Armond White Calls Out His Enemies, Challenges Them to a Debate
Rothkopf is not the only person White is upset with — he has a list of people he accuses of professional jealousy, cowardice, and even racial bigotry. There’s Slate film critic Dana Stevens who Armond says tweeted the lies from the dinner about him. There’s Stephanie Zachareck from the Village Voice— “she’s an enemy” according to White. There’s David Denby from New Yorker Magazine who is an enemy. They are the ringleaders, White said. And there’s J. Hoberman and his “followers” (White refers to them as Hobermice) and of course Variety reporter Ramin Setoodeh who is in cahoots with his enemies. White calls them collectively the Mean Girls because he claims that they are no longer a society of professional adults; he alleges they sit together, tell lies, snicker and whisper and huddle and even sneer at him, like high school mean girls. But they never have the honesty to disagree with him in print. Armond stops short of believing there is a conspiracy against him. He told Bennington,
“As the great Andrew Sarris once said, ‘People who think alike don’t need to conspire.’ I don’t say that there is a conspiracy against me, I just say that there is a group of people who feel jealous, resentful, inadequate, and they think that way and so they think… so we won’t talk to Armond but we’ll watch him and report on anything he does and slant it to look badly. “
So what really happened? Armond claims he and his guests had been enjoying the evening, having some drinks and talking amongst themselves when someone from another table shushed them. His response to the shusher?
“To shush me, I don’t take well. And when that person shushed me, I said fuck you. And there were people around, listening, they heard the fuck you, they thought the fuck you was at Harry Belafonte or Steve McQueen. It wasn’t.. I would never never ever ever ever heckle or say fuck you to Harry Belafonte.”
Although White has been in trouble in the past for being outspoken and controversial, he has always had a deep respect for film and people he calls serious film critics. Although he’s not impressed with any of today’s so called film critics, back in 1987, he had nothing but respect for it’s members. That was the only place he wanted to be, along with the likes of Pauline Kael, Andrew Sarris, Stanley Kaufman and John Simon.
“Such intelligent people who cared about cinema, who were not shills, who knew how to analyze, knew film history. And when I got out of film school, I thought, I want to be with those people. I want to be among them. I want to try to be as good as they were. I wanted to be in the circle because they were in the circle. That was my attraction. I thought, I want to be in a community of real film critics. And John Simon retired…Pauline, Serras and Kaufman are dead. God bless their souls, they’re gone. Look what’s left. My God, look what’s left.”
“What’s left” according to Armond are “mean girls,” hypocritical liberals and racial bigots who vote in their friends. “Race” he claims, plays a part in almost everything, but particularly in this case. “I’m the only black member in the group,” he told Bennington. Well…he admits that there is one other “Afro-American” in the circle, whose name he won’t mention, but Armond says, “most people would not call him a black man…I say I’m the only black man in the group.” White doesn’t consider him to be a black man because, he says, “he doesn’t show solidarity”. White also believes that the un-named member “probably isn’t even a film critic….but has a sham credential to stay in the group.”
SiriusXM host Ron Bennington offered to host any debate between Armond and any of those who disagree with him. But Armond doesn’t have high hopes that his detractors will answer the challenge. He would love to take any one of them or all of them on publicly, but says that they feel inadequate to debate.
“You know they’re liars and I think one aspect of being a liar is that they are cowards too. And cowardly mainly for their resentments, but also because I think they don’t respect the truth. They’re not interested in the truth, they are only interested in piling on me.”
Film critic Armond White is the editor of City Arts Magazine and a current member (and former chairman of) the New York Film Critics Circle. You can find him on twitter @3xchair. Ron Bennington is the host of Ron Bennington Interviews on SiriusXM satellite radio. He also co-hosts The Ron and Fez Show which airs weekdays from noon to 3pm ET. You can hear the interview with Ron Bennington and Armond White exclusively on SiriusXM satellite radio.