LGBT Lib Dem Members Are Quitting The Party Over The Defection Of Ex-Tory MP Phillip Lee

A number of LGBT Liberal Democrat members have announced they are leaving the party after MP Phillip Lee dramatically quit the Tories to join the party.

There were gasps in the House of Commons as Lee took a seat next to Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson during prime minister Boris Johnson’s speech ahead of a crucial vote on Brexit on Tuesday evening. It means Johnson no longer has a working majority.

Jennie Rigg, who chaired the Lib Dem LGBT group, told BuzzFeed News that Lee’s voting record proved he was “not a Liberal”. She said he had “problematic” views on gay rights, HIV migrants, and privatising the NHS.

Luke Graham, a member since 2010, told us Lee had a “deeply conservative mindset that did not align with Lib Dem values” and said he was “very disappointed” in Swinson’s decision.

Lee abstained in the 2013 vote on same-sex marriage and sparked controversy in 2014 when he proposed that people coming to settle in Britain should have to first prove they do not have HIV or hepatitis B.

He has also suggested that NHS patients suffering from lifestyle-related diseases, such as Type 2 diabetes, should pay for their prescriptions.

Rigg, who was a member of the Lib Dems for 11 years, tweeted that she had formally resigned from the party just an hour after Lee crossed the floor.

The Bruce Lee Fight in ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ Almost Ended Very Differently

As soon as Once Upon a Time in Hollywood hit theaters, it predictably became a lightning rod for controversy — a time-honored tradition for nearly every film directed by Quentin Tarantino. Some controversies were less valid than others, but one that hit particularly hard was a flashback sequence to a fight between Brad Pitt‘s aging stuntman Cliff Booth and martial arts icon Bruce Lee (Mike Moh).

The scene was criticized by members of the Asian-American community and by Lee’s daughter herself, who condemned the film for treating Lee “in the way that white Hollywood did when he was alive.” But it turns out that the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Bruce Lee scene had an alternate ending that would have been even more controversial.

Spoilers for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood below.

In a flashback sequence in which Cliff ponders why he has become a pariah in the stunt world, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood shows Lee boasting about his martial arts skills to a captive audience on the set of Green Hornet. Among that audience is Cliff, who scoffs at Lee’s claims and pokes fun at him. Incensed, Lee challenges Cliff to a fight, with Lee winning the first round before Cliff bests him in the second, damaging a car door in the process. The fight is broken up before a clear “winner” is declared, but according to stunt coordinator Robert Alonzo, the scene originally didn’t end there. Speaking with the Huffington Post, Alonzo revealed that the original scene ended with Cliff emerging as the clear winner. The Huffington Post writes:

Round 3 of the fight would have been a much longer battle in which both men kept going at each other, with Cliff eventually making what Alonzo called a “cheap-shot move” that put Bruce on his butt. But the point wasn’t to turn Bruce into the underdog, Alonzo told Tarantino. Rather, it was simply to “explain to the audience the level at which Cliff was [operating].” So Tarantino agreed to have the Green Hornet stunt coordinators break up the brawl before the third round, meaning no proper victor could be declared.

Seeing Bruce Lee reduced to being the butt of a joke in the film was difficult enough, but watching an extended version of that scene in order to show off Cliff Booth’s abilities would have been so much worse. The scene has been interpreted multiple ways since the film’s release: It was a misremembered tall tale that highlighted Cliff’s nature as an unreliable narrator; it was Tarantino’s way of “humanizing” a martial arts idol; it was the metaphorical face-off between old and new Hollywood.

