PUBLICATION GLOBE AND MAIL
DATE: THU OCT.30,2003
PAGE: R3 (ILLUS)
BYLINE: SIMON HOUPT
CLASS: The Globe Review
EDITION: Metro
DATELINE: New York NY
WORDS: 724
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Actors scramble to join NRA's hit list
Hollywood heavyweights urged to get on U.S. gun lobby's boycott list
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The hottest "must have" among celebrities this season isn't a high-end cellphone,
rare handbag or unusual breed of dog: It is membership on a blacklist of
entertainers considered by the National Rifle Association to be "antigun."
Dustin Hoffman's is the latest name to be added to the list compiled by the
NRA to urge its members to boycott entertainers and organizations the association
considers unfriendly. The list is now threatening to encompass most of Hollywood,
many high-profile journalists, and dozens of organizations with membership
in the millions, such as the AFL-CIO, the American Civil Liberties Union,
and the National Organization for Women.
Hoffman drew the organization's ire when he learned he had been left off
the list despite his long-standing backing of gun control. "As a supporter
of comprehensive antigun safety measures, I was deeply disappointed when
I discovered my name was not on the list," he wrote in a letter to the NRA.
"I was particularly surprised by the omission given my opposition to the
loophole that makes it legal for 18- to 20-year-olds to buy handguns at gun
shows."
The NRA list now spans 19 pages and reads like a Who's Who of America. It
includes more than 140 organizations, from A&M;Records to the St. Louis
Rams; 23 media companies; and almost 250 entertainers. Celebrities on the
list run from A to Z: Suzy Amis to Catherine Zeta-Jones, with Julia Roberts,
Britney Spears, Matt Damon, Richard Gere and George Clooney in between. Blacklisted
Canadians include actors Howie Mandel and Mike Myers, and singers Amanda
Marshall, k.d. lang and Shania Twain.
An organization called Stop the NRA this week ran a full-page ad in Daily
Variety inviting other Hollywood stars to volunteer for the list. Stop the
NRA, a division of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, says more
than 25,000 people have now volunteered for membership.
An NRA spokesman denied the list was to be used for a boycott, but the association's
CEO Wayne Lapierre recently told a Fox News interviewer that placing a celebrity
on the list, "kind of puts a permanent stain on the way our members feel
about them. They don't want to buy their movies. They don't want to buy their
songs. They don't want to support their careers."
The comprehensiveness of the list suggests an odd future for American culture
if the NRA is successful in shutting down the companies and individuals it
considers antigun. The television networks ABC, NBC, CBS and PBS would cease
broadcasting, along with Time Warner's CNN, TNT and HBO (proprietor of the
less-than-Gandhi-esque mob drama The Sopranos ). Magazines from Time to Rolling
Stone to Motorcycle Cruiser could disappear.
McCall's magazine, which was rechristened Rosie, is also on the list, despite closing up shop a year ago.
It is unclear if members would be encouraged to watch reruns of the 1980s
private-eye caper Magnum P.I., since its star Tom Selleck is a well-known
NRA supporter, but the series aired on CBS.
The list includes some unlikely candidates, such as news personality Geraldo
Rivera, who famously stated that he was carrying a gun when he went to Afghanistan
in the fall of 2001 and would gladly shoot Osama bin Laden if he found him.
It also includes companies that have released some of the most violent films
in recent history, including Time Warner's Matrix. Harvey Weinstein, the
co-chairman of Miramax, which released Kill Bill , is also on the list.
Miramax spokesman Matthew Hiltzik says Weinstein does not know the reason
for his membership, although it may stem from his support for politicians
who back some limited gun control. "He certainly seems to have plenty of
good company, whether it's the Catholic groups or the Jewish groups or the
many other talented people on there," Hiltzik said.
Hallmark Cards, which likely benefits from gun violence by offering get-well
cards that adorn the hospital bedsides of many shooting victims across the
nation, is on the list for its opposition to a Missouri proposition in 1999
that would have permitted concealed weapons in the workplace. "Company policy
is that employees are not allowed to bring weapons into the building," explained
Hallmark spokeswoman Linda Odell.