I’ve confirmed that the actress has axed her manager of 8 years Jason Weinberg, the founding partner of Untitled Entertainment whom she thanked in her 2005 speech for winning the Best Actress Oscar for Million Dollar Baby. The firing was first reported today by the UK’s The Independent On Sunday newspaper. It writes that Swank also is removing CAA agents Amie Yavor and Josh Lieberman from her team and is upset with the tenpercentery’s Lauren Hale as well. But the paper says Swank is not exiting CAA where her partner of five years, John Campisi, is an agent. So what’s the reason? The horrible publicity which Swank received after human rights organizations outed that she’d accepted a fat fee to walk the Red Carpet and make a speech and give greetings to Chechnya’s tyrannical president Ramzan Kadyrov at his birthday party earlier this month even though he’s been linked to brutal abuses. ”There’s a world of s–t going down at CAA over it…,” a knowledgeable source emails me. It sure seems that a lot of people exercised terrible judgment, first and foremost among them Swank herself. Read the entire backstory from The Independent‘s Los Angeles corespondent Guy Adams here.







She accepted free money because she needed it. What Hillary really expected was for her attendance to go unnoticed since her “career” these days is ignored. She would not have mind the free cash and kept it if this was under wraps. It is the same when celebrities willingly took money from the Gaddafi family to entertain them.
Hillary Swank can only blame herself. She had no reason going to this except outing the fact that she was desperate for the money. Hillary should be thankful this manager even bothered to stay working for her this long since he would have profit more working with actors with much better careers.
Sadly, Terry you are so right.
But I wonder if she would have needed the money if there was more meaningful work out there for her. This brilliantly talented woman has two oscars for performances that still give me chills/ She is amazing and has been an unfortunate victim of her own success. Just like Charlize Theron. Hollywood still stifles great women. I don;t know how Meryl Streep is doing it but she needs to hold a seminar for other great actresses.
Team Hillary get off your asses and work for the woman!
Okay, I’m done.
she burned SO MANY BRIDGES and upset so many people that even if you are as talented as hell the frustration to work with someone like that is not worth it, that’s why!
I missed the part about her burning bridges. Can you provide some back story? I’m completely out of the loop on Swank.
Shut the heck up. You feel sorry for a successful Hollywood actress because you think she accepted a bad gig for money because she “isn’t getting great projects” and its all Hollywood’s fault? It’s life. Get over it.
Sorry, CAA is much too busy wiping tv shittcom hacktress Jen Aniston’s asss, and assaulting us with her sperm rom coms and naked photo shoots at 45 to keep her relevant and ego stroked, they don’t have time for talented Oscar winners like Hilary.
Wow, bitter much? Hilary’s horrible film choices have NOTHING to do with Aniston, who is 42 btw. Hilary is the one who squandered her Oscars so stay on point, will ya?
I don’t know the ins and outs. It seems she has spent the last few years focusing more on her look and attachment to luxury brands than filmmaking. But the woman is an oscar winner and you tell me that she can only blame herself for her lousy career at the moment?
Sure, she definitely shares the blame, but I’m particularly unimpressed by what has been made of her career after all the great movies and credit she has been receiving.
First and foremost, she’s a terrific actress, and on that basis alone, I can’t believe that an agent is doing his job properly when offering her to go to Chechnya (yes I know, she accepted).
The press didn’t start covering the rotten situation in Chechnya until Hilary went over there and got caught up this snafu.
Chechnya hasn’t exactly been a hot topic in the US. Swank wasn’t the only one to get suckered in by that dictator’s party but she seems to be the one taking the most shizzle for it.
I second your comment Terry. She did not expect the press to get out on that one. She has only herself to blame.
Accepting responsibility for one’s actions is almost non-existent in Hollywood.
So true and people can see right through her…
She’s not a pleasant person. in addition to bagging Weinberg, she’s fired at least two of her female agents while they were on maternity leave. Classy.
maybe I misread the comment but I don’t see them touting “inside information”. I read it as opinion. I read it as a person read the story and ‘in my opinion’ rightly garnered a highly probable scenario. As for being a bitter person and having some kind of axe to grind against Ms. Swank… who the hell knows, but she comes off pretty badly in this situation all on her own, I don’t think the comment makes her look any worse or better. Have a nice Sunday.
She is at fault, but it is a way to dump that loser Jason. The big question is when does she fire her dentist? She looks like Mr.. Ed.
