Let’s make a deal: I’ll never try to be an actor - and you’ll never again try to be a journalist. So I can keep admiring you as an actor and don’t have to worry about you interviewing Latin-American presidents giving them free publicity.
Your piece Conversation with Chávez and Castro published in the latest issue of The Nation is simply embarrassing.
So Hugo Chávez spent some quality time with you on Isla Margarita telling you he’s a nice social democrat? How very sweet. Who else did you talk to in Venezuela?Journalists don’t receive this kind of VIP treatment you received in Venezuela and Cuba. Especially not in these countries. Journalists talk to people other then comandantes and presidents, and that makes them very suspicious to your friends Castro and Chávez.
There is something you are obviously sharing with your friend Hugo: a deeply rooted allergy to criticism. When the paper that gave you the opportunity to write about your trips to Iraq and Iran, the San Francisco Chronicle, published an ironic piece about celebrities like you making a fool of themselves making friends with dictators and operetta presidents, you resigned from the paper. Which probably wasn’t such bad an idea if it meant resigning from journalism al all...
But you just couldn’t resist. Another trip into the fascinating and exclusive world of “revolutionary” leaders in the need of publicity. Writing it all down for The Nation, without even talking to the people in Cuba and Venezuela who think of your friends as the opposite of revolutionaries.
When you resigned from the Chronicle calling it an "increasingly lamebrain paper." Phil Bronstein, the papers Chief Editor, who himself is a veteran foreign correspondent who during the Salvadoran war wrote some of the best and courageous investigative articles about human rights violations by the Salvadoran government, commented: “Sean is a great actor and a great director." Which reads, “he is a lousy reporter anyway”.
I fully subscribe to both of it.
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Ya que el conversatorio de Sean Penn sale publicado en Siguiente Página, aquí el artículo que hizo renunciar a Sean Penn del Chronicle, pero no del periodismo VIP.
A modest proposal for celebs on the skids
Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle, Thursday, January 10, 2008
Getting everyone's attention in Hollywood used to be so much easier.
Poor Britney Spears was hauled away from her home in an ambulance last week, and the event got third billing on the "Today" show - following the Iowa caucus results and the storms in California. You know it's time to fire your publicist when your latest epic meltdown has to chase a few downed power lines in Millbrae.
Maybe she should have had a few drinks at Chateau Marmont with Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir instead. Or spent the afternoon IM-ing Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. With so many celebrities making asses of themselves these days, D-list actors and has-been pop stars need to get more resourceful. And what could be more controversial than hanging out with the world's most notorious dictators and other authoritarian figures?
As ridiculous as the idea sounds, it's already coming into style.
Naomi Campbell had a flirty interview with Venezuela President Hugo Chavez for a British GQ article that comes out today. At one point the controversial leader and potential ruler-for-life asked her to "touch my muscles." Danny Glover is friends with Chavez, who is reportedly funding two of the San Francisco actor's forthcoming films. Others who have made recent Chavez-related headlines include Oliver Stone, Sean Penn and Barbara Walters, who placed Chavez on her list of the most fascinating people of 2007.
And as authoritarian figures go, Chavez isn't exactly in the Stalin-Mussolini stratosphere (if the world's most iron-fisted rulers were ghostbusters, Chavez would be Ernie Hudson), and yet news of Campbell's meeting with Chavez was reported in the Chicago Tribune, the London Times and scores of other high-profile sources. So just imagine how much press a wannabe starlet or filmmaker in need of a hit could get by playing dominoes with someone who has a secret nuclear program, or who recently outlawed the free press.Even someone like Lee Majors could get his name back on "Entertainment Tonight" - and probably Al-Jazeera - with a well-timed spa weekend with Libya's Moammar Khadafy. Think a centerfold in Playboy or a fling with that guy who owns "Girls Gone Wild" is going to make your folks angry? Kim Kardashian should try spending a romantic weekend with Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe. Bonus points for befriending a dictator who wears military fatigues to work. Extra bonus points if he has called George Bush "a donkey" in the past year.
There are a few potential stumbling blocks for celebrities who hang out with despots. Generally, dictators have control of the press and/or have killed all the journalists, making it much harder for the paparazzi to get pictures of you frolicking together on the beach in your bathing suits. And there's always the risk that the dictator has seen your body of work. Even Kim Jong-Il wouldn't let Cuba Gooding Jr. off the plane after "Daddy Day Camp."
Here are a few potential celeb-dictator matchups we can imagine:
Russia President Vladimir Putin and Dolph Lundgren: More than any other leader in history, Putin has the stare and demeanor of a James Bond villain. But when you see him talk, he seems to be channeling Ivan Drago ("If he dies, he dies") from "Rocky IV," so you know he's got to be a big Dolph Lundgren fan. Lundgren, who is actually Swedish, could use the exposure to finally get "Red Scorpion II" green-lighted. And does anyone doubt that Putin has the words "I must break you" tattooed somewhere on his lower back?
North Korea leader Kim Jong-Il and Timothy Dalton: The former Axis of Evil member is a notorious lover of old movies, so there are a lot of good matches for him. He's a big Elizabeth Taylor fan (do we hear wedding bells?) and reportedly likes action movies. The most logical fit for Kim Jong-Il would be Timothy Dalton. The dictator is a big James Bond fan, and Dalton has co-starred in the Fran Drescher movie "Beautician and the Beast" and "Looney Tunes: Back in Action" - two films that Kim no doubt has committed to memory.
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and John Cougar Mellencamp: Now that Mellencamp has allowed Chevrolet to use his song "Our Country" as the centerpiece of the advertising campaign for the Silverado truck, hanging out with the deranged-sounding Lukashenko doesn't seem desperate at all. Associating with foreign tyrants might alienate Mellencamp's Middle America fan base, but Lukashenko's extensive background in collective farming and Mellencamp's role in founding Farm Aid will give the pair plenty to talk about. "Rain on the Scarecrow" would make a good national anthem for a totalitarian country.
Sudan President Omar al-Bashir and Pamela Anderson: The problem with Pamela Anderson is that she started out by marrying Tommy Lee - and how's a girl supposed to attract attention after that? Kid Rock looked like Ward Cleaver by comparison, and Anderson's third marriage, to Paris Hilton sex-tape partner Rick Salomon, in October barely made headlines. If she wants anyone to pay attention to marriage No. 4, she has no choice but to marry Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, who topped a recent Parade magazine list as the world's worst dictator. Either that or get another breast reduction.
All that's left to do now is play matchmaker. Accompanying this article are some of the people named in Parade's World's Worst Dictators list and the celebrities who (should) love them. Add your own selections to the comments section in the Culture Blog at sfgate.com/blogs/culture.
Here are some other strongmen to choose from: Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah; Iran Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali KhamEnei; China paramount leader Hu Jintao; Burma head of state Than Shwe.
