Honestly guys, the mitzpha...
 

I am so tired I can not be bothered with spelling it correctly. Is anyone here truly disappointed with Stevie over this? I gotta say that I am. But then I try to remember Stevie kissing that soldier or visiting the soldiers and giving them ipods. And all the years of great music she has brought us. But this mitzpa thing has REALLY turned me off. REALLY. Anybody else feeling this way? Just me?

Yes. Performing at an event put on by an Iraqi war profiteer who sold the military faulty vests and then turning up to visit wounded soldiers just boggles my mind.

You know I am trying not to be so judgemental. And there have been things that Stevie has done that I have made fun of here before (to the dismay of the loyalists) so I will try to be as mature as possible. But I do not think I will be looking at her in the same way any time soon. And just the utter tackyness of the the whole thing is just the tip of the iceberg. The teleprompter jarred me too, but I am gonna let that go. I am just really dismayed. Couldn't tell if anyone here really cared or not.

I do find it very strange and potentially hypocritical that she would hire herself out to a war profiteer for his private party barely a week before once again visiting with the wounded soldiers she seems to care so much about, but again, we don't know what she did with her paycheck. I would like to think that she donated it straight to Walter Reed Hospital, though I'm not entirely sure she's capable of such a luscious bit of irony. I'd be surprised if Henley didn't encourage her and Joe Walsh to donate their pay to some charitable cause, though. Anyway, I'll reserve judgment on this count, since we really don't know what she did with the money, nor is she obligated to tell us.

As for the fact of her playing a private party for a bunch of rich folks: Eh, it's certainly not the first time she's done it, and she's never made bones about playing private parties before. She loves that ****.

The fact that not a word about the event has been posted on the NicksFix does suggest a sense of embarrassment on the part of Stevie and her PR folks, though. It seems clear that they realize this is not the kind of thing Stevie's fans want to hear about her doing, and I wouldn't be surprised if they discouraged her from performing at similar events in the future.

Did you miss the "Stevie did a bat mitzvah" thread? It was dozens of pages long, filled with (among other things) plenty of folks who found the whole event to be a bit heinous and were disappointed that Stevie (and some of the other musicians) participated.

I've been a fan since I was a kid in the late 1970s so I think I have some room to express an opinion .In nearly 30 years I have never been so disappointed in any artist in any genre that I truly love as I am in Stevie Nicks right now.

And that heinous picture of Steven Tyler with those girls. It was just so disappointing. Pathetic really. :mad:

Wow. I guess I don't really get the outrage. It's pretty lame, but not unheard of. Celebrities make private appearances for exorbitant amounts of money all the time... sometimes it makes the news, but usually it doesn't. I love Stevie as an artist and think she'd be a kick to spend an afternoon with; I'd like to think she's above that kind of thing, but I don't hold her to so high a standard of morals that it would shake my fandom to learn that she is, on occasion, no different.

I guess I don't feel like I can judge her based on my assumptions about what she knew about the girl's dad or what she might or might not have done with the money anyway. In the other thread someone said that if Stevie donated it to a charity, you can bet we would have heard about it. Not true. I think she probably does plenty of charitable stuff we never hear about. Maybe it went to the AHI, or Walter Reed, or another organization, or straight into her bank account... we don't know. I also wonder how much she knew about the gig or Brooks' background going into it. Maybe it was worked out primarily through her management and all she was told is "Hey, this guy wants you to play his daughter's party." As opposed to "Hey, super nefarious defense contractor who sells crappy vests to our soldiers wants you to play his demonspawn's bat mitzvah will his tainted blood money." I guess in that case you could fault her for not researching her clients before she agrees to a performance, but really. Maybe she knew that he sold the vests but not the rest of the story, and merely thought she was playing for a guy whose products protect soldiers... Stevie seems to display a simplified understanding/interest in political stuff sometimes, IMO.

In the end I can't really hold it against her. If I were to be "disappointed" in anyone, it'd probably be Tom Petty, since he has gone on and on about greed and money-grubbing. But I don't know what he did with his money either :). That was my long-winded answer to upontheventura's initial question that probably could have just been answered with a succint "no." :p

I think that's actually pretty standard now. Lots of venues have them built right into the stage. I've never seen her rely on it... but I can sort of understand how she might like to have it there as a safety net. The Reno SYW show where she couldn't finish Goodbye Baby due to being jarred by a fight in the audience comes to mind.

I'm quite fond of what Mr. Tom Cestaro of Celebrities Plus Inc. had to say about this bat vomitzvah hooey in the current issue of Entertainment Weekly: "Even though they're getting paid, it sort of humanizes these stars. Like, they're not on the red carpet, they're not at an awards show, they're at a banquet hall in Syoset, Long Island."

You know, he's absolutely correct. When I think of someone like Fitty Cent or Stephanie Lynn Nicks being written a check for half a million dollars, or a cool million, for less than a days work, my first thought is 'Ah, they're human. Just like the rest of us. Cheese whiz, man.' The disgust over such avarice and gaudiness plays second fiddle to the realization that, wow, Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty, and the rest of that flock are real human beings, collecting exorbitant paychecks and standing in the chow line in a banquet hall at a lavish party just like the rest of us lowly paupers. How delicious.

I shall never pass up the opportunity to attend a potluck supper at the Knights of Columbus ever again. It will give me the perfect opportunity to live like a star for a night in a lovely banquet hall. Albeit a human star.

It's rather unfortunate that the likes of Mr. Cestaro can't recognize that such greed and tackiness couldn't be anything but human.

I'm not mad at Stevie at all. If I were in her shoes, I would have done the same thing. If someone offered me a million bucks to sing a couple songs, I would have done it no questions asked.

And like I said, Stevie probably didn't even know who the father of the girl was. How was she supposed to know?

In 30 entire years, this has upset you most? :lol:

oh dear jesus, get off of it. she's human. you mean to tell me after how ever many years of devotion, this one thing, of which we know very little about, has caused you to completely changed your outlook on Stevie - not the coke or anything else, but the fact that she played a private party and used a freaking teleprompter?

I just don't get it.

exactly. why stir this **** up again?

by the way, if that is you with Tori in your avatar, I am terribly jealous. I love Tori in a serious kind of way. that's just awesome.

Yes. In the context of my post it is the most disappointing behavior of any artist of whom I am a major fan of .Playing a concert for cash for a sleazy dealer of faulty vests to the U.S military during a war is kind of a venal low point in my book .But is it the most upsetting thing that has happened in the last 30 years period. Hardly .