Celebutard of the Week: Ron Howard

Question: What do you get when you cross an American icon such as Academy-award-winning director and former kid actor Ron Howard with the continent of Europe – and shake with double doses of celebrity idiocy?

Answer: A baguette-eating Celebutard.

Oh, Opie! From Mayberry to Hollywood. How did you stray?

Back when he went by the name Ronny Howard, the star gained fame and adoration by playing the ultimate American rural tyke, Opie Taylor. He was a kid so obnoxiously clean, he’d agree to go to bed without supper before he’d ever denigrate his country.

But decades of Hollywood success have turned Opie into some kind of groupie for the hate-America crowd that thrives overseas. This is what he said on Friday night’s “Real Time with Bill Maher”:

“…at a certain point I don’t think we’ll be so consumed with being the pre-eminent super-power and, you know, driven by sort of militarism and this need to export, you know, democracy.”

Dang that democracy, boy!

And this is why Ron Howard is my Celebutard of the Week, in keeping with my book, Celebutards: The Hollywood Hacks, Limousine Liberal and Pandering Politicians Who Are Destroying America. (Kensington).

Opie is not the first dim-witted ‘tard to get sucked into the European view that American values – life, freedom, democracy and decent customer service – are less than desirable.

But I haven’t quite seen a guy of his age (55) come back from summer vacation changing his tune, and his nationality, so completely.

Howard, who’s promoting “Angels & Demons,” a sequel to “The Da Vinci Code,” said:

“I’m a very optimistic person and I don’t want to feel like there isn’t growth, but there needs to be an adjustment anyway.” He blamed his new-found disdain for American freedoms on his time spent filming in Europe.

“I’ve actually spent a lot more time in Europe and working with crew members and actors and understanding how they live and how they think.”

Howard said he’s “very optimistic” about the future of America, so long as the nation makes an “adjustment,” and becomes “more progressive.”

In recent months Howard, for the first time, opened his mouth on things political, making a pro-Obama videotape.

How would Obama feel about his latest diatribe? The president is up to his neck dealing with terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan. No telling how he’d react to Opie’s “progressive” ideas for pulling back on the export of, you know, democracy.