Happy Mother’s Day!

In honor of the recent celebration of Mother’s Day, here’s a story about a mother and child whose relationship has hit the rocks in a very public fashion.

Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant is currently embroiled in a dispute with his mother regarding an auction of some of Bryant’s sporting memorabilia. Pamela Bryant recently put more than 100 collectibles spanning Kobe’s career up for a June auction in New Jersey. She insists that Kobe gave her the items (which include a variety of jerseys, trophies and rings from throughout his basketball career) while also claiming that she has spent upwards of $90,000 on storage over the past five years.

Kobe denies all of this, saying that he intends to give the items to his children.

It has gotten ugly, with accusations flying from both sides – each alleging that the other is lying. Kobe’s father Joe has jumped into the mix, claiming that he and his wife asked Kobe to take some of the items to his California home – a request he says Kobe declined.

As you might imagine, lawsuits have been filed.

It’s bad enough that these sorts of family squabbles happen; unfortunately, this is the sort of situation where there can be no winner. While Kobe may well be totally in the right – all of these items came from his accomplishments, after all – there’s no way to get into a p---ing match with your mother and not look like a complete nozzle. Sure, he might want to give this stuff to his kids, but the circumstances sure do make it seem like he’s being a jerk.

Meanwhile, his parents look like complete gold diggers by trying to auction off his stuff. It isn’t so much the initial attempt to auction the memorabilia – they could very easily have thought it was theirs to do with what they liked. No, it’s the continued insistence upon selling even after Kobe voiced his disapproval that makes them look like greedy opportunists.

It’s sad that an issue like this can rise up and demolish a fragile family dynamic. Regardless of the eventual outcome, these relationships are irreparably damaged.

Happy (belated) Mother’s Day everyone!

Best feud ever?

We’ve got a potential classic brewing right now. It’s too soon to say if this particular feud has legs of if it will fizzle out; all we can do is cross our fingers and hope against hope that it gets worse before it gets better.

The two combatants? Zach Braff and Morgan Freeman.

I know – I’m as surprised as you are.

Braff has been embroiled in a bit of a controversy lately; the actor took to the crowdfunding website Kickstarter to finance a new film project. There has been some backlash, with critics calling out Braff for taking advantage of a resource like Kickstarter rather than footing the bill himself. 

In the process of defending himself during a Q&A session, Braff (for some not-quite-clear reason) brought up Morgan Freeman’s recent AMA on Reddit, referencing the belief by many of that site’s users that Freeman’s vanilla answers were in fact written by a publicist or another Freeman employee.

Freeman’s response as captured by TMZ was, as you might expect, kind of perfect. When asked about Braff’s calling him out, his response was a simple “Not the best idea.” Freeman’s tone managed to strike a wonderful balance. He made it clear that he knew Braff would wind up regretting his comments while still conveying an air of genuinely not giving a crap.

Look, I like Zach Braff. I think he’s a funny, talented guy. But he had to know that the internet boo-birds were going to hit him hard; Kickstarter and sites like it are intended to help those with no other options bring their projects to life. You can’t tell me that Braff is without options. But dragging Morgan Freeman into it for no reason other than to try and ingratiate himself to the online masses is dirty pool. It’s a low blow against a guy who is the epitome of class.

It’s a shame that the big meanies out there think you’re a selfish tightwad. So sad that your feelings were hurt, but dragging someone completely unrelated to the situation into the crossfire in an attempt to shed some heat is weak sauce.

Seriously, Zach Braff – no one wants you to be a tool, so please stop acting like one.

Ain’t no fortunate son

It’s always a roll of the dice when it comes to the children of the hyper-famous. Sometimes, they manage to navigate the minefield of vast wealth and implied entitlement and still find a way to come out the other side as a reasonable, relatively decent human being. Other times, they turn out to be utterly self-superior nozzles.

Unfortunately, it seems that young Patrick Schwarzenegger is the latter.

The still-teenaged Patrick (he’s 19) used someone else’s ID to gain entrance to The Sayers Club, a Hollywood nightspot. Not the smartest move, but hey – he’s a kid. Kids pull dumb stuff sometimes. But if that was all, we wouldn’t be talking about this right now.