Since a whole bunch of you have been sending me this and posting it in my comments, I don't see how I can avoid mentioning it. Apparently it's being reported on The Superficial, Celebitchy, and People.com that Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy have broken up. I must admit that it's hard not to feel a bit of schadenfreude over this and wonder if maybe Jim Carrey was getting tired of the whole anti-vaccine scene, as The Superficial suggested:
I can only assume this has everything to do with Jenny McCarthy being completely shot down by the medical community only to continuing claiming a Playboy Bunny cracked the mystery of autism. Which has to get annoying.
JIM: Honey, I'm pretty sure a gunshot wound to the pancreas won't cure my migraine.
JENNY: I KNOW MORE THAN SCIENCE! *fart*Sincere apologies to Jim Carrey for making him relive that conversation. That must've been difficult.
On the other hand, I can't help but feel sorry for Jenny's son Evan. As messed up as Jim Carrey was, buying into Jenny's anti-vaccine quackery, Carrey had become a father figure to Evan:
Over the years, Carrey has also grown close to McCarthy's son, Evan, who has Autism. "He taught me how to love," Carrey said in 2008 at a march in Washington, D.C. "And without Evan I might never have seen the greatness of Jenny's spirit."
For her part, McCarthy has praised her then-boyfriend's devotion to Evan telling PEOPLE, "[He has the] capacity to love and to take on something that most men would completely run away from."
The couple's breakup can't help but cause Evan confusion and consternation.
Still, whatever the reason Jim and Jenny's relationship foundered, Jenny still has plenty of cash in the form of a $50 million trust fund to continue to spread her dangerous anti-vaccine message far and wide.
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the superficial rocks :-)
Yeah, I thought about Evan too, but he has a father after all (although I don't know what that relationship consists of).
But this must be good news. I can't imagine we'll see any more of Carrey touting this "cause". Surely he will move on to a new bimbo and, with any luck, a new and improved image--or at least a credible cause.
Perhaps Carrey's daughter decided to vaccinate her kid, ignoring all of McCarthy's idiotic hype. Carrey probably realized that he valued his daughter over McCarthy and decided to stay in the good graces of his daughter (the mother of his grandchild).
The previous was just idle speculation without any real data. I just have lots of anecdotal familiarity with the mechanics and emotions of step-families.
Also, I am pretty sure Carrey's association with McCarthy may have hurt his career. Media stars who stray beyond their expertise tend to become unemployed. Does anyone remember Val Kilmer?
I suspect Jimbo came to the conclusion that continuing to associate with McCarthy, as long as she keeps spreading antivax bullshit, was a major career liability.
Mind you, Carrey will remain in the sin bin until he does a very public about-face on his past antivax comments.
Gawker's coverage also gets a nice jab in. (Sorry for that pun)
I think Paul McCartney's ex-wife (what was her name?), got more than 50 million.
She'll figure out some way to use that trust fund to buy all the studs she needs.
I'm not so sure about that. After all, A Christmas Carol last year did well at the box office and gained Carrey some critical kudos. His career seemed to be fine.
I've never been a big fan of Jim Carrey. He did a couple of movies I laughed at, but I always felt like I was laughing AT him rather than with him.
Ah well. I hold no ill will against him, other than over the antivax silliness of his and Super-Indigo-Baby-Mom.
While I understand the connection to the hot topic here, I'm having a hard time raising anything more than a slightly louder than normal meh over this.
Best comment over at Gawker from OliversArmy:
"Her anti-vax hysteria has led her to refuse even Dr. Carrey's Beef Injection (if you know what I mean, and I think you do.)"
I've always thought the difference between the two of them could be expressed as so:
Jim is a professional moronic jerk. Jenny just does it for fun.
This is not that great a news. Before, they worked as a unit. Now there are two of them working separately, spreading the poison.
Two there are always...
Completely off topic, but:
What issue has Kilmer taken up to be struck off the Hollywood rolls?
Awww, shucks.
I'll have to look for some different material for my next lot of Jenny McCarthy jokes.
http://layscience.net/blogs/deetee
It seems highly unlikely to me that the split has anything to do with anti-vax. We see Jim and Jenny as the prom king and queen of the antivaccine movement, but they also have many other roles. Also, Carrey's piece in HuffPo seemed to suggest he had drank quite deeply of the Kool-Aid.
Couples break up for all sorts of reasons. It probably has nothing to do with vaccines or autism, at least not directly (though it's no secret that many couples have broken up partially as a result of the stress of raising an autistic child... but even if that was a factor, it still would not be anything like what The Superficial is implying)
Nah, what happened to Carrey's career was that he wanted to be a Serious Actor(TM), but had done the rubber-face and other ridiculous roles for so long that nobody was buying it. I can really sympathize with that position... Having one's artistic expression constrained like that has got to suck.
Still, he probably should have tried to pull off something like Clooney, where he does a mediocre big budget movie every couple of years for money, giving him the freedom to do what he wants in the meantime. Carrey could be doing Ace Ventura VII right now and using it to finance whatever serious films he wants to do.
@dt
"Awww, shucks.
I'll have to look for some different material for my next lot of Jenny McCarthy jokes."
You're kidding, right? But if you're really having trouble, check "Bernie's Jenny McCarthy Site", "your #1 source for Jenny McCarthy information." That should keep you well supplied with inspirational material for JM jokes - or, just repeat the facts.
