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Val Kilmer wants a B-and-B; his neighbors want an apology
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Val Kilmer wants to open his New Mexico ranch to paying customers. His neighbors want him to apologize for opening his mouth a few years back.The "MacGruber" and "Tombstone" star has a 6,000-acre ranch near Santa Fe and has lived in the Land of Enchantment for more than two decades, but he's had some unkind things to say about the state -- and about veterans -- in published articles earlier this decade. Because of those quotes -- Kilmer insists he was misquoted -- several neighbors have protested his application to operate a bed-and-breakfast on his property.
The people objecting to his planning commission application say they'll drop their objections if he says he's sorry. "That's all he has to do, come and apologize," neighbor Jose Garcia tells The Wall Street Journal. "We're not intimidated by him."
The ire-inducing quotes came in a Rolling Stone interview in 2003 and in an Esquire story two years later. In the RS piece, he was quoted as saying northern New Mexico is "the homicide capital of the Southwest" and that "80 percent of the people in my county are drunk."
In Esquire in 2005, he told writer Chuck Klosterman that his training as an actor (and specifically as a Method actor) gave him insight into experiences he hadn't gone through in real life, citing the Vietnam War as an example: "A guy who's lived through the horror of Vietnam has not spent his life preparing his mind for it. He's some punk. Most guys were borderline criminal or poor, and that's why they got sent to Vietnam. It was all the poor, wretched kids who got beat up by their dads, guys who didn't get on the football team, couldn't finagle a scholarship. They didn't have the emotional equipment to handle that experience. But this is what an actor trains to do."
The San Miguel County Planning Commission is scheduled to take up Kilmer's B-and-B application on Wednesday (June 23). He's expected to attend the meeting, and maybe apologize for his remarks, even though he still claims he was misquoted.
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Wow ... how much has he changed since his "Top Gun" (heck even since "Batman") days!
@GG- Your totally forgetting Real Genius and Top Secret. Ahhh, the 80's.
Wow - he has not aged well at all...what a shame....
Wow. He looks dreadful. He was so sexy in Top Gun. What a shame. I'm quite stunned reading his quote about the troops that fought in Vietnam. What a tool.
He shouldn't have to apologize for a personal opinion. I could maybe understand it if it was some sort of racist comment, but it wasn't. Heaven forbid if anyone these days has a negative opinion (about our troops or anything else)... they're expected to zip their lip and not speak it. So much for freedom of speech.
The PC crowd need to lighten up.
The damage is done, I would cut my losses, sell the property and move on. I don't like some city or county official holding me hostage telling me what to do like that... I'd tell em to shove it!
Maybe he could have put it differently, but I don't disagree with his assertion about Vietnam veterans. Some people enlisted for love of country, sure, but more often than not, they probably didn't have much of a choice. They were born and raised with all the disadvantages, and their only option for a way out got to be military service.
He is right about the "borderline criminal" part. Springsteen even wrote about it in "Born in the U.S.A." and a lot of people believe it to be a patriotic song.
"I got in a little hometown jam
And so they put a rifle in my hands
Sent me off to Vietnam
To go and kill the yellow man."
Sounds like an elitist snob (assuming he wasn't misquoted). If only we had a bunch of steel-minded actors defending our country.. In his (sorta) defense, as a veteran myself, and despite all the (very efficacious) pro-military propaganda in our culture, most people who join up don't do it because they have a vast array of options in life. I know I didn't. That doesn't make me resent Iceman's contemptuous remarks any less...
wow - he does look like sh*t these days.
his neighbor's should look in the mirror and just admit that what he is saying is basically true. just take a drive around the outskirts of Santa Fe or Taos and you'll understand.
Man does he ever look like a fat pig...he's my age and I look better than he does...Whats up with a bed and breakfast is he luring people there to eat...He even looks stinky...