Spain’s most notable actors, Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz may be soon unemployed, well at least in Hollywood. The Guardian reported that the “The couple were among 100 film professionals to sign the open Spanish letter calling on the European Union to end Israel’s military operation in Gaza, along with director Pedro Almodovar in July.”
Now since they signed the letter to end Israel’s operation, they will face the consequences. “But their actions have sparked anger in top Hollywood executives, which has reportedly called their careers in to question. One top exec told the Hollywood Reporter that he was “furious at Javier and Penelope” and queried whether he would want to work with the couple again” the report said. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz could be blacklisted from ever working again with major movie studios. The article called ‘Stars Face Hollywood Backlash in War of Words over Israel’ stated how major studios felt towards the actors’ position towards Israel’s war crimes which they considered “Genocide”:
When the latest battle in Gaza finally is over, as someday it will be, hard feelings could linger in the corner offices of Hollywood toward the stars who have voiced anti-Israel sentiments. But will the artists who criticize Israel military strikes — particularly married Spaniards Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, who accused the country of “genocide” in a widely circulated July 25 letter — suffer career backlash in a town whose power brokers tend to be strong supporters of Israel?
Bardem and Cruz are not the only actors that faced a backlash in recent years. Lethal Weapon’s franchise stars Mel Gibson who was stopped by
police in Malibu, California for drinking while intoxicated in 2006. The media also reported that he made anti-Semitic remarks in the process. Gibson was quoted as saying “”F*****g Jews… The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world… Are you a Jew?”
I do not agree with Gibson’s first part because as we all know, not all Jews are bad people, in fact there is a great division among Jews that are anti-Zionist and those that are pro-Zionist. But many wars were started by Israel since it’s’ creation. Israel has been involved in at least 7 major wars in the Middle East including its War of Independence in 1948, The Six-Day War, The War of Attrition, The Yom Kippur War, 1982 Lebanon War, The Gaza War of 2008 and now Operation Protective Edge that has claimed the lives of more than 1900 Palestinians and close to 70 Israelis. Not mentioning Israel’s covert operations with its Western allies. Mel Gibson did express some truth, although he was intoxicated. Gibson’s partner in the films, Danny Glover, has publicly called for boycotting Israel. According to mondoweiss.com, The Electronic Intifada website, which was one of the first news organizations to publish the statement detailing why Danny Glover along with activist Grace Lee Boggs supported the action:
We stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine, and support their call for cultural and academic boycott of Israel,” Glover, Boggs and ten others said in a statement first published by the Electronic Intifada. “We immediately took action to have the film withdrawn from the festival. The festival organizers and film producers informed us that this was not possible and they would move forward with the screening, over our objections. This film uplifts the life work and legacy of Grace Lee Boggs. She has explicitly stated her support of the boycott and believes this screening is in direct contradiction to her legacy and ongoing work as a revolutionary
According to the statement, ‘Call for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel’ put the spotlight on Hollywood:
Whereas Israel’s colonial oppression of the Palestinian people, which is based on Zionist ideology, comprises the following:
Denial of its responsibility for the Nakba — in particular the waves of ethnic cleansing and dispossession that created the Palestinian refugee problem — and therefore refusal to accept the inalienable rights of the refugees and displaced stipulated in and protected by international law;
Military occupation and colonization of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza since 1967, in violation of international law and UN resolutions;
The entrenched system of racial discrimination and segregation against the Palestinian citizens of Israel, which resembles the defunct apartheid system in South Africa.
Being called an anti-Semite labels you in Hollywood, sort of like an omen. Bardem released a statement to rebuff accounts of him being an anti-Semite by the MSM:
Bardem wrote:
My signature was solely meant as a plea for peace. Destruction and hatred only generate more hatred and destruction.
While I was critical of the Israeli military response, I have great respect for the people of Israel and deep compassion for their losses. I am now being labeled by some as anti-Semitic, as is my wife [Penélope Cruz] – which is the antithesis of who we are as human beings. We detest anti-Semitism as much as we detest the horrible and painful consequences of war.
