The other day, Gary Oldman made headlines when he said of Mel Gibson and Alec Baldwin “we’ve all said those things.” That sounds pretty bad if you take it out of context and hold him to the part about screaming that you hope the mother of your children gets raped, but his larger point about hypocrisy and word policing was on point. Moreover, I think the main thrust of it was the accepted invasion of privacy, where you can secretly record a private conversation and then punish someone for the way they use words. That does seem messed up. And Gary Oldman is certainly someone who values his privacy.
In fact, after Burnsy wrote up the Gibson/Baldwin comments, a friend sent me this tidbit:
I saw your article about Gary Oldman. I live a block away from him and he’s not kidding about wanting to live in a gated community. His house has 12-foot high walls, four security cameras, 15-foot high hedges IN FRONT of the 12-foot walls and a set of 10-foot hedges behind the wall that’s behind the other hedges. Yet he parks his Porsche on the street. The best part is that he lives across the street from Adrian Grenier who is constantly having parties where people throw trash in Oldman’s hedges.
Man, that’s a lot of hedges.
Also, you have to love the idea of him living next to Adrian Grenier.
“LAPD, how can I help you?”
“Vinny Chase is having another party. Bring me everyone.”
“Everyone?
Gary Oldman vs. Adrian Grenier may soon join the pantheon of celebrity neighbor feuds alongside Tarantino v. Alan Ball, Nikki Finke v. Bret Easton Ellis, George Lucas v. Marin County, James Franco v. everyone, and the curious case of Reese Witherspoon’s donkeys.