{"id":8232,"date":"2006-08-17T16:15:08","date_gmt":"2006-08-17T20:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/8232.html"},"modified":"2006-08-17T16:15:08","modified_gmt":"2006-08-17T20:15:08","slug":"which-side-of-the-political-divide-has-gone-hollywood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/which-side-of-the-political-divide-has-gone-hollywood\/","title":{"rendered":"Which side of the political divide has gone Hollywood?"},"content":{"rendered":"

At first glance, this<\/a> seemed like a story of little or no consequence.<\/p>\n

Nicole Kidman has made a public stand against terrorism. The actress, joined by 84 other high-profile Hollywood stars, directors, studio bosses and media moguls, has taken out a powerfully-worded full page advertisement in today’s Los Angeles Times newspaper.<\/p>\n

It specifically targets “terrorist organisations” such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine.<\/p>\n

“We the undersigned are pained and devastated by the civilian casualties in Israel and Lebanon caused by terrorist actions initiated by terrorist organisations such as Hezbollah and Hamas,” the ad reads. “If we do not succeed in stopping terrorism around the world, chaos will rule and innocent people will continue to die. We need to support democratic societies and stop terrorism at all costs.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It wasn’t just Kidman; other actors who signed onto the full-page ad include Michael Douglas, Dennis Hopper, Sylvester Stallone, and Bruce Willis.<\/p>\n

Not knowing any of these people personally, and not having much interest in celebrities, I didn’t find the statement particularly noteworthy — which is why I was a little surprised by the outpouring of responses on the right. You know, the ones who frequently complain about Hollywood?
\n
\nThere was no<\/a> shortage<\/a> of<\/a> conservative<\/a> blogs<\/a> that<\/a> were<\/a> thrilled<\/a> by the entertainers’ ad, some even suggesting Hollywood was finally turning over a more conservative leaf.<\/p>\n

Maybe, maybe not, but to borrow a line from Stephen Colbert, aren’t conservatives supposed to believe that the entertainment industry is “destroying America”?<\/p>\n

I certainly don’t mind if performers become politically active; I think everyone should be. But the right sometimes seems to have an odd fixation with entertainers, preferring to rail against Michael Moore and Barbara Streisand instead of … what’s the word I’m looking for here … more politically significant rivals.<\/p>\n

I think Steve at No More Mister Nice Blog has stumbled upon<\/a> an uncomfortable fact.<\/p>\n

…I don’t get my opinions from entertainers. I don’t take what they say all that seriously. The only people who do are you guys.<\/p>\n

You actually read Barbra Streisand’s semi-literate blog. You care when Sean Penn goes on some embarrassing politicized junket. You still pay attention to Jane Fonda.<\/p>\n

You’re the guys who can’t tell the difference between entertainers and politicians. The only actor to be elected president? A Republican<\/a>. The only actor who’s currently a governor? A Republican<\/a>. NFL football player running for governor? Republican<\/a>. I could go on.<\/p>\n

You’re stagestruck. You’re Hollywood-obsessed. You’re jealous<\/i>. Come on — admit it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I would add to this that high-ranking Republican officials rely on entertainers\/novelists for science advice<\/a>, and appoint actors<\/a> like Ron Silver to be members of the Board of Directors of the United States Institute of Peace.<\/p>\n

And Republicans want voters to think the Dems<\/i> have gone Hollywood?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At first glance, this seemed like a story of little or no consequence. Nicole Kidman has made a public stand against terrorism. The actress, joined by 84 other high-profile Hollywood stars, directors, studio bosses and media moguls, has taken out a powerfully-worded full page advertisement in today’s Los Angeles Times newspaper. It specifically targets “terrorist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8232\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}