Gag order for celebrity mouthpieces

New York Daily News ^ | 3/09/03 | Rush & Molloy

[kattracks]

The backlash against politically strident stars is building.

"We, the undersigned, stand against wealthy Hollywood celebrities abusing their status to speak for us," declares an Internet petition launched by Citizens Against Celebrity Pundits.

The Web site claims to have the backing of more than 50,000 people who agree that Barbra Streisand, Tim Robbins, Rob Reiner and other Bush-bashers, do not "have a clear understanding of how we live, what we fear and what we support."

The site is obviously meant to lampoon Artists United to Win Without War and other celeb manifestoes. But not everyone is laughing. Reps at the Screen Actors Guild are complaining about the deluge of hate mail they've received from Bush administration allies, who are calling for boycotts of movies and albums.

The guild said in a statement: "We deplore the idea that those in the public eye should suffer professionally for having the courage to give voice to their views."

Nick Nolte, for one, believes that the most outspoken actors are facing McCarthy-style blacklisting at the studios. Sean Penn, who famously traveled to Iraq, has "been blacklisted," Nolte claimed in an interview with Jesse Nash. "But we put his picture on all the refrigerators in our house and wrote, 'Our new leader.'"

Burning Bush

Don't count on the celebs shutting up about Iraq or anything else.

"The government is no longer doing its job," Harrison Ford told us Wednesday night at the Natural Resources Defense Council benefit, where he was honored. "On a scale of 1 to 10, [its environmental policies] get a 1."

Meanwhile, "West Wing" creator Aaron Sorkin is standing behind his President, Martin Sheen, who claims that NBC execs are nervous about his anti-Bush rants.

Sorkin says he changes his mind about the war "every 10 minutes," but thinks NBC execs knew what they were getting when they hired Sheen.

"Martin's credentials as an activist were established," Sorkin told us at a Museum of Television and Radio event. Winking at his own 2001 drug bust, he added, "The man has been arrested 67 times - 66 times more than I have."

One of the few Hollywood players who has put his trust in Dubya is Jerry Bruckheimer.

"I believe in our President and that he'll make the right decision," he told us at a party he threw for his daughter, Alexandra Balahoutis, and her company, Strange Invisible Perfumes. "He's got a lot more information than we do." Bruckheimer - who's producing the ABC reality show "Profiles from the Front Line," which looks at the lives of G.I.s in Afghanistan - has long enjoyed a good relationship with the Pentagon.

[snip]

[Elkiejg]

Hey Hollyweird - if you can't stand the heat, better stay out of the kitchen.

[kcvl]

Now they THINK they can tell people how to spend THEIR money?! I can boycott any film that I desire. How stupid are these people anyway???!!!


http://www.sag.org/contact/contact.html

[kcvl]

Friday, 7 March, 2003, 18:19 GMT

Martin Sheen: 'President' under fire

By Bob Chaundy
BBC News profiles unit

His portrayal of US President Jed Bartlet in NBC's The West Wing, has made Martin Sheen one of America's most respected actors. But, in real life, he says his high-profile anti-war stance has resulted in hate-mail and calls for him to be sacked from his television role.

Ever since President George W Bush asked the American people "Are you with us or against us?" in the war against terrorism - to which he has linked Iraq - the political atmosphere in the United States has been highly charged.

"We are telling the world that we are patriotic Americans but we do not support going to war with Iraq," Sheen told an audience recently.

His Hollywood union, the Screen Actors Guild, has expressed concern that certain of its members holding "unacceptable" views might be punished by losing their right to work.

It recalls, it says, the days of the McCarthy witch-hunts of the 1950s when so-called Communists were blacklisted.

It's ironic that the guild itself was responsible for much of that blacklisting in Hollywood. Giants such as Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles, Paul Robeson, Arthur Miller and Joseph Losey were among the hundreds denied work.

It's ironic, too, that the president of the guild at that time was none other than Ronald Reagan who, as we know, went on to attain the office Martin Sheen is portraying in The West Wing.

"Given that several musicians at the recent Grammy Awards reported receiving requests NOT to talk about the war during the telecast, I think the Screen Actors Guild is justified in being concerned," Tom Cole, arts editor of US National Public Radio, told BBC News Online.

"McCarthy is riding again," declares Glenda Jackson, Oscar-winning actress turned Labour Party member of parliament.

