Bob Tippee
A welcome casualty of the war in Iraq is credibility of the celebrity activist.
Popularity of the Dixie Chicks, a country music group, plummeted after a member denounced US President George W. Bush from a London stage.
Now, mention of the Dixie Chicks at country music events provokes boos. Radio stations have boycotted the ensemble's songs.
Suspicion is great that the fiasco influenced a decision by Madonna to cancel release of the video version of an antiwar ditty entitled "American Life."
The performer attributed her move to "sensitivity and respect for the armed forces." And far be it from her to offend anyone churlish enough to miss the charitable intent of a dance depicting the tossing of a grenade at Bush.
"I do not want to offend anyone who might misinterpret the meaning of this video," she said.
Some celebrities treat disagreement as a threat to free speech.
Actor Tim Robbins warned the National Press Club on Apr. 15 of "a chill wind blowing" in the form of resistance he and actress-wife Susan Sarandon have encountered to their war protests.
He sees it as a threat to free speech that Dale Petroskey, president of the Baseball Hall of Fame, canceled an Apr. 26-27 celebration of the 15th anniversary of the baseball movie "Bull Durham." Robbins and Sarandon acted in the show and were to have attended the celebration. Petroskey said he feared they might use the birthday party as a political forum.
After much criticism, Petroskey admitted that before making the decision he might profitably have asked Robbins and Sarandon about their intentions.
He wasn't assaulting freedom of speech, though. He was exercising it.
It must be difficult for celebrities, accustomed as they are to adulation, to handle disagreement with their high-amplitude political utterances.
On war in Iraq, disagreement is what dissenters must expect. Their position is unpopular in the US. So where's this "chill wind"?
No one questions the right of celebrities to express political opinions. But people with contrary views�and less automatic attention�have equivalent right to treat those expressions as what they often are: stylish empty-headedness.
(Online Apr. 18; author's e-mail: [email protected])