Remember the Linda Ronstadt "Fahrenheit 9/11" fracas at the Aladdin Casino last Saturday? Ed Brayton at Dispatches From The Culture Wars (an excellent blog, by the way) makes a good point about the uproar - it's not really about Michael Moore, or the movie Fahrenheit 9/11. It's about the hooliganism.

"I've read this article several times and the only response that comes to my mind is this: have they lost their fucking minds? Someone dedicating a song to someone whose views you disagree with does not justify or excuse vandalism, nor does it give you a right to demand your money back, you shallow, self-important assholes.

Who the hell did you think you were going to see, for crying out loud? This is Linda Ronstadt, lover of Governor Moonbeam, supporter of every liberal cause for the last 40 years. You paid to see her perform and then you were so shocked to find out she likes Michael Moore that you felt justified in tearing down posters and spilling your drinks? Grow the fuck up and get over yourselves.

And the Aladdin should be ashamed of themselves for catering to these pathetic jerks. They should have charged their rooms for the damage they caused and reminded them that having political views does not give them the right to throw a temper tantrum just because someone dares not to share them."

And, it's about the money. If the casino crowd hadn't gone monkeyshite - literally - I seriously doubt that Aladdin president Bill Timmins would have taken it upon himself to have Ronstadt thrown out of the hotel for the sake of his own political views. After all - think of all the gambling dollars that would have sucked out the Aladdin's front door had she been allowed to stay.

A more detailed account of the incident (which has "the rest of the story" - basically, that the near-bankrupt Aladdin Hotel-Casino had only hired Ronstadt on a single-night contract, that she has been making the "Desperado" Moore dedication almost every night throughout her summer tour, and that Linda is reportedly not "in the peforming spirit" at this point in time) appears in the Las Vegas Sun.

On a similar "you knew who I was when you hired me" note, check out this post by Sheelzebub at XX Blog, regarding Slim-Fast's recent booting of spokesperson Whoopi Goldberg for her anti-Bush comments:

I think Slim-Fast has every right to fire their spokespeople. Still, I find it odd that they were so offended. I mean, they didn’t actually think about who they were hiring? Whoopi Goldberg is the same woman who quite graphically showed how Ronald Reagan was screwing the air traffic controllers in her earlier skits. She’s the same woman who made Oscar audiences either laugh or cringe at her bawdy jokes. She’s one of the queens of crudity.

It reminds me of the Roseanne Barr/national anthem controversy. For heaven’s sake, she wasn’t known to have a good voice. She was known for being crude. You mean to tell me that no one had any idea that she would do what she always does?

Companies routinely do this. They hire people who are well-known and controversial, and then can them when it gets too hot.

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