Tight-lipped stars choose not to gamble their careers

PERHAPS the most surprising moment during Sunday’s drab Oscar ceremony was not Michael Moore’s dramatic denunciation of President Bush and his ‘fictitious’ war on Iraq, but the audience’s reaction to it.

The entire front row, comprising Hollywood's biggest stars, simply sat on their hands and signalled neither support nor opposition to his political outburst. They acted as if they hadn't heard what he'd said, and this from a bastion of American liberalism.

The passive reaction reveals more about Hollywood and it's priorities than it would perhaps like revealed: over the past few weeks, celebrities the super-citizens of the Western World have learnt that they cannot afford to express anti-war views, even if they hold them.

With American troops now in combat it is no longer permissible to express anything other than flag-waving patriotism.

Although there may be strong anti-war sentiments in the cosmopolitan cities on the east and west coasts, the people who buy movie tickets live in the middle of the country where conservative values and unstinting patriotism is the order of the day.

Actors or singers who have expressed strong opposition to President George W Bush have paid a heavy price. A few weeks ago, Natalie Maines, the lead singer of the Texan country-pop group the Dixie Chicks told an audience in London that she was ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas. When news of the remark reached America the group found themselves the subject of radio boycotts and public CD burnings.

Actors, too, have learnt lessons in expressing unpatriotic views. Last month actor Sean Penn filed a lawsuit accusing producer Steve Bing of reneging on a deal to pay him $10m to star in a film after Mr Penn stated his opposition to a US-led invasion of Iraq and visited Baghdad in December. Martin Sheen, who plays the president in the hit show West Wing, has complained of pressure put on him by the programme's makers to stop expressing his anti-war views. NBC allegedly told him it was "very uncomfortable" with his opposition. The network has denied this.

And in Los Angeles, there has been talk of a new 'blacklist' against stars. The Screen Actors Guild said it had received word that "well-known individuals who express 'unacceptable' views should be punished by losing their right to work."

Stars have long provoked strong reactions from those who disagree with them think of 'Hanoi Jane' Fonda or right-to-bear arms champion Charlton Heston. Now, mention your opposition to war and you will be condemned on talk radio, subjected to e-mail and telephone campaigns, condemned on hundreds of pro-war websites and eviscerated on political talk shows.

Many outspoken stars, such as Susan Sarandon, and signatories to a letter to Mr Bush urging him not to attack Iraq, including Matt Damon, Jessica Lange, Helen Hunt, George Clooney and Danny Glover, have found themselves branded as traitors. Those who have experienced the backlash say it tends to be orchestrated by highly-organised conservative groups.

For the most part, the American public does not object to stars holding controversial views - they just don't want them using their elevated positions to express them. According to Neal Gabler, a writer who has examined society's attitude toward celebrity, the same public that worships stars as performers can turn against them when they express opinions.

"Entertainers symbolise something that many Americans resent," he recently told the New York Times. "They have so much money and they're so conspicuous about it. The idea is that all celebrities are spoiled and naive and fundamentally not serious. They're dabblers."

In a recent poll of people who said they would watch the Oscars, 64% said they didn't like celebrity 'outbursts'

The front row audience at the Oscars simply could not afford to be seen to express what so many of them evidently feel. Within the entertainment industry, it's hard to find actors who are pro-war, says Steven Gaydos of the movie industry trade paper Variety.

"There is no peer-pressure in Hollywood against being against war," Gaydos says. "Try to find someone who says they are for it... you can't find one. If anything, the pressure is against someone saying, 'I am for this all the way'."