Mark Wahlberg and The Moral Challenge to Entourage

Cursing, sex, pot smoking, extravagance  of wealth– are *fine* in a TV show, especially HBO; its realistic, for Hollywood at least, and none of those activities are inherently good or bad. Would you not spend most of your time chasing girls, living it up, and hanging with your closest friends if you were a young movie star? You would. And there’s nothing bad about the characters, given that they are very simple, and don’t really hurt anyone. Bottom line: Entourage has its appeals and the show seem honest and innocent enough. Good people having innocent fun. Good entertainment.

Note that this show is supposedly based on the real life of Mark Wahlberg, also known as rapper Marky Mark, and an underwear model at times, when he made his entrance into Hollywood. So Marky must have got lots of girls, smoked lots of pot, and indulged in luxury spending– so what? Again, most young people would do that in his situation, and most older people would want to.

But as much as I think people’s personal lives should be irrelevant to the work they produce, and as much as I feel bad for Tiger Woods who proves to be simply human as affairs are common enough and his golf career, which should stay out of the feeding frenzy– the case with Wahlberg is something different, its not just cheating on your wife. Wikipedia’s entry on his early life, for what its worth: 

“As a teenager, Wahlberg stole cars, abused drugs and alcohol, and got into fights. At fifteen, he was amongst a group who threw rocks at a group of African American school children on a field trip while shouting racial epithets. The following year, Wahlberg robbed a pharmacy while he was under the influence of PCP. During the commission of the crime, he used racial slurs. He knocked one middle aged Vietnamese man unconscious and permanently blinded another in one eye before he was arrested by the police… In yet another incident, it was alleged the 21-year-old Wahlberg fractured the jaw of a neighbor in an unprovoked attack.”

For all this, 45 days of a two year sentence in a Boston jail. I feel scandalous for putting this here, but that’s the nature of the internet anyways. I don’t want to judge people, but again its the internet. Point: Obviously people change, and I believe criminals should be given another chance if they make an honest turn around, but what turnaround? I don’t know *that* much about the man, and Wikipedia doesn’t mention one. I’m sure something happened, but lets look at the narrative: Blinded a man in an eye, hate-filled attacks, beating on your neighbor at age 21– all that early on, and then come to Hollywood and devote yourself to what? chicks, pot, and luxury? His cameo’s in the show are more “I’m badass” than “I’m grateful.” Obviously the latter wouldn’t make sense in a show like Entourage, but still, is the narrative really troubled young adult to high rolling older adult?