Why Sean Penn Doesn’t Care About CRITICS; VIDEO and Slideshow
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Sean Penn has every reason to be pissed at his critics. When I talked to him in Haiti (I was embedded with the 1st-73rd Airborne Cav, 2 Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne out at FOB Grey, in an abandoned country club – story and images here) he was tired, sweaty, in the middle of juggling several satellite phone calls as he tried to get generators down to the disaster response team down the hill. His camp was sprawling; two entire tennis courts. His room and board in Haiti? A tent, smaller than most families take to go camping. The rest of the space on the courts was reserved for humanitarian supplies he’d had flown in and was working with the Army to distribute.
Every evening I’d watch jealously as Mr. Penn walked into the “TOC” – the tactical operations center – at FOB Grey FOB stands for “Forward Operating Base; grew denoted their area of operation) where the leaders from the 1st-73rd, the Federally-activated FEMA DMAT team, and various NGOs would meet. These were meetings that, even with my press credentials and my embedded status, I was prohibited from joining. Nonetheless, at the conclusion of the meetings he’d often grab a seat at a table just to the right of where I’d set up my mobile office and continue to talk logistics with various NGOs. Here’s the typical banter: “We need 10, 4000 watt generators,” says one of the volunteers at the FEMA DMAT medical tent. “Worst case, 20 2500 watt units.” Oscar, Penn’s right-hand man in the Haiti effort, thinks, leans back, scratches his beard and then erupts with talk about logistics, to both the FEMA guy and Penn, who’s still sitting, diligently taking notes on a pad of paper as quickly as he can keep up with the conversation. “We could get them in through the DR,” Oscar says, tapping Penn on the shoulder to get his attention. Penn keeps writing, while confirming to the FEMA DMAT volunteer across the table “10, 4000 watts, right?” Penn says. And then he turns to Oscar and finally acknowledges his suggestion “yeah, yeah — get it done, I’ll start making calls.”
This was more than a month ago in, late January, when few knew of Penn’s presence. That’s how he wanted it. He enforced a strict ban on photography inside his camp radius, and when I talked about a photo op later on for a story I was hoping to pitch to a magazine back in the states, he wavered. “Listen,” he says, looking up at me sternly, “Right now, I’m down here because I can help, and I have a job to do, and I need to get it done. Right now, press is just going to keep me from doing that.” I feel suddenly sheepish, among the endless boxes of aid he helped bring in. I said I’d be happy to honor his request. Then his tone lightened and he cracked a smile, tapped me on the shoulder and says “listen man, I’m sorry I’m being a jerk about this, when I get back I want all the press I can get to help raise money.” I nodded, in that disappointed but understanding reporter way of nodding as he lit a cigarette I’d offered him, “I’m just here to get a job done, and I need people to understand that.”
A section of Sean Penn's camp at the Petion-Ville Country Club, now the forward operating base for a detachment of paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne. The next day this tennis court would be filled with rations, Penn's personal tent on the court to the left.
Down there, in the blazing heat of the Haitian noon, it all made perfect sense, and still does. We chatted for a few more minutes, and then I walked back over the 82nd’s camp, passing, along the way, and entire tennis court filled with humanitarian rations the Army had spent the night bringing in from the airport
So for all of you who didn’t go to Haiti, and didn’t have the random pleasure of meeting up with just another of thousands of people (and tens of thousands of US Military personnel) working day and night to save Haiti, I can tell you this:
Sean Penn can get as mad as he wants. He was down there, and there’s no doubt in my mind that he saved lives. —Benjamin Chertoff
Get lots and lots and lots more more of my reporting and photojournalism from Haiti
The “controversial” clip as it aired on March 7th, 2010. Doesn’t take a super-sophisticated sense of humor understand an off the cuff joke.
(Images: Top – Members of the 82nd Airborne division pack a truck with humanitarian aid organized by Sean Penn. Bottom: Two front loaders carry pallets of humanitarian aid organized by Sean Penn.
