Celebrity Activism
The
Well, well, well.
Take off for a week and all Hell breaks loose in
A Vast Right Wing Conspiracy? Hardly, as they said during the Watergate scandal, follow the money.
Corporations hire entertainers and spokespeople to make money. Whether it’s to bring in the crowds to a casino or to showcase a celebrity’s ability to lose weight on your product, the bottom line is they spend money to make money and to highlight what a particular company has that’s better than the competitor and for consumers to spend, spend, spend.
Corporations don’t care about the personal politics of celebrities, as long as their personal beliefs don’t interfere with their ability to sell their product. In Whoopi’s case and with spokespeople in general, your image is what you’re selling in conjunction with the product you’re endorsing.
Slimfast’s error was not recognizing Whoopi’s past propensity for offensive material in her performances. Slimfast shouldn’t have been surprised when she went over the edge of good taste in her rip on President Bush and Vice-President Cheney. She had been an outspoken critic of the Administration for quite some time. That aside, they realized their mistake, responded quickly and fired her. It’s a company’s right to correct their mistake and it shouldn’t be interpreted by the Left as censorship. A more accurate explanation would be bad celebrity matching with an advertising campaign that someone at Slimfast will also be fired over.
Immediately upon news of her firing, Whoopi
lambasted Republicans as being behind it all in another example of the Vast
Right Wing Conspiracy. Elton John cried
McCarthyism. And Senator Kerry refused
to release any tapes of her performance.
Why? That’s a no brainer - he
doesn’t want any voter to see him laughing at Whoopi’s
disgusting tirade and calling the performers who appeared at the fundraiser,
“The heart and soul of
On to Linda Ronstadt - It could be argued that the Aladdin Hotel overreacted by forcibly removing the singer from the hotel after her performance over the weekend wherein she promoted Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 and dedicated her hit Desperado to him. The Aladdin, in this case as well, should have been aware that Ms. Ronstadt has been making political comments all through her current tour. Not being aware caused them an uncomfortable evening where unhappy fans let their feelings known by booing, defacing posters and demanding refunds following a reportedly badly performed show injected with politics.
Again, a company hires an entertainer to entertain its guests, not to espouse their political views. The reason is obvious, whatever the celebrity’s views, half the audience is bound to disagree and be offended.
And conversely, it appears that celebrities can be offended by their
audiences as well. Ms. Ronstadt’s made
the following comments in an interview with the San Diego Tribune, "This
is an election year, and I think we're in desperate trouble and it's time for
people to speak up and not pipe down. It's a real conflict for me when I go to
a concert and find out somebody in the audience is a Republican or fundamental
Christian. It can cloud my enjoyment. I'd rather not know."
Perhaps Ms. Ronstadt should consider retiring as a performer if performing for Republicans and Christians, who represent over half the population of this country, offends her so much and sign on to Senator Kerry’s campaign – truly putting money where her mouth is.
The vitriol with which some celebrities choose to advocate for their candidate is a column for another day.
Today is the day to discuss a very important point in all this controversy with stars and their political activism – the right way to be involved and the wrong way. To reiterate - when you are hired either to perform in any venue or to act as a spokesperson, you are not being paid to espouse your political leanings. You are being paid to be an entertainer or to sell a product, not as an activist or political supporter.
Let’s look at a recent example of the right way to be politically active. Ben Affleck, actor and Oscar winning
screenwriter, recently announced that he pulled out of a previously slated
movie that was to begin filming this Fall. He instead announced his intentions to
campaign for Senator Kerry and to appear at the Democratic convention next week
in
Hollywood-Hero previously commented favorably on Martin Sheen and Rob Reiner earlier this year, when they campaigned for Howard Dean during the primaries. While Hollywood-Hero agrees with absolutely nothing that these two celebrities espouse, they work hard for their beliefs, put their money where their mouth is, and walk the walk of activism. These activists don’t use a captive entertainment audience for their own political ends.
That’s the proper way for any citizen in this country to advocate for their candidate of choice. Whether you’re a teacher, a doctor, an actor, or a factory worker, you’re entitled and encouraged to participate in the political process - on your time, not on ours. That’s the ticket and the key to successful celebrity activism.
However polarized this nation may be at the moment, Americans can and should come together over the notion that celebrities should refrain from making political statements on our dime and start making them on their dime and during their free time.
The message of the day is - stop messing with our entertainment - the films, concerts, and music we spend our hard earned money to enjoy and get out there with the real people in this country and work for the candidate of your choice on your off hours, just like the rest of us.