By TIM KORTE The Associated Press Friday, March 17, 2006; 7:26 PM
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A Mescalero Apache family in southern New Mexico has sued the producers of Steven Spielberg's television miniseries, "Into the West," claiming a set stylist cut an 8-year-old girl's hair without regard for tribal customs.
"It's part of our culture not to cut a girl's hair until her Coming of Age ceremony," the girl's father, Danny Ponce, said Friday in a telephone interview. "The only ones allowed to do that are the parents. Nobody asked for permission."
Ponce filed suit in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque on March 6, naming Turner Films Inc. and the unknown stylist as defendants. The lawsuit seeks $250,000 for emotional distress and $75,000 in damages.
A Turner Films spokeswoman said the company doesn't comment on pending litigation.
The lawsuit says Ponce's daughter, Christina, responded through her parents last March to an open casting call for work on the TNT network miniseries, "Into the West," for a three-day shoot near Carrizozo, N.M.
The stylist cut the girl's hair, the lawsuit claims, "to make her look more 'Indian' and like a male Indian child because the movie casting call failed to produce sufficient young male extras of Indian heritage."
The Mescalero tradition forbids cutting a girl's hair as she approaches puberty. To prepare for womanhood, Mescalero girls participate in a sacred Coming of Age ceremony that requires their hair to reach the waist.
Before it was cut, Ponce said his daughter's hair fell midway down her back. It has since grown to her collar.
"This has to do with the culture of a tribal member," he said. "It was cut very short above her ears. She looked like a boy."
Gov. Bill Richardson in recent years has increased state efforts to attract the film industry to New Mexico. While Ponce welcomes those initiatives, he suggested filmmakers from outside the state should try to be more culturally sensitive.
"Just because you're wealthy, you don't do something without checking first," Ponce said.
《藝伎回憶錄》原是書本, 原作者 Arthur Golden 被日本人批評 書本 不準確, 說 Arthur Golden 不理解日本文化或藝妓文化。這與堅持 Chop Suey (雜碎) 是真正中國食物的美國人相似, Chop Suey 是早期美國唐人街獨特食物, 是西洋化的中國食物 (westernized Chinese food).
美國人不瞭解日本文化, 書本在美國暢銷。但是美國影評認為電影很差, 很垃圾 - 似 "封建時代的 迪斯尼樂園"，在那裡櫻桃總是開花，在地面上落下 ("the world of the film is so narrow that pre-occupation Japan looks like a feudal Disneyland, where everybody knew their place and the cherry blossoms were always falling" ) 。.
迄今為止，電影還沒有 breakeven, 還在賠錢。在奧斯卡晚上, 奧斯卡主持人 Jon Stewart 提及這部電影時, Spielberg 搖頭 in disapproval，因為 Spielberg 是這部電影的投資人 / 製作人 (co-producer), 電影還在賠錢, 影評差。Spielberg 不是導演, 他是跟新力 (Sony) 一起投資製作.
我看章子怡一些電影, 她的演技不足. 新力 and Spielberg 還在賠錢, 她的好萊塢夢幾乎肯定完了。
