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Thread: Seagal is at it again

  1. #91
    Yes yes and yes.

    Colbert tries to be funny and isn't.

    Seagal doesn't try to be funny but is.

  2. #92
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    Quote Originally Posted by rett2 View Post
    Yes yes and yes.

    Colbert tries to be funny and isn't.

    Seagal doesn't try to be funny but is.
    Glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks so, rett2. That's exactly it; Colbert TRIES too hard to be funny. IMO, the very best comedians simply ARE funny.

    Gene:

    As far as Foreman challenging Seagal, I don't see it ever happening. But even on the off-chance it did, it wouldn't be much of a show. Both Foreman and Seagal are old (to be fighting in a ring). I'm certain that Foreman still packs a powerful punch and always will, but even when he made his 'old man' comeback decades ago, he was slow, stiff-legged and immobile. Now add on about 25 years to that. As for Seagal, by all accounts his real-life MA is (or was) very good, but he looks like Jabba the Hut now. I don't think either of them is in any condition to go 2 rounds, let alone 10. The only possible entertainment to come out of it would be if Foreman could catch Seagal with one big punch. Otherwise, it'll just be too big, slow old guys huffing, puffing and laying all over each other against the ropes.
    Last edited by Jimbo; 10-05-2017 at 08:29 AM.

  3. #93
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    I know, I know. It won't happen. But I wish it would. I'd watch.

    This article nails it. Note that if you go to the original source, the author has all of her citations hyperlinked to the source.

    George Foreman fighting Steven Seagal in Vegas? It’s the least we deserve
    The noted countertop-grill retailer and ex-heavyweight champion has issued a challenge to Vladimir Putin’s best friend. If it ever happens, it will be a cultural event worthy of our troubled times


    Foreman told Seagal on Twitter: ‘I challenge you ... I use boxing, you can use whatever.’ Composite: Getty

    Marina Hyde
    @MarinaHyde
    Thursday 5 October 2017 12.18 EDT Last modified on Thursday 5 October 2017 17.00 EDT

    It has become a cliche of the era to say we are getting what we deserve. We get the politicians we deserve, we get the presidents we deserve, we get the world we deserve. Without getting overly L’Oreal advert about it all, surely we deserve a respite from these just deserts? Can’t something hilarious and magical come along that we can all welcome with open arms, realising that we are, without question, getting the thing that we deserve – and that it is good?

    Yes. Yes it can. George Foreman has challenged Steven Seagal to a proper fight. This is the cultural event that should have you telling yourself “because I’m worth it”. Clearly, the best time to enjoy it is at this dare-to-dream stage because I sense that one of the parties may ultimately decide the bout can’t go ahead. Maybe because he’s too good. Maybe because he’s afraid of hurting the other guy. Maybe because he was demoted to chef after a bungled special forces operation to take out General Noriega.

    But at this stage, when Seagal has pointedly yet to respond and everything still seems possible, let’s get down to the background. A few days ago, former two-time heavyweight champion of the world and noted countertop grill retailer George Foreman took to Twitter to issue a challenge to cinema’s Steven Seagal. As all of us adrift on the strange tides of early 21st-century culture should know, Seagal is something of a renaissance man himself, combining age-inappropriate, straight-to-gif action roles with functioning both as a hench-sensei/fat best friend to Vladimir Putin, and as an occasional spokesmodel for the Russian arms industry.

    That is not the half of it, although space constraints mean we must gloss over his stint as an energy drink inventor and blues guitarist. Ditto the headlines he drew for his stint as an Arizona border-control guard – as part of the “posse” of recently pardoned horror sheriff Joe Arpaio – following which Seagal was accused of killing a puppy during a raid on a house. (“Animal abuser is a role I will not accept,” ran a rebuttal that primarily reminded completists like me of all the roles he has accepted. Some of the later performances are arguably on a par with canicide.)

