Hollywood-Hero.us
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Do You Remember when Hollywood was on our side?
"During other periods of our history when America had to defend our allies or ourselves, such as World War II, Hollywood heroes such as Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart, Gary Cooper, Glenn Ford, Henry Fonda and Elvis Presley, Charles Bronson, Lee Marvin among others, donned our nation’s uniform and served their country with pride. They put their careers on hold to defend our country and our freedoms."
Buy the companion book on The Passion of the Christ!
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5-24-03 - Hollywood and the supposed boycotts that have pundits all up in arms By Lisa Sarrach – President There have been scores of columns written in the past month or so by pundits and activists showing their collective disgust and outrage over the treatment of the Dixie Chicks and more recently Danny Glover, harkening back to the time of the McCarthy Era and blacklisting. Just last Thursday, the Detroit News’ own Laura Berman displayed her outrage at the new supposed Hollywood blacklist being compiled by “high-tech bullies” who want to “drum up ratings and drown out dissent”. Let’s take a walk back to the studio days of Hollywood, when actors and actresses were under contract to one studio, and they were subject to morals clauses. Almost anything that could cause embarrassment to the studio was subject to suspension or out and out firing. Act such as adultery, children out of wedlock, committing crimes, drugs and alcohol abuse could get you suspended or released from your studio contract. Fast forward to today. Those same morals are badges of honor on the Left Coast. Six or seven marriages, children outside of marriage, gay, drugs, alcohol; it’s all live and let live for these pampered elitists who live in glass towers, far away from the common people. They are free to do as they please, with no repercussions, as long as they make money for the studios. The one exception that existed then and still exists today is when they start costing their bosses money. That hasn’t changed. From the moral clauses of the thirties to the present day, our moral barometer may have changed as to what’s acceptable behavior, but if your behavior is going to cost the studio money, then it’s a problem for their bottom line. Ms. Berman’s bottom line suggestion that there is a return of the Blacklist is disingenuous. The McCarthy hearings of the 1950’s was a government run operation, this is 21st century consumer driven call to arms; to quote from Peter Finch in Network, “We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore”. Nobody is ever going to deny that Americans everywhere are free to speak their mind on any number of issues and they do. The First Amendment of the Constitution guarantees that right. Remember the boycott against Dr. Laura by GLADD? Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins had no problem joining the effort to get her TV show off the air. Were boycotts permissible or just in vogue then? The difference between that and the decision by the Baseball Hall of Fame to cancel the 15th anniversary of their movie Bull Durham can be marked by the fact that rightly or wrongly, Dale Petroskey felt that their positions on the war were harmful to the American war effort. Mr. Robbins and Ms. Sarandon’s campaign against Dr. Laura was a personal attack on a woman whose views on homosexuality is different than theirs and therefore they were entirely justified in getting her fired. As long as you agree with the Hollywood Left, it’s okay to boycott. If you don’t, than there is “cold wind blowing across the country, emanating from the White House”. What really has these people in a twit is that the same 70% of Americans who like the president are making careful choices with their entertainment dollars and their overall consumer dollars. French wine sales are down 10% over the same period a year ago. The decision by MCI to not use Danny Glover as a spokesperson anymore was I’m sure based on the bottom line. People were associating his anti-American views with the company and not signing up to “join the neighborhood”. The West Wing’s ratings this year have plummeted from the same ratings period last year. The Dixie Chicks airplay was reduced over 30% during the hoopla over Natalie Maines comments about the president. The American people are speaking with their wallets and their viewing choices. The powers that be are paying attention and are running scared. But if you’ll notice, the ire of the American people has been directed to celebrities who they feel have gone over the line drawn in American soil. Many Americans feel these studio creations have crossed the line of just disagreeing on a policy of their government, to disparaging their president on foreign soil when the country is at the brink of war (The Dixie Chicks), to calling the president a racist, with of course no factual attribution and cozying up to a dictator (Danny Glover and Fidel Castro), accusing the president of putting our soldiers lives in jeopardy for oil, (Martin Sheen), again no need to provide proof, and actually going to Baghdad and playing into Saddam Hussein’s propaganda machine in February (Sean Penn). These people are not arguing a policy; they hate the President of the United States because he’s a Republican, period. They loved Bill Clinton because he was one of them. A man off questionable moral character was someone they could relate to and raise money for and party with. They don’t get George W. Bush and they never will. But 70% of the American people do get him and they like him, a lot. These same people also love their country and are tired of it being denigrated by a bunch of prima donnas who preach tolerance and show their environmental bona fides by buying hybrid cars to cruise around LA yet spend tens of thousands of dollars heating and cooling their multi-million dollar mansions and fly around in private jets. Hypocrisy runs rampant in this exclusive community. The free marketplace will continue to determine how companies make their decisions. If you keep relapsing after drug rehab and cost the producers money, you’re out. If your diva behavior continually causes production costs to rise, you’re out. And if you continue to blame America first, disrespect the people across America who pay your salaries by purchasing your products, and continue to disparage a president that 70% of the people in this country respect and admire, then you have earned the right to be fired by the American people. (End) |
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