Posted on 04/20/2003 9:29:37 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
Q. The 15th anniversary celebration of the film "Bull Durham" was canceled by the Baseball Hall of Fame because actors in that film have recently exercised some freedom of speech. Haven't actors learned from the McCarthy era that actors, writers (i.e., people who have the public's attention) don't have the same rights as citizens and are still subject to blacklisting, or don't they care?
Manuel Sutton, Chula Vista, Calif.
A. Celebrities who speak out politically are made into targets as a way of discouraging dissent. I have not heard a single thing Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, the stars of "Bull Durham," have said about the war, but I have heard countless attacks on them for saying it. When you attack the messenger instead of the message, you are essentially saying, "Since you disagree with me, shut up." This is profoundly anti-American.
e-mail Roger Ebert at answerman@suntimes.com
(Excerpt) Read more at suntimes.com ...
They were leaders in the successful shut down of the Dr. Laura TV program, as well as this little excerpt gem from the archives.
The Gulag Glitterati
The spectacle of Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins. Source: NRO Weekend, Thanksgiving 2000 By Andrew Stuttaford
Poor, poor Elizabeth Hurley. ... Gulag glitterati Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, may not be so gentle. The English actress, they say, has done them wrong, and she must be punished. Severely. Her offense dates back to July when she shot a commercial for Estee Lauder. Hurley claims that she was unaware that such filming would be treated as crossing a picket line by her union, SAG, the Screen Actors Guild. Indeed, being based in the U.K., she just "did not know" that the union was on strike.
Whatever the explanation, SAGtivist Susan Sarandon was outraged. As for Tim Robbins, her long-time partner, well, he seems to have been channeling Stalin's prosecutor, the late, and much-missed, Andrei Vyshinsky. "We are bringing Hurley to trial," he foamed, "She will not get away with it." Note that "we." As Mr. Robbins, a prominent supporter of the strike, well knows, his comments are likely to resonate with those union officials responsible for deciding the former fembot's fate. The consequences of a "guilty" verdict could be serious. The equally influential Ms. Sarandon has supported calls for a lifetime ban on "scab" actors. If the case goes against Ms. Hurley she may never work in Hollywood again.
This is not a problem that is likely to face her tormentors. The spectacle of two successful stars threatening to destroy the career of a fellow actor, would, you might think, at least raise a flicker of concern or a murmur of protest, but it has not. No one is even asking what it is about Ms Hurley that has so enraged Mr. Robbins. After all, she is not the highest profile performer to have crossed the picket lines. ... Criticizing Elizabeth Hurley, a foreigner, was one thing. Telling the popular athletes, people of Color after all, where they could or could not work, might have been altogether more awkward.
Awkward questions are not something that Robbins and Sarandon have often had to face. This is despite a history of political activism that has lasted decades and in Robbins's case, even stretches as far back as a "progressive" childhood during which a tiny Tim would occasionally perform on stage with his father, a Greenwich Village folk singer. Susan Sarandon began more conventionally (arrested in Vietnam War protests, worked in a Nicaraguan hospital during the Sandinista dictatorship and so on), but she has now developed a red repertoire equal to that of the great left-wing divas of Hollywood's past. ...
But that has not stopped our heroine, supported more often than not by Tim Robbins. The couple's causes are many, misguided, and multiplying. It is not difficult to find some recent examples. If Sarandon and Robbins prevail, Hurley is not going to "get away with it," but cop-killer Mumia just might. They are hard on Giuliani, and soft on Saddam (they opposed the Gulf War in 1990, and they oppose the Iraq trade embargo now).
However, the Iraqi chamber of commerce should not expect too much business from an America run by these silver-screen dunces: both actors are, of course, anti-free trade and pro-Nader.
There's more. Ms. Sarandon is against sugar, white flour, and dairy products for her kids and against you having a gun to defend yours. Private Ryan, she feels, was a bad thing ("basically tells you if you want to be a guy you now have to kill at point-blank range"), and Dr. Laura is worse. On immigration policy, however, matters are a little confused. Robbins and Sarandon campaigned for the admission to the U.S. of refugees (HIV positive Haitians) from one Caribbean hellhole, while supporting the return of Elian Gonzalez to another.
Exactly....and Robbin's whiney rant the other day showed just how nauseatingly arrogant and self absorbed most of these Hollywood flakes really are.
Same here. Maybe he shuts down his mail box whenever he thinks he's being Freeped?
Maybe we should redirect his letters to the editor.
Why is it that you and your leftist Hollywood elite friends like Tim Robbins insist on your right to free speech while characterizing the counter free speech of others as an "attack"? Have you or Robbins ever actually read the First Amendment? Do you not realize how hypocritically ridiculous you look complaining about other people giving entertainers they don't appreciate a "thumbs down"?
I worked with Ron Shelton (dir. Bull Durham) on Tin Cup. The guy was a great boss. 12 hour days, good caterer, great sense of humor, weekends off (on location), free green fees (golf movie), gag reel dailies on Friday after a kegger and hot food, no attitude from him and the actors knew they couldn't front.
I popped Bull Durham in the other day. I had no problem suspending disbelief. It still makes me laugh.
Check your flags, I hailed you to something I wrote.
You got divorced after giving up long days with big pay? Sounds familiar. So many guys I know would come back from location only to be told by their wives that they needed to go back to work.
If you've got to bank hours I can understand, and even if you need the money. My old roommate just moved to Palm Springs and is making the commute. But he's doing spots so he's insulated.
I don't miss the suits or the hours but I do miss all the good hammers I used to work with. The stuff we did and got away with could fill a book. And everyone would talk about the day they were going to get out. Right after the house, the ski boat, the RV, etc.
I'm glad I bailed when I did.
Stay in touch or give me a heads up if you're going to fade again.
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