The answer is “yes.”  Allow me to demonstrate why:

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Now, that clip from 30 Rock is, without a doubt, one of the funniest damn things I’ve ever seen.  Bizarre, obnoxious and unbelievably politically incorrect, it’s a welcome reminder that television need not be a soul-sucking void of mindless time-killing.

Baldwin was awesomely amoral in Miami Blues.  He was awesomely arrogant in Malice.  He was just plain awesomely awesome in Glengarry Glen Ross.  And as NBC Vice-President of Television and Microwave Cookery Jack Donaghy, he continues his track record of awesomeness and fully deserves his multiple awards and nominations.  But does he deserve a conservative’s appreciation?

Like so many successful liberals, Baldwin is a lifestyle conservative.  He talks Left but he works Right.  Look at his resume.  He works a lot and he’s good at what he does.  Of course, he’d never offer the same prescription of hard work and competency as a remedy for what ails the rest of the liberal base – demanding that those of us who actually produce something subsidize those who don’t is so much more morally gratifying than demanding personal responsibility from one’s own allies.  But we can’t expect much more from Baldwin – he suffers from the terrible handicap of a prestigious American university education, so of course he’s politically confused.

The problem with Baldwin is not his liberalism.  I live in Los Angeles and here he’s practically a John Bircher.  The problem is that he can be so tiresome about it when he goes public with it.  Baldwin called Dick Cheney an “oil whore” and thinks he should be indicted for war crimes, which as we know is silly – the only thing wrong with the former Veep was his moderation.  He’s spouted off with stupid comments about Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Matt Drudge – guys with big microphones – and ended up the worse for it.  Pampered Hollywood stars are not used to push back and it makes them huffier than a Blue Dog getting asked about death panels.

Baldwin even went on late night TV in the 1990s and made unfunny jokes about stoning Henry Hyde to death.  Henry Hyde?  How could anyone be that mad at Henry Hyde?  He was like a congressional koala.

Baldwin is an angry liberal and is sometimes an angry man.  His anger manifested in a horrendous telephone message to his tween daughter which someone in his bitter ex-wife Kim Bassinger’s camp decided to release (classy move, Kim – nothing like using your kid as a piece in a game of emotional Stratego).  Apparently, the kid was supposed to be there for a pre-arranged phone call and wasn’t and Baldwin flipped out.  The tape was pretty ugly, Baldwin was clearly pretty upset, and he got a lot of flak.  Still, in his defense, I’m not sure that when one gets mad at one’s kid one necessarily needs to do so in the soothing tones of Mr. Rogers.  The biggest child-rearing problem in Hollywood sure as hell isn’t parents being too assertive with their kids.

But the thing about Baldwin is that his political musings and controversial family life generally don’t cross over into his art.  If you want to see what he thinks about the global warming scam, you can find him giving you the full benefit of the atmospheric science research he conducted while earning a masters of fine arts in his Huffington Post column.  But you are not likely to see it in his acting – with an amusing exception being his self-deprecating turn when Sarah Palin visited Saturday Night Live.

So how can conservatives respect this guy as an artist and patronize his work?  That’s easy – because we actually have lives, we conservatives are not freaks who let personal politics infest every part of them.  The notion of running through a political litmus test every time we flip on HBO is ridiculous.  And anyway, excluding all liberal media and entertainers would pretty much leave us to watch Fox News and maybe those old Indian head test patterns.

Now, there are some folks whose politics and work are so intertwined, intentionally or otherwise, as to make patronizing them a political statement.  Hanoi Jane Fonda is one.  You stick a revolver in my ear and whisper “Watch On Golden Pond or I pull this trigger” and my response will be, “What’s the caliber?”

I had the honor of interviewing Admiral James Stockdale in 1987, long before this Medal of Honor winner was Perot’s running mate.  I know from Admiral Stockdale – both from talking to him and from seeing his broken body – what those North Vietnamese bastards did to our men.  During the Gulf War I carried an extra 5.56 mm round in my BDUs pocket to ensure that after I emptied my seven M16A1 magazines I would still be able to avoid capture.  Fonda sucked up to the punks beating and starving our POWs and shooting at our pilots.  Those guys may forgive that wizened, VC-hugging crone, but not me.

