Celebrity Do-Gooder Does Actual Good

August 31, 2008 6:57 AM

During last year's Toronto International Film Festival, there were stories about Colin Farrell taking a local homeless man on a shopping spree. This year, the Toronto Sun follows up. via
posted by jacquilynne (19 comments total)

I'm impressed - I'm sure this story will get snarky comments, but good on 'Stress' and good on Colin. Truth to tell this was an inspiring set of stories.
posted by mctsonic at 7:17 AM on August 31, 2008

I takes some delight in reading the snarky comments on the 2007 story (the first link) about how Colin the F has naively thrown his money away on a good-for-nothing bum. Its good to be reminded now and again that cynicism is sometimes misplaced, and that my generation's reflexive way with the flippant sitcom-derived one-liner sometimes leaves us looking like asses.

Reading what Stress has done with that push-off warms my flinty heart. Well, brings it to near room temperature, at least.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:44 AM on August 31, 2008

Nice story, thanks.
posted by middleclasstool at 7:47 AM on August 31, 2008

No mention of a job - it sounds like he's living off a disability pension and the heroes list should also include the legal aid lawyers at the Parkdale legal clinic who helped him get the payments flowing again.
posted by Pants! at 7:58 AM on August 31, 2008

the heroes list should also include the legal aid lawyers at the Parkdale legal clinic who helped him get the payments flowing again.

Speaking of shoulds: you should read the article: "[Stress sends his thanks to] The Parkdale legal clinic for fixing the glitch in his disability pension."
posted by dobbs at 8:15 AM on August 31, 2008

well, the dude lived up to the expectations ferrel placed in him. very respectable.
posted by krautland at 8:38 AM on August 31, 2008

What I love most about this story is that five years ago, Ferrel helped the guy win $2000 in the radio contest. When he found him four years later he was still on the streets; the $2000 hadn't helped him. That was not enough to convince him that any help he offered would be wasted. He helped again, even more this time, and this time it stuck.
posted by cozysister at 9:26 AM on August 31, 2008 [3 favorites]

He's also apparently clean too. Hopefully he can keep the momentum going. He wasn't able to do that the 4 years prior when Colin Farrell got him a 2000 dollar prize for getting him to a radio station. Nice to hear at least one good story. I wonder how many failures there are to this one success?
posted by Eekacat at 9:27 AM on August 31, 2008

The part I like the best about this, no matter what ends up happening to Dave/"Stress", is that a homeless person was seen as a human being and encouraged to just give life a go one more time.

I now have a measure of grudging respect and appreciation for Mr. Farrell, something I didn't think possible.

I'm rooting for Dave, too. It's beautiful to see a life re-blossom, and it could give hope to others in a similar situation to see someone make it out of that level of despair.
posted by batmonkey at 9:40 AM on August 31, 2008

Thanks for this inspiring post!
posted by vorpal bunny at 9:49 AM on August 31, 2008

The annoying thing is somebody will probably make a movie about this.
posted by philip-random at 9:52 AM on August 31, 2008

This is such a wonderful story. I remember reading about each iteration of it over the past few years.

But Christ on a chrome pogo stick, I fucking hate the Sun.

Learn to write.
In longer sentences.
Paragraphs would be nice, too.
Wankers.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 9:56 AM on August 31, 2008 [8 favorites]

Ugh, I hate the trend lately for stories to be written in what I've taken to calling the "instant-messaging" style, consisting of very short sentences and formatted so that each sentence is a paragraph all by itself. It's as if the normal rules of English language writing have been completely thrown out the window for the sake of style. It's not even like it makes the story easier to read.

Perhaps it's just more "dumbing down" and this is just a reflection of the vapidity of our society.
posted by mrbarrett.com at 10:15 AM on August 31, 2008

mrbarrett, the Sun has been writing like that since the early 80's. It's a trash paper.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 10:34 AM on August 31, 2008

Aw, nice story. Thanks.
posted by flibbertigibbet at 10:40 AM on August 31, 2008

Colin Farrell helped someone get clean? What's next, a Jack Black exercise video?
posted by ten pounds of inedita at 12:44 PM on August 31, 2008

Heheh, DNAB. Seriously, as I was writing that post, I kept thinking to myself "I'm about to link to the fucking Sun on MetaFilter. This can't possibly be happening." I expect the other 3 horsemen will be riding into town shortly.
posted by jacquilynne at 4:03 PM on August 31, 2008 [2 favorites]

If it's true, then good on everyone involved. However, having seen a formerly-homeless immediate family member as the focus of a "feel good" story like this recently, I can only say that the alternate reality painted by the newspaper article was mind-boggling.

So obviously my personal bias makes me rather cynical.

Even if everything isn't as roses and butterflies as the article suggests, I think it's rather neat that some hollywood star would seek this guy out a second time to help him. I assume he sought him out, and that the second round of assistance wasn't just a stunning coincidence.
posted by aclevername at 6:20 PM on August 31, 2008

to me, the most important part of this is that maybe helping and humanizing people who are alone and vulnerable can work wonders.

i believe in the welfare state, but i don't believe in the the way the bureaucracy dehumanizes people and the way society reinforces the notion that poverty is some kind of moral disability.

maybe this should serve as a lesson on how to give a hand up.
posted by klanawa at 9:34 PM on September 1, 2008