Kate del Castillo has had a successful career in Mexican film and television, but she has made headlines this week not for her acting ability but for revelations about her role in brokering a meeting between notorious cartel leader Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, also known as El Chapo, and Sean Penn.

Let’s back up a little bit. In January, Penn interviewed Guzman for Rolling Stone, publishing an article which has come under fire both from del Castillo (who argues that Penn misrepresented what he would be writing when he described the article to her) and from law enforcement (who assert that once Penn had knowledge of Guzman’s whereabouts, he should have immediately contacted the police). Penn himself has admitted that the article failed to initiate a meaningful discussion of the war on drugs and the political situation within Mexico.

Del Castillo has published an essay in Spanish that describes how she came to be contacted by Guzman’s lawyers, who thought she could be a value add to a biopic film describing his life. The actress has become a household name in Mexico thanks to her role as the scheming mastermind behind a major drug cartel on the popular telenovela “Reina del Sur,” and it is that role that partially inspired Guzman’s interest in her. His representation also cited her presence on Twitter, in which she had directly addressed Guzman, asking him to consider alternatives to drug trafficking, prostitution and murder.

The Mexican newspaper Milenio secured a string of leaked texts between del Castillo and Guzman, dated from the period during which she was arranging the meet between him and Penn, which suggest a friendly relationship between the actress and the criminal. Guzman’s attitude towards del Castillo has alleged to be one of romantic interest, which further muddies the waters regarding the relationship between the two. Del Castillo wrote in her essay that nothing romantic happened between the two of them, but that hasn’t stopped a flood of thousands of memes and social media posts mocking the tone of her texts with Guzman. The actress was placed under investigation by authorities almost immediately after the Penn article was published and is currently being cooperative with law enforcement.

But Del Castillo’s interaction with Guzman raises interesting questions about the nature of celebrity, and where we draw the line between being qualified to deal with  fearsome characters on television and being able to handle a high-stakes criminal in person. Del Castillo’s essay illustrates how terrified she was meeting Guzman in person, despite the fact that her texts prior to that meeting emphasize how excited she was to be meeting with him. Del Castillo may play a calculating, cold-blooded crime boss on television but that doesn’t mean she has the skills for negotiating a crisis scenario in real life.

Del Castillo’s organization of the meeting with Penn may have contributed to the later capture of Guzman (as without the meeting, he could have remained in hiding indefinitely) but her actions should not be considered intelligent–and should not be duplicated by other public figures who think that they can pacify major criminals by simply impressing them with their celebrity. As Del Castillo’s description of meeting El Chapo face to face demonstrates, dangerous cartel leaders cannot be taken lightly, no matter how much they like a given person’s Twitter account. Her actions must be considered a bizarre cautionary tale, not a template for how celebrities, or anyone else, should act if they are contacted by fugitives.

Jillian Sequeira

Jillian Sequeira was a member of the College of William and Mary Class of 2016, with a double major in Government and Italian. When she’s not blogging, she’s photographing graffiti around the world and worshiping at the altar of Elon Musk and all things Tesla. Contact Jillian at Staff@LawStreetMedia.com

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I was in an airport in New York City when I first heard that Sean Penn wrote a 10,000 word piece on El Chapo for Rolling Stone, which may have led to El Chapo’s recapture. The place was significant to me because I had spent the last two weeks in the city that never sleeps, where some of the country’s best journalists live and write and report the news. My first thought was, So Sean Penn writes now? Huh.

In reading the article, I had a hard time getting past the line where he says he never learned how to use a laptop and wasn’t sure they were made anymore. The article was cheesy. It was poorly written. It did nothing for me. But it got me thinking about journalism as a whole–that’s when I started to pay attention.

When sensational things like this happen–where a famous person and an infamous person meet in secret for an article in Rolling Stone, for example–I find that it’s more important to pay attention to the aftermath than to the actual event. In the aftermath of this article being released, there were comments from all sides on every single news outlet that I watched. Many began by covering the recapture of El Chapo and the plan to extradite him to the United States so that he can’t escape from prison again (you really need to step up your prison game when you’re holding drug lords, Mexico). Inevitably, though, they always eventually started talking about Sean Penn and playing clips from an interview he did with Charlie Rose on “60 Minutes.” That is when things get interesting.

According to the interview, Sean Penn is sad about the state of journalism. He says, “’Journalists’ [the air quotes are his] who want to say I’m not a journalist, well, I want to see the license that says that they’re a journalist.” (The emphasis is also his.) He doesn’t seem to grasp where he’s sitting and who he’s talking to, and that’s what’s making people–especially other journalists–angry.

