POLITICAL OPINIONS ON MOVIE STARS

You may think this a light subject. Think again. Long ago, Alan Alda from M.A.S.H. fame was interviewed about the national hatred over actress Jane Fonda. She had committed the ultimate sins in the minds of most Americans with her visits to the North Vietnamese POW camp holding our American aviators, harassing them with Ramsey Clarke.
     Alda, shot back to the interviewer saying we should separate the artist from the political views the artist holds. OK, I'll bite.
     That seems to hold for most of the leftists in Hollywood who helped destroy the nationalist attitude we had during Vietnam. Most have enjoyed a resurgence of their careers, keeping their mouths shut.
     All except Fonda. Ever since, her "re-entry" into show biz, every movie she's appeared in has tanked at the box office. It appears that her name on the marquee guarantees snores at the box office.
     In the spirit of forgiveness, maybe Alda is right. Being American should allow us to draw a line to separate the difference between honest opinions (`1st Amendment) and those who would actively attempt to disrupt our ability to prosecute a war, destabilize our efforts by ANY means, and cause civil unrest and/or our defeat.
     The actor Donald Sutherland jumps to mind. He followed Fonda around during the anti-war rioting phase like a loose puppy dog. It seems to me, IMO, that once he saw the public ire rising up against her, he faded into the background, and thought of the long haul - his career. Wise move.
     He now represents Delta Airlines in their commercials. Young kids today don't know this because they hardly know anything about that history.
     The general movie going public pays far too much attention to what ANY of the glitterati says in public. Giving any weight to what they say, in my opinion, is foolish.
     They're actors, folks. As Sir Laurence Olivier once said of his profession: our job is to fool you.
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