One of the very familiar faces in LDS cinema was spent some time in jail a few weeks ago. (Thanks to Torben for the link.)
Michael Birkeland was arrested on Friday after police say he stole a computer from Utah Valley University. The man, who is used to being in front of the camera, was actually caught because of a camera built in the computer…. Two days later, the victim logged onto Skype and, thanks to the built in camera in his MacBook Pro computer, he could see exactly who was using his stolen computer over the Internet.
Kind of sad to see even LDS actors messing their lives up, but really, who are we kidding — we’re not invulnerable to all of that. We’re human just like everyone else, and if we let go, we fall, just like the rest.
On a lighter note, three cheers for Macs and their built-in iSight cameras! That part was awesome. :)
Comments
I don’t even know who that is.
I’m not upset by this.
Also on that blog post by Torben is the beer commercial starring Kirby Heyborne (I think that’s his name). Reading the YouTube comments for it is… I dunno. Comical? (He’s being called to repentance left and right.) I guess I don’t see it as such a big deal. He’s an actor. The audience for that beer commercial doesn’t know him from Adam.
Here in Thailand, there are liquor commercials on TV featuring Bundit Ungrangsee (but no direct endorsement). He’s the only Thai LDS person notable enough to have a Wikipedia entry at the moment. He’s gained quite some fame here for his conducting skills (and has parlayed that into two bestselling motivational books, which here generally means selling tens of thousands of copies). Anyhow, I find those liquor commercials mildly more bothersome, but still ultimately don’t care too much.
And I don’t really see anything notable about the Birkeland incident. Certainly less shocking than, say, my actual home teacher getting caught for this, or a bishop or stake president or something.
As it turns out, people are people, Mormons included. (But I hear Mormons do have horns.)
Tom: No offense to him, but I don’t think it matters.
sixline: And that’s fine.
rikker: It’s true. I think that because we believe the gospel is the be-all, end-all (and I do believe that), we also tend to think, subconsciously, that Mormons are perfect or at least pretty darn close (and I don’t believe that). As for Heybourne, the audience doesn’t know him, yes, but all the Mormons who’ve seen his movies do. I can see where you’re coming from, but I can’t shake myself from the idea that it does matter, somehow. I need to think about it some more. :)
You may well be right, Ben. I just can’t muster enough reaction to let it bother me. :P
No comment. :)
Throw in your two cents