Hollywood Hypocrisy......An “open” letter to Sean Penn

An open letter from a California Resident....

'Sean Penn received an Oscar at the 2009 Academy Awards for his role as Harvey Milk, the gay San Francisco City official who was slain. As is normal for Sean Penn, he couldn’t get in front of a microphone without making a political statement. This time he rejoiced in the election of President Barack Obama, and then vilified those who helped pass California Proposition 8, the state constitutional ban on gay marriage. These two statements infer the hypocrisy of Mr. Penn and the Prop 8 opposition movement. While California voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama, it was the African-American vote that helped Prop 8 pass.

And as usual, his statement was delivered with that absolutely mean-spirited scowl that seems to be permanently on the face of someone who just doesn’t seem to like it when he doesn’t get all the things he wants in life. Have you ever seen Sean Penn smile and laugh and really look like he is enjoying life, let alone his success? Why is he so angry?

But Penn’s Oscar statement was directed- as always- specifically at Republicans, who are presumably in his mind white, male, Christian, and from Orange County. Why doesn’t Mr. Penn take on those that voted with him for President Obama, but voted for Prop 8- the African American community? Two reasons- one, he is so anti-Republican he cannot possibly conceive that any Democrat would support a measure he was so adamantly opposed to. Go ahead Sean, ignore the elephant in the room- your fellow Democrats who voted for Prop 8. The bankers on Wall Street ignored their elephant. The folks at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac did. You are no different than they are.

The second reason is while Sean talks tough to Republicans; he doesn’t have the nerve to do so with African Americans. Why is that? Maybe it’s because his industry is so lacking when it comes to diversity. Look at the Oscar’s audience- a vast majority of whom supported the election of the first African American President- a truly historical precedent, not only for the United States, but for the world. Yet, what has the entertainment industry done to lead by example when it comes to diversity in the workplace? How many people of color were in the audience? The folks in Hollywood will point out that “Slumdog Millionaire” – winner of eight Academy Awards- was a movie about people of color with a cast predominantly made up of people of color.

But this actually points out the hypocrisy of Hollywood. Nobody in Hollywood pushed “Slumdog Millionaire”. It made it despite being ignored by Hollywood. No big name actors in the movie. No big name producers or directors. No special effects. Why was the movie so successful? Because it won the Oscar the old-fashioned way- it had a compelling storyline that was delivered by a team of “nobodies” that everybody watching it identified with and connected to. People didn’t identify with the color of the actors- they identified with the storyline. The movie, in that sense, was truly color-blind. Oh- and it did something else that seems to be a novelty for Hollywood- it made money.

And suppose Slumdog Millionaire had not been produced? How many people of color would have been in the Oscar’s audience? Furthermore, how many people of color are working behind the scenes in Hollywood? How many women, for that matter? Title IX was passed in 1973, but while Title IX addressed the gender inequity in college sports, it seems that 36 years later- a full two generations- Hollywood has not held itself to the same standards. Hollywood is so bent on Prop 8, that it has entirely ignored Title IX passed in 1973 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

It turns out, Sean, you and the entertainment industry are precisely what you despise.'


H/T Bob C