Posted on 12/17/2002 9:19:06 AM PST by NorCoGOP
LINCOLN, Neb. -- I was sitting around the other day watching CNN as I am wont to do, when a report on the Iraqi weapon inspection teams came on.
As I was listening to a trained journalist giving me the facts, however, I couldn't help but think something was missing.
Sure, CNN was providing me with all the "facts" I could handle, but I wasn't concerned with what was really going on. Reality is complicated and confusing; what I really wanted was someone, preferably famous, to clear it all up for me. What I really wanted to know was what Matt Damon thought about the whole deal.
Last week, my prayers were answered. Thanks to the Artists United to Win Without War, I don't have to wonder anymore about what Matt Damon thinks about war with Iraq. I now know Damon and other luminaries, such as Melissa Gilbert and Ed O'Neill, are opposed to war with Iraq. They even have semi-coherent reasons for their opposition!
I, for one, think it is about time a coalition of Hollywood stars and sitcom has-beens unite to oppose war with Iraq. God knows we can't trust all the journalists, politicians and foreign policy experts who have been debating this issue for months. No, an issue like this hasn't been truly debated until Don Cheadle weighs in.
All sarcasm aside, is there anything more annoying on this planet than celebrity activists? There are a large number of celebrities out there who feel it is their civic duty to open their big fat mouths and tell us what they think. While I'm sure these celebrities think they're doing everyone a favor by sharing their immense wisdom, I can't help but think Cary Elwes doesn't know as much about international relations as he is letting on.
Now, I'm not angry these celebrities are voicing their opinions on an important issue. They are citizens like the rest of us and have the right to say whatever they want. What bothers me is the immense sense of entitlement that permeates every statement made by these celebrities.
When celebrities have something to say, they don't send a letter to their congressman or organize a protest like the rest of us. Instead, they get a hundred of their friends to sign a letter, hold a press conference and then expect the media to come running. Obviously, the media and the public is dying to know what these stars have to say. They're famous, damn it!
Sadly, the media does come running, lapping up every nugget of "wisdom" the celebrities toss their way. On the day of the AUWWW announcement, Mike Farrell, star of M*A*S*H, and Janeane Garofalo, star of no good movies since 1996, were all over the television, taking full advantage of the media exposure their celebrity bought them.
But even this completely unjustified overexposure wasn't enough to placate the celebrity sense of entitlement. Despite appearing on both "The O'Reilly Factor" and "Connie Chung Tonight," the top-two prime-time news shows, Garofalo had the nerve to accuse the media of not sufficiently covering the anti-war movement.
This accusation obviously offended Connie Chung, who proceeded to ask Garofalo hard-hitting questions. For those of you who aren't cable news junkies, this was a shocking turn of events, as Connie Chung is to hard-hitting journalism as Whitney Houston is to responsible drug use.
The self-important attitude of Garofalo and the other celebrities who spoke out against war with Iraq might have been palatable if they had actually come up with a devastating critique of U.S. policy toward Iraq. This didn't happen though, as the arguments given by the celebrities are about as weighty as Tea Leoni playing Lady Macbeth.
In its letter, the celebrity coalition states, "We are patriotic Americans who share the belief that Saddam Hussein cannot be allowed to possess weapons of mass destruction. We support rigorous United Nations weapons inspections to assure Iraq's effective disarmament."
This is a perfectly rational stance, one that I hope everyone shares. The problem comes when the celebrity coalition says, "War talk in Washington is alarming and unnecessary," and calls on the George W. Bush administration to rely only on diplomacy to resolve the situation in Iraq.
This view ignores the fact the threat of force can be a crucial factor in diplomatic relations and is definitely necessary in the current dispute with Iraq.
Mike "Hunnicut" Farrell admitted the threat of force was necessary to pressure Iraq into allowing U.N. weapons inspectors back into the country but now believes such pressure is no longer needed. This makes no sense as the threat of force is just as necessary now as it was before the weapons inspectors went back into Iraq.