    And of course there is more – so much more. Just when you think you know him, Seagal unfurls himself in another direction. Crimea expert. Ukrainian national security threat. Aikido trainer to the Serbian special forces. Like a series of lotus blossoms, his career decisions constantly rise above the ****ty waters in which they germinated. And then they die and rot away again, and it all really stinks somehow much, much worse than it did before. But I think the message is the eternal cycle, or something.

    Anyhow, on to Foreman’s challenge, which may or may not be provoked by Seagal’s recent outburst on Good Morning Britain. Beamed in from Moscow, where he now lives, he raged about US athletes taking the knee in protest, declaring: “I myself have risked my life countless times for the American flag.” Mmm. As a young Katherine Heigl reveals in Under Siege 2: Dark Territory: “Uncle Casey’s got medals at home that are so secret he can never show them to anybody.” No doubt, no doubt. Seagal certainly has a purple heart in dismissing domestic abuse lawsuits.

    Shortly after this well-publicised rant, and indeed after the mass shooting in Las Vegas, Foreman tweeted: “Steven Seagal, I challenge you, one on one. I use boxing, you can use whatever. 10 rounds in Vegas.”

    Well. I think you’ll agree those few characters contain multitudes, but the big-fight trash talk has been formally opened with that “you can use whatever”. As students of Seagal’s work will know, Steven has a seventh dan black belt in aikido, and a 10th dan in making it sound like he was given his powers by Buddha at a mountain rendezvous in Nepal, sometime between the mid-Mahajanapada era and the North American theatrical release of Above the Law. He has spent a lifetime talking up his “whatever”, while always remaining sufficiently adaptable to improvise a weapon from a bar towel, microwave or Native American something-or-other. To hear this art form – the sweet pseudoscience – dismissed as “whatever” by Foreman will surely send him up the wall.

    Where better to settle this than the ring? While Seagal desperately tries to come up with credible and face-saving answers to that question – and Foreman continues to goad him – we should consider the tale of the tape. At 68, Foreman is three years older than Seagal, with both of them clocking in a little older than the age that Rocky got back into the ring in Rocky Balboa. Which was pretend.

    Weight? Look ... I’m not sure we dare speculate here. George’s grill obviously indicates an interest in retaining lean muscle, while in his DVD outings, Seagal is mostly shot in shadow so dark it makes Marlon Brando’s lair in Apocalypse Now look striplit.

    In terms of other liabilities, Seagal’s widow’s peak is now being comprehensively out-acted by even John Travolta’s, and he may be terrified of experiencing something of what Andre Agassi went through during the 1990 French Open final. As the tennis star later revealed, there’d been some kind of toupee malfunction the night before, resulting in him squaring up to Andrés Gómez with it held together by paperclips, and being so worried about his rug coming off that he lost.

    On the plus side, Seagal is a sort of demigod, having been formally declared a tulku (a reincarnated lama) by the oldest sect of Tibetan Buddhism. That may come with powers of which we are as yet unaware.

    He is, however, slightly less known for actual fighting than George Foreman. Seagal’s martial artistry was only brought to a wider audience by his most famous client. Yes, if you’ve ever watched a Seagal movie and wondered “How did this guy get into motion pictures?”, you may like to know that he used to train legendary former Creative Artists Agency overlord Michael Ovitz. Seagal’s stardom is largely down to the fact that Ovitz couldn’t have a single second of the day where he wasn’t packaging some kind of deal, including at 5am or whatever ungodly hour he was shouting “judo CHOP!” at Steven, probably in some Beverly Hills aerobics studio where the part of “the Far East” was played by a silver bell and three jossticks. A star was born – and the rest, as they say, is history.

    It’s certainly in the past, anyway, with Seagal’s activities these days confined to touring Russian schools and arms fairs with Putin, cheerleading for Trump and explaining impatiently to western media that all governments dick around with other countries’ elections (I paraphrase slightly). Foreman’s history is a little more ... well, seriously historical.

