Celebrities Please Shut Up

They're making me crazy. All those entertainment celebrities who somewhere along the way decided it was en vogue to join the Bush-bashers. I wish they would all just shut up and go back to what they're supposed to be good at - entertaining us.

True, most of the loudest and silliest ones I didn't have much use for in the first place. Barbra Streisand, George Clooney, The Dixie Chicks, Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon ... they can all be as stupid as they like, I don't watch their movies or listen to their music anyway. Streisand is a terrific vocalist, but I always believed she was a woman you would never want to hang out with, and she's proved why. Clooney's been overrated as an actor ever since he was a regular on ER (yawn). The Dixie Chicks, well, what do you expect from a group of airheads trying to get by on looks and hoping you don't notice their (lack of) talent. Robbins and Sarandon were kind of funny in Bull Durham, but even though they might possess passable acting skills, their communistic political ranting is probably only taken seriously by Sarandon's drug-addled Rocky Horror fans.

But I've got to put my foot down when it comes to those entertainers I sort of enjoyed until they got stupid. Whatever drove Linda Ronstadt, who's always had a great set of pipes, to offend her Vegas audience and get unceremoniously dumped for ranting about what a great guy Michael Moore is? I don't care if she was praising Moore or Rush Limbaugh; her audience paid for tickets to hear her sing, not to hear her ditsy political ramblings.

How ironic to see Viggo Mortensen, who I don't think is an American anyway, go off on Bush right after his triumphant LOTR trilogy. And this from an actor who portrayed a courageous leader who knew evil had to be defeated regardless of the terrible sacrifice involved. How badly did he damage his movie career by joining the Bush Bash Brigade?

Guys like Martin Sheen are known quantities, who seem to be trying to relive the glory days of VietNam protest. They probably get together in their Hollywood hangouts to toke up and fantasize about taking down Bush, Cheney, and their Military-Industrial Complex like they did in the 60's. Sheen probably thinks in his drug-addled memory that his role in Apocalypse Now was a real event.

Do the pin-up girls from our favorite movies, like Gwyneth Paltrow, Kirsten Dunst, Jennifer Anniston, Kate Hudson, etc... have even the slightest clue how stupid they appear when they publicly go off on their anti-Bush rants? They are so obviously parroting the groupthink of their peers, and their poor attempts to make political statements are just silliness and confirmation of the stereotype of dumb blondes.

Comedians have always been known as lefties politically. But when you have Whoopie out there offending all the Catholics who loved her in Sister Act, or guys like Robin Williams and Chevy Chase using crude, vulgar, and outrageous language (that wasn't remotely funny) to express Bush hatred, how can they fail to understand the damage they do to their future marketability in entertainment?

Finally, I happened to be up late one night to see Letterman. He had Bill O'Reilly on, and I thought it might be an interesting discussion. But it really wasn't, and from my perspective, Dave didn't come off looking very good. He obviously had a predisposed hatred for O'Reilly, but had never seen his show and admitted to knowing nothing about what O'Reilly actually talks about or believes. But he felt free to trash him anyway, saying something along the lines of,
"I think about 60% of what you say is crap". O'Reilly asked him for an example, and he didn't have one.

Just in case there's anyone who sees this who is either an entertainer or an aspiring entertainer - and this applies to pro sports athletes as well: When it comes to politics, just shut up! Now, if you want to support causes for curing disease or helping children, go for it - the public loves that stuff. But unless you want to retire from entertainment and go full-time into politics (like Arnold), just shut up. Because as soon as you open your mouth, you will automatically offend at least 50% of your fans, and look stupid to probably another 25-30%.

So if your objective is to sell more tickets or CD's or whatever, stay away from politics! You can certainly donate money to your favorite candidates, but keep it away from the public eye. You think you're being "courageous"? What's courageous about spouting off what all your friends are telling you without bothering to find your own position?