"Are either of you having sex with any of your step parents now that you’re an adult? Right, I didn’t think so. But if that was or is the case, I challenge you to convince me about how much you love it."

You totally misunderstand me. I think the guy's most likely a scumbag, and I thought I was pretty supportive of your feelings and your desire to boycott his work. I was being serious when I suggested you could get other people involved and try to run his ass out of Hollywood.

Ultimately, though, the point is this: *you* have a strong personal/emotional reaction to something you've learned about this complete stranger's life.

That doesn't mean that anyone who doesn't fully agree with your perspective is an idiot, or "encouraging" his behavior, or anything like that.

Those big old emotions swarming your brain are just so very very small to people other than yourself. That's my point.

I personally advocate a policy of humility and tolerance when it comes to others' behaviors--you're not going to change how others are, and it's really just not as much FUN to spend your life fretting about things people do that piss you off.

Better to spend your life ENJOYING the other things people do that make you happy!

(PS: By the way, yes, I'm a guy, and I guess if that's really important to you for purposes of this discussion, that makes you a sexist.)

I don’t buy that they ‘never spent a moment together’ – but I can even let that point go. Soon-Yi was 12 when Farrow and Allen started dating and even if she never saw Allen as a father and he never saw him as a daughter they were both members of the same family for a solid decade. This is what Allen’s son has to say on the subject (from Allen’s wikipedia page):

"He's my father married to my sister. That makes me his son and his brother-in-law. That is such a moral transgression. I cannot see him. I cannot have a relationship with my father and be morally consistent... I lived with all these adopted children, so they are my family. To say Soon-Yi was not my sister is an insult to all adopted children."

I’ll agree we’re not talking straight up incest and it’s NOT pedophilia or these men wouldn’t still be interested in these now women. But my visceral reaction is this is still really icky. I’m not planning a protest or a boycott but I really can’t see myself forgetting for 2 hours in a dark movie theater. And, while you clearly don’t agree with me don’t kid yourself that I’m alone in feeling this way. I think Freeman especially (who is really a wonderful actor with a much wider appeal then Allen) is going to have a really hard time with this story if it turns out to be true.

If you think that it's at all likely Freeman waited until the girl was grown up, let alone legal, before inappropriateness started you must have been born yesterday. He may have waited until she was legal for the sexual aspect, but grooming and conditioning can go on for years before that. And a man who cannot stop himself from having an "affair" with his granddaughter even though he knows what it will cost him in terms of money, career, and family damage is a man acting compulsively and irrationally. He's sick.

Look, either a person is sexually into kids or they're sexually into adults. No one "grooms and conditions" until someone is of age and then nails them. They "groom and condition" in order to molest them as children. And pedophiles don't keep on "dating" their vicitms once they become adults because THEY'RE PEDOPHILES, they're not into adults.

He may well be a real sick-o. Or he might not have a grandfatherly relationship with her. We really have no idea.

"I don’t buy that they ‘never spent a moment together’"

The James Randi Educational Foundation has a $1 million waiting for you if you can prove this amazing ability to know the past of which you have no involvement.

"Those big old emotions swarming your brain are just so very very small to people other than yourself. That's my point… (PS: By the way, yes, I'm a guy, and I guess if that's really important to you for purposes of this discussion, that makes you a sexist.)"

You can patronize me and call me a sexist for now, but I’ll take the risk for the purposes of this inquiry. Maybe there is a connection between the fact that you are a guy and that you consider the outrage I feel over this issue to be so “very, very small”. The possible perp in this situation is a rich man and the possible victim is a woman who grew up with him as a father. Go figure.

“I personally advocate a policy of humility and tolerance when it comes to others' behaviors” Why? Why not vivisect these types of proclivities? Isn't this what these venues are for? Do you have kids or are in a role that is protective of them? Or are you a old man in a relationship with a teenager? What's up with all the deference?

"--you're not going to change how others are, and it's really just not as much FUN to spend your life fretting about things people do that piss you off.”

Why not? its actually interesting and could lead to some positive changes. I like sparring with you and the others on this thread. It's making me more focused. Just in case you haven't noticed, you seem to be pretty preoccupied with this conversation as well.

"You totally misunderstand me. I think the guy's most likely a scumbag, and I thought I was pretty supportive of your feelings and your desire to boycott his work. I was being serious when I suggested you could get other people involved and try to run his ass out of Hollywood."

"I personally advocate a policy of humility and tolerance when it comes to others' behaviors"

You don't see the contradiction in those statements?

Unlike you I really will show humility and tolerance when it comes to others' behavior.

There is nothing to suggest that Freeman's relationship with his step grand-daughter is in anyway wrong, and in fact it sounds totally legal and acceptable.

I am not about to start re-issuing out Scarlet Letter "A"s, tell people which (non-blood relative) adults they can or cannot consensually sleep with, set age limits between consenting adults, or claim that someone should suffer career repercussions because of which adults they choose to consensually sleep with.

I was not out to tell Sanford that he should resign, and quite the opposite I think he should stay in office, and re-clarify his positions on love, sex, alternative lifestyle, condoms, and abortion.

Morgan Freeman is exercising his freedom, and I applaud the fact that he has the freedom to sleep with any (non-blood related) adult who consents to have sex with him.

Is Freeman's choice to cheat bad for his marriage?

Possibly (but not necessarily), but I am glad that adultery is not illegal, and I have no desire to ever make it illegal.

If you want to go back to the Scarlet Letter A days, then move to Iran.