I would not be surprised to see him on fox, full-time, soon.
Posted on 12/05/2004 11:45:21 PM PST by nickcarraway
The man at the Christmas tree tent in Malibu kept winking at me and nodding when no one else was looking. I smiled and kept looking at the trees. (In Malibu, we Jews have Christmas trees.) Finally, he motioned to me to come over to is table. He cupped his hand over his mouth and took my hand. "We won," he said. "We won."
I knew exactly what he meant. "You can talk about it," I said. "This is America."
"Yes, but it's also Malibu and I don't want people yelling at me."
A few minutes later, I was grabbing a shopping cart at How's Market in the Trancas section of Malibu when a sweet faced middle aged woman approached me carefully. Then she saw a young couple nearby and turned away. Moments later, she ran into me at the egg cooler, looked around to make sure there was no one looking or listening and said. "I love what you say about politics on TV. You're so brave. I'm on your side. There are some of us here but we keep our mouths shut."
"You don't need to," I said. "The election's over. We won."
"Yes, but it's not over out here. Can you believe they just had Michael Moore at the new Malibu bookstore and they've never invited you and how long have you been out here?"
"Twenty-four years off and on," I said.
"Well, anyway, when I see you and I smile at you, you'll know what it's all about. Go Bush," she whispered and headed for the fresh fish.
Earlier in the day when I had been doing some looping at a studio on Radford Drive in Studio City for a movie in which I have a part ("Son of the Mask" if you must know ), a man on a forklift came by and winked at me. "Keep giving 'em hell," he said softly. "There are more of us here than you think. Bush rules."
This is the way it is here. We meet in smoky places. We give the high sign, we nod knowingly. We are like members of the Maquis in Occupied France. Or early Christians emerging from the catacombs in Caligula's Rome. We are the GOP in Hollywood, and on the West Side of L.A. The culture here is so dominantly left-wing, PC, vegan, hate-America that many of us feel we have to behave as if we were underground.
At a self-help meeting where men and women confess to drug use, betrayals, thefts, homicides with cars, at a break, a woman stealthily came up to me last Saturday and motioned me into a corner outside the room in Malibu. "I want to tell you there are some of us who agree with you. We have to keep it quiet because we want to get our kids into the right schools, but we're there. We're there. And there are more of us every day." Then she scuttled off into the night. Slamming crack can be spoken of with a smile, but not voting GOP. That could be dangerous.
But it's changing.
At an intersection on Sunset Strip, in West Hollywood, a young man in a truck, wearing two earrings and closely cropped hair, gave me the V for victory sign as I walked by him. "We're here," he said. "You can't tell, but we're here. Keep up the talk for Bush."
Some idea of just why people whisper comes from another encounter this week among a group of Hollywood types in a hip night spot. I was saying how much I love my self program. "I'm a Republican, but I learn from Democrats," I said. "I'm a Jew, but I learn from Gentiles. I'm sort of famous but the meetings are where I feel safe."
"Hmmm," said a man who had recently been the star of a sitcom but who had seen his whole life crumble under the weight of some truly horrific family violence. "Republican Jew. Republican Jew. Republican Jew who's famous. Who lives in Beverly Hills. Republican Jew who has more stuff than I have. I don't like it."
"It's a free country," I shrugged.
"Maybe," he said. "Maybe."
This is one of the worst little recent examples of how people here feel about Republicans (and Republican Jews, who simply blow their brains out, to use an old hippie phrase ). But rants, screaming about how we're trying to control women's bodies, draft their sons out of their BMW's and send them to war, scowls and frowns at Morton's, hysterical calls from the network when I appeared on TV backing Right to Life -- these are real. Feeling like outsiders, feeling as if we're going to get our cars keyed if we have Bush stickers on them, getting trash thrown on our yard for having up a Bush sign -- these are real. Getting denied screenplay credits because I worked for Nixon, those are totally real.
Yet, we're here, meeting in smoky places, greeting and giving the secret sign in the fog out by Zuma Beach, more of us every day. And in the words of the Civil Rights song I used to sing when I marched for voting rights in Cambridge, Maryland, "We are not afraid. Deep in my heart, I do believe, we shall overcome some day." Even in Los Angeles, even in Malibu, even in Hollywood. Tremble, Barbra, tremble. We are right outside your gates, with our truth. We are not afraid and we shall overcome.
