Yea...What Tony Said

The P-G's Tony Norman has a column out today on Rush Limbaugh's latest crazie:

Most people take one look at actor Idris Elba and intuit that the star of “Luther” and “The Wire” is a very sophisticated guy not lacking in the charisma department. Scratch beneath the surface, and you find an actor of incredible range and distinction.

These would be considered indispensable qualities for any actor cast as James Bond, the most iconic of franchise movie heroes. To date, six actors have played the fictional MI6 superspy, but Mr. Elba, if signed, would be the first actor of color to say, “My name is Bond … James Bond.”

Not exactly true that only six have portrayed 007, but we'll get to that in a second.

Here's Rush:

“He was white and Scottish. Period. That is who James Bond is, was,” Mr. Limbaugh said recently in echoing similar pronouncements by Fox News’ Megyn Kelly about Jesus Christ and Santa Claus. He was appalled to hear others suggest “the next James Bond should be [Mr. Elba], a black Briton, rather than a white from Scotland, but that’s not who James Bond is,” he said, acknowledging he was probably “racist” to point it out.

And here's Tony's six:

Never mind that of the six actors who have played Bond since the franchise began in 1962, only Sean Connery was Scottish. The others have been Australian (George Lazenby), English (Roger Moore, Craig), Welsh (Timothy Dalton) and Irish (Pierce Brosnan), though all are white. Mr. Elba is not white.

All true if you look at the film adaptations of Ian Fleming's character.  In 1954 there was a live TV adaptation of Casino Royale on (gasp!) American TV - who knew the first adaptation of Bond would be (again a gasp is heard from the audience) an American?

Tony also left out the three actors playing "James Bond" in this Casino Royale, too.

But all this is besides the point.

Idris Elba would make a great Bond.

So would Chiwetel Ejiofor. And while Elba's played a detective in Luther, Ejiofor's already played an assassin in Serenity.

Six of one...no that would have been Patrick McGoohan - who while American born, he was raised in Ireland AND was also offered the part of Bond.

Be seeing you.