Oregon Media Insiders

[Comments closed. Too damn long. Will open a new thread if need be.--L]

You wouldn't normally think of film critique as a profession likely to put you in harm's way. Not so. Just got this over the transom from an Anonymous Source:

Here's a YouTube video of Clinton St. Theater owner/operator Seth Sonstein stalking, videotaping, and physically attacking (with a neck-lock and a pie) Willamette Week freelancer Becky Ohlsen for what he deemed unfavorable coverage in WW.

The chain of events, partially transcribed:

_____

SETH: "-- Willamette Week writer wronged me in this week's paper. I know where she hangs out. We're going to settle this."

[They see her and chase her down; Seth puts her in a headlock and shoves a pie in her face. The camera closes in.]

CAMERAMAN: Take it like a man! [laughs]

BECKY: I can't believe you did that.

SETH: How could you write that shit?

_____

The video likely ends abruptly because Ms. Ohlsen became furious once the surprise wore off and she realized what had happened.

If you're curious, here's how Ohlsen "wronged" Sonstein -- in this WW article:

"Meanwhile, the biggest lesson I learned at Longbaugh came on Saturday night. It was this: If you set up an interactive video installation in a crowd of film people, someone is going to drop trou on camera.... Two or three drinks into the party, someone -- OK, someone who owns the Clinton
Street Theater -- suddenly realized the potential of this arrangement. He went outside, mooned the camera, then turned around so we could see the other side. The crowd went wild...."

Now. On first blush, the pie in the face may look like a frat-boy prank--even if it IS a physical retailiation against someone reporting on Seth's (alleged) public indecency.

But it's also a man attacking a woman physically--up to and including a mild choke-hold. AND it's a man physically attacking a writer who doesn't meet his expectations of how he should be portrayed in print.

Anyone else have a Seth Sonstein run-in worth sharing? Is there a pattern of assault against local writers -- verbal or otherwise--with this guy?

We've gotten used to outlets sniping at each other, but this takes the cake--er, pie. It'd be interesting to know whether Sonstein put this video up himself; in any event he's proud enough of himself to have had it documented in the first place. P is for "pie," but what does A stand for?

UPDATE: Becky, the self-described "pie face," weighs in. And let me note she was not my original source. [Re-edited to say I've heard directly from Becky and anything signed so far as her IS her. Folks, if you're not going to post anonymously please get an account. It's free, takes 30 seconds, and simplifies my life when people start claiming they're so-and-so.--L]

FURTHER UPDATE: I just got off the phone with Seth Sonstein. He called me at 11:51 pm. I'm going to have to paraphrase our conversation because I was sound asleep, forgive me.

He said that he and Becky Ohlsen are "good friends" and went out for a drink after the pie-throwing, and that I should have contacted him first before going with this. He said that using a word like "assault" was uncalled-for, as was encouraging Ohlsen to file charges against him. I can't remember what else he said, except that it was delivered with that kind of false-laughing aggression I really don't deal with well at nearly midnight on a weekday.

Note that I never said he assaulted her. I never said she should press charges. The video was publicly available on the Internet, posted I assume by whoever wielded the camera for Sonstein if not by Sonstein himself--as I said, I was asleep when he called or I would have asked. I don't work morning drive any more, I'm not as fast on my sleep-deprived feet as I used to be.

A source whose word I trust wrote me and gave me this story. S/he put a lot of opinion in the recounting, and I gave the recounting as his/her words. I'm not surprised people have opinions about what happens in that video, and Sonstein shouldn't be either. You post something like that to the Internet, people are going to draw their own conclusions.

After tonight, I've drawn a few.

Now I'm going back to bed.