This week, 70's music icon Barry
Manilow joined the ranks of the Hollywood Stupid by placing himself in
politics, which he has nothing to do with, sparking a boycott against himself
in the process for no reason other than his own stupidity.
Here's the scoop: Manilow was invited to appear on
ABC's The View program, and before anyone really knew about the initiation,
Manilow stated he would not go on the show if Elizabeth Hasselbach, one of the
regular hosts, was on the show that day, a clear tie to her being the only
political conservative on the show.
The issue here
is that Manilow's music, at least until now, had nothing to do with politics.
Manilow sings sappy love songs for which he has make tons of money, not just
for Manilow, but also for his producer, band, agents, record label and more.
Now, however, political conservatives, which are about half the country, are
starting to boycott buying Manilow CD's, thus hurting many people financially,
not just Manilow.
Although Manilow's music is not
heard all that often on the radio anymore, the backlash will be akin to what
happened soon after the 9/11 terrorist attacks when the world learned that Cat
Stevens became Yusuf Islam - people stopped buying the CD's and radio stations
stopped playing his music on the radio, at least for a while.
All Manilow had to do was go on the show and sing,
then smile as he talks about his success, wooing women everywhere without a
word about politics. Instead, he turned himself into a pariah, and for no real
reason.
People in Hollywood need to understand one
thing that they should have learned long ago - actors, singers and entertainers
in general can be loved by adoring fans across all political spectrums for
their work, or they can get involved in things that have nothing to do with
their career, most of whom are not actually experts in their causes, and
alienate the very people they need as fans to help them make a living. |
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