Write for God

“I would like to say that I’m sick and tired of people exploiting the Academy Awards for the propagation of their own personal propaganda. I would like to suggest to Mr. Penn that his winning an Academy Award is not a pivotal moment in history, does not require a proclamation and a simple ‘Thank you’ would have sufficed.”

Every word–minus the mention of actor Sean Penn–was uttered by screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky at the 1978 Oscars. The target of Chayefsky’s censure was Vanessa Redgrave, who had won Best Supporting Actress earlier that evening for her role as a woman helping the underground during World War II in the film Julia. The cowardly applause for Chayefsky’s words and the booing during Redgrave’s acceptance speech were indicative of what’s allowed as free speech in Hollywood.

Vanessa Redgrave and Sean Penn are both brilliant actors known for their fiery political stands, but the similarity ends there. Redgrave’s words weren’t well received by pro-Israel Hollywood and Penn’s words were lauded by pro-gay Hollywood, hence the difference between booing and hissing and cheering and kissing for essentially the same act during an award telecast.  

A little background on Ms. Redgrave: in 1977, she had funded and narrated a documentary titled The Palestinian that explored the position of that displaced nation. Jewish Defense League and its leader, Rabbi Meir Kahane, whom even the Israeli government had labeled a racist, burned Redgrave in effigy to protest her support of Palestine and her Oscar nomination.  

When Redgrave won, she thanked the Academy for refusing to be intimidated by “a small bunch of Zionist hoodlums – whose behavior is an insult to the stature of Jews all over the world, and to their great and heroic record of struggle against fascism and oppression.”

The boos began there, but Redgrave wasn’t intimidated by disapproval, either. Chayefsky then took it upon himself to upbraid her for her opinion of Rabbi Kahane’s tactics. Redgrave continued her acting career and has distinguished herself as an ardent supporter of human rights, including the abuses at Guantanamo and the war in Iraq.

Wait, isn’t Sean Penn known for the same positions? Yes but, after he won Best Actor for his role as a gay politician in Milk, Penn didn’t discuss Guantanamo or Iraq: he was cheered for saying that anti-gay religious protesters don’t share his same right to freedom of speech because he disagreed with their position. Here’s what Penn said:

For those who saw the signs of hatred [italics mine] as our cars drove in tonight, I think it is a good time for those who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect, and anticipate their great shame and the shame in their grandchildren’s eyes if they continue that way of support. We’ve got to have equal rights for everyone.

Sean Penn may not have known that some of the “signs of hatred” outside the Oscars were directed at Jerry Lewis by disability and gay-rights activists who are of the opinion that he demeans them when he calls them his “kids.” Lewis has been quoted as saying that muscular dystrophy makes one “half a person.” Gays don’t like his use of the derogatory term  “fag.” (An online petition sought to cancel Lewis’ humanitarian award at the Oscars.)

Who could hate Jerry Lewis, who has raised about a billion dollars for MD research and whose politically incorrect terminology reflects his age and probably not his true feelings? The droll way that Carroll O’Connor stretched out the one syllable in that derogatory term for gays was one of his classic Archie Bunker routines in All in the Family.  By contrast, kids today use the term “gay” to describe something shoddy or corny and not to describe sexual orientation. Some of the kids I’ve heard using that expression are too young to know how the word evolved from meaning “happy” to meaning “homosexual.”

Gay activists can attack Jerry Lewis for one word, but religious people bear “great shame” for expressing their beliefs. Whose ox is being gored? Free speech cannot be reserved for popular beliefs or for ones we agree with.  “The test of democracy is freedom of criticism,” as David Ben-Gurion said. Unpopular free speech, free speech we don’t agree with and free speech guaranteed by the Constitution are one and the same.

Some film critics had predicted a Hollywood protest against the voters who struck down Proposition 8, California’s same-sex marriage law and they were right. Milk won Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor and Dustin Lance Black and Sean Penn excoriated those who voted against Proposition 8 which, by the way, passed by a margin of 52 percent to slightly less than 48 percent. 

Ninety-six percent of gays and lesbians voted for it and 83 percent of those who never attend church also favored it. Those are huge numbers, but the majority of heterosexuals and churchgoers voted against it and their numbers are much larger.

Calling religious beliefs “hatred” because they oppose your own is free speech, but calling homosexuality a sin is also free speech. Both are protected. When free speech gives way to violence, it stops being free speech and becomes hate speech.

Paddy Chayefsky took offense at Vanessa Redgrave’s political statement and then made his own political statement about hers. Sadly, no one dared to counter Sean Penn’s political statement with an opposing view. Hollywood is too mealy-mouthed to espouse values like religious beliefs, chastity and goodness. For every kid-friendly Marley and Me, my daughter’s favorite film last year, there are 20 or 30 gory, violent films with nothing for audiences that don’t want to be dragged through raw sex and inhumanity at the movies.

Had it not been for Mel Gibson’s immense star power and his religious integrity, The Passion of the Christ would not have been produced in Hollywood. In mainstream films, religious people are always intolerant, repressed, hateful fools who are never the heroes.

Free speech belongs to everyone, whether it’s expressed by Sean Penn, Mel Gibson, Vanessa Redgrave or the protesters outside the theater. It seems that courtesy toward those espousing opinions you don’t agree with is another value that Hollywood no longer possesses.