APPEASEMENT-MONGERS went nuts when we suggested people might choose to boycott Susan Sarandon and other pampered stars who oppose the ousting of Saddam Hussein - but America agrees with us. The United Way just canceled a Tampa Bay speaking engagement by the actress after it got three dozen complaints from donors and others who don't like her anti-liberation stance. Sarandon - whose live-in, Tim Robbins, recently threatened the Washington Post's Lloyd Grove with violence for daring to report that Sarandon's mom is a Republican - was set to be the keynote speaker at an April 11 event sponsored by the United Way's women's leadership group. But after complaints started rolling in, organizers decided Sarandon's presence would be "divisive." Robin Carson, chairwoman of the Tampa Bay chapter's board, told the St. Petersburg Times, "The focus . . . shifted to whether or not we were creating a political platform for Susan Sarandon. That is not our purpose. That is not what we're about."
LENNY Kravitz is a member of the Do-As-I-Say-Not-As-I-Do Club. The Jimi Hendrix wannabe released his anti-war duet with Iraqi crooner Kazem Al Sahir on rockthevote.com, but Kravitz hasn't voted in over a decade. While rockthevote.com, dedicated to getting young people into voting booths, calls Kravitz "a true patriot," records show he hasn't fulfilled his patriotic duty to cast a ballot since 1992. "I haven't voted in many years and it was a mistake," he tells thesmokinggun.com. "Up until recently, many people like myself have taken this right for granted."
(W)e were distressed to learn yesterday that the United Way of Tampa Bay has disinvited her from a fundraising and training event because of her outspoken criticism of President Bush's war on Saddam Hussein.
Indeed -- after several large donors complained about Sarandon's keynote role at an April 11 lunch capping a session to encourage women to volunteer in charities -- United Way officials just scrapped the whole thing.
"United Way of Tampa Bay's intent is to unify the diversity of thought that brings the community together," Marketing Vice President Judy Quinlan said yesterday from Florida, where Sarandon's Republican, Bush-supporting mom, Lenora Tomalin, also lives. [I thought UW's intent was to raise money for worthy charitable organizations. Oh well.] "Through circumstances beyond our control, this event began to divide our community. The prudent course of action is to cancel."
But now there's real trouble. At the St. Petersburg Times, which is the lead corporate sponsor of the event, Executive Vice President Marty Petty, until yesterday the chairman of the 2003 United Way campaign, quit the charity's board in protest. And Petty's boss, St. Petersburg Times Chairman Andrew Barnes -- who had arranged for the paper to pay Sarandon's $20,000 appearance fee plus an extra $25,000 for the United Way -- is enraged at the group's leaders.
"It makes me so mad -- this is just way over the line," Barnes told us, noting that Sarandon agreed to appear after being invited on behalf of the Times by her brother, Times Outdoors Editor Terry Tomalin. "This really sticks in my gorge."
Barnes added that he has backed the United Way through thick and thin, especially when the group's national leadership was embroiled in a damaging financial scandal years ago. "My goodness, I must have made 17 speeches apologizing for that. Those jerks!"
Quinlan declined to respond to Barnes's insults. "Everyone is entitled to his opinion," she said. "Everyone has freedom of speech and freedom of choice." Except maybe Susan Sarandon.
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• Our congratulations to former Senate Republican staffer Jeri Thompson, 35, and her new husband, Fred Dalton Thompson, as the 60-year-old former Tennessee senator is billed on NBC's "Law & Order," on which he plays the Manhattan district attorney. We hear that the couple, who married in June, are expecting their first child on Sept. 22.