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| Fifth Column |
| Guitarist Peter Townshend Stands Up to Moore’s Bullying |
| 2004-07-13 |
| Who guitarist Peter Townshend is ticked off with Michael Moore – and he’s hitting back. Townshend used his Web site to strike back at Moore. The rocker writes of Moore: "He says — among other things — that I refused to allow him to use my song ’Won’t Get Fooled Again’ in [’Fahrenheit 9/11’] because I support the war, and that at the last minute I recanted but he turned me down." Moore has claimed that he wanted to use the Who song at the end of his film after Bush’s last line in the pseudo-documentary. Moore blames Townshend for vetoing the use of the song because he is "not a fan of Michael Moore’s and in fact supports the war and supports Tony Blair and doesn’t want the song used in any way that would make Blair look bad." While Townshend admits he did support the war he is less than certain about it today. Townshend said that at first the song rights had nothing to do with the film. He had never heard of it. But his agent said Moore had offered too little money. Rebuffed, Moore dragged in Miramax honcho Harvey Weinstein to intervene. At that point Townshend had second thoughts about Moore altogether. He didn’t like his "Bowling for Columbine," which Townshend said was "a bullying film." Now Townshend is the target of Michael Moore’s bullying. Townshend said he had been "slurred" by Moore because "he didn’t get what he wanted from me. It seems to me that this aspect of his nature is not unlike that of the powerful and willful man at the center of his new documentary." Townshend concluded, "But he’ll have to work very, very hard to convince me that a man with a camera is going to change the world more effectively than a man with a guitar." |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |