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Annette Bening and memory lane

By Michael Moriarty
web posted July 9, 2018

Last night, I was almost a Liberal again!

Why? Well, mainly Annette Bening.

Annette Bening
She Had Hot Red Hair in that Film

What film?

The American President

The American President
An Exquisitely Romantic Comedy Couple

Michael Douglas made a shamelessly Liberal President of the United States!

Late in the film, he AND his character brag about lifetime membership in the A.C.L.U.!

The American Civil Liberties Union!!

It was, actually, Michael Douglas’ most passionately convincing moment in the film.

That is when I didn’t like the film at all.

Why?

Well, before I reveal the A.C.L.U. dramatics that had me leaving the United States, possibly for good; let me kvell over Annette Bening!

She’s such a divine actress I could have cared less what her or her character’s politics were.

The power of the film rests not in Michael Douglas’ President and his charming but stringently dedicated loyalty to the A.C.L.U. and mega-Liberalism.

It is in the movingly comic and dramatically hilarious descent, yea, the deliciously falling collapse of Ms. Bening’s Sydney Ellen Wade into a love affair she is not entirely prepared for.

Her most endearing pain, to the point of her frequently, very moving tears, could have filled the needs of both comedy and tragedy.

That’s my kinda actress, ladies and gentlemen!

Without ever, as the wizened theatergoers like myself often say, “begging for a laugh”, Ms. Bening received, from myself on a regular basis, laughter that, of course, had me falling in love with her!

In love with her character and, most certainly, with Annette Bening.

Such performances as hers are rare diamonds in either theater or film.

God bless her!

Meanwhile?!

The A.C.L.U.?!

This so-called American protector of the Constitution?!

Quite the opposite.

In my personal experience with its former President, Ira Glasser, a one-time friend of mine?!

The political battle of my life was over my confrontation with the Clinton Administration’s Attorney General, Janet Reno, and her assaults upon “television violence”.

At a closed-door, hush-hush meeting in the backroom of a Washington D.C. hotel, the “General”, as she loved being called, claimed, in her own words, “I know that programs like Law and Order and Murder She Wrote don’t show any violence, but they talk about nothing BUT violence!!

After attending that meeting with her, I had my publicist at the time call a press conference for the first and absolutely last time in my life!

Also in attendance, at my invitation, was my one-time friend, Ira Glasser of the A.C.L.U.

Though, I must admit, I was possibly long-winded, I stated the case very clearly about the Attorney General’s brazen attack upon the First Amendment and freedom of speech! Her clearly stated threat that she, as Attorney General, would have to “legislate” an end to violence on television, including verbal descriptions of violent behavior!

The response from both the profoundly Liberal East Coast and the even more committedly Liberal West Coast and Hollywood was a deafeningly ferocious silence.

Ira Glasser, at the end of that meeting, declared quite fiercely: “Michael, you will be OSTRACIZED!!!!!!”

Ostracized?!

And he said it without having consulted any other member of the gathering.

He was obviously upset about what I had to say and was personally invested in protecting the entire Clinton Administration from any Constitutional challenges I might have about its behavior.

And my “Civil Liberty” to speak out in protest against an Attorney General who seemed blithely unconcerned about the Constitution’s Bill of Rights and its First Amendment?!

Ira Glasser, obviously a devoted Far Lefty, and his pride in the A.C.L.U. and its present Democrat Party?!

Both of those symbols of American Socialism have, in my eyes, made President Donald Trump look like Paul Revere and John Paul Jones combined!

I didn’t wait very long to face the very A.C.L.U. experience of being “OSTRACIZED”.

After failing, to put it mildly, the Fox Network’s generous “Admissions Test”, I realized I was in a United States I could no longer recognize as my home.

Whether I was being tailed by the F.B.I., the C.I.A. or both wasn’t clear. I did feel, however, that I was under major, federal surveillance. Most possibly from orders out of the Attorney General’s office.

After failing, to put it mildly, the Fox Network’s generous “Admissions Test”, I realized how true a New York Times article was about actors.

I’m what the New York Times journalist defined an actor as:

“A generous narcissist”

I’m a terrible interviewer.

What’s a “generous narcissist” like Michael Moriarty doing, auditioning for a job with Fox Network?!

The life that interests me most is my own.

Within weeks I left for Canada.

And for dual, North American citizenship.

Will I return?

President Trump thinks I should.

I certainly got his message.

We shall see.

I’m a city boy and live within cab distance from the great Canadian city of Vancouver.

I’m presently fighting politically to re-elect my favorite Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper.

Conservative North Americans need me much more profoundly in Canada than in the thriving rewards of Donald Trump’s United States.

Until Stephen Harper or someone like him is elected as a Conservative Prime Minister, I’m more valuable to “The Cause” up here than down in the States.

I hope that President Trump understands that!

The political “emergency” is up here.

Not down there. ESR

Michael Moriarty is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actor who starred in the landmark television series Law and Order from 1990 to 1994. His recent film and TV credits include The Yellow Wallpaper, 12 Hours to Live, Santa Baby and Deadly Skies. Contact Michael at rainbowfamily2008@yahoo.com. He can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/@MGMoriarty.

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