Here’s a bizarre piece from the Independent (where else?) by Andrew Gumbel

on the allegedly “McCarthyist” climate that now prevails in Hollywood. Read

between the lines and the real message is that those Americans who disagree with

what celebrities have to say should nevertheless still be ‘compelled’ to buy

into their product. Speaking of which, contrary to what is suggested in the

article, a quick glance at the latest Billboard chart would hardly suggest that

“plummeting record sales” is a problem that should trouble the Dixie Chicks.

It’s also somewhat ironic to see all those complaints about “venom” – has Mr. Gumbel

ever read what some of these celebrities have had to say about George W Bush or,

for that matter, Charlton Heston?

Then, richest of all, there is the comment from the Screen Actors Guild that

“even a hint of the blacklist must never again be tolerated in this nation.” Strange

talk that from a union only too happy to contemplate lifetime bans for those of its

members that defied the SAG strike back in 2000, a punishment that would have

meant that most of those actors would never have worked again.

And that sounds a lot like a blacklist to me.