First of all, to those who say that Sean Penn has never written anything–he has. His IMDB page shows that he has six writing credits, including two screenplays. He has also used his fame and his political and social beliefs to have editorials published in The Washington Post and The New York Times, along with other publications. He has interviewed controversial world leaders such as Raul Castro and Hugo Chavez. He has never seemed to find his footing, however, amongst the journalistic community.

Second, consider who Sean Penn is talking to on “60 Minutes.” Charlie Rose holds a law degree from Duke University. He has won awards for his journalism, including an Emmy Award for his interview with Charles Manson and a Peabody Award for his interview with Jimmy Carter while he was president. Sean Penn was insulting journalism in front of a successful and revered journalist. He was asking to see Charlie Rose’s “journalism license” as he sat right in front of him.

Charlie Rose, for his part, remained calm and collected about the whole thing, never showing offense to the ridiculous things that Sean Penn said about journalism. The interview, as a whole, did not show Sean Penn in a great light. He seemed selfish, dismissive, and defensive. He said that no one understood him. He tried to make it into everyone else’s fault that his Rolling Stone article “failed.”

This, to me, is what makes it clear that Sean Penn isn’t a journalist, even though he wants to be. Journalism (in most cases) is about reporting facts in a way that makes a story enticing to read or watch. It isn’t about making a point–it’s about revealing something new that people at large are interested in. No, you don’t need a license, but you need generally need a college degree and an understanding of what the end goal is. An interview with El Chapo could have been a very interesting piece of journalism. It had the potential to become something big and important, like interviews with criminals that reveal some of their motivations and tendencies. What Sean Penn did was write an extremely long self-indulgent essay for a magazine that was as much about him as it was about his subject. In addition, he let El Chapo review the piece before it went to press. Sure, he wrote something for a magazine. I guess that makes him a journalist. But what he wrote wasn’t journalism. It was a bizarre memoir. That’s the difference.

Amanda Gernentz Hanson

Amanda Gernentz Hanson is a Minnesota native living in Austin, Texas. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Hope College and a Master’s degree in Technical Communication from Minnesota State University, where her final project discussed intellectual property issues in freelancing and blogging. Amanda is an instructional designer full time, a freelance writer part time, and a nerd always. Contact Amanda at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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In a particularly strange piece of news, Academy Award winning actor Sean Penn secretly met with fugitive Mexican drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, and wrote an article about it for Rolling Stone. El Chapo has now been arrested, but the article went up on Rolling Stone’s website last night. The entire situation is incredibly odd, but the fun part is that some of the individual facts are even odder. Check out the top five weirdest things about Sean Penn’s interview with El Chapo:

5. El Chapo Doesn’t do Drugs

Despite the fact that El Chapo claims to supply “more heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana than anybody else in the world,” he doesn’t do drugs personally. In fact, he hasn’t done any drugs in 20 years.

4. In Fact, He Does Hugs not Drugs

When Sean Penn first met “El Chapo,” the drug kingpin hugged him. Penn wrote that when they met, “he pulls me into a ‘compadre’ hug, looks me in the eyes and speaks a lengthy greeting in Spanish too fast for my ears.”

3. Yet, Sean Penn Still Farted in Front of El Chapo

Sean Penn bizarrely admitted to farting in front of El Chapo, and determined that the drug lord was very chivalrous for pretending not to notice, writing: “At this moment, I expel a minor traveler’s flatulence (sorry), and with it, I experience the same chivalry he’d offered when putting Kate to bed, as he pretends not to notice.”

2. Sean Penn Doesn’t Know How to use a Laptop

I’m going to leave this quote, from Sean Penn, without any context: “At 55 years old, I’ve never learned to use a laptop. Do they still make laptops? No fucking idea!”

Are we supposed to believe that Sean Penn hasn’t even seen a laptop recently?

1. But Somehow, They Still Use BBM

The strangest part of this, somehow, is the fact that part of the interview as well as part of the setup was conducted using BBM, or Blackberry Messenger. Given that Blackberries have become borderline obsolete, it’s a charmingly strange addition to the story. I, for one, am impressed that Sean Penn couldn’t figure out how to use a laptop, but could figure out a Blackberry.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Five Weirdest Parts of Sean Penn’s Interview with El Chapo appeared first on Law Street.