I also won’t listen to the Dixie Chicks – not because of their dim bulb politics but because they suck.

Arbitrarily walling yourself off from popular culture icons who don’t vote your way is generally counterproductive.  But conversely, when artists get “political” the results are usually terrible … or terribly funny!

If you want a challenge, try getting through Dead Man Walking without cracking a big fat smile.  Tim Robbins directed Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon – a triple threat of Hugo Chavez-smooching fellow travelers! – in this film about a condemned murderer who the film assures us is the real victim.  It’s comedy gold!

My favorite part is the hilarious lethal injection scene that Robbins chooses to shoot like a crucifixion – get it?  Whoa, heavy imagery, dude.  All that’s missing is a subtitle that reads: “Attention:  This represents Jesus somehow.”

This isn’t unusual.  Politics + Art (generally) = Crap.

The Clash’s worst album is Sandinista – okay, Somebody Got Murdered is freakin’ awesome, but it’s a damn three-record album and it’s got one good song.  Even De Niro, who I would watch in a Cialis commercial, can’t save Wag The Dog.  The less said about W, the better – not that anyone ever had much to say about it, especially phrases like “Let’s go see W.”

The only dull Simpsons episodes are the ones with heavy-handed politics (illegal immigrant episode, I’m looking at you).  Aaron Sorkin is intermittently talented, but The West Wing was unwatchable.  Even our beloved 24 comes to a screeching stop whenever they stop shooting jihadists and start sharing their feelings about shooting jihadists.

Alec Baldwin has the sense to keep his awful, awful politics to himself, thereby allowing us the ability to enjoy his undeniable talent.  But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t mock his baffling left wing views.  We have a moral obligation to do so. We’ve already gotten two or three of the four Baldwin brothers on our side (I’ve lost count).  Alec, you’re welcome whenever you’re ready to step to the Right.

This is my love letter to Broadway.  Join this theatre nerd on my journey into the wonders and joy of the theatre going experience.

Whether you’re coming from Uptown or Downtown, the Eastside or Westside, as you make your way to the theatre, you get swallowed up into the hustle of Times Square and the atmosphere is electric. The streets fill with an eclectic mix of people bustling to their theatres surrounded by a cacophony of street music, bucket drummers, corner evangelists, vendors, excited chatter, car horns, and the occasional argument by someone who just got taken in a game of three-card monte.

Each theatre holds its own personal history and charm.  The Golden Theatre, one of the smaller Broadway houses seats 800. It opened in 1927 as the Theatre Masque with the flop “Puppets of Passion,” which ran for only 12 performances. In 2003 it became the home to the hugely successful passion of puppets in the Tony Award winning adult musical puppet show “Avenue Q,” which is still playing to packed houses.

The Gershwin Theatre, home to “Wicked, the Musical” is one of the largest theatres, specifically designed for big, extravagant musicals. In 1987 it housed “Starlight Express” and had skaters zooming up and down multi-level ramps and onto an extension built to encompass part of the audience.

The oldest and one of the more elegant theatres is the Lyceum built in 1903 and the newest theatre is the Henry Miller’s Theatre.  The landmarked 1918 facade was kept intact while behind it everything was torn down and rebuilt. Its new incarnation is scheduled to open in September ‘09 with the revival of “Bye, Bye Birdie” with John Stamos and Gena Gershon (”Dancing With the Stars” must have already been booked).  As much as I would love to take you on a tour of the over 100 Broadway and off-Broadway theatres, I won’t, I don’t want to lose you before we get to the really good stuff.

As you enter the theater you are greeted by the front of house personnel: box office staff, ticket takers, and ushers. They are all unique characters as diverse as the actor’s onstage. They are extremely knowledgeable and helpful, and some may have been there since Ethel Merman’s “Annie Get Your Gun” was the hottest ticket in town.

