Hey, we need pictures!
Posted on 11/12/2006 12:59:06 PM PST by grundle
Hunky heartthrob Tom Selleck played the role of Magnum, PI in the long-running CBS series, a gay reporter in the movie In & Out, and General Dwight D. Eisenhower in a TV biopic. But one role he declines to play is that of a Hollywood conservative. "I prefer libertarian," he told the Chicago Tribune in an August 10, 2000 interview, after the newspaper noted that Selleck was usually identified as a conservative.
Selleck further distanced himself from the conservative label in an article on National Review Online (May 29, 2004). "I'm a registered independent with a lot of libertarian leanings," he said. However, he's an independent who supports a surprisingly minimalistic government: "I think we should have stoplights, fire departments, and [a] strategic missile defense," he explained.
Selleck gave perhaps the most expansive explanation of his political beliefs in an interview with Cigar Aficionado magazine (December 1995). Here's what he had to say...
• On the common good: "The 20th century has been a collectivist century. We've had this global experiment, and we're starting to see the end of the chain letter. I say let's try new things. It's just time to reassess things and say that maybe this idea of the common good has to be translated through the individual."
• On the antismoking movement: "Solutions to problems in a free society are messy. There are no magic bullets, no bumper-sticker solutions. If we want an authoritarian state, we can continue to do the kind of stuff we're doing now about smoking."
• On solving society's problems: "We all agree we need to solve social problems. My leanings tend toward individualist solutions."
Selleck has contributed his time to organizations that work for "individualist solutions." He served as honorary chairman of the Skin Cancer Foundation and is a volunteer for the Los Angeles Mission, which helps homeless people while rejecting federal financial aid. He was national co-spokesperson for the Character Counts Coalition, which seeks to educate young people about the importance of such traits as trustworthiness, responsibility, caring, and respect.
A longtime supporter of gun rights, Selleck appeared in a TV ad for the National Rifle Association (NRA) in 1999. That decision ended up generating headlines after he was verbally attacked by Rosie O'Donnell on her daytime talk show for being pro-gun. On the show, Selleck defended his beliefs, and said, "...the Second Amendment, and all of the Bill of Rights, are extremely important. And somebody needs to stand up at times [when] some of our politicians are demagogueing issues."
The tall, buff actor (who was once named by People magazine as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world) got his start in low-budget movies like Daughters of Satan (1972) and on the TV soap opera The Young and the Restless (1974-75). In 1980, he hit the big time when he was cast as the crime-solving, Ferarri-driving private investigator Thomas Sullivan Magnum on the CBS series, Magnum, PI. The show ran for 162 episodes, from 1980 to 1988.
Selleck parlayed that TV success into a movie career that included popular films like High Road to China (1983), Three Men and a Baby (1988), Three Men and a Little Lady (1990), Mr. Baseball (1992), and In & Out (1997). Famously, he was also Steven Spielberg's first choice for Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark, but couldn't fit it into his Magnum, PI shooting schedule.
In the late '90s, Selleck's career was rekindled thanks to a supporting role as Dr. Richard Burke on the hit NBC sitcom, Friends. In 2004, he starred in the critically acclaimed A&E film, Ike: Countdown to D-Day. The Christian Science Monitor said Selleck was "terrific in the role" of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Quotable
"I'm a registered independent with a lot of libertarian leanings." -- Tom Selleck on National Review Online (May 29, 2004)
He just made Mr. Medved's Poop List!
Because he's a Tiger fan, I forgive him.
MR Selleck - One thing you are not and could never be is Ronald Reagan!
Selleck is about on a par with other silly Hollyweird types.
I have some libertarian leanings too and think many of the party's positions are well inside the conservative movement. Please think twice about slandering libertarians--I'll take them over RINOs anytime.
I don't think Tom would condone the actions of the reason web site and their mocking of an eight year old child.
So he is a social liberal who likes to do drugs?
We need more pics, Val! More, more, more! (please!) :)
"...in an interview with Cigar Aficionado magazine." LOL
Look, Libertarians are terrific folks, good and decent people. I know a lot of them, but they don't fully understand the power and influence of the "big guy" on the block and don't see the need for government protections against his power and his greed. Would that the world could be as they see it! But, it isn't. Period.
Liberals like GOVERNMENTAL "solutions" to perceived problems. Selleck says right out he likes INDIVIDUALISTIC SOLUTIONS, which in the long run, actually WORK. Try tarring someone else with that brush... Never forgetting, of course, that your brand of "conservatism" ALSO prefers governmental "solutions" to perceived problems.
Here, just for you is my post from yesterday:
Government
The BIG LIE
The first time that some friend tells you to try government as a solution to a problem, it sounds like a good idea. Maybe it will get your neighbor to act the way you want him to. Maybe it will get you an education or some health care.
It sneaks up on you, a little at a time, at first. You think one little government program won't hurt. Government helps you and you don't have to pay for the help. A pretty good deal.
But one day it dawns on you: you're HOOKED. Whatever problem you face, from your not earning as much money as you'd like to the unaesthetic design of your neighbor's house to your city's inability to attract an NFL franchise, you turn to government for "help."
You're SWAMPED in government programs and you've lost control of your life. You've become a government addict.
It's hard to kick the habit. Being responsible for your OWN actions is not always convenient. You'll have to make decisions for yourself. Sometimes they are going to be WRONG. Yet being free to choose -- rightly or wrongly -- and to learn from your mistakes -- is what being human is all about.
Once you've come clean, once you've broken the habit of turning to government for an answer, you realize that government is the PROBLEM, NOT the solution.
Government is a LIE. It promises prosperity and a better standard of living. But it ends up taking from you, controlling you, dragging you down into a seedy underworld of bureaucracy, red tape and corruption.
Think for yourself. Break free of government. It's just a BIG LIE!!!
Another Hollywood flake.
Hair plugs seem to be working.
LIEbertarians or LIBERALtarians....Still DUmocrats who are afraid to admit it.
I'm not certain that he is.
I know for fact that "Thomas Magnum" was a Tigers fan...but is Selleck a Tigers fan?
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