Why a Straight Sean Penn can play Harvey Milk

I do a bit in my nightclub act about how hard it is to make a suspense thriller in Hollywood today because of political correctness. If you make a black man or an Arab the bad guy; that’s racial prejudice. If you make a woman the villain, you’re a sexist. If a gay man or woman is the heavy then you’re a homophobe and in today’s Hollywood there is no more dangerous career move than going up against GLAAD.

So today most filmmakers opt for the politically correct solution of demonizing the only target that doesn’t fight back; corporate America! And who is it that runs all the corporations in America? Rich, fat, middle-aged white men!

In the perfect politically correct world of Hollywood there are no Latino gang members, no Arab terrorists, no black mobsters, no bad gay men or women, or evil straight women. There is only that most diabolic oppressor, the middle-aged white guy. This means that when you go to see a movie like the recent hit “Iron Man,” as soon as fat, bald, middle-aged, white Jeff Bridges walks on the screen its dollars to donuts he’s Mr. Big, the head of all evil doings and the one pulling all the strings.

There’s also been another interesting movement in Hollywood over the last twenty years – the politically correct movement against acting. There’s been a call from inside the acting unions and activist groups to only cast perfect ethnic and physical matches for roles in film and television. For example, if the script calls for a hearing impaired character, you should cast a person who is hearing impaired, no acting required. If you have a role for a Mexican character you should cast an actor who is ethnically Mexican, not cast an Italian guy who’s a better actor and still looks the part because there’s no way that he could “act” Mexican as well as an authentic Mexican. When Tom Hanks and Antonio Banderas were cast as gay men in the movie “Philadelphia” there was some controversy about straight men playing gay. How could they possibly understand the gay experience under the oppressive straight white man?

So why, when Sean Penn was cast to play the iconic gay politician Harvey Milk, was there not even a murmur from the gay activist community? I believe it’s the same reason women’s groups said nothing about the various sexual shenanigans of Bill Clinton; the politics of the offender were so perfectly leftist no foul was called. Bill Clinton was for unfettered abortion and appointed a women to be Surgeon General, Attorney General and Secretary of State. How could he possibly be a sexual harasser? Sean Penn is a leftist’s leftist and leftists do not eat other leftists for breakfast, it just isn’t done.

A final piece of political correctness in Hollywood that drives me up the wall is how the term “actress” is seen as politically incorrect. In the beautiful world of the Screen Actors Guild we are all equal and all known simply as “actors.” Until it comes to handing out the SAG Awards then there is a category for “female actor.” If we are all equal, why not just one award for best actor? I think a lot of “female actors” are afraid that too many fat bald middle aged white guys would win, you know how they are!