Score: Liberty 1, Sarandon 0 Score: Liberty 1, Sarandon 0

New York Post/Page Six ^ | 3-28-03 | RICHARD JOHNSON with PAULA FROELICH and CHRIS WILSON

[JustPiper]

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."

[JustPiper]

Pathetic patriot

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."

I'm breaking up with that Lenny Commie tonight! Hmph!

[lilylangtree]

Susie Sarandon is getting a dose of her own medicine. Hot diggity dog!

[JustPiper]

Here's our good guys

Country singer Clint Black's pro-war "I Raq & Roll" ("Iraq, I rack 'em up and I roll/I'm back and I'm a high-tech G.I. Joe/I pray for peace and prepare for war/And I will never forget there's no price too high for freedom"), which he debuted at the Grand Ole Opry last Saturday, has just been posted for download on his site, www.clintblack.com.

Fellow Nashville type Toby Keith, whose post-9-11 anthem "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" became a huge hit, performed Wednesday for President Bush and military families at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa. While other music stars like Kid Rock and Charlie Daniels have come out in support of the war, even going so far as to slam their fellow musicians and celebrities who are against it.

Then the best to me is Have You Forgotten by Darryl Worley!

[Windcatcher]

Sarandon and her ilk are becoming persona non grata. I love it.

[Kay Soze]

In May 1961 at the age of seventeen, Jimmy left Seattle and joined the army. He enlisted in the 101st Airborne Paratroopers where he stayed for fourteen months and made 25 successful jumps. On his 26th jump he sustained a substantial ankle injury and was given an honorable discharge. After the army he began to play guitar on many star-studded package tours.


Lenny could never be a paratroper he might break a nail.

[An American In Dairyland]

I read this story a couple of days ago at

http://www.sptimes.com/2003/03/27/TampaBay/Charity_calls_off_eve.shtml

In this article it says that Sarandon gets $20,000 for each guest speaker appearance she makes. Unbelievable.

[Scothia]

Poor baby. People don't wanna listen to her whiny, sniveling claptrap, as she charges a charity $20,000 that could be pocket change for her and her fellow Hollywood hypocrites.

Well, boo freakin' hoo.

[sarasmom]

I hear the new term in Hollywood for a grassroots rejection of fatal foot in mouth disease is to be " Dixie Chicked".
ROTFLMAO!
While I am perfectly comfortable accepting and debating the theory of alternate reality, in purely spiritual terms,physical reality is not a realm to be sneered at without enduring severe repercussions.
I see a whole new industry in the making.
Teaching "artists" the rules of supply and demand in the real world.LOL!
Behold, the next mega-billionare consultant firm-ME.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

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.

This threat was discussed on FR in several threads:

Robbins Attacks Journalist (verbally)
Tim Robbins -- Mr. Peace wants a piece of a reporter's head
(Timothy) Robbins Reportedly Threatens Reporter At Oscar Party

Isn't it amazing how often the anti-war so-called "peaceniks" threaten or engage in violence?

[fightinJAG]

"Dixie Chicked"

BAWAAAHAAAAHAAA

Good idea for a consulting firm. Your first lesson should be called: "You Sell MUSIC."

[sit-rep]

Any rebut from SS?? I have not seen any from her.

[FReepaholic]

Don't forget Charlie Daniels.

[raccoonradio]

(Renee Graham column from the Boston Globe. What Renee
may not understand is that while we do have freedom
of speech, what we say may have consequences--including
economic ones. Know-it-all celebs who take a certain side
of an issue and use their celebrity status to promote
it should be prepared to take the consequences if people
don't agree. That includes boycotts, or rescinded
invitations, which is what happened with the Baseball
Hall of Fame. Celebs: SHUT UP AND ACT/SING...and
stop global whining :) )

LIFE IN THE POP LANE

Even big-mouth celebrities have right to speak out
By Renee Graham, Globe Staff, 4/15/2003

It's been a good long while since I've had a sit-down with the US Constitution, but if my junior high school memories serve me correctly, I don't recall the Bill of Rights guaranteeing free speech only to those who espouse one particular opinion. Yet that seems to be the disturbing interpretation preferred by those encouraging a backlash against some celebrities who have been outspoken opponents of the US-led war against Iraq.



