Via Kathy Shaidle comes a thoughtful article from Libertas, a forum for conservative thought on film, regarding Hollywood celebrities in light of Mel Gibson’s recent troubles.
Although Gibson clearly used the conservative media to promote a product of his, Gibson’s politics remain vague. Basically Gibson appears to be an idiosyncratically devout Catholic whose agenda crossed paths with religious conservatives when his film came out, and also when Gibson lobbied against stem-cell research. Otherwise, it isn’t clear to me how the mythology of Mel Gibson as political conservative began. In fact, these days I’m sensing the opposite may be true: Gibson may be a left-wing Catholic much like ... Michael Moore.
... And this, perhaps is the most vital point I have to make to fellow conservatives: get over this guy. Stop treating Hollywood Celebrities as anything more than they are: Hollywood Celebrities. And what is a Hollywood Celebrity? For the most part they’re bizarre, indulged, completely self-absorbed people who do not live in the world the rest of us live in.
... The problem is that the allegiances of Hollywood Celebrities are determined by who is going to give them $20 million paychecks, and little else. More than liberalism or (in the very rare case) conservatism, the ideology of Hollywood Celebrities is: narcissism.
I’ve written about it before. I’m always amazed at how some orthodox and conservative Catholics go all weak in the knees whenever they think that some Hollywood celebrity might be a closet Catholic or a closet political conservative or agree with their point of view in some way. Who cares? Why must we get our validation from people whose job it is to prance about the stage and play at imagination. There’s nothing wrong with that if it’s your profession, but that’s the point. It’s just a job, not membership in an American aristocracy that automatically makes the anointed celebrity an expert in everything he or she has an opinion about.
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