"Along Came Some Humble Pie"...
 
While I am still very nervous about the long-term effects of Mr.
Stiller's ongoing diatribe against ferrets in the last few days, I I was
late to work this morning to watch him issue his APOLOGY to ferret lovers
on the Today Show with Matt Lauer.  On Leno Monday night, Stiller ranted
and raved about "weasels" and how awful, mean, and smelly they are, and
told Leno airily that, "I'm not afraid of the "ferret people"." A humbled
and visibly shaken Stiller appeared on the Today show this morning and
had clearly been caught off guard by the swift and overwhelming reaction
of the ferret community since the Leno show aired.
 
They talked a bit about the character Stiller plays, then Matt turned
to the subject of the ferret, mentioning, "You went on Leno a couple of
nights ago and said some things that got you in hot water with ferret
lovers."
 
"Yeah," said Ben Stiller nervously, and proceeded to read some of what he
said have been "thousands" of emails from ferret lovers telling him off
(he said from across the globe, and seemed very surprised at how far away
the ire of ferret lovers had come from!).  He chose to read aloud a few,
the best of which said, "To work with ferrets, you need to be smarter
than them.  Apparently Mr. Stiller is not." He insisted that his remarks
on Leno were meant to be humerous to promote his movie, and that he is a
dog lover and likes animals, and does not hate ferrets.  He then issued
a formal apology to all ferret people everywhere, apologizing for his
remarks, stating that he does not intend to support ferret being illegal
in California, and saying that he does not hate ferrets.  (He also
acknowledged that the ferret has tested higher in "Along Came Polly"
screenings than any of its human co-stars!)
 
Then they brought out a little sable guy and introduced him to Ben
Stiller, Stiller took the ferret and held it and gave it a kiss on the
top of its head (the ferret didn't look thrilled; he was probably still
holding a grudge!).  Then Matt Lauer asked, "Does it feel good to get
that off your chest?"  Holding the ferret close to him, Stiller replied
kindly, "It's good to have a ferret ON your chest."  It was a good moment.
 
Of course the negativity already spread will still be harmful, as the
audience for his pretty hateful remarks on Leno is not necessarily made
up of the same people that saw today's "Today" show, but it certainly
showcases the fact that, despite the misunderstanding and abuse they
suffer all too often, and the misunderstanding that dog ferrets and their
owners, ferrets have an awfully loud voice of support when they're trod
upon!
 
I suspect this apology may also have been at the urging of his publicity
people and maybe even the studio after all the angry emails and letters;
both may have realized that if several million ferret owners were turned
off of the movie because of Mr. Stiller's anti-ferret rampage, it might
show up in the gross income figures in the next couple of weeks.  I
actually doubt this was motivated by his sincere regret that he hurt and
angered ferret lovers, but whatever the motivation, at least a public and
seemingly sincere apology has been offered to the ferret lovers he deeply
offended.
 
Three cheers to the Today show for doing this!!  Leno didn't "play along"
with Stiller on Monday night, but he also didn't stop him from blasting
ferrets and couldn't be bothered to try to offer any kind of second
opinion (I know he's not Fox News but...c'mon!).  I think it was very
compassionate and responsible of the Today show to orchestrate this as
well as have Stiller re-introduced to a ferret on the air and be the
forum for the apology.  I had started to watch the show expecting to hear
more negative remarks about ferrets and "ferret people".  The lengthy
apology that followed totally made my day!!  The Re-Education of Ben
Stiller at the hands of ferret lovers has been a good lesson, I think.
 
It would be nice to have Jennifer Aniston retract her comments about how
ferrets are "dangerous and unpredictable" and "at the end of the day,
it's just a big rat", but those comments as far as I know were made to a
magazine and not only were they not nearly as detrimental as Stiller's,
they were also not disseminated nearly as far as his.  Plus, hers are
probably also motivated by jealousy that the ferret is testing as the
most popular character - leading men and ladies often don't like to be
upstaged by furry co-stars; some stars refuse to work with any animals
because of that risk.
 
This was a good, fast campaign to get negative remarks about ferrets
retracted, and now that it's been done in a very public way in a very
sincere tone, it would be best to ease up on the emails and letters
to Stiller, to show that the ferret community can be as gracious and
accepting of an apology as it can be riled up about bad ferret
publicity!!
 
Thanks to everyone who spoke their mind and sent emails to Universal,
Mr. Stiller, his publicity people and the Tonight Show.  Clearly it made
an impact and showed that those who love ferrets are not to be trifled
with!!
 
-Heather W.
 Massachusetts
[Posted in FML issue 4394]