Speaking of blacklisting...

From our Washington reporter, Lisa Friedman, in Sunday's paper:

"Rep. Howard Berman, D-Van Nuys, who said one of the earliest causes he embraced while in college at UCLA was the abolishment of the House Un-American Activities Committee, said the era underscores the importance of being vigilant against curtailing civil liberties in the name of national security.

Berman said he finds some parallels in what he described as today's 'very radical concerns about radical jihadists.' That, he argued, has led to 'overreaches' in the Patriot Act and other tools Congress passed as part of the War on Terror.

...Victor Navasky, publisher emeritus of The Nation magazine, said he thinks a similar blacklisting would be unlikely today, both because the media would not keep the story silent as they did in the 1950s and because of the new strength of independent filmmakers and the Internet.

'There's such a profusion of ways to distribute ideas,' agreed Berman, whose district includes most of the major studios. 'The days when four or five top executives could get together and stop people from working because of their political views are over, hopefully.'"

Well, congressman, these are the days when four or five top executives can get together and stop people from working because of their political views -- if those views are conservative. I can't tell you how many people I've met in the industry who've a) lost out on work because of their right-of-center politics, b) have had to put up with workplace harassment because of their right-of-center politics, or c) are scared stiff that any of their Hollywood co-workers or bosses will learn that they vote right-of-center, because they fear the repercussions it will have on their careers.

I once heard director/producer David Zucker -- who became Republican after 9/11, is right on national security issues and a big environmentalist -- speaking at a wrap party for an anti-John Kerry commercial he shot. He hailed all the friends he'd made in the local GOP community -- "especially since I've lost all my old friends," he deadpanned. Let's just say you have to be a star that big to survive a political outing to the elephant side in Tinseltown.