In terms of large, Manhattan-based organizations that weren’t doing much…. Well, here’s a photo I caught:
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More images from my reportage in Haiti:
Haiti January 2010 – Images by Benjamin Chertoff
Joe. when are you going down? When are you helping at your local homeless shelter? What are you doing to help your local school with their over crowded classrooms? Joe, Grow up. If Sean can needs to raise money to go back down and bring some more water kits, tarps, food, then his celebrity is what he has to trade on as his profession. Joe what are you doing? Making snide witless comments? I’m sure that is going to be of big help to everyone.
Fed up:
First, since I assume you are a member of one of either a DMAT team or a Soldier, I very much commend your work. The life-saving work performed on the top of that hill is tremendous, and you guys are tasked with what is likely the hardest part of Operation Joint Response. The dedication, tireless work and commitment I witnessed at Petion-Ville made me very proud to be an American.
In reference to your complaints, I’d like to make it very clear that the scope and purpose of my story is by no means to survey the nature of Sean Penn’s individual and personal behavior. The story I found in Haiti, perhaps the biggest story in Haiti, lacked complete coverage; the truly unified force the US brought to bear in Haite, That was the real story I wanted to tell; the story I went to Haiti to shoot. It is impossible for one man to cover such a large story photographically in one frame. So I shot thousands, picking stories as I went along. So I chose metaphors, each photo telling the bigger story of the other FOBS, the other camps the other ships and the other heros. The US Military was by no doubt the backbone of operation Unified Relief.I had the honor to publish the my photo essay in Popular Mechanics, along with several other text reports I chased down; I documented everything I saw, heard, read. I urge you to read it;</a perhaps it will serve to assuage the the fed up feeling you now express. Thank you for saving Haiti.
A.) You are absolutely correct on that one. I should have written FEMA-Legacy-DMAT teams. It's am alphabet soup when you pick apart who is in direct control, especially since they still partner with FEMA. The general public, in my opinion, would not recognize DMAT or have any idea what that refers to. I used FEMA DMAT teams as an informal shorthand so that people would get the disaster response angle, and they are FEMA trained. However, I think you're right: I'll come up with a distinction that everyone can figure out.
As for the rest, that does not change the very basic fact that that Penn brought in a whole bunch of stuff. I have the photos. And the 82nd from FOB grey (the country club) worked with Penn to get his stuff up the hill. I was not, and am not making any sort of comment about Penn's individual, personal behavior in Haiti. And I was a SOCOM-cleared, embedded photojournalist. I was physically kept out of the TOC by a big soldier with scary guns. Despite my numerous requests to observe the meetings, I was declined access. Penn may have pushed his way in, but there was a menagerie of aid groups coming in and out of FOB Grey. The 82nd was the best place to be to get stuff out, so it would make sense he'd be there. And someone cleared him for access. I was not invited into the meetings. He was.
I only saw Penn at his own camp with the pistol — front pocked, jean shorts. I never saw him carry a weapon into the 82nd's FOB.
D) Sean Penn? I dunno; who am I to judge his personal behavior? The point of this story is that he was non there as a press stunt. Even if it awas a press stunt, he brought more stuff in than many NGOs. 4000 water filtration systems? I have trouble, beased on his reluctance to talkdown there and his reluctance to talk on CBS (his comment about the critics was a joke; directly afterward he expressed an "I don't care" attitude."
Thank you for your comments.
BC
I was at the Petion-Ville Country Club when Sean Penn was there.
A) The disaster workers at the Country Club were NOT FEMA. FEMA wasn’t there. Check your facts, sir.
B) Sean Penn attended those meetings because HE wanted to; he was never invited to participate. This was a military mission and he injected himself into it. By the end of the day he was so incoherant no one could understand him, anyway. Must have been really tired.
C) Ask Mr. Penn how appropriate it was for him to hold open barbeques (with food fragrances floating off the mountain top to the surrounding area) while hundreds of soldiers and disaster workers lived on MRE’s. Not to mention the starving Haitians around us.
D) What asshole walks around with a pistol sticking out of his pants when he’s surrounded by the word’s finest fighting force?
Was able to forget to include the link.. Camp photos on their way…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/widenerlaw/4332654847/
Well, as I said, he didn’t want to be photographed — I’m an editorial photographer, not papparazi, and I olidged to honor his request. However, I have plenty of photos of his pills of foot filling a tennis court, and you can see the tent farm in the background. AND, there are other shots of Penn working, for example, here, at his camp. The off-white, light-yellow tent is Penn’s bedroom.
