Appearing on Fox News over the long weekend, actor and comedian John O'Hurley offered some choice words for some of his Hollywood friends -- singling out two stars who appeared to demand public lists of anyone attending an upcoming Trump fundraiser in Beverly Hills. The flap got started when actors Eric McCormack and Debra Messing, most famous for their roles on Will & Grace, tweeted the following after news of the planned event was first reported:
Hey, @THR, kindly report on everyone attending this event, so the rest of us can be clear about who we don’t wanna work with. Thx. https://t.co/7W3xPG3bI2
— Eric McCormack (@EricMcCormack) August 30, 2019
Please print a list of all attendees please. The public has a right to know. https://t.co/YV4UoxrPHI
— Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) August 31, 2019
These sentiments were greeted with tens of thousands of retweets and likes, but also generated a backlash among conservatives. With the Joaquin Castro harassment hit list episode still fresh in many people's minds (other rules apply to journalists, of course, even when they've erred egregiously), critics invoked Hollywood's dark history of political blacklists. Messing replied to the growing pushback with this cynical effort at feigned naivety:
I am proud to be a donor when I contribute to a campaign. I am happy to be listed when I attend a fundraiser. I am assuming anyone who donates to Trump’s fundraiser would feel the same. Why wouldn’t they?
— Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) September 1, 2019
This prompted a suitably acerbic and cutting retort:
You: let’s find out who donated to Trump and see that they don’t get to work. Also you: how come you don’t want to tell people you donated to Trump? What’re you, scared? https://t.co/Pgx1njS3KN
— Karol Markowicz (@karol) September 2, 2019
Realizing blacklists are a bad look, Messing and McCormack tried to pretend that they weren't in favor of such nastiness, but the virtual paper trail is crystal clear. After all, Hollywood leftists have no reason to fear losing work over being loud and proud Democrats in their industry, in which liberal preening is the prevailing ethos. It's not so simple for right-leaners. McCormack's original tweet made this point explicit. Enter O'Hurley, of whom I've been a fan for years (totally unaware of his political leanings), who wasn't too pleased with the duo's 'name and shame' effort:
“I think they have the bully pulpit right now to say it out loud. I don’t think it permeates Hollywood to the degree that you think it is,” O’Hurley said on “America’s News HQ” Monday. “I think there is a nature among liberal thinkers to form packs, to form groups, whereas the conservative mind is basically an individual, and they’re tougher to find.” “Let me just say I’m embarrassed for both of them because I know them both, I’ve worked with Debra before. They’re both smart people... they do wonderful work,” he explained. “But, they’re pushing a case that falls apart from the sheer weight of its lunacy, as though the Hollywood community needs to be purged of this social and intellectual hygiene problem called conservative thinking. It underscores the fact that we aren’t receptive to a diversity of thought which is the exact opposite of what you feel the liberal way would be, and I find that obscene.”
He went on to discuss the challenges of being an open conservative in Hollywood (as he did back in 2017, though I'd missed it), and reflecting on the beauty of intellectual diversity:
“It’s very difficult to be a conservative in Hollywood. Even though there are many of us, you do feel you are an island fighting the storm... all viewpoints must be observed and respected,” he shared. “At the same time we are supporting free thinking, we also have to support free receptors – people that will allow other ideas to infect them. Some of the best convos I’ve ever had on 'Seinfeld'... were with Michael Richards who thinks totally different than I do. I couldn't wait to present him with an issue because I was always interested in his perspective.” O’Hurley continued: “Bryan Cranston... is the complete opposite of me. We can sit for hours and discuss an idea... not with the premise of trying to convince each other.” ... “Every time I have mentioned that I supported Trump in this election, people get vicariously angry at me, and they don't believe that it's possible that someone might think differently than they do," O'Hurley said at the time. “There is a band of conservatism in Hollywood, but it leans so much to one side that it doesn't allow for free discussion.”
O'Hurley is a former Family Feud host, who also played the iconic J. Peterman character on Seinfeld. I'll leave you with this:
UPDATE - Anti-Trump Hollywood blacklists are dangerous and disgusting says...Whoopi Goldberg?