    Still, there you have it. Think of the buildup. Think of the training montages. Think of the press conferences. Think of the undercard (preference: Holyfield-Van Damme). Think of the ponytail lumbering for the hills.

    It’s not going to happen in Vegas, but perhaps some ambitious dictator might oblige and stage it, as Mobutu Sese Seko did for the Rumble in the Jungle? Perhaps Putin could use it as a World Cup curtain-raiser next year? After all, Seagal now seems a wholly owned subsidiary of the Russian state, rather like Ivan Drago, and could be introduced as fighting out of his home town of Moscow. That might swing the scales in his favour (probably literally). Though this would obviously be a contest less morally shaded than even Rocky IV. As for the name of this epochal meeting, it should be thrown open to all of us prospective pay-per-viewers. I’ll start the ball rolling with the Oh-No in the Dojo and the Twatting on the Matting, and invite further suggestions at your earliest convenience.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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  5. #95
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    This guy is a GREAT storyteller.


  6. #96
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    Very amusing, Jimbo

    Seagal was at the 50 yrs Ip Man VTAA Anniversary in HK recently too. Of course, that doesn't compare to Duarte...

    Steven Seagal likes Duterte & Pinoy martial arts
    By Maridol Rañoa-Bismark (The Philippine Star) | Updated October 13, 2017 - 12:00am


    The international film star (center) is on his nth visit in the country to shoot the new action TV series General Commander about a crime-fighting former CIA agent

    MANILA, Philippines — Some celebrities may have shied away from the Philippines because of news about extra-judicial killings and the Marawi attack. But not actor, producer, director, martial artist and musician Steven Seagal.

    The 65-year-old Seagal is on his nth visit in the country to shoot the new action TV series General Commander, where he plays the title role of Jake Alexander, a former CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) operative who fights crime without the constraints and the rules of the CIA.

    Seagal will be here for at least nine months to shoot the series in Vigan (where his friend, former Ilocos Sur governor Chavit Singson hails from) and other tourist spots in the country.

    “I don’t feel like this is a dangerous place,” he told media in a press conference at The Peninsula Manila Hotel. “I think it’s a place that’s up and coming with the new leadership.”

    Seagal is referring to Pres. Rodrigo Duterte, whom the Hollywood celebrity is “a big fan” of. In fact, he thinks Duterte “has been instrumental in making the Philippines a safer place.”

    Seagal is also a big fan of the Filipino people because he finds them “gentle, kind, musical, fun, humble and (armed with) a great sense of humor.”

    This is the reason why he keeps coming back to the country, even if he’s been around in so many places around the world.

    Seagal even knows the word salamat (he ended the presscon with this word) and about the Bataan Death March, which he’d love to play a role in should a new version of that milestone in Philippine history be filmed in the country.

    But his immediate concern is shooting scenes for General Commander and finding two Filipino actors who can play the role of agents in the series.

    “At least 90 percent of the production (team) will consist of Filipinos. They’re a good workforce,” Seagal revealed.

    He added that the labor cost is lower.

    Another thing going for the Philippines is its location, which Seagal and other American film lovers find “a little bit exotic” and therefore different.

    Then, there’s the Filipino martial arts, like the arnis and others, which Seagal would like to include in General Commander.

    “That’s a really good idea!” he exclaimed when asked if he plans to use Filipino martial arts in his projects.

    Seagal may not be Filipino. But he’s promoting the Philippines every step of the way.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
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  7. #97
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    The scary part is...

    ...I'm starting to worry that Seagal may be our next president.

    CULTURE
    ‘TAKE OFF YOUR DRESS’: HOW MEN IN HOLLYWOOD, FROM STEVEN SEAGAL TO HARVEY WEINSTEIN, TREATED WOMEN FOR DECADES
    BY JOHN WALTERS ON 10/12/17 AT 4:20 PM

    Inside Edition correspondent Lisa Guerrero, who has worked as an actress since 1990, nodded knowingly when the Harvey Weinstein news broke late last week. “Nearly every woman I know in Hollywood has been ‘Weinsteined’ at some point in their careers,” says Guerrero. “If not by him, then by someone else.”