Saddam Hussein has shown in the past that he will only cooperate with the United Nations when his control of Iraq is threatened, so it is very important that the United States maintain pressure on him while the weapons inspectors do their jobs. The chances of Hussein cooperating fully with the weapons inspectors increase dramatically when he is threatened with a war should he fail to fulfill his obligations.
All in all, the statements by Farrell and the rest of the celebrity coalition sound reasonable on the surface but show a lack of understanding about brinkmanship diplomacy when examined more closely.
This is to be expected when actors delve into the world of international relations, although I expected a little better from Farrell. You would think he would be an expert on war after eight seasons in Korea, but I guess he was too busy mocking Winchester to learn much about global geo-politics. However, he did get Loretta "Hot Lips" Swit to sign the anti-war letter. Hawkeye would be so jealous, you big pimp.
In the end, the profusion of celebrity activism is not a bad thing. These celebrities aren't hurting anybody by making their beliefs known, no matter how off-base those beliefs may be.
That being said, I still find it extremely annoying when celebrities are allowed to wax poetically about their views on national television just because they were in a hit film or TV show. Just because Martin Sheen plays the president on television doesn't mean we need to know what his foreign policy recommendations are.
There are a number of experts out there who have devoted their whole lives to studying the topics celebrities feel the need to comment on. Who are you going to listen to? The commentator with a Ph.D. from Harvard? Or the actor who went to high school in a trailer on the set of some crappy 1980s sitcom?
Let's leave the acting to the actors and the punditry to the pundits. We're all better off if things stay that way. No one wants to see George Will in "Ace Ventura 3," believe me.
They don't have patience for that and it does nothing to help their careers. The saying is, "there's no such thing as bad press". Just carry over the Jane Fonda boycott to these lockstep protesters and they won't be big box office anymore (of course some in the Academy will give them Oscar nominations and votes out of spite against conservatives).
Of course, when was the last time you saw Mike "Hunnicut" Farrell or Ed "Lou Grant" Asner in anything?
Here's a link to the names:
List of Celebrities Calling on Bush Administration to Rethink Its confrontation With Iraq
More like, tell us what to think.
GUY: Jason, are we doing Episode 31 or not?
JASON: It's a rough plan, Guy! What does it matter if we're doing episode 31 or not?!
GUY: BECAUSE I DIED IN EPISODE 31!
ALEXANDER: (interrupting) This is ludicrous. Why are you listening to this man? Must I remind you that he is wearing a costume, not a uniform?... He's no more equipped to lead us than THIS fellow. (motions to Guy) No offense.
Samuel L. Jackson earned my eternal gratitude with the following exchange in his June, 1999 _Playboy_ interview:
PLAYBOY: Are you politically active?And then later:JACKSON: I go to premieres, and folks start asking me, "How do you feel about the president?" I think, What the f**k do people care what I think about the president? I'm an actor. All those actors out there stumping for this candidate or that candidate, it's bulls**t. They don't do anything past that. They raise some money and they're out of there. Or they just voice their opinion: "That Dalai Lama is my boy."
PLAYBOY: So your soapbox message is for celebrities to get off their soapboxes?
JACKSON: Just pay your taxes. Stop standing up and saying, "We need to lend our money to so-and-so." You make $20 million a picture. Shut the f**k up and give them a million dollars. Don't ask Joe Everyday for $5. He might need that $5. You've got money to burn. I don't like giving my political opinions.
[...]
The more of a grasp I can have of myself as an everyday guy who just happens to have an unusual job, the better off my life is going to be. I don't think I'm extraordinary.
"...but when people give me this bulls**t thing about being a role model [through choice of acting roles] and my effect on society, I say bulls**t to you. If people want to know if I'm a role model, they should know that I've been married to the same woman for 19 years, I drove my daughter's car pool until she started driving, I help her with her homework. I make up beds, I take out the garbage. I graduated from college, I can read and write. I can speak correctly. I treat everyone with respect. I pay my taxes. I've never been to jail. I think that's the stuff of a role model.Good for him.
One thing a lot of "celebrities" need to realize is that if you're going to use a nationwide five million watt megaphone, first make sure you've actually got something worth saying.
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