The box office personnel are unbelievably helpful. Not only in their knowledge of where every seat is, but also if you were going to see a particular performer, they know right where to seat you. And contrary to many people’s belief, they do offer you the best seat available. One afternoon I was in mid-town and decided to see a friend of mine who was in “The Producers.” I knew he had been on vacation but wasn’t sure which day he was coming back. Since I didn’t want to spend the money if he wasn’t going to be in the show, when I got to the box office I told them my dilemma and asked if he was back yet. Not only did they tell me he was, but they also told me who wasn’t going to be in the show for that performance, who would be going on vacation, and asked if I wanted to leave him a note.

The ticket takers and ushers are quick to get you in and seated and some are delightfully old school New York, their courteousness is no-nonsense; the faster they get you to your seat, the faster the person behind you gets swiftly served. Once you get your ticket scanned and head to your seat, you pass the bar and the souvenir kiosks. I’ve been in some of the theaters so often I don’t feel the need to view the lovely interiors, so I stealthily advance my way in between the first timers standing, marveling at the gilded plasterwork. While on the way to my aisle, I catch a glimpse of the overpriced magnets and t-shirts and mugs, oh my!

I am SUCH a geek that I could find my own seat blindfolded, but I hit the usher up for my Playbill… ah, the Playbill, my theatre bible, the only tangible souvenir you get for your $100+ ticket… I show the usher my ticket and head straight to my seat.  I like to get to the theatre a little early to read the bios and to see if there’s a former client, student or past cast mate or techie I may know. And at Tony time, you get a separate, special edition Tony Award Playbill, complete with a scorecard, and pictures and bios of every nominee. This often has sparked fun conversations and heated debates with the strangers in my row. Yes, I told you… I am a GEEK!

As the house lights dim and the curtain rises to reveal the set, the audience reaction is audible with gasps of breathtaking awe. It can be the stark, stalled subway car, or the fantasy world beyond the yellow brick road.

Sometimes the set is far too grand to hide behind a curtain. When you walked down the aisle to your seat for the play “Lips Together Teeth Apart” you saw a “house that floats on a breeze-swept landscape of dunes and is equipped with a glorious expanse of blond-wood deck, a kitchen bespeaking the tyranny of shelter magazines and, reaching toward the audience’s lap, a swimming pool whose crystalline blue is pure Hockney.” You felt more like an invited guest to that 4^th of July party rather than getting ready to watch a play.

You may not notice the intricate lighting, but it contributes to the shifting moods and enhances the visual storytelling and is exquisite!  With the beauty and mastery of the sets, lighting and costuming, you are transported into the playwright’s mind.

Whether I see a straight show or a musical, I go to be engaged by the actors portraying the characters before me. I want to become emotionally involved, to be moved, to feel. I expect the actors to work their seemingly effortless skills and extreme talents to take me to the world beyond the proscenium.  Whether it’s the emotional drain watching the dysfunction of the Tyrone family in “Long Day’s Journey into Night,” or the irresistible laughter at the bloody and brutal “The Lieutenant of Inishmore,” I am rarely disappointed.

Watching a singer or dancer whether in the chorus or lead, you are watching years of discipline, perseverance, sacrifice, blood, sweat, and tears, happiness, and rejection. For every performer on Broadway there is a wonderfully unique back-story of how they got there, adding depth and texture to that story with each acting and dance class, singing lesson, audition and show they are cast in.

Some stories find future Broadway performers once sleeping on friends’ floors or a park bench or the dance studio waiting room, just to afford a dance class or headshots.  After years of bit parts and hoofing it in the chorus they give it one last audition before calling it quits, finding they landed the part of a lifetime. And many times that last audition is just that. Then it’s a move back home to open a dance studio or volunteer in their local Community Theater. Maybe, during a pre-Broadway run out of town, the understudy replaces a lead performer, the show goes to Broadway and that former understudy wins a Tony. This is Sutton Foster’s story. I was Sutton’s agent when she was a teenager and she was one of the few young actors I had complete confidence in and could cast in anything without an audition. After the job, the producer would always call with a glowing report.  A tremendously talented professional, even at 14.