    In 1996, Guerrero was a 31-year-old with a few minor roles to her credit (Matlock, Batman Returns ) when her manager, Lorraine Berglund, phoned with exciting news. “They want you to read for the female lead in a Steven Seagal film,” Berglund said, “but the audition is going to be held at his house in Beverly Hills.”

    In the mid-’90s, Seagal was a box-office juggernaut, but Guerrero was wary of the offer. The casting agency offered to send a female associate, Shari Rhodes, to accompany Guerrero on the audition. “This was potentially a huge break for me,” Guerrero says, “but there was no way I was going there by myself.”


    Lisa Guerrero of ‘Inside Edition’ tells Newsweek action star Steven Seagal propositioned her on the set of a movie in the ’90s.
    GETTY IMAGES

    Upon arrival, Guerrero and Rhodes were greeted by Seagal, who answered the door clad only in a silk robe. He ushered them into a side room, where he sat in an oversized, ornate chair on a platform (“We called it ‘the throne,” says Guerrero) and asked Guerrero to read her scenes. When she finished, Seagal, who was also a producer on the film, Fire Down Below, said, “You’re fantastic! Tell me about yourself.”

    “I drove home feeling pretty good about the audition,” Guerrero recalls, “and that same day my manager called. ‘Steven wants to offer you the lead,’ she said, ‘but you have to go back to his home for a private rehearsal tonight.’”

    Guerrero declined. The lead role of Sarah Kellogg in that film went to Marg Helgenberger (of CSI fame), but Guerrero was given a small part. On the day she arrived on set, she spotted Seagal talking to male crew members. From Guerrero’s perspective, it seemed like a scene out of high school. “He was looking at me and then he’d say something to them and there’d be laughter,” says Guerrero, who was listed in the film’s credits as “Blonde Beauty.” “Finally he approached me and asked, ‘Would you like to go into my dressing room?’”

    Once again, Guerrero declined. She has never seen Fire Down Below and as far as she knows, her scene was cut. “When I read about Harvey Weinstein, the reports of him appearing in a robe triggered me,” she says. “That’s exactly what Steven Seagal did. I found out later that he was notorious for this.”

    An Inside Edition report that will air Thursday evening includes multiple allegations against Seagal spanning more than two decades. One of his accusers, Jenny McCarthy, said that during a casting session she was ushered into a room with Seagal, who said, “So you were [Playboy’s] Playmate of the Year? Take off your dress.”

    That’s Hollywood, says Guerrero. “As an aspiring actress you have zero leverage,” says Guerrero, who appeared in the 2011 Oscar-nominated film Moneyball. “Who was I going to go to complain about sex discrimination? He was both the star and a producer on the film.”


    'Inside Edition' correspondent Lisa Guerrero tells Newsweek "nearly every woman I know in Hollywood has been ‘Weinsteined’ in their careers.
    GETTY IMAGES

    Guerrero later ventured into sports reporting, but was unable to escape the casting-couch syndrome. As an on-air reporter at Fox Sports in the early 2000s, she says that she was twice propositioned by Fox executives and twice rejected them. There were consequences. “I was supposed to provide on-site coverage for the 2002 Super Bowl in New Orleans that aired on Fox,” Guerrero says. “Before we departed, an executive—he was married—suggested that we share a hotel room.”

    No way, Guerrero told him. “Then they took me off our Super Bowl coverage,” says Guerrero, who left Fox Sports in 2003 to be the sideline reporter for ABC’s Monday Night Football.

    Guerrero believes that the Weinstein scandal will lead to a tidal wave of similar stories. “The only way to get [this abuse] to stop is for every woman to come forward and to tell their stories,” she says. “It’s not just about going to Human Resources any more. If the most powerful studio mogul in Hollywood could be brought down, I hope more women find the courage to come forward.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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  8. #98
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    Caught in the Weinstein wake...

