doppelgangers

Not a day goes by that I don't find something offensive. Today, one of the things is a photo gallery from The Los Angeles Times suggesting actors to play serial killers if their stories should ever become the stuff on the silver screen. Looking at these mug shot-like portraits (the actor's and the serial killer's juxtaposed together), you can see staff writer Patrick Day's suggestions are mainly based on what the actor looks like. Mind you, this is not what they always look like (with the exception of Kevin Costner maybe). Day may write that Benicio del Toro "would be perfect to channel [Ricardo "The Night Stalker" Ramirez's] intensity," but what he really means is, "He looks kinda like him. You can't get that guy from Babel. He doesn't look like him!" It's even clearer when Day says that Vincent Gallo should play Charles Manson because he's had a bug bushy beard and a coif reminiscent of Manson's anyway. Nothing about his acting cred.

The actors should be offended. It's as if Day's suggesting Philip Seymour Hoffman can be mistaken on the street for John Wayne Gacy, the "clown killer" who raped and tortured boys with whom he had contact due to the nature of his job as a party clown. (Then again, I bet Gacy wouldn't be out on the streets; probably behind bars.)

As a cinephile, I am offended at the suggestion that Ryan Seacrest should play Jeffrey Dahmer. Never mind the fact that there's already been a movie about him. Saying Seacrest has a "leg-up" on other contenders for the role because he has witnessed "many acts of human depravity" as host of American Idol really degrades Dahmer's victims and the singing contestants on the show. The torture is not comparable. It's just sick.

I realize this is all just a joke, but c'mon. It's pretty low.