Should Brett Ratner be Fired as Oscar Producer Based on His Recent Comments?

Brett Ratner‘s comments on G4 recently, where he said he “banged” the show’s ex-co-host Olivia Munn “a few times” and added, “She wasn’t Asian back then” have caused a bit of a fire storm. In figuring out what exactly he meant by that last statement and I’m still unsure, but his latest comments certainly shed a little more light on his personality.

This morning a new offense popped up as noted by Vulture:

After a screening of his film Tower Heist at L.A.’s Arclight Cinemas, [Brett Ratner] came out for a Q&A, and when asked by the moderator whether he prepares and rehearses with his actors before shooting a scene, Ratner waved his hand dismissively and said, “Rehearsing is for fags.”

This, obviously, prompted an immediate apology. Ratner, as quoted by The Wrap said, “I apologize for any offense my remarks caused. It was a dumb way of expressing myself. Everyone who knows me knows that I don’t have a prejudiced bone in my body. But as a storyteller I should have been much more thoughtful about the power of language and my choice of words.”

Is this an apology any one will quickly accept, even if you can easily rationalize what he meant? Is it in any way acceptable or indicative of how someone should act or talk, regardless of whether or not they are hosting the Oscars?

Of course, the fact he is hosting the Oscars sheds an even brighter light on the matter and people are already calling for him to be fired as producer of the show.

Over at Grantland, Mark Harris just wrote an article headlined “Why the Academy Should Fire Brett Ratner“, where he sums things up with:

I’ve had to listen to versions of every one of these mea-not-quite-culpas over the years and seriously, I’m no longer interested in patiently witnessing the slow arc of a public figure’s learning curve. What I do care about is what the Academy does, which should be either to ask for and receive his resignation from the show or to drop him as the producer of a show that is supposed to represent the best the industry has to offer. There’s not really a long, nuanced debate to be had about this. If he had used an equivalent racial or religious slur, the discussion would go something like, “You’re fired.” Apology or not. The same rule applies here. You don’t get a mulligan on homophobia. Not in 2011.

What do you think? Should Ratner be fired? Weigh in below…

If you want my opinion, yes, he should be… Harris says it best, this kind of conduct is not what you’d expect from “the producer of a show that is supposed to represent the best the industry has to offer.” I would assume, at the very least, the Academy has to issue a statement at this point.