Falling on His Sword

Brett Ratner is having a tough time these days.

The director saw his Tower Heist embroiled in some controversy before it was even released last weekend (something about the studio wanting to experiment with some exclusive pay-per-view business prior to opening Friday that upset some movie theaters...GTS), and then he went and put his foot in his mouth.

In a nutshell, Ratner essentially said, during a Q&A session while promoting the movie, that rehearsing is “for fags.” I think that was an attempt to be funny. Which, obviously, went awry.

I mean, what...a dumb, not-so-funny thing to say, huh.

The guy apologized earlier this week, but some felt his sorry was too little, too late. The damage was done. And the bloodhounds were out.

Now, Ratner was supposed to produce next year’s Oscar telecast, but, in a surprising move, he quit the job yesterday.

I’m a bit mixed on the whole thing because, having met the director a couple of times for interviews, I can say he doesn’t, in fact, appear to have a prejudiced in his body as he said in his apology. He struck me as a gregarious fella, who, clearly, forgot his sensitivity/PC chip at home when he went to do that Q&A. But, again, the damage was done, and this scandal wa’n’t gon’ away any time soon.

Unfortunately, the F word is not the N word is not the K word. Or “sugar tits.” Had Ratner used either of the first two terms I know the outrage woulda been louder, know what I mean. (Click here for some reaction from folks on the inside.)

It was smart of him to take control of the narrative, but I wish Hollywood and everyone who wanted the director’s head on a platter were smarter and recognized what he meant to say as something stupid to say (he so shoulda known better).

Thing is, like I said, the derogatory term Ratner used doesn’t carry the same weight as, say, that racial slur that would have cost him more than a gig.

Photo: HitFix.com.

Update 1: As somewhat expected, Eddie Murphy has dropped out as the host of the 2012 Oscars.

Murphy is one of the stars of Tower Heist and recently struck a friendship with Ratner.

Update 2: A Beautiful Mind producer Brian Grazer has stepped in to produce the Oscar telecast next year.

I hope the show is more memorable than that Best Picture-stealer (Moulin Rouge! so shoulda won instead).