BDS and Celebrity

Jon
Divest This!
14 July '10
Posted before Shabbat

I seem to have gotten through the last US election without paying attention to how Bruce Willis or Whoopi Goldberg wanted me to vote. In fact, the whole notion of celebrity political endorsement has always struck me as somewhat silly.

After all, actors and actresses (even the most well-paid among them) are craftsmen, just like fine carpenters or chefs. And if they have a reputation as being wiser than members of these other professions, perhaps it is because: (1) their craft is the ability to convincingly deliver clever and articulate dialog; and (2) that dialog is provided to them by teams of writers who hone and polish words to ensure that they are clever and articulate before being placed into an actor’s mouth.

I swiped that observation from someone's online essay I’ve since lost that also brought up the interesting point that the actors who have actually gone into politics (Schwarzenegger, Reagan, the guy who played Gopher on Love Boat) have in common low to mediocre acting skills. Not that some of them (notably Schwarzenegger) have not had successful acting careers, but they have largely succeeded by avoiding roles that would stretch so-so talent past its limitations.

In contrast, much better actors who occasionally threaten to run for high office (such as Warren Beatty), never seem to work up the nerve to actually expose themselves to the will of voters. And who can blame them? If you’re Martin Sheen, why bother to run for President in an uncontrolled environment called reality when you can play the President on TV, ensuring that you win all the major fights and get all the best lines, even if you encounter occasional setbacks (sometimes triggered by fate, sometimes by your character’s tragic, but sympathetic, character flaws).

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