The Hollywood screenwriters picketing studios since May know that having famous actors beside them brings more attention to their cause. And the media got real interested in their strike when they could write headlines like “Hollywood Stars Join the Writers’ Picket Line.”
The reporters immediately started to interview the celebrities. (Did they bring their autograph books?)
The striking writers, however, would do well to consider what kind of attention some of the celebrities are bringing. Fame does not always leave audiences with warm feelings. The MyPillow guy is famous.
Which brings us to the writers’ willingness to let actress Susan Sarandon be the face of their grievances. Her fringe-looney-left persona is despised in conservative and liberal quarters alike. And the damage she’s done the labor movement off which she gloms publicity should make her poison in the strikers’ eyes.
Where do we start? We could start last year, when Sarandon likened the New York City police attending the funeral of slain officer Jason Rivera to “fascists.” On a tweeted picture of police lined up to honor a comrade fatally shot in the line of duty, she wrote, “So, if all these cops weren’t needed for CRIME that day, doesn’t that mean they aren’t needed ANY day?”
Do the writers want that kind of toxic stardom weighing down on them?
Consider how Sarandon has helped elect labor-unfriendly presidents. Go back to 2000, when she got tons of media coverage after uniting with other left-wing dimwits who urged Democrats to vote for third-party candidate Ralph Nader rather than the party’s nominee, Al Gore.
The polls right before the vote showed a tie between Gore and Republican George W. Bush. Every informed observer knew that Republicans had begun funneling money to Nader’s campaign. Gore lost by a hair, undoubtedly thanks to the Nader vote.
Bush went on to appoint two Supreme Court justices, one of them Samuel Alito. After a recent court decision hurting unions’ ability to collect dues, Lee Saunders, head of the union representing public service workers, said, “Make no mistake — Justice Alito’s opinion made clear that the relentless assault on workers’ rights will not abate.”
In 2016, Sarandon worked her heart out to defeat the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton. She famously opined that Clinton was “scarier than Trump” and urged fans to join her in voting for Green Party spoiler Jill Stein. Clinton bested Donald Trump by 3 million popular votes, but lost by a sliver in the Electoral College.
After that debacle, Sarandon explained herself to The Guardian: “I did think she was very, very dangerous. We would still be fracking, we would be at war” had she won. Clinton was running against a Republican whose campaign slogan has been “Trump loves fracking.” Hasn’t she noticed?
Of special interest to unions is the Supreme Court makeup. Trump went on to appoint three justices hostile to unions.
And so one may ask the screenwriters whether they want to let this creepy actress jump in front of their picket line and commandeer the media’s cameras. Who knows why she’s doing it. It could be that she believes in their cause despite helping their enemies. It could be mental illness.
In any event, one hopes the screenwriters didn’t invite her. If there really is such a thing as bad publicity, she’s it.
By the way, New York cops also belong to a union. It doesn’t get sicker than any campaign that smears them as they honor a colleague who died while responding to a 911 call in Harlem.
The screenwriters really do have a case to make. May they get as good at managing their image as they are at constructing narrative arcs.