Hahaha. When she was rep’d at William Morris, Dave Wirtschafter would always refer to her as Seabiscit.
YES he would .. So F U N N Y
Wow…
Nice to know you agents are as vapid and juvenile as everyone suspected.
What’s that saying? Oh, right. If you have no talent, be an agent.
Now go get me a Diet Coke…
and this Wirtschafter guy also misspelled Seabiscuit?
That is just sooo hilarious!! It’s so funny when dwarves like Dave Wirtschafter make fun of other people!! Ha ha ha!!!
@ Captain LaShout: I’ve been calling her Sea Biscuit for years!!! She is talented…but only, it seems, at playing white trash characters. I didn’t see her do Amelia, but she CANNOT play high class! She plays what she knows!
HER ASSISTANT WAS ON ALL OF THE EMAILS!
Honestly, as her manager he should have had her back and advised her against attending this event. It’s a manager’s job to steer her career in the right direction and help make the right decisions regarding the projects she should be working on and events she should be attending.
On the other hand, the article says that Jason Weinberg told the human rights organizations that Hilary Swank wasn’t attending this event. It also says that her lawyer Jeff Bernstein was the one who handled the booking AND wrote that statement. So it’s a little weird that she didn’t fire the one who apparently organized the whole thing AND mislead the press.
It’s opinion. And here’s another one for you. Her reps have given her terrible projects. Almost every single movie she’s done since Million Dollar has been terrible. Stars have a long history of prostituting themselves for big brands or on personal appearances. L’Oreal still test cosmetics on animals, but stars still queue up to endorse their products. And many big stars have done the after dinner thing, or private party appearance – it would be interesting to play Who’s Entertained the most Evil Millionaire? Because Swank is not alone.
she gets terrible material because a) everyone in tinseltown HATES working with her 2) she has burned SO MANY BRIDGES 3) she is NOT SEXY, men and women do not want to sleep with her. She doesn’t get great movie roles because she has ruined so many relationships in Hollywood. Plain and Simple. She’s no Sandra Bullock when it comes to likeability, sweetness and compatibility.
Fan, perhaps hillary should just accept responsibility? Nah… she’s doing what you are: passing the buck, how could she possibly be to blame for boarding a plane to a far off land to wine and dine with a tyrant? It happens to all us, doesn’t it, and we don’t get in trouble for it! And when in doubt, point to other celebrities mistakes, because that’s just like taking responsibility.
Go away.
Hee! Yeah, I had this Gaddafi gig lined up, and that fell through at the last minute.
Seal and JCVD were both at the same party for starters. I’m not suggesting she should not accept responsibility, what I’m saying is that if the Witchfinder General is rounding up a posse of noose-happy inbreds to string her up, there’s a heck of a lot more celebrities who need to be strung up beside her.
JCVD is hardly an example to follow
Oh, please! Who hasn’t attended a brutal homicidal warlord’s birthday party for financial gain? We’ve all been there.
You are hilarious! Marry me (I hope you’re gay).
to Hank: It does make you wonder. Does she know the Chechnen personally? I don’t think so. So it was a million dollar pay day to fly 16 hours to wave and then leave.
Million Dollar Baby in-deed
Sounds like the manager posting himself.
John Campisi, the CAA agent, who left his wife and new baby for Swank is also the mastermind of her failing career. She should fire Campisi and she should take responsibility and apologize like a grown up.
Clearly he’s giving her terrible, career destroying advice and shes taking it.
Totally agree here. At the end of the day, if you’re being offered a job entertaining a political figure you know nothing about, it’s your responsibility to make sure it’s kosher. It was low-class and venal to accept this kind of offer, regardless. I sincerely doubt she needed the money that badly.
I MUST AGREE WITH MOVIETOY ABOUT HER CHOICE. SHE SHOULD CHECK INTO WHAT SHE WAS GIVING HERSELF INTO. WE BOTH KNOW THAT SHE WILL SURVIVE. GOOD LUCK TO HER NEW MANAGER AND AGENCY. IT LOOK LIKE SHE IS GOING TO NEED ALL THAT SHE CAN HELP. SHE JUST NEED THE RIGHT FILM TO MAKE HER FAN TO FORGIVE AND FORGET ABOUT THE MESS THAT SHE MADE THIS YEARS. YOUR TRULY CHARLES DAVID HASKELL
STOP YELLING!
