Keyword: celebrity activism

Roseanne Barr's Candidacy for President of America Via the Green Party

Picture: en.wikipedia.org Pat LaMarche - Comedic innovator, proud grandma and self-proclaimed domestic goddess Roseanne Barr has announced her candidacy for President of the United States as well as for Prime Minister of Israel. Although some have argued that the former is so dictated to by the latter that holding both offices is unnecessarily redundant. In less than 48 hours since Barr submitted her paperwork to the Green Party, a quick web search has yielded more than seven hundred links featuring news stories or commentary....

Foreign Policy Goes Gaga

Picture: Beth77 John Feffer - Celebrities are going global in their activism. But are they doing the right thing? Lady Gaga and Alice Walker don't have much in common. One dresses in red meat; the other doesn't even eat the stuff. One writes lyrics like "I want your ugly, I want your disease, I want your everything as long as it's free." The other writes The Color Purple. But they are both cultural celebrities, and the media gravitates to them for comments. And they both have used this celebrity status to...

The Activist Actor, Not the Celebrity Cause

Picture: Miraflores Press Office Fazila Farouk - "It takes all kinds," is an expression that couldn't be truer in Hollywood.  Regrettably, we tend to be served up a one sided view of Hollywood. We get to see the glitz and glamour, but rarely are we afforded the opportunity to peek behind the veneer of celluloid magnetism to catch a glimpse of the real people behind the superstars of today's movie industry. Why should we care about them? Well, because the heroes and heroines of Hollywood's silver screen wield an...

The Emperors of Bombast: Bono, U2 and the Crisis of World Capitalism

Picture: Phil Romans Eamonn McCann - Shuffling out from U2’s Popmart tour — the one with the McDonalds-style Golden Arch — at Lansdowne Road 10 years ago, I chanced on Philip King, singer, songwriter, television producer and music adviser to the Irish Arts Council. "Whaddya think?" "Whatever it is," pronounced the elfin Kerry sage, "it’s a fucking big one of them." Which has always been the way with the emperors of bombast. Now they, or at least their stage sets, are...