Posted on 02/02/2011 1:56:46 AM PST by ruination
Acting veterans Clint Howard and Morgan Brittany talk about 'coming out' in their Republican views, and how it caused one famous co-star to turn his back. It ain't easy being a Republican in Hollywood, even if your brother is an A-list director and producer. That's what actor Clint Howard told attendees at a California GOP convention over the weekend.
Howard, an actor since 1961 and the younger brother of filmmaker Ron Howard, said that while he is comfortable speaking publicly about his conservatism, his advice to Republicans looking to break into the industry is to keep their political opinions to themselves, even though Hollywood liberals seldom do.
About five years ago "I came out of the closet. In Hollywood. I certainly understand that's dangerous," he said.
"If the entertainment industry should turn on me, I'd say, 'well fine.' But for young conservatives, you may hear me speak out but let me tell you: Be careful," he said.
Howard was joined by Morgan Brittany, one of the stars of the 1980s nighttime soap opera Dallas. The pair have more than 100 years of acting experience between them (Brittany's first job was as a child in the late 1950s), and they've noted a leftward slide in the industry and an intolerance for political dissent over the decades.
"I'd go out on location with the Dallas crew," she told members of the California Congress of Republicans in Valencia on Saturday. "Everybody in the van was bashing (President Reagan). I never said anything because I thought I'd lose my job. And I probably would have lost my job. I got to a point later on, after Dallas was over and I had my two children, that I said, 'enough is enough. I'm not going to be silent any longer'," she said.
"If I'm silent then I'm enabling these people and I'm letting them win. They need to know that we're out there. That we're strong and that we have ideas and solutions.
The reaction to her newfound political courage back then wasn't pretty.
"Oh man, the flack I took from the people, the agencies -- 'oh, you can't say that. You can't do that. Casting people might see you. And directors!'"
"What is this, the blacklist?" she said. "They're not going to hire me because I have an opinion? That's the way Hollywood is and, unfortunately, I got that. But I still wasn't going to back down."
Brittany, who was one of the most visible celebrities supporting the Republican ticket of McCain-Palin over the Democratic ticket of Obama-Biden during the last presidential election, has a daughter in her 20s who is a struggling actress. Her advice to her is: "Don't tell them you're my daughter."
Brittany told of building a friendship with actor Ed Asner, a sometimes activist for progressive causes, when the two starred in a stage-play together during the infamous Florida recount that put Republican George W. Bush in the White House over Democrat Al Gore. And she told how she lost Asner's friendship due to politics.
"Every night he just loved me and came in and gave me a big hug," she said. "Then one night he was going crazy about Gore and Bush and stealing the election. I'm backstage and I said, 'Ed, chill, not everybody thinks the way you do'."
"Well, where do I begin?" I swear. It was like a light switch," she said. "He turned to me and said, 'you're not a Republican?' I said, 'yep.' And he said, 'I can't even look at you. I can't even talk to you'."
"From that moment on, he never spoke to me again, except on stage," she said. "This is what we're dealing with. The intolerance of the left."
She said that while a starlet in her 20s she met with the late Jay Bernstein, who managed the careers of Farrah Fawcett and Suzanne Somers back in the day, but the meeting went awry after Bernstein noticed the cross Brittany wore around her neck.
She said Bernstein told her: "You're going to have to lose that, honey.
In this town, you can't be religious, and you can't be conservative."
"He was a star-making manager, but I couldn't sign on with him," Brittany said.
As for Howard, he said he avoids talking politics while on the set, even though the other side shows less restraint. While shooting Frost/Nixon, for example, he got so sick of an outspoken liberal actor (whom he wouldn't name) "spewing venom" that he finally told him to "knock it off."
"I had to listen to a lot of it, but I never thought the workplace was the right time to get into it," he said.
He also said politics never comes between him and his liberal brother Ron.
"I have a wonderful older brother. It's a shame he sits on the wrong side of the dinner table," he said. "It never gets uncomfortable with Ron and I. We just differ politically and that's okay. He's just wrong and I'm right. I believe that in my heart of hearts."
So Ron Howard would actually consider not giving his younger brother Clint Howard any more cameo roles in his movies?
Hahaha...at least you have a wry sense of humor. Well done. :)
The difference is this: this is a POLITICAL site.
These people are being targeted for their political beliefs in a field in which their skills at their craft should decide their employability.
It is not unlike the disaster we see in education at the moment. Instead of teachers & professors being selected because of their talent for imparting knowledge to students, they are retained or promoted based on their political views.
Good example:
The Oscar nominations just came out. Oddly omitted were two films from the Documentary category: Waiting for Superman, and The Cartel. Both of these were widely acclaimed documentaries that slammed the teacher’s unions, and the whole liberal education establishment. They weren’t left off because they were no good; they were left off because they didn’t fit Hollywood’s political meme.