It’s a night of fanfare, excitement, and glamour. It’s also a night to celebrate the best of the best in the filmmaking industry. But it’s not that simple, either. Without further ado, let’s open up the envelope and check out the top political moments of last night’s Oscars.

Patricia Arquette’s Call for Pay Equality

Patricia Arquette took home a big yet predictable win as Best Supporting Actress for her role in the film “Boyhood.” But in her acceptance speech she did something equally big–she used her platform to speak out for pay equality. Arquette said:

To every woman who gave birth to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation we have fought for everybody’s equal rights. It is our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women in the United States of America.

This speech, in addition to being awesome and dead-on, gave rise to quite possibly one of my favorite .gifs of all time–Meryl Streep and J-Lo cheering Arquette on.

If you say something that causes Meryl Streep and J-Lo to react like their team just won the Super Bowl, you know you’re doing something right.

Arquette’s call to action on pay equality came just a few months after the revelation that in some cases, women in blockbusters weren’t being paid as much as their male counterparts. This realization came out of of the much-publicized hack of Sony Entertainment emails. And speaking of Sony…

President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Speaks Out Against Sony Hack

Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences made a short speech last night, and much of her focus was on the importance of avoiding censorship, a clear reference to the Sony Hack and ensuing concerns about airing “The Interview.” Boone Isaacs exclaimed that as a film industry, everyone has “a responsibility to ensure that different opinions can be shared without fear of personal or professional attack. A responsibility to protect freedom of expression.”

“CitizenFour” Wins the Best Documentary Award

Although this wasn’t an obviously political moment, it definitely said something. “CitizenFour” chronicled the story of Edward Snowden and the leaks that he disclosed in 2013 before fleeing the country. Say what you want about Snowden, whether good or bad, it’s clear that his actions certainly changed the quality of American discourse about privacy and surveillance.

Director Laura Poitras accepted the award, lauding Snowden for his actions. She stated:

The disclosures that Edward Snowden reveals don’t only expose a threat to our privacy but to our democracy itself. When the most important decisions being made, affecting all of us, are made in secret, we lose our ability to check the powers that control. Thank you to Edward Snowden, for his courage, and for the many other whistleblowers. I share this with Glenn Greenwald and other journalists who are exposing truth.

Regardless of whether the “CitizenFour” choice was a political move, Poitras’ speech almost certainly was.

Sean Penn’s Greencard Comment

Of course, not all speeches and moments at the 2015 Oscars were political in a good way. Take Sean Penn’s asshole remark, for example. Penn was announcing the Oscar for Best Picture, which went to “Birdman” by Director Alejandro González Iñárritu, who is originally from Mexico. Sean Penn opened the envelope, looked at it, then said “Who gave this sonofabitch a Greencard” before announcing “Birdman” as the winner.

Now, Iñárritu has said he wasn’t offended by Penn’s joke; the two men have worked together in the past and are friends. That being said, the Oscars got a lot of flak this year for the vast majority of its nominees being very, very white. Penn’s joke made that whiteness even more noticeable, by pointing out that in many ways, Iñárritu is an “outsider” in comparison to the norm of the nominees this year. While Iñárritu may have found it funny, it was not the time or place to make such an off-color joke.

Graham Moore’s Beautiful Speech

Graham Moore wrote the adapted screenplay for “The Imitation Game,” and when he came up to accept his award gave an amazing acceptance speech. If you missed it, I’d highly recommend taking a look:

Mental health issues, particularly depression and suicide, are something that are often talked about in hushed whispers or not at all. For Moore, a now-Oscar winning writer, to get up and talk about his own struggles with mental health sends a powerful message to anyone who may be struggling.

Common and John Legend’s “Glory” Acceptance Speech

Recording artists Common and John Legend won the Oscar for their song “Glory” from the movie “Selma.” Given their moving acceptance speech at the Golden Globes, everyone was expecting the same at the Oscars, and they did not disappoint.

While receiving their Oscar, Legend pointed out two of the most maligned issues in America today: restrictions in voting rights and the high level of black men who are incarcerated.  Legend stated:

We live in the most incarcerated country in the world. There are more black men under correctional control today than there were under slavery in 1850.

The Oscars had many failings this year–the Academy’s approach to race being first and foremost. That being said, there were also a lot of great moments when those who work in the industry took matters into their own hands during acceptance speeches. Pay equality, mental health awareness, freedom of speech, and institutionalized racism are all pressing issues in this nation. The Oscar speeches won’t solve any of them, but I applaud all those who took a stand for being very public voices for truly noble reasons.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

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