If you’ve been on the internet for any longer than a few minutes, chances are you’ve heard about Armond White by now. Armond, for lack of a better term, writes troll film reviews, where he basically just pans or praises films for the sake of seeing how many people he can piss off because his parents either hugged him too little or too much. Anyway, not content to simply be a jerk on the web, he decided to be a jerk at the >New York Film Critics Circle Awards, heckling 12 Years a Slave director Steve McQueen and just generally heckling anyone he could sink his claws into. Variety reports …
McQueen had just accepted his prize for 12 Years a Slave, presented by Harry Belafonte, when the interruption broke out. As soon as McQueen took the stage, White started shouting from his table at the back of the room. “You’re an embarrassing doorman and garbage man,” White boomed. “F—you. Kiss my ass.” McQueen either didn’t hear the comments or pretended not to. He thanked the critics group for honoring him with an award previously given to John Ford and Woody Allen, at which point White hissed “pulease.”
If you want to do some further reading on this, Dana Stevens of Slate was apparently sitting at the same table as him, and she was not having it. Apparently, she got fed up with how obnoxious and drunk he was being and tried to switch tables, which really begs the question: How is he a part of the NYFCC? How does he have gainful employment when he’s so thoroughly unprofessional at an event like this? … Oh, wait, it’s because the internet is easily swayed by trolls and his bosses don’t mind as long as said dickish behavior brings in page views. Remember kids: if you can’t be the best, you can certainly be the worst!