Do you have any pictures of Sean or his entourage where they are actually dirty or sweaty? If yes, thenm I’ll believe it.
Everything he’s said so far is exactly correct so far — the camp is the worse. Much more in my story about that…
Also, my facts are CHECKED and correct!
You have me liking Sean Penn tonight. Well, liking him a little.
Still, an hour ago I would have bet that nothing would make me like him even that much.
Thanks for keeping my mind flexible.
Thanks for relaying the information. Every little part of the truth contributes to the whole. I’m not a fan of Sean Penn as a person, but it sounds as though he’s doing good work there so more power to him.
Ummm… I don’t believe I’m qualified to answer your questions without having done any research, reporting; 78% of the Jewish population in america — phew! That’s a lot of people from whom I can get quotes on the record. As to why I said I was a Jew, I was simply making the point that I was not, in any way, advocating sainthood, nor qualified to advocate sainthood for Sean Penn. I believe that falls under the responsibility of the Vatican, and I also think cannonization requires a documented miracle. None of the relief efforts in Haiti was a miracle. It was a lot of very hard work done by many tens of thousands of American servicemen and women, and tireless work by NGOs and FEMA teams and even NGOs run by Sean Penn. Thank you for your compliment, but I can’t take credit. I simply observed and recorded. The real heros are in the story. http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/4346988.html
Hi Ben! You are a Jew? I’m a greatest friend of Jews. So what? If you are a Jew, tell us why 78% of the Yankee Jews (including those cretins Dershovitz and Koch) voted for that traitor Obama, knowing very well that he is a sworn enemy of the state of Israel. Have you been one of those 78% who voted for that PARASITE?
Appart from that, the tragedy of Haiti is a result as much of an earthquake as of the socio-political construction that is called SOCIALISM and is so viciously supported by the likes of Sean Penn and other Sovietwoodian cretins.
I have the best part of my life wasted while living under the boot and whip of a SOCIALISM, so I shall NEVER believe in any “good intentions” of SOCIALISTS.
And as for Sean Penn, he is only mending a tini fracture of damage that him and others like him have done to humanity and that means 150 million deaths, billions of enslaved people’s lives destroyed and hundreds of TRYLLIONS of dollars of human work and resources stolen and wasted.
Still KUDOS for the GREAT JOB you and you pals are doing in Haiti!!!
I’m a Jew. I think Sainthood is out of my control.
I’m sorry pal, but hoping that others die of cancer pretty much nullifies any sainthood accolades you can ladle out for the guy.
Mussolini made the trains run on time. Tell that to the families of the people he executed.
Is Penn executing people? Nope. But my guess is it’s because he doesn’t have either the power or the balls to execute people (the people of his choice).
Next Penn movie coming out I’ll be boycotting it. Without a shred of remorse or hesitation. And now that goes for anything else you write in the future.
How are the cappuccinos in Moral Equivalence City?
I can just see the scene, as those who are Penn’s critics imagine it: a man is dragged from the rubble, the reporter rushes up and sticks a mike in his face, and yells “You were just saved by a Hollywood actor, what’s your reaction?” and the guy responds “Put me back in the hole, I don’t like Sean Penn!”.
Point is, regardless of his political stances (which are usually idiotic) if the guy is there, walking the walk and talking the talk, we should leave him alone to do his thing. It’s stupid to criticize him; we want to encourage people to be charitable, regardless of who they are.
One of the many Western Unions. This branch is probably closed for business.
Sounds like he learned from his idiotic experience with Katrina.
Maybe that means he can learn. If so – good for him. If he wants to go off and do good stuff for people in the world without needing front page coverage of it, more power to him.
Don, good point. I’m outta this discussion. Fanning flames, fanning flames… Rectal Cancer… Katrina… Anderson Cooper… (is it working?)
Stop with the pointless fact-mongering, please. I demand the right to form my opinions on subjects I don’t understand without your infernal interference!
No complaints here. Good work Mr. Penn and Mr. Chertoff.
Well, food is food, and he waited weeks to get it in. P-a-P airport had all manner of cargo planes landing as soon as they could clear the runway. There MH-60 Sea Hawks, all spinning, three across, three deep, loading up and flying out supplies.
