Perhaps I was at the wrong theatre on Saturday night. At this time 72 hours ago, I was at the Huntington Theatre in Boston watching Toni Stone. As it turns out there was far more drama taking place about 30 miles north of Boston at the Cabot Theatre in Beverly, Massachusetts.
Academy Award winning actor Richard Dreyfuss was making an appearance at the Cabot for a special screening of Jaws. Evidently, Dreyfuss caused hundreds of spectators in attendance to walk out after he allegedly made "racist, homophobic, misogynistic" remarks.
For their part, the Cabot issued an apology noting that Dreyfuss' statements do not "reflect the values of inclusivity and respect that we uphold as an organization."
Wow!!! I'm sorry I missed the spectacle.
When I learned about the event last year, I considered attending. How often does one get to be in the presence of an Academy Award winning actor? Well, there was the late Glenda Jackson. The only problem is that the commuter rail trains to the North Shore can be dicey on the weekends. I've been in situations where trains don't show up. I've always managed to have a Plan B up my sleeve. But it is a stress I don't want. So, I decided against going. Perhaps it was my loss. Or perhaps not.
Now no full video of the even has been released as of this writing. Naturally, I would be curious as to what the fuss is about. I would like to know if the audience overreacted or if Dreyfuss was just being a plain jerk. If it was the latter and had I been in the audience and had disagreed with his assessment, I would have been more inclined to challenge him during the Q & A rather than walk out of the theatre. But that's just me.
Dreyfuss did garner some controversy a little over a year ago when he criticized the Academy Award DEI criteria during an interview with Margaret Hoover on PBS' Firing Line. While one might disagree with his views on the subject, nothing he said to Hoover was uncivil. The question remains if he crossed that line on Saturday night.
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