She told BBC News Online: "Television in America is not just about programmes, it's about the products they sell. TV executives will be pressured by the advertisers given that the majority opinion in America is pro-war."

Martin Sheen's President Bartlet is far removed from George W Bush. Bartlet is liberal, idealistic, intellectual and charismatic.

In an NBC survey on the eve of the last US presidential election, fictional President Bartlet polled more votes than Bush and Gore combined.

Yet the man who plays Bartlet is more radical still, and, over the years, has become one of the most prominent campaigners for social justice and peace.

Martin Sheen has been arrested more than 70 times at protests, on a range of issues from the rights of workers and the homeless, to the environment and defence.

His campaigning spirit stems from a deeply held Catholic faith.

He was born Ramon Estevez in 1940, in Ohio, the seventh of 10 children of a Spanish immigrant father and an Irish mother.

He so wanted to be an actor that he deliberately failed his entrance exam to the University of Dayton, so that he could attend acting school in New York.

He changed his name to Martin Sheen to avoid being typecast in ethnic roles. All his four children were to become actors. Emilio, Ramon and Estelle kept the Estevez name; only Charlie retained his father's stage alias.

Martin Sheen's big break came in 1974. The man who was to champion peace made his name playing a violent killer in the highly-rated Badlands.

His performance led to Francis Ford Coppola handing him the part of Captain Willard in the Vietnam epic, Apocalypse Now. It was a near-disaster.

The shooting took nearly seven months in a hostile Philippines swamp. Sheen was drinking heavily, and, eventually, had a heart attack. He was 36.

Faith restored

Soon afterwards, Martin Sheen signed up to Alcoholics Anonymous, and channelled his energies into political activism.


We're addicted to war

He was greatly inspired by Cesar Chavez, the leader of the United Farm Workers' Union in California, whom he joined on many acts of civil disobedience.

He credits a meeting with Mother Teresa in Rome, in 1991, as the catalyst for his re-adoption of the Catholic faith.

"I'm not interested in religion per se," he said, "I'm interested in spirituality, truth and in my humanity, and I find that in the Christian community."

Martin Sheen's popularity as an actor, together with his genuine commitment to social causes, makes him the ideal celebrity to raise the anti-war profile.

His aura of political authority has transposed itself from the small screen to real life.

"To a little old lady living in a small mid-western town, who's uncomfortable with the prospect of war but who feels that she's the only one with those views, to hear someone like Martin Sheen is reaffirming," says Glenda Jackson. "It makes her feel less vulnerable."

Unlike Jackson, Martin Sheen is not interested in party politics. "I certainly don't have the kind of intelligence or the make-up to be a real president", he said recently.

While President Bartlet often agonises over the difficult decisions involving the fate of America, Martin Sheen has fewer doubts as to where his personal convictions lie.

[kcvl]

March 8, 2003


How stars fought. How stars fret

By Gary Arnold
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

On the eve of its annual awards ceremony for movie and television performers, the Screen Actors Guild issued a statement warning of a new blacklist aimed at actors who profess anti-war opinions.
In terms so vague yet alarmist that Joe McCarthy himself could hardly have improved on them, the guild insinuated: "Some have recently suggested that well-known individuals who express 'unacceptable' views should be punished by losing their right to work." Ever vigilant, the guild rose up to "deplore the idea that those in the public eye should suffer professionally for having the courage to give voice to their views."
It is not clear who would punish the celebrated actors. In Hollywood these days, it typically is the famous actors themselves who alone possess the clout to get a movie greenlighted. Neither is it clear how much courage is required to voice anti-war views in Los Angeles. Just last month, the Los Angeles City Council passed a resolution opposing U.S. military action against Saddam Hussein. If any are at risk in this anti-war redoubt, it might be America's uniformed personnel.

http://washingtontimes.com/arts/20030308-96731228.htm

[kcvl]

Posted on Sat, Mar. 08, 2003

Hollywood activists' specter of witch hunts is a red herring
By Jonah Goldberg
TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES

Martin Sheen, the left-wing star of NBC's "West Wing," complained that network execs were angry with him for taking a vocal stance against a possible war with Iraq. And, sure enough, within a couple of days all of Hollywood was up in arms.

