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Speaking against war A group of celebrities will issue a statement today protesting
an attack against Iraq.
Hilary E. MacGregor

12/10/2002
Los Angeles Times
Home Edition
Page E-3
Copyright 2002 Los Angeles Times

More than 100 Hollywood actors, producers and directors will out themselves today as
antiwar activists. Mike Farrell, Alfre Woodard, Ed Begley Jr., Tony Shalhoub and others
will hold a news conference at 10 a.m. at Les Deux Cafes in Hollywood to issue a
statement protesting the costs and risks of going to war with Iraq. Calling themselves
Artists United to Win Without War, the celebrity signatories to the statement range from
Gillian Anderson and Kim Basinger to Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne and Michael
Stipe.

Denouncing war talk in Washington "alarming and unnecessary," the simple, five-
paragraph declaration ur ges the disarming of Iraq through "legal diplomatic means."

"We are patriotic Americans who share the belief that Saddam Hussein cannot be allowed
to possess weapons of mass destruction. We support rigorous U.N. weapons inspections
to assure Iraq's effective disarmament," the statement reads. "However, a preemptive
military invasion of Iraq will harm American national interests. Such a war will increase
human suffering, arouse animosity toward our country, increase the likelihood of terrorist
attacks, dama ge the economy, and undermine our moral standing in the world."

The glitterati in the group will fill the talk shows and entertainment magazines soon
enough. This is the story of how two friends armed with nothing but their computers and
e-mail accounts quietly rounded up some of the biggest names in Hollywood for the
antiwar effort.

Last summer, Robert Greenwald (director of "The Burning Bed" and director-producer of
the upcoming "My Dark Places") started talking to his buddy, actor-activist Farrell (of
"MASH" and "Providence").
"We owe it all to Andrew Card," recalls Greenwald. "It seems like a lifetime ago now,
but he said, if you have a product, you don't release it in the summer."

Greenwald recalls thinking the comment by the White House chief of staff and former
vice president of General Motors -- explaining why the Bush administration would wait
until September to make its case for war in Iraq -- was outrageous. "I was talking to Mike
Farrell, saying, 'Did he really say that?' Here were people who were using the language of
the world we function in, only they were selling things that were life and death decisions
for an enormous number of people."

On Oct. 2, Farrell and Greenwald set up a teach- in at the home of Stanley Sheinbaum, the
Democratic fund-raiser. Speakers included Scott Ritter, the former U.N. weapons
inspector turned peacenik, and David Cortright, a professor in the peace studies
department at Notre Dame who also runs the Fourth Freedom Forum, a private research
group that advocates the reduction and elimination of nuclear weapons. More than 50
figures from politics and entertainment attended the gathering, including Warren Beatty
and wife Annette Bening, Tom Hayden and Gary Hart.

It was a turning point.

"We began to discern the extraordinary amount of concern out there -- and confusion,"
Farrell says. "We didn't pull that meeting together to start another organization. But we
realized something had to be done."

In the weeks following, Greenwald found himself growing more alarmed.

"I was watching the news more and more, and seeing one message," he says. "Even
before the elections, it was being brilliantly done by the administration. There were no
other voices out there. The argument was about when you bomb them, not if you bomb
them. It was about when you go to war, not if you go to war. The underlying assumptions
were not being questioned."

Greenwald and Farrell realized that there are people with high profiles and strong
opinions who could speak out -- "and they happen to be actors and actresses," says
Greenwald.

On the weekend of Nov. 15, Cortright and a group that called itself the Win Without War
coalition met in upstate New York. There they crafted the wording that would become
the basis for the Hollywood statement.

Greenwald and Farrell began circulating the declaration by e- mail. They sent it to friends,
business associates, acquaintances. It was a low-key campaign, but steady. There were no
political advisors, no formal announcements, no fund-raisers. Word spread quietly, over
dinner tables, at preschool pickups, on movie sets.

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Some celebrities declined to sign, saying they preferred to wait and see. But many leapt
on board, telling Greenwald and Farrell they were thankful finally to have an outlet to
express both their patrio tism and their antiwar views.

"Tea and I would love to sign the letter," David Duchovny replied in an e-mail. "Tea was
just saying at dinner -- 'We're going to be at war soon and it's like we're just blindly
accepting the drift ... ' "

"I feel the current administration and the mainstream media are bullying the American
public into blindly supporting acts of aggression," wrote Janeane Garofalo before signing
on.

At best, Greenwald says, they hoped to get 15 to 20 stars to sign. Instead, signatures of
support continued to pour in over the weekend and into Monday.

The statement has also been signed by some impressively titled non-Hollywood names,
such as Edward Peck, the former U.S. ambassador to Iraq; retired U.S. Navy Rear Adm.
Eugene J. Carroll; and former ambassador and arms control negotiator Jonathan Dean.

The Los Angeles news conference will be followed by the release of a similar statement
by the Win Without War coalition Wednesday in Washington, D.C.

The coalition worked hand- in-hand with the Hollywood group in drafting its statement
and orchestrating its news conference. The Washington coalition is made up of 15
organizations, including the National Council of Churches, the NAACP, the National
Organization for Women and MoveOn .

Artists United to Win Without War also plans to run a full-page ad in the national edition
of the New York Times. The statement will then be forwarded to President Bush.

"There was an environment created after 9/11 where somehow it wasn't patriotic to speak
out," says Greenwald. "I think there have been an increasing number of voices raised
against war, but they have not done an effective job of reaching TV, radio and the print
media.

"This is a way to get attention."