Clint Eastwood has had an extremely
successful career spanning over six decades, which has included dozens of popular films
and five Oscar wins. As the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences once proclaimed,
Eastwood is "one of the film industry's most respected actors and directors." For
all of his accomplishments, however, Eastwood has also stirred up plenty of controversy
- particularly among his peers in Tinseltown. Fueled by his penchant to
say whatever is on his mind, the Hollywood legend has occasionally
made headlines for the wrong reasons. Eastwood once engaged in a politically-charged
feud with director Spike Lee. When Lee criticized the lack of representation in the casts of
Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, Eastwood publicly told him
to, quote, "shut his face." Luckily, in this instance, tensions between the
two have since cooled down. Lee told Access, “That thing with Clint was overblown,
and that stuff was squashed. We’re cool.” Other quarrels have taken on lives of their
own - like the one with Michael Moore. The documentary filmmaker's entire career
has been based on openly expressing his opinion and that's exactly how he
sparked a showdown with Eastwood. It all started with a single tweet, when Moore
proclaimed that "snipers aren't heroes," revealing that his uncle had been killed by one during the
second World War. Given the timing of the tweet, many thought the filmmaker was taking a dig at
Eastwood's American Sniper film. Moore responded on Facebook that he wasn't, but he did go on
to offer his opinion on the movie. He praised some aspects of it, including Bradley Cooper's
performance, before throwing shade at Eastwood. He wrote, "Too bad Clint gets Vietnam and
Iraq confused in his storytelling. And that he has his characters calling
Iraqis 'savages' throughout the film." Rumors then began recirculating that Eastwood had threatened Moore's life - leading Moore
to return to Facebook to clarify things. He wrote in his post, "Clint Eastwood stood in front of the
National Board of Review awards dinner and announced to me and to the
crowd that he would 'kill' me if I ever came to his house with
my camera for an interview." Despite being a bit stunned by what
he called "such a violent statement," Moore laughed the whole thing off. However, he wasn't so sure that Eastwood saw any
humor in the situation. Moore went on to say... "Clint, though, didn't seem to like all
that laughter. [...] 'I mean it,' he barked, and the audience grew more
quiet. 'I'll shoot you.'" During an appearance at CinemaCon that April, Eastwood claimed the story
wasn't true, but jokingly added… "It isn't a bad idea." "Get off my lawn." Through the years, Eastwood has even raised
the ire of a few well-known musicians, including Flea, the bassist
for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. In August 2016, Eastwood infamously opened up to Esquire about his dislike of political
correctness - and appeared to praise then-presidential candidate Donald
Trump's divisive approach to politics. Eastwood said... "He's onto something, because secretly everybody's
getting tired of political correctness, kissing up. [...] That's the kiss-ass
generation we're in right now. We're really in a p---- generation. [...]
We see people accusing people of being racist and all kinds of stuff. When I grew
up, those things weren't called racist." When asked to clarify who exactly falls into
said generation, the actor-director added… "All these people that say,
'Oh, you can't do that, and you can't do this, and you can't
say that.' I guess it's just the times." Flea, for one, was not having it. Wasting no
time, the musician took to Twitter to respond. He took a jab at Eastwood and proudly picked a
side. In a since-deleted tweet, Flea wrote... "Hey Clint Eastwood count me in as a p----
as we aspire to evolve above racism." Of all the celebrities who have had problems
with Eastwood, there's one who truly stands out. Sondra Locke was a young actress who had an
extraordinary start in the business. In 1968, she earned an Oscar nomination for her debut
performance in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. She later met Eastwood, and,
as the Irish Times put it, their "toxic relationship"
would sadly define her career. They first co-starred in The Outlaw Josey Wales, and hit it off both professionally
and personally. The couple ended up making five more films together. But as
Locke told The Washington Post in 1997, "If you were in Clint Eastwood movies, you
were in the Clint Eastwood movie business. You weren't in the movie business
[...] People stopped calling. He didn't make me famous. It was
never my fame - it was his fame." When Locke voiced her desire to branch out and
direct, she said it was the beginning of the end. After 13 years together, Eastwood reportedly
changed the locks on their house while she was out. She sued for palimony and Eastwood argued
that Locke was just his "occasional roommate." They settled out of court once Locke was
promised a directing deal with Warner Brothers - which turned out to be fake. The
studio rejected 30 of her scripts. In response, Locke sued for fraud before settling out of court,
and her acting-directing prospects fizzled out. She summed up her time with
Eastwood by saying this... "My biggest misfortune, my greatest regret is
that I wish I'd cut my time with Clint in half." "How much of this s--- do I have to listen to?" Check out one of our newest
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