Little side excursions aren't helping this discussion. It's a mess.

I see the politics of Gere and Jolie to be bundled in with a Hollywood package that is so opulent that it gives off a lot of other vibrations beyond the political message they are intending. If you live really really large in your own country, you have to expect some skeptics when you start speaking out for the underclass in other nations. I wouldn't say Gere lives large, I don't know much about him, actually. I take a reading that he comes across as more "authentic" in his views than Jolie and Pitt. For them, it feels like having babies and adopting babies is their current hobby. Perhaps not fair, but something that comes across in all of the chatter generated about them and by their own publicity folks.

Nothing wrong with expressing your politics if you're a singer, but there can be consequences. I wonder how many of the folks who support Bjork's comments burned their Dixie Chicks CDs when the Chicks slammed George Bush while they were in Europe?

I suppose the difference is that Bjork was a visitor to China, criticising China. and the Dixie Chicks were abroad and speaking of their own country, their own state even. They aired their own dirty laundry and were slammed in their own country. Bjork aired someone else's dirty laundry in that country and was criticised. Do these bear comparison?

SRS