By John Pierce
My parents were ignorant and out of touch. They rarely knew the musicians and actors that my brothers and I discussed around the dinner table.
Privately (for my own safety) I would roll my eyes at their disconnect from the happenings of the world. Now I must confess my own similar condition.
The media keeps announcing that Bradley Cooper has been named as People magazine’s “sexist man alive.” I’ve never heard of him.
I knew of Ed Bradley, the talented CBS newsman who died in 2006. And I’m quite familiar with the aging rocker Alice Cooper. But “Bradley Cooper” did not ring a bell.
One of the first places where I saw this entertainment news listed him as “Bradlee” Cooper. But I think that was just the result of a cutback in copyediting and the desire to be first in reporting.
A quick Google search revealed that the sexy Mr. Cooper was born in 1975, while I was in college. That year, heartthrob Warren Beatty was starring in Shampoo — and the newly released Rocky Horror Picture Show was shocking moviegoers with a sexiness I did not discuss with my parents either.
I took a quick glance at the list of TV shows and films in which Bradley Cooper has performed. None has ever met my eyes. Apparently news, sporting events and home improvement shows are not Mr. Cooper’s forte.
So I’m ignorant and out of touch. Just ask my daughters.
Maybe that’s one of the privileges of playing the “back nine” of life. You become more comfortable in choosing what to pay attention to and what to care about.
However, such choosing should be done with some care rather than dismissal of all things new. So I choose entertainment.
But you mean this guy beat out Redford, Gere and Denzel?
Director of the Jesus Worldview Initiative at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee and former executive editor and publisher at Good Faith Media.
