Hollywood Stars learn cost of Anti-war Opinion by -AFP The Age 2:02pm 4th Apr, 2003   Los Angeles. April 4 2003    Madonna, the singer, has withdrawn her new video for the first single off her new album Life, which contained anti-war imagery.    American actors and musicians are discovering that openly criticising the war can have a hefty price tag. Sales of the Dixie Chicks CD Home fell more than 40 per cent after lead singer Natalie Maines made off-the-cuff remarks during a concert in London that she was "ashamed" to hail from the same state as President George Bush - Texas.    And Madonna has pulled the US release of a new video rife with anti-war imagery, including images of transvestite soldiers, Iraqi children and a grenade being lobbed at a lookalike of Mr Bush.    Musicians are not alone in this. Actress Susan Sarandon, a well-known political activist, was recently told she would not be appearing as scheduled at a charity function in Florida because of fears it could cause divisions in the community. Dustin Hoffman, who was outspoken about the war during an appearance at an event in Berlin, later cancelled a pacifist speech he was due to make in Los Angeles after receiving threatening emails and phone calls.    Sean Penn said his opposition to the war cost him a film role when he refused to assure producer Steve Bing that he would not continue to speak out. What is happening, says Penn, is similar to the blacklists of the McCarthy era in the 1950s.    Viewers called for the sacking of actor Martin Sheen, who plays a US president in the television series The West Wing, for his anti-war stance. Before the start of the war, Sheen launched a commercial asking for more time for UN weapons inspectors.    He has not backed down, leading a group of female anti-war protesters in Los Angeles carrying bloodstained children's clothing and grim pictures of Iraqi women and children. About 300 people demonstrated outside US Government offices and about 15 were arrested for blocking access, witnesses said. With peace songs in the air, Sheen, 62, filed past a federal building carrying a cross. He has been in TV ads urging viewers to try to stop the war.    - AFP Visit the related web page
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