Hillary like most actors of her sature is busy working reading scripts, rehearsing and taking meetings. Frankly,its the responsibility of her handlers to run interference. This was an ill advise decision by all involved CAA and her management team. I had the privledge of spending a delightful afternoon with Hillary back in 2000 at the Sprit Awards. The year she won the Sprit and the Oscar for “Boys Don’t Cry”. She is a class act a very warm and passionate woman. It was a memorable day. I recall telling her she was going to win the Sprit and the Oscar. The fact is her handlers did not do their due diligence. They were only thinking of there commission. Did not perform in the best interest of their client. You go girl.
Ultimately, celebrities need to do their own resaerch to avoid these types of situations. Hillary could have at least Googled the guy and found out that the appearance was not a good idea. Instead she took the money and fired the people who work for her to try to save face with the public. Live with your own decisions Hillary. You could have said “no”.
I really don’t think Hilary Swank needs the money Terry. Maybe her career hasn’t had blockbuster hits, but she has done numerous films, after her 2nd Oscar and I am sure they paid her a lot of money to be in them, even if they didn’t do well at the box office. I am sure at this point she has made several million dollars so I really don’t think she needs the money. She might of wanted the money, but she didn’t need it.
Ultimately, Hillary Swank is responsible. If she gives the money back and donates the same amount out of her own funds to an appropriate charity, or donates both amounts, then she can move on publicly. It’s strange that Seal has managed to weasel out of any negative consequences, though. He hasn’t backed down at all, and has been slagging off anyone who dares to criticize him. It’ll be interesting to see if this comes back to bite him in the longer term.
Annette Bening would never have done this.
I read somewhere that she was donating the money to “various charities”.
Anybody know if she actually followed up on that?
Would be interesting to see if/where she actually donated the cash.
This is a valid question…has any one bothered to do some investigative journalism and followed where the money went? I’d like to know. Where did the money go?
This is really Orwellian.
Kadyrov is a known butcher… torture, rape, murder, it’s been documented over and over; but she happily accepts his invitation and money, and even says to him:
“I could feel the spirit of the people, and I could see that everyone was so happy. Happy birthday, Mr President!” ?
What?! This is like a line from the Ministry of Love from 1984.
Even caricatured movie characters don’t do worse.
And now she tries to blame others for… what exactly?
She is just a bad person
She was not drugged and forced to go
Ultimately she is responsible for her own actions and choices.
Was she sorry for cheating on Chad with one of her agents, who had kids?!
Was she sorry for firing her “best friend and publicist” Troy soon after her Oscar win?
There’s a reason she can’t open a film.
Most people graduated high school and see through her, unlike herself.
there are so many more stories, ask her prior reps too…it’s called karma and you can only pretend to be so in the right and righteous for so long without the truth coming out.
If Karma worked Jay Leno would be out of a job, Mel Gibson would be in prison and so would O.J. – well, one of three ain’t bad.
Ha, best comment all day.
Not only did she cheat on Chad with a married man, who had kids, but then had the gall to blame HIM for what happened during that Vanity Fair interview.
What goes around comes around…if she were still with Chad, this would have never happened.
Wow.. attending that birthday was a big mistake – but what she is doing afterwards is actually even lamer.
What a lame thing to do, all around–first going there (it’s not as if Chechnya is so obscure that it couldn’t be researched) but she should take responsibility for this decision as the article in The Independent said. I’m sure she weighs on on roles that she’s put up for by the agency & manager so suddenly she’s a trained seal that just does what she is told? Ironically, if she’d just let the story fade, it would have but doing this just puts her more in the spotlight for having done this L-a-m-e.
She should have fired her representation a long time ago. She is cursed with the Oscar winner curse. Once she won, she was offered everything left and right and made terrible choices. Partly her reps’ fault, partly hers. But lets take a look at those terrible choices:
NEW YEAR’S EVE – sure, VALENTINE’S DAY made $, but it was crap, why do the sort-of-sequel?
THE RESIDENT – have you even heard of this movie? Budget: $20M, straight to DVD.
CONVICTION – sure, true story, but terrible script shown by the reviews and the fact that no one went to see it
AMELIA – again, could have been role of a lifetime, but terrible script, shown by bombing at BO and mediocre reviews
BIRDS OF AMERICA – have you even heard of this movie? Straight to DVD.
PS I LOVE YOU – this did mediocre at the bo, $53m on $30m budget, but has a 23% on rotten tomatoes, and I know I had no interest in it
THE REAPING – bad horror movie, dumb choice, BO bomb, 8% rotten tomatoes
FREEDOM WRITERS – $36m us bo on $21m budget – not good. Why do another DANGEROUS MINDS?