A life in the theatre is a tough career, no show lasts forever and the Broadway performer does not get the acclaim of TV actors or Hollywood movie stars–and nobody’s getting rich.  But for most Broadway folks, it’s an honor and privilege to be working on Broadway.  Performing and working in the theatre is in their blood and the stage is their home.

For me, seeing a Broadway show with the original cast is as close to theatrical perfection as you can get. It’s the search that took place for the perfect package: a good actor, singer and dancer, the right look, chemistry with the material, and something that particular performer brought to their audition that the casting people didn’t even know they were looking for. Sometimes they know whom they want and it’s simply a call to the agent or manager, sometimes it seems like an endless search.

In a musical, the dancers and singers are as diverse as New York City itself and each is extraordinary in their discipline. The dancers will wow you with their incredible agility and grace, personality, and charisma as they push themselves and their bodies to amazing feats carrying the storyline along with unspoken passion.

In just a few measures the singer will engage and touch you deeply.  A good singer will bring that knot to your throat and get tears streaming down your cheeks or make you disgusted and creeped out. In “Blood Brothers” a mother stands over her slain twin sons and with heartbreaking disbelief she pleads in song for this not to be true. In “Sweeney Todd” Judge Turpin sings of his guilt-ridden lust as the ward he raised as his daughter comes of age and he intends to marry her. In contrast, the singers can bring belly laughs where your face and stomach hurt from laughing so hard as you watch profane, sexually active puppets singing and interacting with humans in a non-PC world. “WARNING: FULL PUPPET NUDITY” in “Avenue Q.”

At the end of “Mary Poppins” there’s a great theatre moment: **spoiler alert** While the ensemble is singing this beautiful, touching song amidst the starlit night, complete with shooting stars, Mary Poppins, with her trademark heels together and toes pointed horizon to horizon, slowly starts ascending from the stage out over the audience–main floor, mezzanine, balcony, and beyond. A friend of mine and I were sitting front row mezzanine and between the emotion of the last number, the spectacle, joy and sweetness of the show and watching Mary Poppins FLYING, I was nine-years-old again and happily, tearfully in the moment. Just as Mary was coming nearer and nearer in front of us, my friend elbows me repeatedly and commands, “look at me, I’m crying, oh my gosh, I can’t believe it, I’m crying!”  Are you kidding me!  I was completely taken out of the moment. From then on, I decided even if I go to the theatre with a friend, I’m sitting alone!

I hope you enjoyed the journey.  The Tonys air June 7th on CBS @ 8pm. Tune in and see the class and heart of Broadway’s finest (excepting Jane Fonda and Susan Sarandon). I have my scorecard and I’ll be rooting for my favorites with the passion of a sports fan!

Nathan Lane and John Goodman are selling tickets hand over fist for their revival of “Waiting for Godot” but neither received the honor of a nomination.  Same with David Hyde Pierce, Frank Langella, Mary Louise Parker and Matthew Broderick. 

It was no surprise that Jeremy Piven was included out of the Best Actor category after his famous sushi defense for missing performances in David Mamet’s “Speed-the-Plow,” but not honoring John Lithgow’s brilliant turn in “All My Sons” in the same category is a crime against humanity!  It ranks up there with the snub of Dustin Hoffman as Willy Loman in the 1984 revival of “Death of a Salesman.” Brian Dennehy was honored with the Best Actor award when he did Willy Loman in 2000, but that goodwill did not anoint him worthy of a nomination this year for his turn in “Desire Under the Elms.” 

Add to the list of the egregiously overlooked: Diane Wiest, Kristin Scott Thomas, Daniel Radcliffe, Tovah Feldshuh, Joan Allen, Jeremy Irons, Rupert Everett, Christine Ebersol, Patrick Wilson, Susan Sarandon and Katie Holmes. 