I included more of the text, and it puts the sitcom part in context, that this guy was mean and threatening towards Ben Stein, thereby revealing him as a liberal 'Rat. That leaves out guesses like Cosby and Grammer, it would seem.
Can you think of a sitcomer, with a family violence factor, who is a lib-Dem Republican hater?
I am liking Stein more with each new essay, these days.
Dan
Nah, Drew Carey is an avowed libertarian. I love watching the subtle digs that his show takes from time to time.
BTTT
Does my heart good to read that there are more of them than we think in Twinkle Town. That is the most beautiful place. It is a shame it is so full of liberal nuts. Maybe not as full as we are led to believe?
"That leaves out guesses like Cosby..."
Actually Cosby isn't such a bad guess, he can be pretty nasty, and I've seen him a few times when I thought he was a little stewed, remember that op ed his wife wrote after their son was killed, blaming America for teaching the immigrant murderer to hate blacks. The killer was from somewhere in Russia or thereabouts.
But I sincerely doubt that Ben Stein has more money than Bill Cosby and I'm sure Bill Cosby would be the first to be fully aware of that!
This is someone who automatically hated Ben Stein for what he is...a conservative, riçh Republican Jew living in Beverly Hills, and he virtually threatened him by practically denying that Ben has the freedom to be what he is.
That cannot be a description of Bill Cosby, can it?
FOFL. He just created a stampede for space on every analyist couch in Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Malibu.
Loved this. Thanks for the ping :)
"That cannot be a description of Bill Cosby, can it?"
I doubt it. I cannot see Bill Cosby begruding others what they have, I also can't see him being so humorless! I think it has almost got to be a Jewish person, we are looking for awell known Jewish liberal, with a family life shattered by violence. Who was recently on a sit-com and attends a support group.
I know, he's just the only one I could think of with violence
"As for Blake...true, he wasn't in a sitcom, but isn't he also in jail?"
No. He's out on $1.5 million bail.
I would not be surprised to see him on fox, full-time, soon.
michael moore's film holds general motors responsible for the slums of detroit.
likewise, i wonder, since hollywood is los angeles' signal industry, why isn't hollywood responsible for the slums in los angeles?
or does this work only one way?
Another good read by Stein.
"Wild guess, but the person in question may not have had the violence in his family, it might just be that family violence destroyed the show he was on..."
yes, yes, good angle. that person would be (amoung some others) Andy Dick. I can see him saying these things, he's certainly an angry liberal type. And the Canadian Guy (ex-kids in the hall) was also on that show, but he was such a mush, can't see him speaking a harsh word to anyone, anywhere, anytime.
On re-reading the original quote, I'm thinking you (we?) are right. It just says "family violence" doesn't have to mean it was violence in the speaker's family. In fact, it's vague enough that it indicates away from that, now that I think about it this way.
Andy Dick it is, I can just picture him saying these exact things. Could easily be Jewish too, certainly "New York/Show Biz" enough to be for all practical purposes Jewish. (Hey, I count myself in the culturally Jewish group too, no flaming!) I think you've figured it out.
Andy Dick was connected to the death of a fellow sitcom actor. Here's some quotes from the IMDb:
[Andy Dick] Was one of the last people to see David Strickland alive as they binge drank in Las Vegas.
[David Strickland] Found dead in a Las Vegas, Nevada motel room, at age 29. Body found hanging from a bed sheet. [1999]
I don't know if Dick was a suspect, or if it was determined the guy killed himself. I also don't know if Dick has done anything since, since I try to avoid him when I can. So, I don't know if that death caused a collapse in his personal and/or professional life.
Good researching. I'm sure I heard about that, but I'd forgotten all about it. I think I would have paid attention at the time, because it is creepily reminiscent of Bob Crane's murder. I was really a big fan of his, and it's a shame he was a sex-maniac and probably paid for that vice with his life.
Although 1999 was such a crazy year for me (I got stuck doing my company's whole computer conservsion, remember that madness?) that it's possible I missed the story altogether.
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