April 18, 2003 [LINK]
Sarandon & Robbins OUT!
Baseball's Hall of Fame recently announced that Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins (who starred together in the classic baseball flick Bull Durham) were being un-invited to the forthcoming induction ceremonies in Cooperstown, NY, because of their high-profile protests against the U.S.-led war against Iraq. Specifically, it was feared that they might use the podium to bring nasty discord into our National Pastime. Fellow blogger Jeff Cooper criticized this decision, writing "It's no coincidence that the Hall's president, Dale Petroskey, is a staunch Republican..." Several people posted comments, and here is what I wrote:
I roll my eyes every time I see Sarandon and Robbins piously pontificate, but from what I've seen they've been relatively well behaved in their dissent lately. But of course that's judging by extremely loose Hollywood standards, where treason is a virtue. All in all, I'd say the Hall of Fame's decision to exclude them from the upcoming ceremonies was tacky and a little intolerant, but not such a big deal.