    ...I wonder if anything will actually come of these accusations or if it's just the tweet-du-jour...

    Steven Seagal, a Silk Kimono and a "Private Rehearsal": One Actress Remembers Her Nightmare Audition
    4:46 PM PDT 10/13/2017 by Seth Abramovitch


    Getty Images
    Steven Seagal and Lisa Guerrero

    "There's not a human resources person to go to when you're working on a film," says actress-turned-journalist Lisa Guerrero. "Especially not when the film is produced by the person being inappropriate to you."
    Emboldened by the avalanche of sexual assault accusations leveled against Harvey Weinstein over the past week, others have begun to come forward with their own experiences of harassment in Hollywood — and they are naming names.

    Among them is Lisa Guerrero, 53, an Inside Edition correspondent who says, while pursuing an acting career in the mid 1990s, she was summoned to Steven Seagal's Beverly Hills mansion for an audition for the female lead in 1997's Fire Down Below, in which Seagal plays an EPA agent who investigates the dumping of toxic waste in a Kentucky mine.

    Guerrero, then 31, agreed to the audition but, together with her female manager, insisted that the film's casting director Shari Rhodes be in attendance. (Rhodes, whose career spanned everything from Jaws to Breaking Bad, died in 2009.) When they arrived, Seagal, then 43, answered the door in a silk kimono. Guerrero — who first shared her story publicly on Thursday's Inside Edition — spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the nightmare audition.

    Was it the Harvey Weinstein news that convinced you to go public with your story?

    I’ve actually been telling this story dozens of times over the years. I’ve told friends, colleagues — I’ve warned young actresses in acting classes and projects I’ve worked on. I said, “Don’t go to Steven Seagal’s home alone. This is what happened to me.” But the Weinstein story, specifically the part about him answering the door in his robe, that triggered my memory and brought up those images again of what happened with Steven Seagal. It triggered my revulsion at what it feels like to be an actress and having a powerful star and executive producer answer his door in a robe.

    You had the savvy to show up to this audition at Seagal's home with another woman — the movie's casting director. What happened when he answered the door?

    He looked surprised that she was with me. Then he let us into the foyer of his house which was decorated in an Asian style. The outside was a big Beverly Hills mansion, but when you go inside the house it looked very Asian inspired. He waved me into another room. That room was also Asian. There was a big chair on a platform. Again, it looked like a big Asian throne. He sat on the chair in the silk robe and asked me to perform the scenes I had prepared. I had worked on those scenes for days. I performed them for him while he sat on this throne. It was so strange.

    Was he wearing anything under this robe?

    I don’t know. He was bare-legged, barefooted. He certainly wasn’t wearing a suit underneath it. But he never exposed himself or touched me, so I don’t know what was beneath it.

    And the casting associate is standing next to you for all of this?

    Standing. Her name was Shari Rhodes. She was there.

    How long did all this last?

    Ten minutes.

    Probably the longest ten minutes of your life.

    The longest ten minutes. I remember doing adjustments based on directions he gave me from the throne. And he said, “You’re fantastic. You’re fabulous.” The weird thing was, if this situation had happened in a casting room with a fully dressed Steven Seagal, it would have been normal.

    How did it end?

    I remember leaving and feeling really good about my audition but also as if I had dodged a bullet — because what if I had gone alone?

    What did Shari Rhodes say when you left?

    She said, “Great job. Great job.” He had said, “We’re going to call you.” So I ran out to my car, a piece of crap Nissan on this Beverly Hills street, and I just remember feeling like I dodged a bullet. I immediately called my manager and told her I was OK. By the time I got home she called me and said they called back and wanted me to go back that night for “a private rehearsal.”

    Did the Shari Rhodes seem surprised at all by this audition?

