Driving home Monday afternoon and listening to the radio I heard that another entertainer has joined the ranks of the Hollywood Wackocracy. If I'd heard the story before I heard who it was, and I had to guess, I would not have said Barry Manilow. But I guess it's true.
Manilow reportedly cancelled an appearance on the View to promote his new CD. His reason? He disagrees with the views of one of the regular panelists and doesn't want to be on the same stage as her. Actually, I believe the words were that he finds her views "dangerous" and "offensive."

Now, Rosie being history, who is it that he finds so objectionable? Joy Behar, who so wittily remarked a few months ago that it delighted her heart to learn that the Vice President of the United States was having potentially life-threatening health problems? Or the panel's newest addition, Whoopi Goldberg, who at a Democratic fundraiser in 2004 employed cutting-edge and avant-garde humour in interchanging the last name of the President of the United States with crass slang for private anatomical areas?

No. No, it's neither of these two. Nor is it Barbara Walters. It's Elizabeth Hasselbeck. That's right. All-American, vanilla Elizabeth Hasselbeck, with all the abrasive temperament of Mister Rogers, whose fatal flaw evidently is that she has the effrontery to odiously lace her speech with patriotism and take America's side against Islamic terrorists and other tyrannical regimes. Why, rumor has it she doesn't even have plans to go to Venezuela and kiss the ring of Hugo Chavez!! Oh, the humanity!! Barbie's using polysyllabic words and they're not DailyKos-approved!!

The obvious question here is how Barry can be so stupid and self-destructive? I mean, I'll grant you that, say, Eminem's career mnight not be adversely affected by such a stunt. But Barry Manilow is a different story. He's an artist with cross-generational appeal whose fanbase spreads across the ideological spectrum. He's got a lot to lose by labelling as "dangerous" and "offensive" the notion that America, her military, and its Commander-in-Chief are a force for good and worthy of honor and respect, which as I understand is the general thrust of Elizabeth's contributions to panel discussions. (I don't know, maybe I missed the episode where she advocated mandatory lobotomies for all American children on their 3rd birthdays.)

Barry might as well take out a full-page ad in the New York Times reading - "To Half My Loyal Fans - Screw You!" (He could probably get a $100,000 discount if he played his cards right.)

This is where I insert the standard disclaimer that it's a free country and that means people are free to be as stupid as they want as publicly as they want - that celebrities are entitled to have political views and speak their minds. In a free country, what's good for the goose has to be good for the gander, and I'm not about to suggest imposing a law, unwritten or not, that would keep me from enjoying the brilliance of the Dennis Millers, the class and dignity of the Jon Voights and Ron Silvers, and the rollicking good times with the Toby Keiths of the entertainment world, even if it meant I would never have to hear about another foul, inane Chevy Chase rant.

But I will always exercise my own freedom to look on in slack-jawed astonishment that unfailingly renews itself every time a celebritard pops off another idiotic sound bite, even though I should have long ago ceased to feel any surprise at all.

There are now more Hollyweirdos shooting themselves in the foot than there are clips in the America's Funniest Home Videos archives of men being hit in the groin with common household objects. They aren't biting the hand that feeds them - they're ripping the arm clean off. And for what? So they can fancy themselves heroes of free speech, boundlessly courageous in the face of latter-day McCarthyism - except that the only real parallel is Hollywood's affinity for communist dictators, and there are no latter-day McCarthys.
I'm not a Fanilow, but like everyone else I enjoyed his appearances working with the contestants on American Idol. I got the impression that he was apolitical, reaching out to fans across the board. I respected him then. I can't now.

The thing that these celebrities don't realize is that their art is tainted by their idiocy. I can't get lost in a Julia Roberts movie, because her acting is just not good enough to make me forget that she is a moron who has insinuated that half of Americans are repugnant reptiles, two words between which she imagines "Republican" is sandwiched in the dictionary. I never realized what an immature, not-terribly-funny-after-all ass Robin Williams was until he referred to the President as a dictator.

Along with the myriad other overnight changes visited on America after 9-11, was the way the attacks separated Hollywood's sheep from its goats. Or perhaps I should modify that timeworn metaphor to say the attacks separated the lions from the donkeys.
I mentioned a couple paragraphs ago a few Hollywood heroes who fit the lion category. I think these people deserve more recognition than their asinine counterparts.

Dennis Miller, who has said publicly more than once that if President Bush turned his back on the war tomorrow, he would still support it.

Jon Voight, who told Alan Colmes decisively, "I admit I was against the Vietnam war back then. I was wrong." (may be slight paraphrasing, can't find a transcript) Proving that not all Hollywooders refuse to mature with a virulence that would have bugged Peter Pan. He went on to say what everybody seems to have forgotten, that withdrawing from Vietnam resulted in a bloodbath and we never should have done it.

Ron Silver, who was a card-carrying liberal, but after 9-11, reconnected with reality, as he recounted at the 2004 Republican National Convention:

"I think there are September 10 people and there are September 11 people. I'm one of the latter. Everything changed for me. Since then I see everything through the prism of what happened that day. For me this election is about one issue and that is the response to 9/11. In that sense I think the president is doing exactly the right thing. If 9/11 hadn't happened then I'd be firmly in the Democratic camp."

Like Miller, Silver is still a social liberal. It's possible that they hold some views that, if disclosed, I would find somewhat offensive. But I wouldn't refuse to speak with them, far from it. I'd be proud to shake their hands.

But let's look on the bright side. Perhaps, after all, Barry Manilow shows a progression in the maturity of out-there liberals. They've done the thing where they try to hold their hands over the mouths of anybody with a differing view (a la the "Fairness Doctrine" and attacking Fox every chance they get in a vain attempt to plug the hole in the liberal media dike.) They've done the thing where they call anybody who disagrees with them stupid ca-ca-heads. Now, perhaps they're moving on to that phase where they stick their fingers in their ears and sing "La la la la la la la I can't hear you!! La la la la la la la I'm not listening!!"

How soon they grow up.