I opened up the intertubes a little while ago to find this headline staring at me from my AT&T homepage:
“Boxing great Tyson tells all in film at Cannes”
Part of me would like to ignore the larger message and simply concentrate on the lack of proper capitalization in a title. I’d like to write a post about the tiny tomatoes that appeared on my Early Girl this week. But I can’t ignore a report that Mike effin’ Tyson, convicted rapist Mike Tyson, ear-biting Mike Tyson, got a “prolonged ovation” at Cannes this week.
“I lived a wild and extreme life,” the former heavyweight champion told reporters Saturday. “I used drugs. I had altercations with dangerous people. I slept with guys’ wives that wanted to kill me. I’m just happy to be here, you know. It’s just a miracle.”
The 41-year-old former boxer got a prolonged ovation at the Cannes screening for “Tyson,” directed by his old friend James Toback (”Fingers”).
Seems he managed to overcome a difficult childhood to grow up and become a rapist and an abuser, and we’re supposed to cheer for that. He still denies responsibility for the rape, saying he was unfairly convicted. Well, of course. Anyone who earns adulation by living the life he’s lived must think he’s entitled to take what he wants, without consequences.
But on one issue, he still refuses to take responsibility. He insists he is innocent of the 1991 rape of an 18-year-old beauty queen for which he served three years in prison.
“I’ve been abusive to women before in my life,” he acknowledged. But in this case, “I thought (the conviction) was wrong, I thought it was unfair.”
Oh, poor baby. He only serves three years for a rape, and he’s whining about fairness?
Color me unimpressed. With him, and with the people who glorify him.