As an industry, Broadway seems to take an odd pride in the moniker “The Fabulous Invalid” and I have lamented this mindset on these pages before.  Broadway’s ability to eat its young and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory has become legendary and not a little bit annoying. 

Here we are at the end of a season where the biggest headline was about how horrible things are on Broadway and how every show is closing and how there are nothing but empty theatres, and right when the industry has a chance to turn that story around and promote the fact that not only has every theatre been occupied but incredibly high-wattage stars have come out to perform live in intimate, beautiful theatres, they turn around and kill their own lead. 

Wouldn’t it have been great to have a nationally televised theatre awards show with ratings better than an NHL playoff game? 

Now, I understand the argument that everyone can’t be nominated, and I recognize that some pretty big names were honored like Jeff Daniels, Geoffery Rush, Marcia Gay Harden, Jane Fonda, Stockard Channing, John Glover and Angela Lansbury.  But, really, if the industry is in the trouble they say it’s in, and you have a chance to showcase Daniel Radcliffe, Katie Holmes (and maybe Mr. Holmes?) and Rupert Everett on national television as honored performers from the prior season, shouldn’t you figure out a way to do it? 

Here’s a modest proposal:  Expand the acting categories!  Where is it written in stone that there should only be five nominees for each category?  In some pretty thin years in the not-too-distant past they have nominated LESS than five in some categories.  (I know that the doom-sayers on Broadway all think that this is the worst it’s ever been, but seriously, in 1989 the THREE nominees for Best Musical were “Jerome Robbins’ Broadway”, “Black and Blue” and “Starmites”!).  So in a crappy year, they change the rules and only nominate three, but in a year packed with stars, they hold to the arbitrary five nominee rule and the story becomes “Who Got Snubbed”.  It makes no sense at all. 

I know that none of this seems to follow a “Right versus Left” storyline that many of you may be used to here at Big Hollywood, but hang in there with me for a few more thoughts.  The fact is, the left on Broadway (meaning the vast majority of actors, designers and staffers in the production offices) relish the fact that they give a big “up yours” to the Hollywood types who dare to come to Broadway.  In this context, the Hollywood actors are “rich” and the New York theatre people are the poor, starving artists giving up riches for their craft.  They want to see the Hollywood star fail.  It’s classic class warfare, just like it is played out in the political world of America. 

The same mentality that celebrates the increased taxes on “The Rich” and rails against “Big Pharma” and “Big Oil” yet fails to recognize the damage done to our society when these productive members of our economy are punished by ever-burdensome taxes and regulations is at play when they watch in bitchy glee as Hollywood movie stars are snubbed in favor of a “real” actor from their ranks.  But they fail to realize that those Hollywood hacks are the ones who are selling the tickets and keeping the “Theatre Community” employed.  If Hollywood actors ever get the message and stop risking rejection and embarrassment by performing on Broadway, it will just mean more unemployment for the theatre purists. 

But, that’s OK, they’ll just blame Middle America for not being smart or cultured enough to truly appreciate Thomas Sadoski in “Reasons to be Pretty” instead of wanting to see Tom Cruise’s wife or that guy from “3rd Rock From the Sun.” 

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Julia Roberts and Clive Owen star in the fun, smart DUPLICITY, from writer/director Tony Gilroy

Roberts’ last starring role was in 2003’s Mona Lisa Smile ($63.8M domestic), and since then she has become a full-time Mom. Overall, she has 8 movies on her resume that have reached $100M in the US with her as a lead (I’m not including the Ocean’s Eleven franchise). Her most successful string of movies started in 1997 with My Best Friend’s Wedding ($127.1M cume) and ended with her Oscar winning performance in Erin Brockovich ($125.6M cume). During that span, she starred in 6 movies, generating an average of $115M in domestic box office.

Katherine Heigl is one of the actresses getting all of Roberts' old ingenue roles

But, she has entered the “danger zone” for any actress. All the types of roles that Julia used to turn into $100M blockbusters are going to Katherine Heigl, Kate Hudson, Anne Hathaway, Reese Witherspoon and Elizabeth Banks. What’s a 40+ woman to do?