The Dixie Chicks saw their album sales drop and radio stations refuse to play their Grammy-winning CD, ''Home,'' after member Natalie Maines told a London audience last month that she was ''ashamed'' that President George W. Bush hailed from her home state of Texas. Though Maines apologized, some have promised boycotts when the Dixie Chicks' concert tour kicks off in Greenville, S.C., next month.

A conservative website has published a list of more than 100 actors, musicians, and filmmakers who, it claims, ''use their celebrity status to push their anti-Bush/anti-American beliefs on the rest of the world.'' According to the site, these celebrities are named ''so our readers can boycott them if they wish.'' One of those singled out is Janeane Garofalo. The passionately antiwar actress and comedian has become the target of a campaign to convince ABC to drop plans for a proposed series starring her.

Then last week, the National Baseball Hall of Fame canceled a 15th anniversary tribute to the much-loved film ''Bull Durham'' because two of its stars, Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, have been openly candid in their opposition to the war.

''Given the track record of Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, and the timing -- with our troops committed in Iraq -- a strong possibility existed that they could have used The Hall of Fame as a backdrop for their views,'' Dale Petroskey, the Cooperstown shrine's president, said in a statement. While acknowledging the actors' right to ''express their opinions,'' Petroskey said the hall ''is not the proper venue for highly charged expressions, whatever they may be.''

In a letter to Robbins, Petroskey said, ''We believe your very public criticism of President Bush at this important -- and sensitive -- time in our nation's history helps undermine the U.S. position, which ultimately could put our troops in even more danger. As an institution, we stand behind our President and our troops in this conflict.''

What Petroskey, a former assistant press secretary in the Reagan administration, clearly does not stand behind is free speech for those who dare fall on the other side of his ideological fence.

He chided Robbins and Sarandon (who was also recently booted as keynote speaker at a United Way event in Florida because of her political views), urging them to ''speak and act responsibly,'' given the public platform they enjoy due to their celebrity. But what exactly does Petroskey mean, and who is he to decide what constitutes acting and speaking responsibly? It is doubtful that if Robbins and Sarandon had been pro-war, their invitation to Cooperstown would have been rescinded.

If the official rhetoric is to be believed, America went to Iraq, in part, to upend a brutal regime notoriously intolerant of dissenting views. In the midst of this, we have these self-appointed arbiters of Americanism who wrap themselves in the flag and wield their version of patriotism like a club against those who hold views at odds with their own.

This has gone beyond whether big-mouth, know-nothing celebrities should be hogging precious airtime that could otherwise be filled with yet another pontificating retired general. This is about the strange turn in the post-Sept. 11 national psyche that equates opposing war with opposing US troops and that brands healthy dissent as tantamount to treason. And it's about punishing those deemed to be traitors, whether it's steamrolling Dixie Chicks CDs, campaigning to keep Garofalo off a TV show, or, as some have done, e-mailing death threats to longtime political activist Martin Sheen, star of NBC's ''The West Wing.''

As the United States prepares to guide Iraq toward democracy and a new political future, it must not slip back into its own dark past of McCarthyism, which ruined dozens of lives and careers in the 1950s. The Bill of Rights guarantees free speech to everyone, including celebrities who flash peace signs at awards shows or release music denouncing war. And to believe otherwise, or contend that their dissent is dangerous, may be the most treasonous, anti-American act of all.


Rene Graham's Life in the Pop Lane column appears on Tuesdays.

This story ran on page E1 of the Boston Globe on 4/15/2003.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.

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"And it's about punishing those deemed to be traitors..."

Yes. We have that right and we can use it!