"All Americans, whether we are actors, writers, doctors, accountants, farmers or members of our armed services, share fundamental liberties," declared the West Coast branch of the Writer's Guild on March 3. "One of those is the right to speak out ... on the issues of the day. Today in America, the most significant issue of concern is whether we will enter into a full-scale war against Iraq."

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/democrat/news/opinion/5341690.htm

The SAG crowd wants it both ways. They smugly celebrate their own "courage" for speaking out, while at the same time they denounce the notion that there should be consequences for their "courage." Well, courage requires risk to be called courage. I'm sure accountants are smart enough to understand that.

[chasio649]

Nick Nolte is blacklisted for being a hideous looking drunken slob.....Harrison Ford is going through a severe late term mid-life crisis...these people are laughable...very few folks in the entertainment industry have their $%it in one sock....why should i even remotely care what an actor or singer thinks about our foreign policy? If they feel they are being unfairly treated, then keep their pie holes shut while in public...they can rant and rave to friends and family all they want....i for one am sick and tired of their pathetic little sissy a$$ views on the world...so simplistic and jingoistic...i am beginning to think that Dennis Miller is the only entertainer with an original thought in his head.

[gulfcoast6]

RIGHT you are and I am NOT going to spend one dime on them, Guess you can cay I am going to 'blacklist' them.

[joesnuffy]

hate mail they've received from Bush administration allies, who are calling for boycotts of movies and albums.>i>

Talk about arrogant plicks....criticism of them is called "hate mail" and its from "Bush administration allies"? Couldnt possibly be from patriots or conservatives or just regular folks who dissagree with these a**holes Of course their Anti-American Anti-Conservative Anti-Bush rhetoric.....isnt hate speech??-by their own definition

[weegee]

They are free to say what they want. They will get press for voicing their positions because they are celebrities.

I must join together with 50,000 other like minded individuals to get the attention of the press and even then my position only holds "weight" with the press because celebrities are complaining about my free speech.

Screw them.

[JoJo Gunn]

I've said it before and I'll say it again-they are heinous cemetery defecators. They will do ANYTHING for publicity, even sell out the souls of our dead to get space in the filler pages of the National Enquirer.

[kcvl]

The naked truth: Protesters have run out of excuses

March 9, 2003

BY MARK STEYN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

Is there a columnar equivalent of Viagra? I mean, I started writing about the impending war with Iraq in late September 2001 and after 18 months I'm beginning to flag. What's even worse is I don't think I've had a new thought on Iraq in months. On Sept. 27, 2001, I addressed the argument that removing Saddam would merely result in a marginally less bloody thug:

''But a new thug is still better than letting the old thug stick around to cock snooks at you. If Saddam had been toppled [after Gulf War I], the nutter du jour would have come to power in the shadow of the cautionary tale of his predecessor.''

http://www.suntimes.com/output/steyn/cst-edt-steyn091.html

[weegee]

The previous "blacklist" did identify genuine lovers of Joseph Stalin. Hollywood has yet to apologize for admiring a man who killed more people than Hitler.

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

Nick Nolte, for one, believes that the most outspoken actors are facing McCarthy-style blacklisting at the studios. Sean Penn, who famously traveled to Iraq, has "been blacklisted," Nolte claimed in an interview with Jesse Nash. "But we put his picture on all the refrigerators in our house and wrote, 'Our new leader.'"

First question: "...all the refrigerators in our house..." How many bloody refrigerators do you have in your house, Nick?

Second: Nick, do you hear yourself? Nick, put down the martini pitcher for two seconds and try to focus, okay? Nick? Nick?!

[weegee]

Here's a recent photo of Nick Nolte. Does good to identify who the speaker is.

[kcvl]

ROFLOL!

[Highest Authority]

Information released several years ago showed that McCarthy was CORRECT!! Hollyweird will never believe that. I say boycott anyone you don't agree with .... it's the patriotic thing to do!!

[weegee]

Does the Screen Actors Guild still blacklist actors who work on non-union films and who cross the union picket lines?

This comparison to McCarthy is a scam at best (designed to scare the public) and an unfortunate analogy at worst (because in the end, the KGB files proved McCarthy to be right).

[Highest Authority]

There should be a list posted on FreeRepublic naming the America haters in Hollyweird and what they said. Does one exist?????

[Bullish]

It's too bad 9-11 didn't help Hollywood to grow up.