But from what we’ve learned of the original scene, it seems like Tarantino’s intent was solely to take down a Hollywood icon while elevating his own fictional character so as to make the film’s violent third act more believable. And while I’m all for taking Hollywood icons down a peg, it plays differently when it’s Bruce Lee, a rare rising Chinese star at a time when Asian roles were still mostly exoticized or demonized — when they weren’t cartoonish caricatures. Lee himself was faced with years of discrimination, and didn’t achieve his current level of worldwide fame until after his death. In this brief scene in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood — notably the only speaking scene by a person of color in the film — Moh performs an admirable impression of Lee, but one that reads like a caricature because of the way that Cliff pokes fun at his exaggerated expressions and imitates his signature noises. It’s a scene that has rightfully earned criticism from the Asian-American community, who have only recently begun to see themselves properly represented onscreen — even if examples of yellowface were still abundant only three years ago. The original scene would have been criticized tenfold, something that Alonzon, who himself is Asian-American, was sensitive to, he told the Huffington Post:

“I know that Brad had expressed his concerns, and we all had concerns about Bruce losing. Especially for me, as someone who has looked up to Bruce Lee as an icon, not only in the martial-arts realm, but in the way he approached philosophy and life, to see your idol be beaten is very disheartening. It really pulled at certain emotional strings that can incite a little anger and frustration as to how he’s portrayed. … There’s a certain mythology and mysticism about who Bruce Lee is, which is understandable. Being an Asian American myself, I definitely related to how Bruce was a symbol of how Asians should be portrayed in movies, instead of the old Breakfast at Tiffany’s model that was really prevalent back in the day. … I had a difficult time choreographing a fight where he lost. Everyone involved was like, ‘How is this going to go over?’ Brad was very much against it. He was like, ‘It’s Bruce Lee, man!’”

Tarantino’s original version of the scene makes me wonder: Why Bruce Lee? Was it because he was the most significant martial arts star of the day? Was it because Tarantino famously idolizes him? Or was it just because he was super freaking strong? If Tarantino simply wanted a famous strongman celebrity for Cliff to take down to prove his absurd manliness, why not another action star? As the scene it, it feels like an uncomfortable jab at a human being who never got to see himself become an icon, or a joke.

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The Bruce Lee Fight in ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ Almost Ended Very Differently

As soon as Once Upon a Time in Hollywood hit theaters, it predictably became a lightning rod for controversy — a time-honored tradition for nearly every film directed by Quentin Tarantino. Some controversies were less valid than others, but one that hit particularly hard was a flashback sequence to a fight between Brad Pitt‘s aging stuntman Cliff Booth and martial arts icon Bruce Lee (Mike Moh).

The scene was criticized by members of the Asian-American community and by Lee’s daughter herself, who condemned the film for treating Lee “in the way that white Hollywood did when he was alive.” But it turns out that the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Bruce Lee scene had an alternate ending that would have been even more controversial.

Spoilers for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood below.

In a flashback sequence in which Cliff ponders why he has become a pariah in the stunt world, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood shows Lee boasting about his martial arts skills to a captive audience on the set of Green Hornet. Among that audience is Cliff, who scoffs at Lee’s claims and pokes fun at him. Incensed, Lee challenges Cliff to a fight, with Lee winning the first round before Cliff bests him in the second, damaging a car door in the process. The fight is broken up before a clear “winner” is declared, but according to stunt coordinator Robert Alonzo, the scene originally didn’t end there. Speaking with the Huffington Post, Alonzo revealed that the original scene ended with Cliff emerging as the clear winner. The Huffington Post writes:

Round 3 of the fight would have been a much longer battle in which both men kept going at each other, with Cliff eventually making what Alonzo called a “cheap-shot move” that put Bruce on his butt. But the point wasn’t to turn Bruce into the underdog, Alonzo told Tarantino. Rather, it was simply to “explain to the audience the level at which Cliff was [operating].” So Tarantino agreed to have the Green Hornet stunt coordinators break up the brawl before the third round, meaning no proper victor could be declared.

Seeing Bruce Lee reduced to being the butt of a joke in the film was difficult enough, but watching an extended version of that scene in order to show off Cliff Booth’s abilities would have been so much worse. The scene has been interpreted multiple ways since the film’s release: It was a misremembered tall tale that highlighted Cliff’s nature as an unreliable narrator; it was Tarantino’s way of “humanizing” a martial arts idol; it was the metaphorical face-off between old and new Hollywood.

