"Support Our Troops" rally leaderSee also, from news.BBC.co.uk:-- and "Honorary FReeper" TED HAYES...
Last Updated: Monday, 24 March, 2003
Hollywood spotlight on security
by Ian Youngs
BBC News Online entertainment staff in Hollywood
With the numbers of police, roadblocks, sniffer dogs, FBI bomb squads, Swat teams and helicopters in Hollywood, it is hard to believe that it is just the scene of a movie award ceremony and not a war zone itself.
The area around the Kodak Theatre, where the Oscars are taking place, is in lock-down mode, with so much security that it is almost impossible to get within view of the venue unless you are supposed to be there.
About a mile of Hollywood Boulevard, where the theatre is situated, is shut off to traffic and any pedestrians hoping to walk down are all being searched by police.
This year, not only have organisers and security services had to face the threat of terrorist attack in reprisal for the war in Iraq, they have also had to deal with protest groups hoping to hijack the world's media to make their points...
How can people who live in a fantasy world opine on real world political issues?
Ted Hayes, protestor
...On the other side of Hollywood, several hundred vocal protesters held a counter-demonstration and denounced actors who had spoken out against the war.
"We want to tell these [anti-war] Hollywood 100 that without the British and American military, the freedom and the liberty that their existence provides them - they couldn't be who they are," said Ted Hayes...
Both pro- and anti-war protesters turned out
