Takes quite a bit to make me root for Jian Ghomeshi, but Billy Bob Thornton manages it.

The only reason this band is on the show is because of the guy’s movie career — the group is an artifact of his celebrity. He doesn’t really have the right to complain when the fact of that celebrity gets mentioned. It’s an incredibly tedious pose for famous people to use their fame to put down the idea that fame should be worth anything.

I echo David’s comments. I also think it’s really, really rich to think he has the right to dictate what questions are asked. If he was part of any other emerging band that’s looking to promote an upcoming tour, he’d be desperate for any attention he could get.

The only reason he thinks he can get away with it is because he’s a celebrity. And the craziest part is, first few seconds notwithstanding, Jian was actually doing what Billy Bob wanted. He was asking band questions, not celebrity questions.

As far as the way Jian handled the douchebaggery, I was pretty impressed. He clearly tried to keep things on the rails for as long as possible before finally challenging Thornton. When he did challenge him, he did so in a very open way. He explained his rationale (in that slightly distracting cadence of his but explained it nonetheless) and then tried to make peace to get things rolling again.

The only thing that put me off slightly was the way Jian and his next guests kept making reference to and poking fun at the whole incident. It seemed a little gloaty to me. But I wasn’t there. I can only imagine that interview set the tone for the whole show so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt there.

it takes real skill to act as spacey and random as Billy Bob did in that interview…