Have you ever wondered how much time it really takes to cultivate a parent child relationship? If you have, then you are probably not one of Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan’s parental units (insert rim shot here).
At any rate, the answer is 14 minutes. 14 minutes every three days, in fact. We know because that’s how long Donald Sutherland says he was allowed to talk to his son Kiefer Sutherland when Kiefer was in the slammer for drunkity driving all around town.
Despite the fact that when you say his first name it creates all of the ugliest sounds in the English language in about a second, we admire Kiefer Sutherland. It’s not easy to go from being a platinum blond vampire in Lost Boys, to a Julia Roberts reject to a… well, a nothing for a long time. But the guy came back kicking butts and taking names as Jack “Give Me a Name” Bauer in the smash TV series, 24. A show that makes men everywhere put down their Wii nunchuck and stand up and proclaim that they too can save the world from daily threats of nuclear attack with a constantly gruff voice and clingy sweater shirts. And they can do it all in real time TV, too. Good on ya, Kiefer.
But we were reminded all too rudely that even our beloved heroes crack under the pressure when Kiefer Sutherland was arrested last September for DUI. Kiefer Sutherland was sentenced to a 48-day prison stay which he served in full, making him the world-record holder for the largest portion of a celebrity prison sentence served ever, and he is no doubt is awaiting gracious loser phone calls from Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie any day now.
However, Kiefer Sutherland wasn’t the only one affected by his prison stay. Keifer’s dad, Donald Sutherland, revealed in a recent interview that he didn’t get much time to swap gossip with his son:
"I spoke to him on every third day. I'd make a deposit at the jail and then when he has the chance he can call collect and you speak for 14 minutes, that's your limit and then the phone goes dead… I never knew when the phonecall would come and it would be this recording of some woman in the police system and you'd blurt out everything in 14 minutes."
So, Donald Sutherland had 14 minutes to tell his son that he’s still a creepy looking old man that makes us reflexively check that our children are safe when we see him, and Kiefer only had time to fill dad in on… well, to be honest there probably wasn’t much of anything exciting for him to tell his dad. Except maybe about advancements in shiv art and hallucinations induced by confinement in which he’s a drag queen on stilts accepting the Grammy for best new rap album, but that’s about it, really.
Donald Sutherland also says that his son's jail spell really killed the holly jolly fun of Christmas for him and his family. Yeah, Kiefer Sutherland should think about that the next time you decide to drive all drunk and such. Maybe he should think ‘this maybe will ruin Christmas for my family. Better take a cab’. While he’s at it he may also want to think 'hey, I am endangering not only my life, here, but those of innocent people around me', but that’s just a suggestion.
Okay, okay. We all make mistakes, and hopefully people take responsibility for them like Kiefer has. Donald Sutherland seems to feel that this experience has helped his sometimes troubled son to sort things out:
"He's not a mellow guy… but he's a growing man and he had 48 days to think. He was in solitary confinement in Glendale jail."
Making us all feel more than a tad perplexed as we wonder at what point a forty-something year old man is considered to be fully grown.
Read more:
14 MINUTE CALLS MADE CHRISTMAS LIKE A 24 EPISODE FOR SUTHERLAND – PR Inside
Grow-up Annette says
Clicked on this site for news re: Team Sutherland (most precious papa and most precious son). Your commentary, Annette Hyde, is simply pathetic and you, clearly, are a sad, pathetic person. Who raised you to be like this? Or were you just not smart enough to learn? I feel sorry for you that you are so unhappy with yourself and your life that, in order to feel better about yourself, you feel it necessary to make such comments about other people. How sad and pathetic. Please do not have any children and if you have any give them up to be adopted to be raised by healthy human beings. Do you actually consider yourself to be an adult and “fully grown”? If you do, reconsider. Those of us who are adults teach little children not to behave like you. Again, how sad and pathetic.
Annette Hyde says
Someone with the name ‘Grow-up Annette’ can use the reprimand ‘Grow-up Annette’?? That’s just magical!