By Cheryl Felicia Rhoads

Ah...Hooray for Hollywood...maybe. A friend and I attended a rather informational Hollywood event the other night. The role of the creative community in response to the September 11th attacks was the topic of a panel discussion entitled, "Hollywood Goes To War". This seminar was held on December 5th at The Television Academy. The participants included, Craig Haffner of Greystone Communications, Mark McKinnon, advisor to The Whitehouse, actress Sheryl Lee Ralph, writer/producer Paris Barclay, producer from ALLY McBEAL , Alice West and creator of THE WEST WING, Aaron Sorkin and from the Defense dept., Bill Strand.

For the most part there was a lot of thoughtful discussion with a humorous highlight of the decidedly leftwing Aaron Sorkin surprised at the fact that he seemed to be "the hawk on the panel". With all due respect to Mr. Sorkin along with the others on the panel it would have been difficult to be any less petulant alongside the ravings of actress of color, Sheryl Lee Ralph.

There is just no nice way to put this…what a wacko! After grandstanding that she felt like she had been hit with a plane after the tragedy on September 11th, Ms. Ralph went on to rail that she had been in the heart of the Muslim community in London, during the day of the attacks. She breathlessly sputtered that the feeling there was that America deserved the attacks and why was that? Then later in the panel she ranted about the need for greater diversity in casting and in scripts was the cure for what ails America and Hollywood since the attacks. As an actress sharing the same first name with Ms. Ralph (though thank God we at least spell it differently), my shame at the relentless self-centered whining of entertainment types was in full bloom.

Jeff Zucker, President of NBC Entertainment repeatedly responded to Ms. Ralph that diversity was a discussion for another panel. Yet, Mr. Zucker played his own "johnny one-note" theme. Zucker repeatedly expressed concern that The White House might try to control what product came out of Hollywood. Bush advisor Mark McKinnon was clear on the fact that the White House was merely responding to Hollywood’s requests to be of service. McKinnon expressed eloquently that the current administration had no desire to control the content of creative types.

Meanwhile, writer/producer, Paris Barclay sat to the left of the stage figuratively and in actuality. Barclay asserted with dismay that in his play in Boston about letters from Vietnam Soldiers was not sending the anti-war message he had intended. Now, after Sept. 11th, the conscientious objector character is met with stoney silence, while the "redneck" character is cheered by audiences. Barclay also further towed the leftist line in his fear that Washington might try to cramp his creativity.

Though Barclay was more subdued, it was clear that like Ms. Ralph, he too was still too caught up in the injustice of America to be overly concerned with building up their fellow Americans’ spirits. Barclay also had his own mini-rant about the rise in hate-crimes since September 11th.

For all the factual data Mr. Barclay produced to back up his claim, he might as well have said there are...oodles and oodles of cases...and because I say so, that’s why! As a writer of fiction, Mr. Barclay may no longer know the difference between his make-believe world and the one of reality!

Needless to say Mr. McKinnon had a different assessment of the mood of the country, and again reiterated the Bush White House message of tolerance to Muslims and Arabs in this country. Mr. Barclay saw no way that he could be of help in this time of crisis but to beat his familiar drum of discontent. That was fine, for the 15th time with Mr. McKinnon, yet he wryly added that a simple handshake to members of the troops would be appreciated.

It was about this time that Aaron Sorkin, overseer of the fictional White House on THE WEST WING spouted his contempt for the Taliban culture that teaches their children to hate America no matter what! Sorkin found to his shock to be the only creative type outside of Craig Haffner who put together previous meetings with the White House and Hollywood movers and shakers, that seemed indignant over the attacks and notion that we were somehow responsible for our dilemma.

If it wouldn’t have further embarrassed my companion who’d escorted me to the event,(I’d earlier started to "lightly snore", when Jeff Zucker for the umpteenth time expressed concern over DC censorship…my friend and I are currently debating the audibility of said snoring)…anyway, if I had any desire to make the 11:00pm news, I would have stormed the stage and knocked Ms. Ralph’s and Mr. Barclay’s heads together and screamed, "Will you get OVER yourselves!"

Then again both Ms. Ralph and Mr. Barclay are prominent and of color and I’m not prominent and of the white bread variety…and it just wouldn’t have helped. It certainly wouldn’t have helped my escort who is still stewing in his own pot of politically incorrect actions during the last union strike. I invited him to this event to help him in his quest for stardom, not hinder it.

So, instead I’m writing this article to say, what I must…that I simply think there are those in Hollywood, who just can’t get over the fact that they don’t hold the fascination for this White House that they held for the previous inhabitants and boy are they steamed! Let’s be blunt, I mean after all, the new war is the biggest show in town and they aren’t really a part of it and it is KILLING them.

Now, sure they did their concert deal and the tribute at the Emmy’s was swell and I don’t mean that facetiously, either. There are many members of Hollywood that have been deeply affected by the events of September 11th and truly want to do whatever they can. Now nobody is signing up for military duty ala Clark Gable and Jimmy Stewart, however there are still some hopeful signs. Alice West on the panel, told how ALLY MacBeal cast member, Peter MacNichol joined Mr. Wayne Newton on a recent USO tour to Afghanistan and is itching to go back.

MR. Newton? Someone on the panel, I confess I don’t remember who, teased about Mr. Newton…well, because after all, he’s Wayne Newton. His Republican ties certainly don’t increase Newton’s Hollywood cache. Newton’s advocacy of the Bush Administration doesn’t hurt him in Vegas…but Hollywood is SO much more…high brow. At least Sheryl Lee Ralph seems impressed with that notion and she revels in portraying eternal victim of her beloved opressor, the establishment of Hollywood! It would seem from this evening, this tormented actress is determined not to be recast with anyone suffering more than she! Although, Ms. Ralph might want to consider some true diversity in her own choice of the role she has cast herself in. I further guess if I mistakenly thought that victimhood was the source of my power and therefore didn’t want to share the world stage…I’d pout too.

But, I’ll leave the serious whining to the other Sheryl. We "C" Cheryls are much too dignified. At least my friend can hope…if he ever accompanies me anywhere ever again! On second thought, the heck with him...I’m not going to be anybody’s victim! Hooray for Hollywood...maybe!

Send article to a Friend Print article