But from what we’ve learned of the original scene, it seems like Tarantino’s intent was solely to take down a Hollywood icon while elevating his own fictional character so as to make the film’s violent third act more believable. And while I’m all for taking Hollywood icons down a peg, it plays differently when it’s Bruce Lee, a rare rising Chinese star at a time when Asian roles were still mostly exoticized or demonized — when they weren’t cartoonish caricatures. Lee himself was faced with years of discrimination, and didn’t achieve his current level of worldwide fame until after his death. In this brief scene in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood — notably the only speaking scene by a person of color in the film — Moh performs an admirable impression of Lee, but one that reads like a caricature because of the way that Cliff pokes fun at his exaggerated expressions and imitates his signature noises. It’s a scene that has rightfully earned criticism from the Asian-American community, who have only recently begun to see themselves properly represented onscreen — even if examples of yellowface were still abundant only three years ago. The original scene would have been criticized tenfold, something that Alonzon, who himself is Asian-American, was sensitive to, he told the Huffington Post:

“I know that Brad had expressed his concerns, and we all had concerns about Bruce losing. Especially for me, as someone who has looked up to Bruce Lee as an icon, not only in the martial-arts realm, but in the way he approached philosophy and life, to see your idol be beaten is very disheartening. It really pulled at certain emotional strings that can incite a little anger and frustration as to how he’s portrayed. … There’s a certain mythology and mysticism about who Bruce Lee is, which is understandable. Being an Asian American myself, I definitely related to how Bruce was a symbol of how Asians should be portrayed in movies, instead of the old Breakfast at Tiffany’s model that was really prevalent back in the day. … I had a difficult time choreographing a fight where he lost. Everyone involved was like, ‘How is this going to go over?’ Brad was very much against it. He was like, ‘It’s Bruce Lee, man!’”

Tarantino’s original version of the scene makes me wonder: Why Bruce Lee? Was it because he was the most significant martial arts star of the day? Was it because Tarantino famously idolizes him? Or was it just because he was super freaking strong? If Tarantino simply wanted a famous strongman celebrity for Cliff to take down to prove his absurd manliness, why not another action star? As the scene it, it feels like an uncomfortable jab at a human being who never got to see himself become an icon, or a joke.

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Deadpool Can Fuck Right Off

Photo: 20th Century Fox

The worst trend in modern moviegoing is not the proliferation or quality of superhero movies—there is just the right amount of those, and most of them are very good—but what happens to a theater when Stan Lee makes his way onscreen during one of these movies. I’d say around 2008, when the first Iron Man was released and the Marvel Cinematic Universe launched the first of what is now up to 19 installments, you would hear a few distinct chuckles as Lee showed up; it was a sort of audible nod, a nerd or two reveling in a payoff they’d come to expect. I know him, the sound told the crowd. By 2018, for the release of Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War, just about the whole theater was emitting deep, forced, guttural laughs when Lee wandered onscreen. Almost everyone has caught onto pop culture’s biggest inside joke by now, and they very much want to make you aware of this fact.

Lee has now appeared in almost every one of Marvel’s film adaptations (33!), starting in earnest at the turn of the millennium with X-Men and Spider-Man, the two movies that set all of this into motion; his cameos go even further back than that, to the made-for-TV The Trial of the Incredible Hulk in 1989. Stan Lee’s prolonged involvement has always suggested that Marvel adaptations were unafraid to press against the fourth wall in obvious ways. Deadpool proved Marvel would take a bulldozer to it, and then pelt jagged chunks of the rubble at viewers until they’re rendered unconscious.

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Before we go any further, here is a list of some things that aren’t objectionable on their own: the word fuck, extreme vulgarity, nudity, graphic violence in movies, DMX song placements, ostentatiously meta shit, Rob Delaney, and fun dumb summer blockbusters. Deadpool, and we can probably presume also its sequel, which is out Friday, contains some combination of those elements in no moderation. This is fine, I suppose—the movie will make truckloads of money and please a lot of people over the weekend, and there’s no law requiring you or me or anyone else to see it or care about it. But also, fuuuuuuck Deadpool. Fuck it right to hell.