THE BLACK DAHLIA – terrible script, huge bomb – sure it’s De Palma, but he hasn’t had a hit in years
So that’s everything after her win for MILLION DOLLAR BABY. Just terrible, terrible choices. She obviously needs rep who knows how to choose good scripts, because apparently these CAA folk and Weinberg dude can’t do that – they aren’t good readers – and apparently neither is she.
And really at the end of the day, only she is to blame for accepting these terrible choices in films and the decline of her career… oh yeah, and for not doing her own due diligence on Kadyrov.
The boys she fired may not cry, but I’m sure Hilary sure is now.
When you put her career under the microscope it is clear her reps failed her. Am I the only person who thinks it weird that she didn’t at least Google where she was going? If I am going to a new restaurant or store I google it so I know where to freaking park. She’s gonna fly around the world for something she had no knowledge of. I’m not sure if I even buy that.
If you also look at the projects she’s doing, 3 of them are “inspired by a true story.” Meaning she is looking for projects that are Oscar bait. Unfortunately for her, it was so obvious they were made for awards consideration that no one paid attention. And they were so-so projects, although Freedom Writers was popular on DVD and cable with young adults.
I got the perfect Oscar-bait biopic for her to do, ok CAA boyfriend, get on the phone and start making some calls, because here’s the big idea….
AMY WINEHOUSE
Hilary is sure ugly enough to play her…
Now start earning your 10% and make it happen!
Think of the story we’d have if she (or someone like her) simply said, “I screwed up. It was all my fault. I did not do my due diligence when I agreed to make this appearance. I feel like a fool. I ask for your understanding.” If she did this, all we’d
be talking about now is how no one ever takes responsibility for their actions anymore. Instead, she fires people who probably had little or nothing to do w. the decision to go in the 1st place. Sad how people behave these days. Just sad.
I believe representation gets their clients jobs and share – usually 10% – in the profits. Therefore they were a big part of her getting this gig. And they should have known better, especially her manager. An agent is there to book gigs. A manager is there to steer the career. He should have told her not to do this. She too should have known, but I would certainly fire my manager if this happened. She’s paying him 10% to watch her back and he clearly didn’t.
CAa is to blame as well as Hilary.
CAA shoudla googled Ramzan Kadyrov and Hilary shoulda googled Ramzan Kadyrov.
The people who work at these agencies are smart. Cut-throat smart.
Knowing what I know about agencies and their clients, I would have to guess that everyone involved knew who Ramzan Kadyrov was. They did a cost/benefit analysis and determined that the payout was worth the risk. They bet wrong, Swank’s brand was damaged and now she is naming scapegoats.
I’ll bet you’re wrong. They ma be smart about the biz but not world politics. I’m bet anything that her reps and Swank did not know who this guy is, which makes it worse – Hollywood forgives immorality but these ppl are really stupid.
Agree with you 100%. In fact Human Rights Watch has revealed they contacted Hilary 5 days BEFORE the gig and informed her of the background and why she shouldn’t attend, and yet she went ahead and did so. Everyone involved here decided that the reported $1.5 million payout she got for attending was worth the risk of some bad publicity. It backfired. Now she’s scrambling giving half-assed apologies claiming she thought she was attending a commercial property unveiling (yet she’s on video wishing Kadyrov a Happy Birthday!), firing her team, and claiming to donate her fees for the event to charity.
She would have been wise to issue a blanket mea culpa, take full responsibility, publicly donate the funds earned as well as some of her own money, and then laid low for awhile. It would hve all blown over much easier and quicker.
And let this be a lesson to celebs that, when offered a huge sum from a country/individual just for showing up, they ought to do a quick Google search on what they are getting themselves into. Always assume there’s reason to be suspicious about earning something for seemingly doing very little.
No one has mentioned the movie-going audience once. Do you think the average American has any clue Swank went to Chechnya and prostituted herself with the blessing of her pimp agents and manager? Absolutely not. You’re only as good as your last picture and clearly, right now Swank is really bad!
Ultimately, Swank is responsible for her own ethics. Placing the blame for her decision to accept what the world considers dirty money lies directly on her shoulders. I am disappointed in her behavior; I can exercise that disappointment in not spending my hard earned dollars on her movies. Other than that, my criticism doesn’t mean much to her.
