The Hollywood Reporter: Celebs' Silence on Obama's War Rhetoric 'Deafening'

The Hollywood Reporter: Celebs' Silence on Obama's War Rhetoric 'Deafening'

Anti-war celebrities spoke loud–and often–against the U.S. going to war with Iraq roughly a decade ago.

That was then, and the Commander in Chief had an “R” next to his name.

Today, with President Barack Obama trying to rally a war-weary nation to support another military action in the Middle East, those very same celebrities have turned mute. No marches, public speeches or crush of Tweets denouncing the rush to war.

The Hollywood Reporter went directly to the source during the ongoing Toronto International Film Festival, and the august journal couldn’t drag so much as a syllable out of the usual A-list suspects.

The conflict in Syria and the increasing likelihood of Western involvement is occupying hearts and minds at this year’s festival. Still, when it comes to Hollywood voices publicly weighing in on the debate over U.S. intervention in the territory, the silence has been deafening….

THR reached out to more than a dozen, including Susan Sarandon, Penn Jillette, Josh Brolin and Tim Robbins, all of whom were unavailable for comment. One TIFF attendee contacted by THR was ready to comment until being cautioned against it by his film’s distributor.

Did any distributor caution its talent against bashing President George W. Bush during the run-up to the Iraq war? Seems unlikely given how vocal actors were during that time in recent history.

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