Intimate enemy

If you’re of the opposing temperament, it might have tickled your fancy to watch Ben Affleck a month earlier at the Democratic convention in Boston – where celebs were largely kept under wraps, much as the barking, ululating Texas Talibangelical tendency would be in New York… On the loudmouth political blab-fests – CNN’s Crossfire, MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews – it was as if Affleck was attending some political punditry fantasy camp, and having the time of his life…

Now that extreme patriotism and vehement political dissent are both back in fashion we’re getting a clearer glimpse of who’s left and who’s right in Hollywood. On the left the usual suspects are brightly arrayed: Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins are a two-pronged lightning-rod for Hollywood-haters…

By and large the Hollywood right isn’t as vocal as the left. That’s because there’s no percentage in speaking up. For all I know, Russell, Willis and Selleck may well share all the retrograde fundamentalist sentiments of the average midwest Bush voter, but speaking out won’t make them friends in flyover America. Out in the boonies, hatred for Hollywood trumps everything…

Excerpted from an article by John Patterson on October 16, in ‘The Guardian’