Hilary Swank should most definitely fire herself. Her credibility is not just shot, it’s been machine gunned! She has so little knowledge of the world she didn’t know anything about Chechnya? This whole unsavory business shows, which could have been avoided with five minutes on Google, confirms she is merely a mouthpiece for hire, Rent-A-Star or Causes-R-Me even. The horrible publicity, every bit duly deserved, is not the cause, it is the symptom. I hear North Korea’s Kim Jong-il, Syria’s Bashar al-Assad and Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe have a sleep over coming up, Hilary, you could do the lullabies.
Her next role: Cable TV series.
Chechnya isn’t exactly headline news in the US. You kind of need to go out of your way to read about it. Not that googling it is that hard. I would assume leader who was paying celebrities to come to his party had done something wrong. I would at least want to look into it before I accepted.
Her people really should have done a little research too. They never should have suggested it.
“She can hardly fire herself.”
If only this were possible. She has only herself to blame. For a six figure paycheck you ought to at least have a modicum of curiosity. Unless you just didn’t want to know.
The worst part is where it says she “values her liberal credentials.” If the damage to her street cred is what she takes away from this then it’s no wonder she ended up over there in the first place.
Doesn’t anybody Google anybody before agreeing to a public appearance or an endorsement?
you would think her publicists would….is she firing them?
Publicists? Ha. What a joke this bunch are. I can count on one hand the smart publicists in this town who genuinely give their clients good, career-steering counsel(and I’m not talking choosing between Conan or Fallon, or the 7am hour vs the 9am hour of Today). This self-important group of sycophantic bimbos can’t make a decision to save their lives. I love watching clients fire their useless publcists. They can’t handle setting up phoners, how on earth can they advise clients on issues involving torture, kidnappig and genocide? Oh yeah…that’s what agents do.
And what the %$#&*( was Hilary doing there anyway? Answer: whoring herself out for a million dollars. With 15% going to her ex-manager and her ex-agency.
Serves all you jerkoffs right. Now your useless publicists can call Leno and set-up the mea culpa booking. And pat themselves on the back for coming up with that great idea.
What’s also sooooo funny is that actors are so freaking stupid that they don’t care to know where they pick up a check. She had no idea about Chechnya? Now she will play the victim. Dumb ass!
Hilary you only have yourself to blame. All you needed to do was to Google Ramzan Kadyrov’s name to know it was not a good idea. But $$$ talks the loudest.
The irony here is that agency executives routinely donate money to politicians and presidential candidates who commit the same kinds of “brutal abuses” that the Chechnyan president is said to have committed. Or is that, as Kramer would say, “kooky-talk”?
Hilary should have apologized immediately and taken full responsibility for a lapse in judgment. Hilary should have pledged all money received to a human rights organization.
Ultimately, Hillary is to blame. The LEAST she could have done was wiki Kadyrov and she would have known more about the person she was ‘celebrating’. But she just took the money, like how so many other celebrities do, and smile. The mgmt that was fired were lazy and just wanted to keep their client busy so they could get their percentage. Silly all around and karma is being paid back.
Stars get “handled,” moving from one gig to another till it feels like being on a rollercoaster, and there are times the reps will absolutely massage the truth about what they’re doing and why: they want the commissions.
Back in 2000, when Elizabeth Hurley got in trouble for shooting a commercial during the SAG strike, I was outside her office at Castle Rock when she first got news there was a problem. I overheard her phone whichever rep had arranged it and scream at him/her. From what Hurley was saying, she clearly had been guaranteed that this commercial was outside SAG’s purview. She was furious that they’d misrepresented it, leading her to do something she would have never have done had she known.
Thus, I find it easy to believe the same thing happened with Swank: you just don’t even begin to imagine your reps are dumb (or greedy) enough to put you in the middle of a this kind of shit storm.
You are the winner.
There was critical information that was NOT provided to her. To all the finger pointers screaming google, what should she have googled? What information WAS provided to her?
Too bad the haters could not have been outside Swank’s office to hear what actually happened. But then that’s just too boring, better to speculate and live in bubbles of fantasy and hate. Yuck.
DID HER LAWYER KNOW THE INFO? DID HER ASSISTANT WHO WAS ON EVERY EMAIL KNOW THE INFO? Ask yourself this before you start putting blame on Jason
BULL TERESA! IF she just would have accepted responsibility for what she did like an honorable person this would be forgotten. She is so caught up with trying to prove what an honest and good person she is (when she is NOT!) she is blaming everyone around her. wake up and smell the coffee, her assistant was on every email, wasn’t her lawyer too?