    She was employed by the production company but since Seagal was the executive producer, he was her boss. My manager at the time, Lorraine Berglund, kept notes. She still has them all these years later. Then we got a phone call. They said, “Well, you don’t have the lead now, because you refused to go back for the ‘private rehearsal,’ but we would like to offer you a smaller role. You are to report to wardrobe and the set.” It was a one-day shoot. I was an actor who wanted the credit on my resume and wanted the scene on my reel, so I said yes. It was understood that I would not have to be alone with him.

    So you went through with it?

    I did the scene. However I felt uncomfortable because he was with these other male cast and crew members giggling and leering at me, like they were having some kind of boys’ joke about me. I was the only woman in that vicinity and clearly they were talking about me. Then he came up to me and asked me to go to his dressing room. I was appalled. I must have been bright red. I was humiliated. I was so embarrassed. At this point I’m 31 years old, I’m not 18, but I felt like a child.

    What did you say?

    I said no. And he gave me a dismissive look and walked away. My role was completely cut out of the film. I believe it was because I declined his offers three times.

    Was there anyone on the set who could have shielded you from some dangers or were you just completely exposed?

    Completely exposed. Especially when you’re not the star of the film — you’re just a working actor there to do your job. You go in, you report to the assistant director, they take you to your trailer, you put your wardrobe, hair and makeup on, you report on the set, you do a run-through, do your scene, you sign your papers and you’re gone. There’s not a human resources person to go to when you’re working on a film. Especially not when the film is produced by the person being inappropriate to you. He’s 100 percent the boss.

    Has anyone else relayed similar stories to you about Steven Seagal over the years?

    Yes, a girl in my acting class years ago. I was on a soap opera called Sunset Beach and was with a group of young, attractive actors every single day — and a couple shared stories about Steven Seagal. After the Inside Edition piece aired, an actress reached out saying she was once asked to come in for a “chemistry test” for Under Siege 2. The audition was at Steven Seagal’s hotel room and he answered the door in nothing but a robe. I read that and started crying. All these memories came flooding back.

    Did that one audition change your perception of Hollywood?

    The Steven Seagal experience is one of the things that ultimately when I had the opportunity to do another [scripted] show or do broadcast journalism, I chose broadcasting because I thought I’d have more control over my destiny. Now, I found out there’s still creeps in sportscasting. But in acting, I think women are much more vulnerable.

    Steven Seagal could not be reached for comment.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
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  9. #99
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    I think the entire industry needs to be overhauled. This is something that's gone far deeper and goes way further back than Harvey Weinstein or Steven Seagal. Believe it or not, aspiring child actors are even more vulnerable than adult women. This crap has been rampant since the very beginning, and after this Weinstein thing is no longer 'hot news', it will continue to fester, unfortunately.

    In the meantime, to bring some levity back to this thread, there's this:


  10. #100
    Love this youtube comment

    Daniel mc beauty 1 year ago (edited)
    I will never understand all this hate for segal. he's a movie legend/hero and one double hard *******. people only hate on him because they're jealous

  11. #101
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    Seagal does still have a few rabid fans.

    Here, Liam Neeson and Jimmy Kimmel briefly discuss Seagal, which begins at 2:00. I seriously doubt that Liam could be jealous of Seagal in any way. They're the same age, but Liam is 100 times the better, more successful actor, and is in 10 times better shape. If anything, Seagal is the jealous one, doing and saying anything to try to stay relevant in the public eye.

    Steven Seagal: Makin' friends!

    Last edited by Jimbo; 10-16-2017 at 05:29 PM.

  12. #102
    Lovin those youtube clips

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  14. #104
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    Glad to see you guys having fun with this thread

    Not to stifle the 'levity' but here's a Washington Post article that gives an overview of Seagal's sexual abuse situation now. There's some embedded vids if you follow the link (I find much levity in the carrot eating one).