DUPLICITY writer/director Tony Gilroy

She should be looking for smartly-written, age appropriate movies with some pedigree (co-stars, director, etc.). That is exactly what Duplicity is. Writer/director Tony Gilroy wrote the Jason Bourne movies, and his last film, Michael Clayton, was nominated for 7 Academy Awards. The result is an excellent movie. Clever, smart and charming, and Julia Roberts isn’t trying to pass herself off as an ingénue. The movie was expected to open to about $15M, and that’s exactly what it did, and still, bloggers write things like Julia’s Comeback: Audiences Say Go Back and people question if she’s still a draw.

For comparison sake, here is, to the best of my knowledge, the all-time box office champs for movies starring 40+ actresses above the title.

Glenn Close as Alex Forrest in FATAL ATTRACTION grabbed over $156M

ALL-TIME TOP 15 GROSSING MOVIES WITH A 40+ FEMALE LEAD
1. Fatal Attraction – Glenn Close (40) – $156.6M cume
2. Sex & the City – Sarah Jessica Parker (43) – $152.6M cume
3. Mamma Mia! – Meryl Streep (59) – $144.1M cume
4. 101 Dalmations – Glenn Close (49) – $136.2M cume
5. The Devil Wears Prada – (57) – $124.7M cume
6. Something’s Gotta Give – Diane Keaton (57) – $124.7M cume
7. On Golden Pond – Katherine Hepburn (74) – $119.2M cume
8. Terms of Endearment – Shirley MacLaine (49) – $108.4M cume
9. First Wives Club – Diane Keaton (50), Goldie Hawn (41), Bette Midler (51) – $105.5M cume
10. The Client – Susan Sarandon (48) – $92.1M cume
11. Flightplan – Jody Foster (43) – $89.7M cume
12. Moonstruck – Cher (41) – $80.6M cume
13. The Bridges of Madison County – Meryl Streep (46) – $71.5M cume
14. Bird On Wire – Goldie Hawn (45) – $70.9M cume
15. 102 Dalmations – Glenn Close (53) – $66.9M cume

In other words, it is a longshot for a mature woman to open a film in a big way. Last year, Hollywood gave us Mamma Mia! and Sex & The City, but they were both based on popular source material. The only other movies that starred 40+ actress to generate significant receipts were Australia ($49.5M cume) starring Nicole Kidman (40), Nim’s Island ($48M cume) featuring Jody Foster (46) and Nights in Rodanthe ($41.8M) with a 43-year-old Diane Lane.

Meryl Streep had Universal Studios execs jumping for joy with MAMMA MIA!

Given the nature of the business, is it really fair to say, “Julia Roberts can’t open a movie anymore?” The reality is that it is very rare that any woman north of 40 “opens” a movie, and let’s face it, ABBA opened Mamma Mia! and HBO created the success of Sex & The City.

In fact, I would argue that Duplicity is an excellent choice for the former $20M-per-movie star. You could argue that it is quite similar to Adam’s Rib, the movie that Katherine Hepburn starred in at the age of 41, a romantic comedy featuring she and Spencer Tracy as husband and wife operating, as lawyers on opposite sides of a big case. Duplicity is a very good modern-day parallel, not a classic like Adam’s Rib, but very good.

Kyra Sedgwick has scored big with THE CLOSER on TNT

Increasingly, the best roles for women 40+ are on television. Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer), Glenn Close (Damages), Holly Hunter (Saving Grace), Edie Falco (The Sopranos), Vanessa Williams (Ugly Betty) and Sally Field (Brothers & Sisters) have all found meaningful work on the small screen, but with two young kids, the TV series grind isn’t likely in the cards right now for Roberts right now.

Based on the $14.5M weekend and the fact that Females 25 Plus don’t often rush out to see a movie on opening weekend, I think it’s reasonable to project a $40M-$45M domestic gross – maybe even $50M. Michael Clayton only reached $49M in the US, so is Julia’s drawing power that much inferior to George Clooney?

