San Francisco-born actor and "Lethal Weapon" star Danny Glover, long an outspoken peace advocate, is running into tough sledding in this post-Sept. 11 era.

There is a small, but vocal movement across the country to force struggling telecommunications giant MCI to end Glover's contract as its pitchman -- because of views he has expressed against the Iraq war and earlier comments about Cuba.

Glover isn't alone.

Similar frostiness was extended to the Dixie Chicks, actor Sean Penn of Marin County and actor couple Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon when they came out against war in Iraq.

Glover said this chill comes from right-wing factions that he denounced as self-appointed thought police.

"The whole idea is to crush any kind of dissent," Glover said in an interview with the Associated Press. "Something is happening now that is very dark and very sinister in this country, and for us to not admit it is happening is, in some ways, for us to be blind."

'Lethal Weapon' star Danny Glover, center, takes part in an anti-war protest in San Francisco in this March 19, 2003, file photo. Glover is the target of a threatened boycott by the conservative public interest group Judicial Watch, that seeks to force telecommunications giant MCI to dump him as its pitchman because of his expressed views on Cuba and against the Iraq war. (AP Photo/Jakub Mosur, File)

There is so much concern about this in Hollywood that in March -- before the fighting even began -- the Screen Actors Guild issued a statement warning studio executives not to deny work to entertainers who speak against war in Iraq.

"Even a hint of the blacklist must never again be tolerated in this nation," the union said.

Glover's anti-war stance is well known in the Bay Area. He was one of the featured speakers at Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco, along with author Alice Walker, singer Joan Baez, United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland.

That was in February.

On March 20, he also appeared with Lee at a rally in downtown Oakland.

While critics in the hinterland may not appreciate Glover's stance, many Bay Area residents find his comments courageous. In the Oakland rally, he was joined by a who's who of local legislators, including Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, his wife, Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson and Oakland City Council members Nancy Nadell and Jane Brunner.

Glover praised the community leaders around him for their anti-war work. "They're on the front lines because they are trying to make a better America," he said.

"The world has come together and said 'no' to this war -- and we must stand with them," he said.

Glover is a graduate of San Francisco State and made his early reputation as an actor with American Conservatory Theater.

He no longer lives in the Bay Area, but visits here regularly. He is good friends with actor Carl Lumbley of Berkeley and actor Delroy Lindo of Oakland.

Glover had shot a pilot for CBS set in Oakland, called "The Henry Lee Story." Glover was to play a former Oakland police officer turned private eye. The show was not picked up.

Attacks on the wallets and credibility of people who speak out against U.S. policies is not a new concept. It happened during World War I and most notably in the 1950s, when many a Hollywood career perished because of Sen. Joe McCarthy's Communist-hunting efforts to track down "un-American activity."

Free speech experts say this latest round of attacks does not rise to the level of McCarthyism or celebrity blacklisting, but could lead to that if left unchecked.

David Kairys, constitutional law professor at Temple University, said "Criticizing Danny Glover, or wishing all sorts of ill fortune to him, would be counterproductive."

In Glover's case, it was not just his anti-war activism that drew the wrath of the right. It also was his signature on a two-paragraph statement from 160 artists and intellectuals that appeared May 1 in the Cuban government newspaper Granma.

On May 8, the public interest group Judicial Watch called for the MCI boycott, saying Glover lent tacit support to Castro's brutal crackdowns on dissidents when he signed that document.

Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said the boycott is not about Glover's right to free speech. "He has those rights. But we have the right to criticize him. We have the right to try to criticize MCI for endorsing those views through his contract."

Copyright © 2003 The Oakland Tribune

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