Chris Brown is a Younger Sean Penn

Youth and an Oscar are all that seem to seperate alleged woman beaters Chris Brown and Sean Penn. While all of Hollywood toasted Penn on Oscar night, the glaring omission from his acceptance speech, besides a thanks to his wife (he said she understood he needed time for a political statement. No one actually asked Robin Wright Penn what she thought) - whom he is rumored to be cheating and have cheated on - was an apology to his first wife regarding the alleged abuse she suffered at his hands.

I know alcoholics and drug addicts from personal history and I believe that if one is prone to violence, drinking amplifies those tendencies. I don't think that liquor is magic "woman-beater juice," however it seems incomprehensible to me to brush aside one's past behavior as a pesky consequence of being drunk, nothing more.

At the Vanity Fair post-Oscars' bash, Madonna greeted Penn in a receiving line, as is the custom, and congratulated him on his victory. He is said to have tipped his head to Madonna's new boyfriend (?), 22-year-old Jesus Luz, and snarked "Thanks. Another kid already?"

I guess Penn forgot his reported dalliances with Sienna Miller or Lindsay Lohan after (and rumored before) his brief split with wife Robin.

News of the alleged abuse during their stormy marriage was tabloid headlines during the 80s and is now back in the limelight, thanks to Penn's humiliating comment and Chris Brown's scandal. A Daily Mail article highlights some of the biggest blowups from the former Mr. Madonna:

Penn's drinking exacerbated the problem. In an interview given a decade later, he admitted about his marriage: 'I was not of sober mind during most of it.'

Camille Barbone observed: 'Sean drinks from morning till night.'

In June 1987, Madonna went to the Cedars Sinai hospital for an X-ray after Penn apparently hit her across the head with a baseball bat. At the time, they had been having a heart-to-heart talk about reconciling.

Madonna did not make an official complaint because Penn was about to serve a short jail term for attacking a film extra. He served 33 days of a 60-day sentence in the Los Angeles County jail (23 hours a day in solitary) for violating the probation he'd been given for punching a fan.

There was also the time, the article notes, that Penn broke into her Malibu home and essentially held her hostage:

Penn chased her into the living room, caught her and bound her to a chair with heavy twine. Then he threatened to cut off her hair.

According to the police report, Penn was 'drinking liquor straight from the bottle' and the abuse went on for several hours, during which time he smacked and roughed up his victim ...

Penn ran after her and was banging on the windows of her Thunderbird while she spoke to police on her mobile phone. Fifteen minutes later, she staggered into the sheriff's office.

I don't understand why pricks like Sean Penn and Chris Brown are celebrated. Sean Penn never apologized to his former wife - nothing even close to Chris Brown's pathetic apology in which he spent more time trying to implicate Rihanna than atone for his actions. I guess enough time has passed and now that Penn has an Oscar it's water under the bridge. I was only an elementary school kid in the 80s but I remembered the tabloid headlines and the news generated over the police reports.

Sean Penn may have an Oscar but to me he's still a lowlife prone to tantrums who, judging by his behavior, probably hasn't changed. So forgive me if I find him a little disingenuous.

Source

Comments

[Karen]

AMEN. And I'll add that i don't see what Sean Penn's appeal is, to either women or moviegoers. When my husband heard that Robin Wright had married Penn, he said, "Oh my God. Buttercup married Humperdinck."

[jodifur]

Amen sister friend.

[lori]

The whole time he was giving his Oscar acceptance speech I kept thinking "But, what about all the asshole/abusive/criminal behavior you got away with?"

Yes, he's turned into a decent actor but I don't see that he's turned into anything near a decent human. I'm not a Madonna fan, but she deserves better than that.

[Suzy Q]

I will third that Amen. Plus, he likes to hang out with Hugo Chavez. I guess assholes flock together.

[Amy C.]

He gave a heartfelt and beautiful acceptance speech that recognized the need to extend civil rights to an oppressed group. Not every public moment is the time or the place to right prior personal wrongs, we don't know that he's never apologized to Madonna, and there was nothing disingenuous about his speech. He's not perfect, but his performance merited the Oscar.

[KC]

The Daily Mail is a tabloid and very unreliable. I read it regularly for entertainment but the things printed in it are rarely true. The allegations of abuse (outside of verbal) of Madonna from Sean is mostly tabloid gossip with no basis in truth. Your using tabloid gossip as proof of Sean being a cheating wife beater. Where are the police records, picture proof? And where is proof that Chris Brown has anything in common with Sean Penn outside of being a male? Chris isn't even that talented.

[Accidental Housewife]

"the need to extend civil rights to an oppressed group"... Um, like women? That's a pretty big group, right?

[Dana]

KC - um, it's not gossip. It's fact. Records were kept but charges weren't filed as I explained. Please to check thx.

This has nothing to do with he performance or any other blahblahblah and it disappoints me that anyone would focus on that rather than the discussion of domestic violence that this post was intended to provoke.

DITTO, Accidental Housewife.

[Ms Thistle]

On an aside but revealing of character: I use to work in Berkeley, CA, where the Penn's lived at the time (still do?).

I recall a day at work when we went to our local cafe and Sean Penn was there having breakfast. We were chatting with one of the employees and she told us that she was one of the waitresses who refused to serve him whenever he comes in.

She said he is horribly rude and condescending, and never left tips after being obnoxiously demanding. She declared him the worst patron ever.

Given his history, I was not surprised at all.

Ms Thistle

[JP]

Well said.
There are several actors/artists/musicians that are excellent at what they do and still are complete scuz buckets. It is hard, though, to have respect for someone (Penn, Brown or whoever) for their talent when it would seem they are complete idiots in their personal life.

However I do have to tell Karen (1st comment) that your husband's comment made me chuckle.

[Linda]

The main people celebrating these guys are the people they abuse. Years after divorcing Sean Madonna was still calling him the love of her life. They are still friends today. Rihanna has taken back Chris Brown. If these men are scum then what are the women who keep them around? And why do you expect society to dismiss them when the people they abuse don't?