    Steven Seagal: Drug warrior, honorary cop, alleged serial sex abuser
    By Radley Balko October 13


    Actor Steven Seagal in Moscow in 2013. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP)

    The Harvey Weinstein scandal has finally cast some needed light on sexual harassment and alleged sexual abuse by the men who wield power in Hollywood. We’ve also known for years about widespread sexual abuse by police officers, which is also often driven by power imbalances between the officers and the women they attack.

    Believe it or not, there’s actually a point of convergence between these two stories. His name is Steven Seagal.

    In the wake of the Weinstein scandal, a number of women have come forward this week with allegations of sexual harassment against the action movie star. Start with TV reporter Lisa Guerrero.

    In 1996, Guerrero was a 31-year-old with a few minor roles to her credit (Matlock, Batman Returns ) when her manager, Lorraine Berglund, phoned with exciting news. “They want you to read for the female lead in a Steven Seagal film,” Berglund said, “but the audition is going to be held at his house in Beverly Hills.”

    In the mid-’90s, Seagal was a box-office juggernaut, but Guerrero was wary of the offer. The casting agency offered to send a female associate, Shari Rhodes, to accompany Guerrero on the audition. “This was potentially a huge break for me,” Guerrero says, “but there was no way I was going there by myself.”

    Upon arrival, Guerrero and Rhodes were greeted by Seagal, who answered the door clad only in a silk robe. He ushered them into a side room, where he sat in an oversized, ornate chair on a platform (“We called it ‘the throne,” says Guerrero) and asked Guerrero to read her scenes. When she finished, Seagal, who was also a producer on the film, Fire Down Below, said, “You’re fantastic! Tell me about yourself.”

    “I drove home feeling pretty good about the audition,” Guerrero recalls, “and that same day my manager called. ‘Steven wants to offer you the lead,’ she said, ‘but you have to go back to his home for a private rehearsal tonight.’ ”

    Guerrero declined.
    According to the Newsweek article linked above, “Inside Edition” is preparing a report that will include similar allegations by multiple women going back decades. One of them was Jenny McCarthy, who says during casting for a Seagal movie in the 1990s, she was taken to a room where she was alone with the actor, at which point he said to her, “So you were [Playboy’s] Playmate of the Year? Take off your dress.”

    But you needn’t go back that far. You might remember that for a time, Seagal starred in an A&E reality TV series in which cameras followed him around in his role as a deputy for the Jefferson Parish, La., Sheriff’s Office. That gig ended because of this:

    Kayden Nguyen, 23, answered an online Craigslist ad for an executive assistant job at Seagal’s production company in February and was soon on his private jet taking off from Los Angeles, California, bound for New Orleans, Louisiana, the suit said.

    “As the jet taxied down the runway, Mr. Seagal turned to Ms. Nguyen and said ‘I’m a family man, and I live with my wife, but she wouldn’t care if you were my lover,’ ” the suit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court said.

    “Ms. Nguyen decided to take a wait and see attitude,” the suit said.

    After Nguyen arrived in New Orleans, “she learned that the job she was expected to perform had nothing to do with being an ‘executive assistant,’ ” it said.

    Over the next five days, she was sexually assaulted three times by Seagal at a house “many miles from New Orleans in a remote rural area of Jefferson Parish,” the suit said.

    Seagal also kept “two young Russian ‘attendants’ on staff who were available for his sexual needs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” it said.

    During Nguyen’s first night on the job, Seagal demanded a “massage,” it said.

    “He then proceeded to treat Ms. Nguyen as his sex toy.”

    The suit gives graphic details of Seagal’s alleged groping and fondling of Nguyen.
    Nguyen claimed that when she finally escaped the house, Seagal chased her while pointing a flashlight that he had mounted to a gun. This passage is particularly chilling:
    Nguyen claims she was kept against her will for six days at a secluded Louisiana home where Seagal and his family were allegedly staying. When she finally escaped, she claims Seagal chased after her with a “flashlight with a gun attached to it.”