In my mind, Duplicity is a creative success and, although the jury is out on commercial viability, it is by no means a disaster. Good for Julia Roberts that she has devoted herself to full-time motherhood. I’m glad she chose a project with an IQ, and I hope she continues making smart career choices. Her success will be of service to other actresses in Hollywood – those who are 40+ now, or will be someday.

Steve Mason is on Facebook and now also on Twitter@LAMase.

“You know,” he said, “I think it is just the way that the American people have made this about more than just an election. You get a sense that kids are rethinking their priorities; neighbors are starting to think about each other differently.” (Your dog wants to do what on my lawn? Sure, no problem!)

Some things haven’t changed, however.

Exhibit A – Susan Sarandon. According to this report from Politico, not only did Sarandon refuse to answer a question from a reporter at a Creative Coalition Brunch – a brunch to which some reporters were invited – she actually had the reporter kicked out of the event.

“We spotted Susan Sarandon and we wondered if she would say a word or two about Obama’s speech. So we asked her. Everyone else was abuzz about the newly-elected prez so we assumed she would be too, right? Well, not so much. Sarandon told us she wanted to grab a bite to eat first. Fair enough, we said. We’d catch her later.

But before we could even walk away, a woman ran up and informed us that Sarandon doesn’t do press. Okay, we said. No Sarandon for us. Got it.

Then, moments later, the same woman told us she’s been asked to ask us to leave.

So we did. Just like that. We only wonder how the woman would act if we asked her something realllllly personal.”

It’s easy to be critical of Sarandon. After all, the reporter was just doing her job and, at the risk of sounding hysterical, kicking her out for simply asking a question is something more likely to happen in Fidel Castro’s Cuba than at a fancy brunch on the first day of Barack Obama’s America.

But let’s not be too quick to criticize. Sarandon has demonstrated – again and again – that she should not be talking to the media. To take just one example, last year at about this time, she took questions from Time readers. One asked why she was supporting John Edwards for president.

“He is the most authentic character,” she said, later adding that Edwards “really is who he says he is.”
If you were on record saying such things, would you be eager to talk a reporter?

The horrifying news that Susan Sarandon will make her Broadway debut this Spring (because Broadway isn’t left ENOUGH?) has gotten me to thinking… Instead of Ms. Sarandon, and Rosie O’Donnell and Alec Baldwin & Jessica Lange (in the SAME play, no less) why can’t a Broadway season contain actors who are not so excruciatingly annoying?  I’m not even saying actors who are center/right in their politics — but how about actors who just focus on acting and, when off-camera, acting with class?

Here’s my wish-list for that season, in a perfect world…

Tom Selleck in The Man Who Came to Dinner – He has an easy dignity, wit and poise perfect for the character of Sheridan Whiteside.

Kelsey Grammer in A Man For All Seasons – That voice, saying those lines….  wow!

Patricia Heaton in Gypsy - Few actress are able to capture Mama Rose’s relentlessness and sarcastic wit and still make her likable. Heaton has the magic to do it.

Gary Sinise in Mister Roberts – He’s already done a Henry Fonda role on Broadway, and the publicity still of him in uniform would sell-out the entire run.

Bruce Willis in On The Water Front – He has the raw intensity of Brando and he’s such a big personality the audience will watch his every twitch.

Robert Duvall in King Lear – ’nuff said.

And one more… I don’t think this guy’s center/right and I don’t know whether he’s ever voted for a Republican, but, Tom Hanks is our generation’s finest actor and the fact that he is so inoffensive about whatever his politics might be makes him a stand-out even if he is on the left side of the scale.  Also, I have always dreamed of him playing THIS part:

Tom Hanks in Harvey (Hanks is OUR Jimmy Stewart and he needs to be on stage like RIGHT NOW!)

If you think of some more, or some better roles for the actors and actress I listed, please put them in the comments….

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