Deadpool sucks as badly as it does, which is extremely badly, for reasons that are both in and outside of its control. I’m told it’s faithful to the source material, which is something I don’t really care about when trying to enjoy any movie on its own terms. Ryan Reynolds, who’s always seemed like a relatively smug and self-satisfied guy, has finally brought his passion project to the screen. It was all sort of preordained, after Deadpool declared that he looked like Reynolds crossed with a Shar-Pei in an issue of the comic book. The struggle to bring Deadpool to theaters is well-documented and spanned nearly 16 years, and as such the goalposts were generously placed once the movie actually became a living breathing work. That it existed at all was, for people invested in it, a triumph in its own right.

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That fundamental laziness—the smug certitude that simply Recognizably Being A Thing is enough—fits Deadpool’s style of comedy nicely. The Deadpool comedic approach is, in its way, the logical conclusion of all those Stan Lee cameos—a joke that isn’t really a joke so much as it is just Recognizably Being A Thing. That’s not the only obvious influence on the Deadpool style, of course—you’ve got a little bit of shitty Harambe meme vibes, some GEICO commercial moves, and to a lesser degree, a bite of the broader approach in Guardians of the Galaxy. All of the above offer a post-punchline approach to jokes, one that places far greater emphasis on the joke existing rather than its execution, delivery, or writing. They just kind of rapidly sputter out like nervous tics, and often at the expense of boring features like narrative coherence or rhythm. It doesn’t matter how Deadpool acknowledges Reynolds’ stint in the megaflop Green Lantern, the first movie’s relatively shoestring budget, that it only could afford D-list X-Men to aid his efforts, or how X-Men Origins: Wolverine mangled the character as long as all that is in there, and preferably sold with a cute enough wink to satisfy anyone who’s simply keeping up.

Everyone involved seems extremely proud of what they can get away with—look no further than Deadpool 2's original score, which giddily became the first film score to earn a Parental Advisory “badge of honor” on the back of song titles like “Holy Shit Balls” and “You Can’t Stop This Motherfucker.” For comic invention, the whole enterprise doesn’t amount to much more than a middle school chud who’s finally allowed to watch some R-movies and shouts the word “penis” at increasingly loud volumes in the cafeteria.

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There is something appealing about a movie being able to own its studio and nearly everyone involved in making it, which Deadpool did pull off by way of its mildly amusing opening credits. It’s a minor achievement, since the studio will take no issue in fielding these barbs so long as the Deadpool franchise continues to rake in something like $800 million at the worldwide box office. I can also understand why Deadpool might have felt so refreshing in 2016, contrasted as it was with the gruff and tragically constipated DC heroes and the MCU’s general vibe of “enjoying a cold one with the boys while the entire universe hangs in the balance.” The stakes in the first Deadpool were admirably personal, even if director Tim Miller let the set pieces get away from him near the end.

Perhaps the best side effect of Deadpool, if there’s one to be had, is how it eased Marvel properties and thereby every other tentpole into embracing the R-rating. It’s not like this was revolutionary, really—The Matrix and 300 proved this to be possible in each of the last two decades—but it likely helped convince 20th Century Fox to take a chance on an R-rated Logan. Maybe someday Marvel will greenlight a more subversive gore-fest like Matthew Vaughn’s grimy, under-appreciated Kick Ass, which was slightly less impressed with itself than Deadpool.

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Of course there were concerns that Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox might water down Deadpool for future installments, or force his integration into the Avengers universe, which is my true nightmare. But there’s nothing about the character, who is still as corny as a career theme park employee, that suggests he won’t be right at home in the Mouse House. He won’t have to dilute anything, which is probably for the best, since we’d just get an onslaught of jokes about why he can’t get the swears off. That’s the thrill of it all. The noticing.