CULT LIFESTYLE
Like fellow cast member Nancy Cartwright, Harry Shearer is also part of a cult - the cult of iPhone. [The Guardian]
Like fellow cast member Nancy Cartwright, Harry Shearer is also part of a cult - the cult of iPhone. [The Guardian]
Labels: CULT LIFESTYLE, VOCAL VOCATIONS
posted 9/25/2009 | permalink
OTVII Auditer and Proud Of It, Man
CULT LIFESTYLE
posted 30 January 2009 source village voice
Nancy Cartwright, voice of TV's Bart Simpson, has not been especially vocal about her membership in the always-controversial Church of Scientology. Her autobiography makes no reference to it, nor does her website. Although she's done a few advertisements (one ad in the LA Weekly said "Meet the Voice of Bart Simpson At The Scientology Center!"), she has not advocated for the Church in a big way - she didn't preach the virtues of Xenu while doing publicity for The Simpsons Movie, nor has she tried to plug Dianetics while doing DVD audio commentary. Unlike the bigger Scientologist celebrities, she does not lecture Matt Lauer about psychiatry (Tom Cruise), star in movies based on books by L. Ron Hubbard (John Travolta), or leave a show when they make one too many jokes about the religion (Issac Hayes). Last year, she donated $10 million to Scientology - twice her annual Simpsons salary and nearly five times more than that deadbeat Tom Cruise - a story which raised a few eyebrows, but generally flew under the radar.
A couple days ago, audio of Cartwright doing a "robo-call" for some Scientology event was uploaded to the Internet. The story has gotten more than 2,700 "diggs" on Digg, which is apparently a lot in Internet metrics (?). She opens the call with "Hey, man, this is Bart Simpson!" before quickly resorting to her normal voice and saying "Just kidding... this is Nancy Cartwright!" and announces that she is now a "auditing on New OTVII" (???) and wants to share her "many wins" with you (?????). On the surface, this doesn't really seem all that different from getting a robo-call from Hollywood starlet Scarlett Johansson telling about how cool Barack Obama is and how you should probably vote for him, except it's for a religion.
But Cartwright lapses back into her Bart voice several times in the call, laughing and saying, "It's going to be a blast, man!" in the same voice that used to shill for Butterfinger bars. You can hear it for yourself in the headline link, assuming the YouTube of the audio hasn't been taken down. The call blurs the line between Nancy Cartwright, real-life person, and Bart Simpson, fictional cartoon character: does Bart want me to get my thetans checked or just Nancy? When has Bart ever advocated anything other than eating his shorts, anyway? It raises many questions. Legal issues aside - technically, Fox owns the voices of the characters, which came to light when Dan Castelleneta got in trouble for introducing comedian Paul Krassner on his album "Irony Lives!" - is it ethical for voice actors to use an iconic cartoon character in such a way? Should celebrities use their fame to promote their belief system? Can a corporation own your voice? Does Cartwright ever use her Bart voice to prank call bars?
posted 30 January 2009 source village voice
Nancy Cartwright, voice of TV's Bart Simpson, has not been especially vocal about her membership in the always-controversial Church of Scientology. Her autobiography makes no reference to it, nor does her website. Although she's done a few advertisements (one ad in the LA Weekly said "Meet the Voice of Bart Simpson At The Scientology Center!"), she has not advocated for the Church in a big way - she didn't preach the virtues of Xenu while doing publicity for The Simpsons Movie, nor has she tried to plug Dianetics while doing DVD audio commentary. Unlike the bigger Scientologist celebrities, she does not lecture Matt Lauer about psychiatry (Tom Cruise), star in movies based on books by L. Ron Hubbard (John Travolta), or leave a show when they make one too many jokes about the religion (Issac Hayes). Last year, she donated $10 million to Scientology - twice her annual Simpsons salary and nearly five times more than that deadbeat Tom Cruise - a story which raised a few eyebrows, but generally flew under the radar.
A couple days ago, audio of Cartwright doing a "robo-call" for some Scientology event was uploaded to the Internet. The story has gotten more than 2,700 "diggs" on Digg, which is apparently a lot in Internet metrics (?). She opens the call with "Hey, man, this is Bart Simpson!" before quickly resorting to her normal voice and saying "Just kidding... this is Nancy Cartwright!" and announces that she is now a "auditing on New OTVII" (???) and wants to share her "many wins" with you (?????). On the surface, this doesn't really seem all that different from getting a robo-call from Hollywood starlet Scarlett Johansson telling about how cool Barack Obama is and how you should probably vote for him, except it's for a religion.
But Cartwright lapses back into her Bart voice several times in the call, laughing and saying, "It's going to be a blast, man!" in the same voice that used to shill for Butterfinger bars. You can hear it for yourself in the headline link, assuming the YouTube of the audio hasn't been taken down. The call blurs the line between Nancy Cartwright, real-life person, and Bart Simpson, fictional cartoon character: does Bart want me to get my thetans checked or just Nancy? When has Bart ever advocated anything other than eating his shorts, anyway? It raises many questions. Legal issues aside - technically, Fox owns the voices of the characters, which came to light when Dan Castelleneta got in trouble for introducing comedian Paul Krassner on his album "Irony Lives!" - is it ethical for voice actors to use an iconic cartoon character in such a way? Should celebrities use their fame to promote their belief system? Can a corporation own your voice? Does Cartwright ever use her Bart voice to prank call bars?
Labels: CULT LIFESTYLE, VOCAL VOCATIONS
posted 1/30/2009 | permalink
Cartwright Gives $10 Million to Scientology
CULT LIFESTYLE
posted 15 February 2008 source sfgate
Nancy Cartwright, voice of Bart Simpson, has donated $10 million dollars - twice her annual salary and twice what Tom Cruise has donated over the past four years - to the controversial Church of Scientology, thus ensuring herself a first-class seat on the spaceship to Blisstonia.
posted 15 February 2008 source sfgate
Nancy Cartwright, voice of Bart Simpson, has donated $10 million dollars - twice her annual salary and twice what Tom Cruise has donated over the past four years - to the controversial Church of Scientology, thus ensuring herself a first-class seat on the spaceship to Blisstonia.
Labels: CULT LIFESTYLE, VOCAL VOCATIONS
posted 2/15/2008 | permalink