Never mind the fact that not one child of an Oscar voter has ever set foot in a public school, controlled by these liberal educators they so hope to protect.
The intolerance of the left extends everywhere. It isn’t limited to just Hollywood. I’ve experienced their wrath plenty of times when they realize that I, a minority woman, am a fundamentalist Christian. Don’t you know if you’re a minority and female, you HAVE to drink the koolaid?
True, you’re not. But any fair-minded FReeper will acknowledge the truth of what I said. Intolerance for views that do not agree with one’s own is not solely a characteristic of the Left. I do believe the Left is much more collectively intolerant, however, as demonstrated by political correctness and the ever-growing list of unmentionable words — and as demonstrated by the article that is the subject of this thread. I just don’t ever want to see the Right practice what they excoriate the Left for, that’s all.
“So Ron Howard would actually consider not giving his younger brother Clint Howard any more cameo roles in his movies?”
I am sorry, but I have no idea who either one happens to be.
What qualifies an actor as having more superior talent in his profession? Is it his ability to more convincingly lie? Is it his ability to think the thoughts of people whom he is not in an attempt to emulate their thinking and behavior to others? Is it the ability to simply force his thinking upon others?
Most consider it the ability to counterfeit the thinking of a person whom they are playing in their role, but this is frequently nothing more than a more degenerate form of being a liar.
It isn’t surprising that many manifest their desire for liberal politics, but don’t be deceived by their public testimony for their art is the ability to lie.
I understand the point you are making. Mine is that all human beings are capable of doing exactly the same thing the Hollywood Left is doing in their industry. As already stated, the Left does not have a corner on the intolerance market. The Right should guard against its own impulses to do the same thing.
Yes, it is possible. Mormons have a niche movie and entertainment industry that is very popular in Utah and among the Mormon community. I have seen some of their movies. They are very cute and filled with very funny inside humor than only those familiar with Utah and its culture would "get". With today's technology it is possible. By the way...What I would like to see is a 24 hour ( solidly conservative) news channel that was completely Internet based. It would have the format of one of the alphabet cable news stations. If a **conservative** and Internet news channel were available, Fox's ratings would drop like a rock.
Ditto...
I don’t tolerate Romney and Huckabee because they are both squishes, the former for his insurance overhaul catastrophe and the latter cuz he’s like Carter without the peanut farm: Small state Guv with big Gov ideas. Romney when confronted with the test of more liberty or more government control chose the latter.
Tolerance and intolerance are not appropriate on the political battlefield, just as they are not appropriate on the football field. Should Green Bay be tolerant or should they try to win?
Ideas freely spoken are violent things the bigger the topic the more violent the speech.
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
Whoa!!! Somebody wants to get this party started!
Speech problems are solved by more speech. Your faulty reasoning will only be exposed through more speech and by and large those believing in liberty will side with this premise.
Foreclosing speech through intimidation and violence is a different matter. Foreclosing speech through the levers of government is the same as violence and intimidation, the same matter.
I for one believe the Hollywood Left can discriminate against rightwing supporting actors. I think they are paying the price for it in the long run because the quality of their product declines with each subsequent year and they are left to recycle ideas from the past (the A-Team, really?).
They are only hurting themselves, as all closed societies do.
That and I refuse to pay them for it.
My $8/m for Netflix I guess would keep Alec Baldwin in neckties... just not very good ones.
There are plenty of sites that cheer and promote gun-grabbing, abortionist, queer agenda loving, dip$hits like Rooty Ghouliani and Mutt Romney.
This just isn't one of them.
Mel Gibson (Passion of Christ, Braveheart, etc.) is an example of what a conservative has to do to produce movies. He is a nut but I give him a lot of credit for bucking the Hollywood sewer.
If those who dislike Palin would speak in specifics instead of frothy, leftist genereralities about her; they might be more tolerable. Also, as for Romney, if those who are enamored with him would specify exactly WHY, it might be more helpful. Many of us start with his actions in Massachusetts and his socialized “healthcare” so like Obama’s, and we can’t escape from that or really get much beyond that.
It is one of the reasons I respect John Wayne and Bob Hope. Neither of them served, but they both gave of themselves in many ways to the troops who did serve and were unabashedly conservative.
There is a huge difference between the kind of intolerance discussed in this article and merely disagreeing with someone, even vigorously. When one tilts over line from disagreement into degrading another because they hold a different opinion, then that is the same kind of intolerance we deplore when it comes from the Left.
Comment later.
When the commie purge comes... we will deal with these enemies within.
LLS
LLS
FR is a privately owned website, but not a private one. There is a difference. In addition, conservatives can and do hold occasionally divergent views on many topics. Vigorous discussion and debate is healthy. Intolerance to the point where people are debased and marginalized merely for disagreeing with even a single point of popular orthodoxy is not.
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