Celebrities and Politics

It has been over 4 years sense I last went to see a movie but its not all politics. Its more that I feel that actors and those celeberties are all really a bunch of snobs and look down on everyday people as second class or not to their level. Just look at who they date, how they act at award shows on the red carpet etc... and allot of them talk politics and really have no clue. On a late night show Ted Dancen (spelling, the guy on cheers) sad that we loose x amount of rain forest everyday. At first I thought wow what a big problem but then I did a little math. I forgot the exact number but using what he said we would have cut down all the woods in the world in like 6 or 7 years. I then thought maybe he just got his numbers mixed up but I read an interview of him and he said the same thing.
I think Hollywood is a bunch of elitist snobs too but I also temper that view by thinking of how many movie stars never say a darn thing about poltiics. For every George Clooney or Sean Penn there are 30 other good actors who don't use their celebrity as a pulpit. I have no problem with celebrities having views but it does irk me when some use it too ram their views down our throats. I don't let it affect my views on their movies but it doesn't make me like them.

For the most part I don't really care about an actor or musician's personal life or political views unless it truly effects their work. For instance, I think Tom Cruise is nuts but I really like a lot of his movies and I think he's a very good actor so I don't care about the couch jumping, prescription bashing antics.

However, I won't go so far as to say a person couldn't do or say something that is so bad that I can't stand to see/hear them. If I suddenly found out that my favorite actor was a child molesting Nazi I might have a hard time enjoying his work.

That's where I am too. I'm sure some musical artists I enjoy are probably closet whackjobs, but as long as they don't preach about it, I don't care if I enjoy their music.

Once they begin trying to merge their work and their politics, it takes away a lot of the enjoyment. Music and movies are usually to escape the daily life and problems, which politics are.

I think Hollywood is a bunch of elitist snobs too but I also temper that view by thinking of how many movie stars never say a darn thing about poltiics. For every George Clooney or Sean Penn there are 30 other good actors who don't use their celebrity as a pulpit. I have no problem with celebrities having views but it does irk me when some use it too ram their views down our throats. I don't let it affect my views on their movies but it doesn't make me like them.
My biggest reason for not supporting Hollywood is the snob factor. If their fans really think they care about them they are kidding themself. Yes some do but in whole they don't care about their fans only their own little pulpit that they walk upon.

When it comes to music I really don't care much for the artists views on certain subjects, including politics. I listen to music because of the sound, not because of what a certain artist thinks. As for movie stars and their kind, same goes for them. I think some entertainers are nuts, and some are uppity bastards, but I like their movies so I don't mind it too much. And even though almost no entertainers bother me, I have to say I really don't like Michael Moore. He promotes himself all the time and acts like he's the voice of the people when he's just another guy with insane political views.

He promotes himself all the time and acts like he's the voice of the people when he's just another guy with insane political views.
Not to hijack my own thread but he is more of another guy just trying to make money.

Everybody has a right to do whatever they want, however some in Hollywood can go a little overboard in their support of a candidate or political stance.

It does turn me off a little, but in the end if i think the movie is going to be a good one i'll watch. And yes, i think Tom Cruise is crazy, but he makes some good movies.

There are two things that annoy me about political celebrities:

1. When a celebrity takes a contoversial position, they have to understand that there will be a lot of people who disagree with them. When your manager calls and tells you the World Concert Tour is now a three week bi-coastal jaunt because they can't sell tickets in Omaha, don't start pretending to be Alexander Solzhenitsyn in the Russian gulag.

2. Actors, Directors, critics, etc are always talking about each others "courage". One obvious example was the film "Philadelphia". Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington made a sympathetic portrait of an AIDS victim, became the darling of the critics, and won a wheelbarrow full of awards. And all along the way everyone kept talking about how much "courage" it took to make that film. The truth is that if you were going to sit down and try to come up with a film concept that was virtually guaranteed to win Oscar nominations, that concept would be "Philadelphia". At least in the nineties. The tastes and sensibilities of the Hollywood elite are always evolving. Sometimes they are moved by Left Wing views of public health issues and sometimes they are moved by Left Wing views of foreign policy.

Here are some film concepts that would really take courage to make in Hollywood:

1. The life story of Whittaker Chambers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whittaker_Chambers). This should have been done forty years ago.

2. A movie about Vietnam POWs. (Wait. This one was made. It was called "Hanoi Hilton (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanoi_Hilton_(film))" and came out around the same time as "Platoon". No major studio was interested. Oliver Stone, again though, was lauded for his courage."

3. An old style Biblical epic. (And by "old style" I mean no gay disciples and no Mary wondering wether she should have an abortion)

4. A movie in which a person who owns an unregistered handgun saves her family by shooting an intruder and is then persecuted by the government as though she were the criminal. The bad guys would include an overweight, drunken, and lecherous politician from an unidentified northeastern state and some wild-eyed anti-gun advocates.

5. The life story of Joe Gibbs. (Movie exec: "Can we change 'The Lord's really blessed us' to something like.. I don't know... '****ing Awesome, Dude! And instead of being a Christian, maybe he could be in to Yoga'")

6. This is really fun. Anybody else have any ideas for couragous movies?

to me, the word courageous, and making movies, should never be in the same sentence. courage is serving your country. courage is cleaning toilets, or some other menial job that no one in this world WANTS to do. but does it anyway, because their family has mouths to feed. courage is donating an organ, to save someones life. i could go on and on with examples, but making a movie would never even sniff my list

to me, the word courageous, and making movies, should never be in the same sentence. courage is serving your country. courage is cleaning toilets, or some other menial job that no one in this world WANTS to do. but does it anyway, because their family has mouths to feed. courage is donating an organ, to save someones life. i could go on and on with examples, but making a movie would never even sniff my list

Here here.

But it is sorta fun to think about the types of movies that would be "Hollywood courageous" to make.

- A sympathetic biopic of Dick Cheney's life

- A film adaptation of Michael Crichton's critical novel State of Fear about the environmental movement and his doubts about their truthfulness as to global warming.

- A story about a welfare mom who keeps having babies just to get more welfare money. No happy ending just the screen fading to black as she beds another crack addict in hopes of a 5th or 6th kid.