A Star Is Boring
Barbra Streisand let loose the C word on
her website. No, no, no...she's not writing her autobiography.
I mean the other C word! The dense diva deemed CBS's punting "The Reagans" -- of which she is the producer -- as "censorship." CBS's decision, she writes, is "a sad day for artisitic freedom" and even implies that it's an assault on the First Amendment.
Babs' irritation is understandable; she has money invested in this project. But labeling it censorship and an attack on artistic freedom and free speech is laughably ridiculous.
A careful reading of the
First Amendment reveals that it doesn't prohibit television networks from spiking crappy made-for-tv movies. The First Amendment restricts Congress--not CBS.
The government did not block "The Reagans" from airing on CBS; CBS did. And since when is censorship defined as not having a movie aired on the network of the producer's choice? ("The Reagans" will air on Viacom's Showtime.)
When the melodramatic claims of Stalinistic censorship are stripped away, the real source of irritation is apparent. Streisand is livid that consumers dared to be offended by a product she created and that they had the audacity to freely organize to pressure the distributor from selling her product.
That's not censorship. That's consumer choice.
An aside: be sure to check out Barbra's website. The layout induces cringes. The grand, wedding invitatation-style typeface and the photograph of Streisand clutching roses, wearing what appears to be a prom dress and seated on a satin-upholstered throne. It all reeks of megalomania. Evidently, Barbra considers herself royalty. Queen of
the Harpies perhaps?
