Take note of the film that was screening when this took place.  Her use of the word was topical to the movie in progress.

Virg
[/quote]

I missed that completely. Maybe she did call the person who told her to stop texting an enslaver. If she did then it indicates a level of narcissism, entitlement and idiocy that is truly abysmal, but in the case of Madonna somehow not surprising.