Penn’s group is a non-profit, and he helped, like him or not. As far as I know, from my reporting with the military and SOUTHCOM, his food was delivered just like everyone else’s; as fast as they could load it and send it.
And when the military couldn’t get generators in quick enough, he was organizing private jets to fly down to the DR and go overland.
And none of the food was distributed until the military had secured safe distribution sites to avoid scenes like this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/benjaminchertoff/4381128252/in/photostream/
and this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/benjaminchertoff/4391486726/
So Penn flew in the supplies, eh? I assume that means he was allowed to land at the Port-au-Prince airport, which means he was slotted ahead of someone or some other organization. Celebrity certainly has its perks, doesn’t it? Why I’m totally convinced that Penn is better at disaster relief than groups like the Red Cross and the Mennonite Disaster Service, I mean, HE MAKES MOVIES!!! [and he can carry a gun. {was it legal? did he illegally carry it through a US airport? Is he a dick?}] All they do is, well, take care of people after disaster and such.
Penn has a right to be angry. Pinheads always do.
Well, the fact remains, whether Penn is doing this for publicity, to make up for Katrina or out of a genuine urge to help, because he’s there, a lot more is happening. I don’t care if he brings in two C-17s full of MREs for political reasons — neither do the Haitians. He still brought in the food.
Sean Penn proved himself in New Orleans after Katrina. He spent one day there, in his sinking bass boat, only to bash Bush as soon as the mic was put in front of him. So, do I think he’s not doing it for some political reason this time too? How ’bout you let him help Haiti without commentary, without an interview, without a microphone – oops, too late.
Ryan: I agree; it is a difficult pill to swallow, and I literally had to see it to believe it. Penn climbed out of this tiny tend on the tennis court. He has the advantage of being able to call up the muckity mucks in LA and say, hey it’s Sean Penn, can you do me a favor. Think what would happen if someone from FEMA made that call? So, a very real way, Penn has been using his celebrity status to pull strings and call in favors for Haiti — unlike the Hilton sisters of Lohan or just about anybody else in Hollywood who uses celebrity influence to get to the front of the line at Les Deux.
Another tidbit: There actually was a fair amount of food in Port-au-Prince (in the rural areas it was very different). The streets were crowded with food vendors, live chickens abled about, and I’ve never smelled so much barbecue (at night that was a different story). But 1/3 of Haiti’s GDP is based on cash coming in from the US; there’s a Western Union on just about every corner, and many were destroyed. What urban Haitian’s lacked was – and still is – adequate shelter for many, and money for most. At Penn’s camp, he had at least two dozen Haitians employed — at and not cheaply — to help organize the rations and distribute them.
Sorry Mr. Chertoff. Sean Penn has proven beyond all doubt that he is just another clueless Hollyweird moron. But like the proverbial blind squirrel, perhaps Penn has found an acorn in Haiti. Considering his anti-American and anti-military ranting in which he has indulged over the years, I cut him no slack.
To me, he is and will always be Jeff Spicoli, the clueless dope-smoking idiot.
Maybe he could get his buddies Hugo and Castro to help out a little when they aren’t spending time financing left-wing terrorists organizations to overthrow other duly-elected governments in Souyth American.
Maybe he will stand in front of a bulldozer with his commie-loving bro.
Roger: if you’re referring to my account, no; that’s exactly how it went down. I left out one detail. At Penn’s side of the country club, he regularly walked around with a revolver in the front pocked of his cut-off jeans.
But he was there, working his butt off. I left his out for simplicity, but he also organize the distribution of 4000 water filtration devices. They each cost about $20, and you can use any sort of bucket. Very simple design. His point man on that — oddly enough, a professional surfer, was holding gatherings at neighborhood churches, demoing the device, how to use it, and then giving out a healthy supply to the group. That’s an amazing help to Haiti: the country had no potable water BEFORE the quake.
That’s nice and all – but given his history in the Katrina cleanup can you really blame people for assuming that he was pulling the same stunt again?
Perhaps he learned a message from the Katrina/NO debacle.
“Leave your entourage at home, and help out how you can. And don’t get in the way of the military.”
Good for him, this time. Sounds like he got it right.
This is satire, right?