The Hollywood Reporter also said that numerous pro-Israel celebrities had supported Israel’s operation in Gaza and even long-time actor Jon Voight expressed anger over what Bardem and Cruz had said about Israel:
Among Hollywood figures, the typically outspoken Howard Stern, Joan Rivers and Bill Maher have expressed support for Israel in the conflict, which has killed more than 1,800 people, mostly Palestinians. And Ray Donovan actor Jon Voight penned an open letter Aug. 2 demanding that Cruz, 40, and Bardem, 45, “hang your heads in shame.” Voight wrote: “I am asking all my peers who signed that poison letter against Israel to examine their motives. Can you take back the fire of anti-Semitism that is raging all over the world now?”
A conflict of interest also has hit the entertainment industry, concerning actor George Clooney and his Fiancée Amal Alamuddin. The London-based international law and human rights lawyer turned down an offer from the United Nations to investigate Israel’s war crimes in Gaza regarding Operation Protective Edge. If you remember, George Clooney was one of the celebrities that supported a movement called ‘Save Darfur’ that started in 2004. It was founded by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and American Jewish World Service in an event called the ‘Darfur Emergency Summit in New York City’ that was held at the CUNY Graduate Center. Keith Harmon Snow wrote an article for Global Research in 2007 summarized the truth about Hollywood’s hypocritical concerns about Africans called ‘Darfurism, Uganda and the U.S. War in Africa’ and said:
Hollywood personalities dubbed “actorvists,” including Mia Farrow, Don Cheadle and George Clooney, have helped to whip up the “Save Darfur” hysteria. From Elie Wiesel to Barak Obama, people are “outraged” by genocide that the Bush Administration, we are told, is reluctant to stop. And it is hysteria, in the true definition of the word, but it did not simply rise out of a sudden concern for a bunch of Africans in some far-off God-forsaken place (as it is portrayed).
Save Darfur was a campaign backed by Military-Industrial Complex and religious Jewish and Christian organizations according to Snow’s article:
Debunking the claims of a “genocide against blacks” or an “Islamic holy-war” against Christians, Darfur’s Arab and black African tribes have intermarried for centuries, and nearly everyone is Muslim. The “Save Darfur” campaign is deeply aligned with Jewish and Christian faith-based organizations in the United States, Canada, Europe and Israel. These groups have relentlessly campaigned for Western military action, demonizing both Sudan and China, but they have never addressed Western military involvement—backing factions on all sides.
The point here is that actors working in Hollywood do not want to upset the establishment. Many actors and actresses are careful not to criticize Israeli actions against the Palestinians; in fact many had visited Israel regardless of the numerous war crimes it has committed.
Will Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz’s comments destroy their careers? According to the Hollywood Reporter, movie executives always look for the bottom-line and that is how much money they can make? For Bardem and Cruz, if they do not have any major Hollywood roles in the years to come, then it is most likely that they have been put on the blacklist:
One top producer who has worked with Cruz says he privately has vowed not to hire her again. Still, even Kavanaugh doesn’t foresee the letter hurting either of their careers as long as the audience for their work doesn’t turn. Or, as another producer points out: “I think the thing any executive or producer will try to calculate before working with Penelope Cruz or Javier Bardem in the near future is what their value is in the all-important international marketplace. And what territories they might have alienated people in by what they said. It might not be that many. But it’s really all about business.”
Kavanaugh is correct to point out that it is about business after all. What happens to Bardem and Cruz’s acting careers although they are quite popular worldwide still remains to be seen. The power brokers in Hollywood are pro-Israel and if you want to remain in the celebrity spotlight, you must be politically correct. Zionist Jews do run Hollywood just ask Joel Stein of the Los Angeles Times when he wrote an article called ‘Who runs Hollywood? C’mon’ and said the following:
I have never been so upset by a poll in my life. Only 22% of Americans now believe “the movie and television industries are pretty much run by Jews,” down from nearly 50% in 1964. The Anti-Defamation League, which released the poll results last month, sees in these numbers a victory against stereotyping. Actually, it just shows how dumb America has gotten. Jews totally run Hollywood.
Hollywood has an agenda, and it is called propaganda. It has demonized various groups based on ethnicity, race, religion and even political beliefs since it exists. One book that is worth reading is Jack Shaheen’s ‘Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People’, which explores how Hollywood operates.
Hollywood has produced great films throughout its history, some have had some positive messages. However, most of Hollywood’s films are based on Washington’s war agenda or sell an idea or a product. The world should support more independent films, why not? The world has already made a pivotal move towards independent media.
