The upper photo shows actor Val Kilmer as he appeared in the 1993 movie Tombstone. The lower photo shows Kilmer 17 years later and several pounds heavier.The actor recently applied for permits to turn his 6,000-acre ranch outside Santa Fe into an upscale bed-and-breakfast.
Kilmer’s New Mexico neighbors objected.
They weren't worried about traffic or noise or the prospect of intruding tourists.
They were incensed about comments attributed to Kilmer in magazine articles dating to 2003 and 2005. And they didn't want him to get his way on the ranch unless he apologized.
Kilmer described his rugged corner of New Mexico as "the homicide capital of the Southwest.”
In a 2003 Rolling Stone magazine interview he said that "80 percent of the people in my county are drunk," requiring him to carry a gun for protection.
In Esquire two years later, Kilmer was quoted—again, misquoted, he says—opining that he understands Vietnam better than its veterans, because most of them were "borderline criminal or poor … wretched kids" who landed in the military because they "got beat up by their dads" or "couldn't finagle a scholarship."
At a hearing last month on Kilmer's application, a half-dozen locals and veterans demanded the star apologize before being allowed to welcome paying guests onto his Pecos River Ranch.
The county attorney, Jesus Lopez, backed them up. Kilmer's quotes were "incendiary" and, dated as they may be, created a "clear and present danger threatening public safety," he said.
If Kilmer doesn’t apologize, he may think he is facing Ike and Billy Clanton all over again (as he did in Tombstone).
However, the Cavalry is coming to Kilmer’s defense in the form of the American Civil Liberties Union.
The ACLU has stepped in to support Kilmer saying that whether or not he had actually talked trash about his county, he had every right to do so without fear that his permits would be held hostage.
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A picture of my cave
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