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Posted on 04/29/2003 5:36:34 PM PDT by RepPhil
At Saturday's White House Correspondents Association dinner, actors Kelsey Grammer, Jason Priestley, Robert Duvall and Ron Silver all told CNSNews.com reporter Marc Morano how they disagreed with Michael Moore's anti-Bush rant at the Academy Awards and wish their fellow celebrities would refrain from making comments about politics.
Priestley, Morano relayed, “lamented the excessive coverage of anti-war celebrities by what he termed the 'liberal media.'” And, Morano learned, “CNN's Bob Franken did not like Fox News's use of the phrase 'we' when covering the U.S. armed forces during the war.”
An excerpt from Morano's April 28 story about what the actors told him before the April 26 dinner at the Washington Hilton:
Hollywood celebrities attending the 89th annual White House Correspondents Association Dinner in Washington on Saturday night made it a point to condemn celebrity anti-war activists.
Actor Kelsey Grammer, who plays the lead role in NBC's "Frasier" sitcom, said he refused to watch this year's Academy Awards because of the anti-war "crap" that fellow celebrities spewed.
Grammer said he was spared filmmaker Michael Moore's anti-war acceptance speech and attack on the Bush administration at the March 23rd Academy Awards. "I didn't hear it because I didn't watch [the Academy Awards], Grammer told CNSNews.com.
"I wasn't interested. I knew that that kind of crap was going to be there and I thought, I am not interested," Grammer added.
While accepting an Oscar for his anti-gun documentary "Bowling For Columbine," Moore said, "We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons...Shame on you, Mr. Bush, shame on you."
Grammer called Moore's movie "a one-sided film" and blamed the media for giving so much publicity to Moore's anti-war speech.
"The media just loves to pay attention to whatever is happening that makes the most noise," Grammer explained.
Jason Priestley of "Beverly Hills 90210" television fame, agreed with Grammer and lamented the excessive coverage of anti-war celebrities by what he termed the "liberal media."
"I think more people should keep their opinions to themselves," Priestley said. He was particularly incensed by Moore's acceptance speech.
"It was shocking. I did not believe that was the forum to voice your opinions. Michael Moore is allowed to have opinions and his opinions are valid like everyone else's opinion, but I just didn't think the Academy Awards were the place to voice them in that manner," he explained.
'Keep their mouths shut'
Actor Robert Duvall said he is not a fan of Michael Moore, and he lashed out at Hollywood political activists.
"They should keep their mouths shut," Duvall said.
Asked if the media over-emphasizes celebrity opinions, actor Ron Silver emphatically agreed.
"I do, because at the end of the day, who cares? There are more important things on the table. But if they wanted to use Natalie Maines (of the Dixie Chicks) or Tim Robbins or me, or whomever, that is their business," Silver said.
Silver, a cofounder of the Creative Coalition, a generally liberal Hollywood activist organization, was an ardent supporter of the war in Iraq.
Asked if he has received any flak from other celebrities such as fellow Creative Coalition founder Susan Sarandon for his outspoken support of the war, Silver quipped, "Absolutely none, absolutely none, we just don't talk anymore."
Silver also dismissed Moore's acceptance speech,, saying, "I don't listen to Michael Moore...I didn't agree with him."...
CNN's Bob Franken did not like Fox News's use of the phrase "we" when covering the U.S. armed forces during the war.
"I disagree with the Fox approach to it. I believe it was jingoistic, but that's their approach to it. They would disagree with me, I suspect," Franken told CNSNews.com.
"We have to be remember and even those of us who are in the embed [program] have to remember, it is 'they,' not 'we'. It's just an important distinction. We serve our country by doing that," Franken explained....
END of Excerpt
For the story in full: www.cnsnews.com
For more about the celebrities quoted, see their bios on the Internet Movie Database site:
For Kelsey Grammer: us.imdb.com
For Jason Priestley: us.imdb.com
For Robert Duvall: us.imdb.com
For Ron Silver: us.imdb.com
Before the Screen Actors Guild Awards in early March Grammer told Access Hollywood that he supported the war: “I’m pro, that simple.” See: www.mediaresearch.org
CyberAlert readers should be familiar with Silver, who has an ongoing role as a political strategist on NBC's West Wing, from his frequent pre-war cable appearances going head-to-head with anti-liberation of Iraq celebrities like Ed Asner.
As recounted in the February 11 CyberAlert, on FNC's Beltway Boys actor Ron Silver recounted his negative reaction to anti-Americanism in Europe and rejected the idea that it's Bush's fault. He even suggested that imposing U.S. values on the world isn't “a bad idea by the way, I kind of think our values are fairy universal and might be helpful.” See: www.mediaresearch.org
Got to admit -- Hard to imagine Dennis Franz in a pink teddy...
Doc, unless libs like Sam Elliot totally come to their senses like the Ron Silvers of the world, they're still pulling for a Hitlery-World.
As for giving credit to Elliot for "maintaining a steady marriage," so have the Witch and Bubba.
LOL, Great line
Quite frankly, just because a couple has stayed together in La La Land is no reason to assume that they have a "real marriage" by any convention standard...
Unless you know them personally.
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