Chicken Little has nothing on today’s celebrities.
Stars large and small are spreading fear throughout the culture, and the topics won’t take anyone by surprise.
They typically involve an orange man behaving badly and his so-called Gestapo foot soldiers.
The recent Sundance Film Festival affair, the last to be held in Park City, Utah before moving to The Republic of Boulder, is giving celebrities all the red-carpet room they need to spread fear.
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The media is doing the rest, regurgitating their comments without a fact check in sight.
Oscar-winner Natalie Portman used her festival pulpit to decry the rise of ICE agents corralling illegal immigrants, many of whom have been charged with heinous crimes like rape and murder.
For Portman, the scary part is enforcing immigration laws.
“It’s very joyful to be at a film festival and in a creative community celebrating film together, but what is happening in our country is just obscene … What Trump, and Kristi Noem and ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] are doing to our citizens, and undocumented people, is outrageous and needs to end.”
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The comments came shortly after ICE agents shot and killed ICU nurse Alex Pretti, a Jan. 24th incident with many questions left unanswered. Pretti was armed at some point in the altercation, and new video shows he previously spat at ICE agents, kicked another agent’s vehicle, shattering its taillight, and resisted arrest.
His death remains tragic, but context cannot be left out. This wasn’t a peaceful protester simply waving a placard or warbling a protest song.
Actress/director Olivia Wilde doubled down on Portman’s comments, once again from a glamorous red-carpet affair.
“We can’t go another day just sort of accepting this as our new norm. It’s outrageous. People are being murdered. And, I don’t want to normalize seeing people being murdered on the internet. On film. It’s. It’s hideous.”
Oscar-nominee Edward Norton took a cue from too many Democrat politicians by ratcheting up the rhetoric with the Nazi Card.
“These days it’s ‘What are we gonna do about mass Gestapo shooting American citizens? … We are sitting here talking about movies while an illegal army is being mounted against US citizens.”
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He didn’t back up his charge that the ICE agents are acting in an illegal manner. Nor did he wonder why there’s so much violence associated with Minneapolis “protests” when other cities are also flooded with ICE agents without incident.
Others are relying on social media, not glitzy film festivals, to peddle fear. Comedian Kathy Griffin, whose career came to a screeching halt in 2017 when she shared a photograph of her holding a bloodied Trump head aloft, ISIS style, also spread distrust via social media.
She told her followers to find out if their neighbors are “MAGA” and start planning accordingly. For what, she didn’t say, but the implications were ominous.
“Breaking Bad” alum Giancarlo Esposito, not someone normally associated with political banter, offered what might be the most fear-based comments of them all.
The actor played the Race Card while suggesting we could be staring down the barrel of a Civil War of sorts. And there will certainly be blood. It sounds like he can’t wait.
“This is time for a revolution — and they don’t even know that’s what they’re starting,” the actor said. “We have to stand up to it. They can’t take us all down. If the whole world showed up on Putin’s doorstep or the Iranians’ doorstep or in Washington, they’d kill 500 or 50 million or however [many], but the rest of us would survive with a new [world]…”
“This is all a preparation for a very insidious problem that’s happening in our world. And for me, I have to speak out. We will not be ICE’d out. This is not going to happen.”
Some fears don’t directly involve ICE or President Trump, but the connective tissue is easy to spot. Take Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke, who proved his acting chops anew with this unhinged and reality-free take on the death of free speech in Trump’s America.
“There’s a kind of fear in the air that I’ve never felt before … And it’s not America. To get to be an artist in a free country, I’ve had enough of an education to know what a privilege that is. And I don’t feel that way anymore. And that’s something that has to change.”
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Hawke has been mum on the new Hollywood Blacklist that keeps too many conservatives out of Hollywood or shamed into silence. He also stood down when Gina Carano’s social media post pleading for tolerance cost her the biggest job of her career – a slot on Disney+’s “The Mandalorian.”
Pop superstar Lady Gaga isn’t in the United States at the moment, but she still felt compelled to spread fear via a Tokyo concert appearance.
“In a couple of days, I’m gonna be heading home and my heart is aching thinking about the people, the children, the families, all over America, who are being mercilessly targeted by ICE. I’m thinking about all of their pain and how their lives are being destroyed right in front of us.”
Laura Ingraham’s “Shut Up and Sing” mantra rushes to mind.
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Late-night comics are doing their fair share of spreading fear, with one in particular making a ghoulish Nazi comparison to heighten his audience’s apprehension for the daily headlines.
Stephen Colbert, whose “Late Show” goes the way of the pager and 8-track tape come May, slammed ICE agents in a way that should make even Left-of-Center souls shudder.
“Yes, do not compare ICE or Border Patrol agents to the Nazis. That’s an unfair comparison. The Nazis were willing to show their faces.”
The host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” broke into tears, twice, in the first episode following Pretti’s death. He regurgitated the same Nazi rhetoric coming from the Legacy Media and his Hollywood brethren.
“Decide for yourself if that’s making America great,” Kimmel cried.
The country these stars describe is scary, no doubt. Yet none of them act as if they’re actually afraid. A Nazi-like state wouldn’t take kindly to these outbursts. Threats would be made. Professional punishments might commence.
Some might disappear, never to be seen again. Yet nothing of the kind has happened, nor will it.
The only thing America has to fear is fear itself, and celebrities who twist the truth for deeply partisan gains.
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Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic, and editor of HollywoodInToto.com. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at HollywoodInToto.com.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
