TV Shark vs. Card Shark: James Woods Goes After Selbst on Terrorist

James Woods, who is probably best known for his roles as skin-crawling villains on the big screen, does occasionally dip his claws into in the poker waters, bringing some of his Hollywood cash to the card tables.

This week, he got involved with one of poker’s other political-screed driven Twitter accounts: that of Vanessa Selbst, who lamented the way the USA sensationalised a relatively small threat, ironically giving them exactly what they want.

Woods pounced on her tweet by misusing the word malaise, and misunderstanding her point.

Selbst gave up some of the high ground almost immediately calling did call him “a lunatic”, a less than diplomatic move which not only got her blocked and then insulted by her interlocutor (in that order, not that I am suggesting that this James Woods is afraid of a girl). The strategy of insulting Woods was not only a lowering of the tone of the debate but also rather high risk given Woods’ previous reputation for having deep pockets, ruthless lawyers, and no sense of humour when his tissue-delicate ego is on the line.

The Tiger Woods of Twitter Lawsuits

For example, there was the now infamous case where, having taken an anonymous Twitterer who called him a ‘cocaine addict’, seriously Woods asked for $10million as his pound of flesh for the alleged libel. As if this response didn’t ooze sufficiently of a mephitic blend of masculine insecurity and bullying entitlement, when the alleged libeller died mid court-case, Woods is then supposed to have pressed the lawsuit against the widow, like some sort of Dickensian villain. He only pulled up short after he’d received a so called ‘trophy letter’ from the dead man’s wife apologising.

He’s also been sued himself after when his false accusation of a 64 year old charitable volunteer as a false flag protestor led to his followers issuing the innocent woman with death threats.

Meanwhile Back On The Selbst Account...

Having blocked Selbst, Woods then set about going after her appearance, the crag-faced septuagenarian, who himself looks like someone’s rather sickly maiden-aunt, clearly has not heard the adage about glass-houses and stones.

While these sorts of Twitter spats often make for rather fun viewing this one, was rather less enjoyable to watch play out. Largely because of the genuine slime of hate that settled on it.

Once he’d safely ejected his opponent, Woods language took on a rather sinister tone as he called Selbst a ‘bossy little shrew’. Daniel Negreanu’s response was pretty succinct:

“This old cracker is real piece of shit.”

Selbst on the other hand brushed the whole incident off with a “::shrug::”. It’s nice to know that for all our faults, us poker players can handle a Twitter scuffle with rather more grace than Hollywood.

Oh and Jim, it’s all a joke I swear. Please don’t sue me.