What’s up anonymous person, that you keep coming for her assistant, of all people, and in such defense of Jason. Oh, you must be Jason’s assistant! Am I right? Also, must add, I’ve had dealings with the folks at 2S, Hilary’s ‘production company,’ and boy, none too bright, gotta say. She has such talent but seems to surround herself with dodos. (And I don’t know if that includes her assisant or not, anonymous-assistant-to-Jason.)
so does Morgan Freeman …
Calm down, Anonymous, and please, don’t use silly antiquated phrases. Perhaps you could use a little coffee of your own.
You have no idea what was said to her, why she is acting the way she did, you are speculating. It does not matter what the assistant did or didn’t see.
She made a mistake, is trying to clean it up and is not a rocket scientist. Like most public figures, she has a pretty complicated lifestyle. We heap a huge amount of theories on why/what/who they do and unless YOU were on all of the emails, STFU.
Oh teresa, you’re so not fun. Anonymous is busy outing his/herself by implicating Hilary’s assistant (as if an assistant would have any power to stop Hilary from making her million bucks sitting and smiling for some heinous despot). Anonymous seems to know who was on the correspondence (implicating his/herself), and is trying to take a whack while saving Jason’s saggy reputation in the process. So please, allow him/her to continue. (and ps — what does Morgan Freeman have to do with anything, new Anonymous? Let’s not get off track here.)
Oh PLEASE, not the “she wasn’t told, it’s not her fault” defense.
She was very well informed, because she made a speech in person during his birthday, saying everybody was so happy in Grozny and what a great president Kadyrov is…
If she could talk about the situation in Grozny, then she DID know his reputation.
She just thought she could take the money and get away with it, and now that she hasn’t, she tries to wiggle out and blame others.
“If she could talk about the situation in Grozny, then she DID know his reputation.”
Not necessarily. She knew what was probably provided to her in a “backgrounder” of some kind. She was probably given a couple sheets (heavily edited/biased) and didn’t bother to corroborate it on her own. But it looks much, much worse to throw your staff under the bus when your own due diligence involves 2 minutes using Google.
cue angry, pathetic agents/managers crying how ungrateful Swank is.
All it would have taken was ONE internet search (if they didn’t know who the dictator was)–not to mention the warning ahead of time from human rights organizations. She wanted the MONEY! And, yes, she thought no one would notice. The person to blame is herself–it’s fashionable to blame someone else though…
Ignorance is no excuse. It’s called Google. She wanted the money and is only upset because it got out.
She also sounded like an idiot at that birthday celebration. Poor girl can’t make her own decisions.
Its kinda spineless for her to be firing her management ream. She can fire anyone she wants but the fact is she ACCEPTED the offer. She’s a smart woman and I would have known she would be indirectly supporting a brutal and murdering dictator. I think she just didn’t expect the world to notice or react as they have.
The world is full of B List Celebs being paid millions and showing up to sing and perform at various dictators parties and birthdays. Just look who showed up at the Gaddafi’s annual New Years Party year after year.
She should have done due diligience for herself. She said she did research, but apparently ignored it for the money. Firing all those people may make her feel better, but it was not their fault, it was all hers.
It seems the Liberals of Hollywood are frauds and their stupidity shows. Hilary probably did not know where Chechnya is located, much less what is happening there. I doubt that she reads newspapers.
So why do we give these people so much power and influence? These are incredibly stupid people.
Of course. It makes complete sense to use the actions of this one woman to make a judgment about the motives and intelligence of all Hollywood types of the Liberal persuasion. (And, as I know you right wing nutjobs are lacking the irony gene, that was sarcasm.)
@TF “…make a judgment about the motives and intelligence of all Hollywood types of the Liberal persuasion.”
Not the liberal persuasion, just Hollywood in general. Name another industry or enterprise where garden variety employees (in Hollywood’s case, actors, etc.) presume expertise — or at the least, talk a big game — about other areas they know nothing about: political issues, social issues, etc. That would actually require a critical thinking, intellectual honesty, and humility. In Swank’s case, though, no way I buy that she didn’t “know” the implications of her actions. Someone as ambitious and successful as she?
I can name another industry–POLITICS. Since when do a bunch of corrupt lawyers know anything about the way people live? Or how to fix their problems? All those people ever do is talk a big game. And then follow this up with doing nothing—unless of course trashing the other political party is considered doing something. Don’t even get me started on the corrupt people they happily take money from while claiming their moral righteousness.