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Mark Gordon is co-president of the Producers Guild of America and the powerful television producer behind such shows as “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Army Wives,” and “Private Practice.” He also appears to be a fan of Mel Brooks. Nikke Finke has the details:
At the table read, there was a scene in the script that had one character putting a gun to another character’s head. At that point, Mark Gordon stood up and started acting out what he said was a scene from Blazing Saddles [scene embedded above]. An eyewitness says he grabbed the person next to him in a headlock (Gordon claims he grabbed himself in the headlock) and shouted “I’m going to kill you nigger… nigger.” It shocked everyone in the room, “especially Union and Davis”, according to an eyewitness. “He offended the whole room. There was strong reaction to it,” an executive tells me. “He did apologize right after. Then folks who were there reported him to Lifetime HR [Human Resources] who then reported him to ABC Studios HR.” Said a Lifetime exec, “There’s nothing we can do about it. He works for ABC Studios.”
Several sources who know Gordon well inform me that he “likes to joke around” and “this was stupid and just a lapse in judgment”. One executive bluntly tells me, “He’s an ass.”
Gordon has since been admonished and has also issued an apology, so it’s probably all over. This is where I think I’m supposed to say, it’s over because Gordon didn’t produce “The Passion of the Christ.” But as described above there doesn’t seem to be any malice on Gordon’s part. Fair is fair. A dumb joke referencing a film that’s likely older than most of the people around that table read does not a racist make. Nothing close to this or this or this or this or this.
Anyway, wouldn’t it be good for America if everyone could quote “Blazing Saddles,“ “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” “Caddyshack,” and “Deuce Bigalow?” There should be some kind of national referendum on which five movies all high school graduates must be able to quote verbatim in order to graduate.
Or just let me pick.
Yeah, that would be better.
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