Bartlet4America News Archive

Union Warns Movie Execs Not To Pick On Antiwar Actors

The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES -- The specter of the Hollywood Blacklist era came to light again Monday when the Screen Actors Guild warned the entertainment industry that it better not punish people who speak out against war with Iraq.

"It is the fundamental right of citizens to express their support or their fears and concerns," the SAG statement read. "While passionate disagreement is to be expected in such a debate, a disturbing trend has arisen in the dialogue."

Part of the reason the blacklist issue has come to light is because of concerns of actor Martin Sheen, who recently said top executives at NBC fear his outspoken opposition to the war will hurt his show, "The West Wing."

An NBC spokeswoman responded that network executives have expressed no such concerns.

But the SAG statement said, "Some have recently suggested that well-known individuals who express 'unacceptable' views should be punished by losing their right to work. This shocking development suggests that the lessons of history have, for some, fallen on deaf ears."

In the 1950s, actors and writers who were allegedly pro-Communist were listed on an infamous Hollywood blacklist. The SAG statement said that during the Cold War, "most of America failed" the test to exercise its right to free speech, instead "averting its eyes as the House Committee on Un-American Activities persecuted citizens, destroyed careers, ruined lives and gave rise to the notorious 'blacklist."

Supporting "the right of all citizens, celebrated and unknown, to speak their minds freely on any side of any issue," the SAG statement added, "Even a hint of the blacklist must never again be tolerated in this nation."

Sheen, a participant in a "virtual march on Washington" antiwar campaign and founding member of the celebrity coalition United to Win Without War, is not the only one claiming backlash from stating his views.

In a lawsuit filed last month, actor Sean Penn accused producer Steven Bing of reneging on an agreement to pay him $10 million to star in a proposed movie after Penn spoke out against war with Iraq. In a countersuit, Bing said it was Penn who pulled out.

Meanwhile, more celebrities including rocker Ted Nugent and actor Fred Thompson are starting to come out to speak their views in favor of President George W. Bush.

Thompson, a former Republican senator from Tennessee and star of NBC's "Law and Order," recently taped a 30-second television ad that supports Bush's Iraqi policy that in part said, "Thank goodness we have a president with the courage to protect our country."