Dave:
Absolutely none. It is just that for a while his career was hot, especially after portraying Morrison. But then he started to get cocky, and he disappeared. It is mostly a comment on how ephemeral quality of film careers.
Mainly he took on too many cinnamon rolls, honey rolls, butter rolls etc. The Col. Kurtz trick only worked for Brando and Coppola.
recently, Jenny McCarthy was looking for input on "why men cheat"
then she was asking "why do women stay"
Now they've split.
One can't draw a real connection, but kids have been chelated with less evidence.
I wonder if their increased furvor over the vaccine thing was a way of avoiding relationship problems. I knew a couple that did a similar thing with Y2K hysteria. It was all they talked about for months before the new year and then shortly afterwards they got divorced. Once they didn't have to ward off the apocalypse their other problems became much more real.
I can only wish that they were splitting because one of them finally realized all the anti-vaccine lunacy was just that, lunacy. Or that Carrey's daughter did the sensible thing and had her child vaccinated. If that were the case I would be nothing but happy about this breakup. I doubt that it is the case, however, and as such see nothing but the pain and difficulty of attempting to dissolve a family. I wouldn't wish that on anyone, no matter how stupid, annoying, and dangerously misinformed.
@Gus Snarp
Slightly OT, but the dissolution of a relationship, while painful and difficult, may actually be the best choice, depending on the circumstances. Maintaining the relationship may cause more pain and difficulty than the break-up in the long run.
hey, maybe we will luck out and Amanda Peet is single?
@mikerattlesnake: Now that is an interesting story! I have to wonder how happy/unhappy they were when united by the common cause. Perhaps if they had picked a crusade that didn't have an expiration date, they'd still be together. ;p
Previously seen in the Carrey household:
Jim: Hey honey, I just wrote this great anti-vax article on the Huffington Post.
Jenny: Oh, didn't I tell you, Evan probably isn't autistic. Turns out the doctors were right when they said vaccines couldn't have caused it.
Jim: Great, now I look like an idiot.
Jenny: Oh yeah, this coming from the Pet Detective, Fire Marshall Bill. You have talked using your ass, 20 feet tall on the movie screen, remember? I think this ground was pretty well covered already.
Jim: Big words coming from an "actress" that only gets roles for "Ditzy Blonde Girl 1" in movies based on her bra size.
Jenny: Yeah, the crowds have really been lining up to see "Serious" Jim. Too bad they gave the role of Ace Ventura to some kid. I'm glad you set that $50 million aside, we might need it.
Jim: Can you put on your glasses when you say that so you can look smart with your Google University degree? All I'm hearing is "Blah blah blah, look at my breasts".
Jenny: Get a good look, cause that's the closest you will ever see them again.
Jim: Unless they make the film version of Mother Warrior poolside, eh?
Jenny: Pack your stuff, I'm calling my lawyer!
Jim: Why don't you just pretend to be one of those too. You could write a book, too.
I think that no matter what, a distraction like that is only temporary. It's a way of avoiding a problem, but as long as the problem is not solved it will come back to the forefront.
So can I go and see I Love You Philip Morris now, or what?
I for one wouldn't be surprised if the break-up has nothing whatsoever to do with vaccine quackery. And I'm not sure I really care why they did break up.
If the breakup had anything to do with antivax activities, I would expect it to be going to bat for Wakefield's paper while it was already being withdrawn.
I'm disappointed I won't be able to use the name I thought up anymore: "Jimny McCarrthey".
While there continues to be speculation that the autism issue had something to do with the breakup, abcnews.com is also wondering whether Carrey's depression was involved.
I mention this because it looks like Carrey is about as clueless about depression as he is regarding autism. He had this to say to "60 Minutes" in 2004:
""There are peaks, there are valleys. But they're all kind of carved and smoothed out, and it feels like a low level of despair you live in," Carrey explained. "I was on Prozac for a long time. It may have helped me out of a jam for a little bit, but people stay on it forever. I had to get off at a certain point because I realized that, you know, everything's just OK."
Everything's OK, just get over it. Great advice. Dumb, and dumber even than Tom Cruise, if that is possible.
When it rains, it pours.
http://entertainment.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/04/09/jenny-mccarthy-school…
If Evan was not autistic then why does he have one eye turned in and the corner of the mouth showing the same ischemic/hypoxia microvascular stroke damage to the cranial nerves that all the other children have. That can heal if the the immune system is not rechallenged, and biomedical treatment initiated. Now 5000 images of the same result just are not that many; are they. They probably need another 5000? What Evan was diagnosed with is just another form of ASD.
http://tolerancelost.com/category/autism/
http://tolerancelost.com/hannah-poling-vaccine-autism-re-visited-curiou…
Wildman, that is made up baloney. Strabismus and facial nerve palsy are not symptoms of autism.
Even on your links, the children don't show the features you describe. Some of the kids are not looking at the camera straight on. Some of them are pseudostrabismus (facial asymmetry), and you can tell because the light reflection is symmetric in their eyes.
Wildman, that crap won't fly here where science and actual medical knowledge is present, many of the commenters are very educated on the conditions you describe. You might want to try it at Age of Autism, where intuition and super parent senses rule the day.
The revelation of Evan not being autistic came from Jenny McCarthy herself and doctors familiar with her son in an article in Time magazine. It was not random supposition from outside observers.