By now, I’m sure that you’ve heard that Roy E. Disney has filed for divorce. Which — given that Walt’s nephew & his wife, Patty, had been married for more than 51 years — immediately started tongues wagging around Tinseltown.
Given how Hollywood loves a juicy piece of gossip, I’m guessing that it won’t really surprise you to learn that this particular piece of news traveled at warp speed. With many industry insiders spending the bulk of their weekend burrowing through that 17-page petition for dissolution of marriage that TMZ.com posted on Friday evening. Looking for clues as to why the Roy E. Disneys were actually ending their half-century-long union.
Of course, what may surprise you is to learn how quickly the Mouse House faithful turned on ol’ Roy. With some pretty caustic comments about this Disney Legend popping up on the Net over the past 72 hours.
Take — for example — what’s been posted over on LaughingPlace.com‘s discussion boards. Now this is a website where seldom is heard a discouraging word about the Mouse. And yet even these Disney diehards are saying things like ” … There’s no fool like an old fool” as well as joking about who the “other woman” might be, ” … Snow White? Cinderella? The Wicked Witch? Tinkerbell?” With perhaps the meanest swipe of all coming from one longtime LP poster, who asked if it wasn’t too late to set up a “SaveDisneysMarriage” website.
Given my own somewhat complicated history with the folks behind “Save Disney” (I.E. Some Mickey fans are still furious with me because I dared to write a number of articles that questioned what Roy & Stanley Gold’s real motives were for mounting that “Oust Eisner” campaign), I would imagine that a lot of you are now expecting me to pile on Roy, express some sort of glee at his marital misfortune.
But here’s the thing … I myself have been through a divorce. Which (pardon my French here) hurt like a son-of-a-bitch. I have honestly never felt as low or as worthless as I did in the months immediately following the end of I & Michelle’s marriage.
Photo Courtesy of thebecker.com
More to the point, my own parents have been married for more than 50 years. So, to think of what Roy & Patty’s kids & grand-kids must be going through right now, to have that sort of seismic shock roil through that family … That’s the sort of heartache that I wouldn’t wish upon my own worst enemy.
So you’re going to have to forgive me if I sit this one out, folks. If I don’t join those of you who are already on line, eagerly awaiting your opportunity to take a swing at that Roy Disney-shaped piñata.
Look, I know that the Walt Disney Company is supposed to be this bastion of family values. And given that Roy & Patty are now going their separate ways after over 50 years of marriage … Well, it’s easy to understand how some of you might interpret this decision by Walt’s nephew as being a betrayal of everything that the Disney corporation stands for.
Which (to my way of thinking, anyway) is just unfair. I mean, sure. Some of you — because Roy looks so much like his late uncle — have come to view Walt’s nephew as sort of an extension of the Ol’ Mousetro. But Roy E. ain’t Walt, folks. Nor is he some carefully buffed & polished corporate symbol. He’s a really-for-real person. With flaws & foibles just like the rest of us.
So, before the let’s-beat-up-on-Walt’s-nephew ball really gets rolling here, I thought that I — as one of Roy Disney’s most vocal critics — should just step in & say: “Look, I don’t think that this is really any of our concern, folks. Out of respect for Roy & Patty and their extended family, I think that the kindest thing that we can all do here is not make light of what is obviously a very painful situation.”
By the way: Anyone who takes pleasure in the implosion of someone else’s marriage — particularly one that lasted more than 50 years — is a cruel & truly classless jerk.
Okay, I know. This probably isn’t the sort of thing that you expect to read on JHM. Don’t worry. We’ll get back to the pointed stories about the Walt Disney Company soon enough. But — for now — how’s about we all cut Roy & Patty a little slack? Show a little respect for a marriage that lasted for more than half a century, only (for some reason that we’ll probably never know about) to run out of gas.
Your thoughts?