Trouble on the set
Posted: Wednesday, January 24, 2007 3:32 PM by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
Filed Under:
TV
It's not that viewers are dumb enough to assume that "Grey's Anatomy's" on-screen relationships are real, but still, it has been jolting to read that Isaiah Washington used a homophobic slur to refer to cast member T. R. Knight, sparking a fight with fellow castmate Patrick Dempsey. And then things only got weirder.
After the Golden Globes, Washington denied using the slur yet managed to say it again. Knight went on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and contradicted Washington. Quite a leap from how the actors' characters relate to each other -- Washington's Dr. Preston Burke and Knight's Dr. George O'Malley developed a fun friendship on-screen and even shared an apartment for a time.
And now today's news reports that Washington is seeking counseling to understand what's behind his homophobic remarks. Reading between the lines, it would seem that ABC has mandated the counseling, trying to salvage its hit show.
And the natural question, however facetious, is: How exactly does one receive counseling for homophobia? Simple therapy? "Will and Grace" marathons? Roundtable sessions with the cast of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy"?
Washington's terse statement notes that he regards the counseling as necessary to understand his own actions and that he appreciates the opportunity. As he should: Imagine what would happen to you or I if we used these slurs towards a co-worker while at work. We would have been fired yesterday.
And it's hard not to group Washington's actions in with those of Mel Gibson and Michael Richards, who infamously lashed out against Jews and African-Americans, respectively.
We're not naive enough to think that racism, anti-Semitism and homophobia aren't out there -- we see them every day. But often they're hidden. Celebrities especially can get away with a lot of bad behavior, but spouting off at work? To a cop? To an entire comedy club full of people? That takes prejudice and wraps it in a weird self-destructive blanket, as if the men in question really want to bring themselves down.
It would be nice if every workplace operated like the fictional Seattle Grace Hospital, where people are judged, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, by the content of their character, not their skin, religion, gender or sexuality. But we're not there yet and we likely never will be.