    Nguyen’s lawyer, William Waldo, told CBS News’ Crimesider that Nguyen did not call police because she believed they would listen only to Seagal.

    “Mr. Seagal is the police,” he said. “She is in a remote area of Jefferson Parish. It is in the middle of nowhere and he is the police.”
    Seagal’s lawyer said at the time that the lawsuit was “ridiculous” and “absurd” and accused Nguyen of using illegal drugs. (Apparently if the victim uses illegal drugs, sexual assault isn’t possible.) Nguyen later dropped the suit, although it wasn’t disclosed whether that was the result of a settlement. A Times-Picayune article at the time did note that Seagal’s lawyers “had been trying to resolve the case through private arbitration.” (As we’ve seen with Weinstein, such settlements often come with nondisclosure agreements.) Rather than face an internal-affairs investigation into Nguyen’s claims, Seagal resigned from the Sheriff’s Office.

    In fact, Seagal has been accused of similar behavior by too many women to count. He was sued for sexual harassment by another of his assistants in 2001. Multiple women have also accused him of inappropriately asking for or offering sexual massages (sound familiar?), including Blair Robinson, granddaughter of Ray Charles. Robinson was hired as Seagal’s assistant, then quit after her first day when she said it became clear that sexual favors would be part of the job. Another woman accused him of putting his hand down her pants, then refusing to remove it until she screamed. During the filming of Segal’s movie “Out for Justice,” four female staffers quit after alleging sexual harassment, including one “sexual attack.”

    One would think that after all of that and the Nguyen suit — which, again, alleged harassment in the course of his job as a sheriff’s deputy — would be enough to end Seagal’s law enforcement ambition for good. Enter Joe Arpaio. The now-former, now-pardoned sheriff of Maricopa County, Ariz., was apparently undeterred by what happened in Jefferson Parish. In 2011, Arpaio allowed Seagal to join his “posse” (a group of volunteer officers, generally tasked with harassing undocumented immigrants), and the A&E cameras started rolling again, now from Arizona. It was at his stint with Arpaio’s department that Seagal participated in an infamous raid in which an armored vehicle drove through the outer wall and into the living room of a man suspected of raising chickens for cockfighting, and may or may not have shot a puppy. (It’s also disputed whether Seagal was in the armored vehicle when it crashed through the wall.)

    Despite the long and sordid history of complaints from women against Seagal, Joe “law and order” Arpaio gave the actor a badge and the authority to detain, arrest and, depending on who you believe, drive armored vehicles into living rooms — and authorized a TV crew to glamorize him as he did it. For a while there, the two were even talking about a bid for the Arizona governor’s mansion. Imagine being a woman and trying to report an incident involving Seagal to Arpaio’s sheriff’s department. Arpaio already had a reputation for ignoring sex abuse cases.

    Incidentally, if you’re wondering what Seagal is doing now, in the course of researching this post I happened upon this Reuters item, published just today.

    US actor Steven Seagal, famous for playing action roles like a vice squad detective in “Above the Law,” met Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte while on a location scouting trip in Manila.

    Video footage released by government channel RTVM showed Seagal animatedly talking to Duterte.

    Seagal, 65, was in the Philippines to look for a location for his upcoming movie, which will be “about illegal drugs and other crimes,” a presidential palace statement said . . .

    Earlier this week, Seagal said at a news conference in Manila that he didn’t think the Philippines was “a dangerous place.”

    “It’s a place that’s up and coming with the new leadership,” the Philippine Star reported him as saying.
    Sounds as if Seagal may be fishing for his next law enforcement gig. And why not? He could summarily execute Filipino drug users by day and patronize Manila’s finest brothels by night. And you could watch it all on A&E.


    Radley Balko blogs about criminal justice, the drug war and civil liberties for The Washington Post. He is the author of the book "Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces." Follow @radleybalko
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
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  15. #105
    That Portugal video... I take it back Seagal can be funny and even have a little self irony. Amazing.

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