by Azell Murphy Cavaan Monday, March 10, 2003
The masses have a message for those movie stars mouthing off about a potential war with Iraq:
Shut up, already.
Recent polls show that an overwhelming majority of Americans don't place any stock in what celebrities say about Iraq, and more than half think it's inappropriate for actors to use their fame to try to influence political opinion.
``I block them out,'' said John Montepore, a 22-year-old student from Williamstown. ``People joke about what they have to say. No one takes them seriously.''
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) put it more bluntly.
``If Washington is a Hollywood for ugly people, Hollywood is a Washington for the simple-minded,'' he told reporters recently.
Stars are chiming in on both sides of the Iraq debate.
Actors Bruce Willis, Dennis Miller and Fred Thompson back President Bush. Willis reportedly has offered to go over and personally kick Saddam Hussein's butt.
But most Hollywood hot shots are speaking out against a war.
Last month, Hollywood Boulevard played host to what some have called the biggest celebrity anti-war movement since Vietnam.
Stars such as Martin Sheen, Tyne Daly and Anjelica Huston held signs, chanted and marched, all the while urging citizens to call their congressional offices to protest a war.
Others, including Susan Sarandon, Madonna, Janeane Garofolo and Sean Penn, also have spoken out against military action in Iraq and participated in anti-war protests.
Penn, who went on a three-day ``fact-finding mission'' to Iraq in December, has particularly been ridiculed by talk-show hosts and the media, with the New York Post dubbing him ``Poison Penn.''
The star of ``Fast Times at Ridgemont High'' also has become a chief target of jokes on a Web site set up in response to celebrities' activism.
``I wonder if Sean Penn could see our fighters flying on the no-fly zone in Iraq, and did he wave or flip them the finger!'' writes one visitor to the Web site. ``What a jerk!''
Created by stay-at-home mom Lori Bardsley of Summerfield, N.C., a self-described liberal Democrat, the Web site spews most of its venom in the anti-war direction.
``We the undersigned American citizens stand against Wealthy Hollywood Celebrities abusing their status to speak for us,'' the home page reads at www.petitions.com/campaigns/hollywoodceleb.
Visitors' comments have been anything but kind.
``(Hollywood pundits) say things like, `Think of how many of our soldiers would die if we invaded Iraq,' '' AK2(AW)Les Fuqua writes on the site.
``Well, I got news for them, I knew when I signed my name on the dotted line that I could go to battle and lose my life. I'd rather die for my country than go see another one of those idiot movies.''
According to a recent USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll, 87 percent of adults said no celebrity could convince them to change their position on war, and 64 percent said it's inappropriate for actors to publicly voice their views on Iraq.
Stephen Nathanson, a Northeastern University professor of philosophy, is glad to hear Americans are not basing their positions about the war on a celebrity's opinion.
``I like Fred Thompson on `Law and Order,' but I'm sure I disagree with him on most things political,'' said Nathanson, who has participated in anti-war protests.
Thompson, a former senator from Tennessee, has made a 30-second TV ad supporting military action against Saddam.
``Who wants to be a mere movie star when you can also become an influential political mover and shaker?'' said Tobe Berkovitz, a communications professor at Boston University who used to teach a class on public opinion persuasion and political campaigning.
Berkovitz said celebrities have a history of speaking out on public issues and might view their political outspokenness as right of passage.
``That's why these days it's almost easier to count the number of celebrities who are not speaking out,'' he said.
Recently, actor Mike Farrell, who played Capt. B.J. Hunnicut in the TV series ``M*A*S*H,'' organized a group called Artists United to Win Without War.
Fellow actors Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne and Uma Thurman quickly aligned themselves with Farrell's organization, whose first official act was drafting a letter to Bush protesting the war.
Signatories included Kim Basinger, Samuel L. Jackson and Jessica Lange, who said she is ``ashamed and humiliated'' to come from the United States. ``I hate Bush,'' she told a gathering at a recent film festival in Spain.
The celebrity outcry has not been limited to actors.
Singer Sheryl Crow sported a guitar strap that read ``No War'' at the Grammys last month.
And later this month, Madonna is expected to premiere ``American Life,'' a video that ``examines the horrors of war.'' The video, using a fashion show as a backdrop, will feature models in army fatigues throwing grenades.
``I am not anti-Bush. I am not pro-Iraq. I am pro-peace,'' Madonna said in a statement. ``I hope this provokes thought and dialogue.''
But will it change anyone's mind about war with Iraq?
Not for Andrea Brennan, a secretary from Allston.
``I base my decisions about how I feel about the war on CNN, and not on what celebrities have to say,'' said Brennan, 41.
Raakhe Mirchandani contributed to this report.
That seems like the standard line from people who are not working for a living or people that get paid for jobs that don't seem like work to the rest of us. Most of these people probably use mind altering substances anyway.
They helped Saddam hang the young teenage girl that waved to coalition froces.
see post - A teenage girl waved at our troops... she was hanged within the hour News of the World ^ | March 30, 2003 | Ian Kirby, Posted on 03/29/2003 5:55 PM PST by MadIvan
The young girl was hanged in their names.