[RockAgainsttheLeft04]

"Actors' political stands have little relationship to their craft. I'd say that Sean Penn -- who really is a gifted actor -- can say more about the human condition in 45 seconds of Mystic River than all the hours and hours of political nonsense he spouts."

Durasell, you just about summed it up for me. Like I said, I'm a die-hard movie fan, but it has never ceased to amaze me the gap (hell, chasm) that can exist between the humanity, wisdom, sharp intelligence and strength an actor can bring to a role and the Kool-Aid drinking imbeciles most of these same people are in real life.

Penn is as good an example as any. Winning a well-deserved Oscar for his "Mystic River" role of a loving father willing to do whatever he feels is necessary (even risk being gravely wrong) to avenge a murderous attack on his family, Penn the actor cannot bring himself to care about his own family and friends enough to support the people who want to help protect them from murderous threats (like Bin Laden and Hussein) in real life.

Ah, well. I just guess that's why they call it "acting".

[durasell]

Very often that chasm exists between their craft and everything else, including family, friends, etc. etc. Not to mention intellectual horsepower. I once saw a very, very talented A-List actress sitting between takes on a movie set doing one of those puzzle books where words are hidden in a seemingly random arrangement of letters. The object of the puzzle is to find and circle the "hidden" words. It was the kind of book you'd buy for a 5th grader at the supermarket check out. When I asked her what the hell she was doing, she said, "I like these, they make me think." Ooooh kay, then. And I backed away very slowly.