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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: laura_bush who wrote (451934)	9/3/2003 6:38:41 AM
From: Raymond Duray	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

Tim Robbins Speaks Out: Derides Culture of Fear in U.S. film.guardian.co.uk [Not that we will hear about this in the U.S. media, mind you....) Star attacks US culture of fear Fiachra Gibbons in Venice Wednesday September 3, 2003 The Guardian The American actor Tim Robbins broke his silence yesterday after being attacked for putting US troops "in danger" by speaking out against the invasion of Iraq. Robbins, whose partner and fellow actor, Susan Sarandon, has also been criticised for her anti-war stance, said the cold shouldering they received had been "a gift" which had rallied liberals to the cause of free speech. "It's sparked a lot of people in Hollywood who would have spoken out and felt intimidated to say something," Robbins said at the Venice Film Festival. "Too often people abdicate their freedom in their minds and choose not to speak. But once you abdicate that freedom you may as well not have it." Robbins stars with the British actor Samantha Morton in Michael Winterbottom's film Code 46, which was warmly received when it premiered yesterday at the festival. The science fiction love story is set in the near future, when large swaths of humanity are excluded from the global megalopolises by an omnipotent organisation called The Sphinx. Manchester-born Winterbottom, who won the Golden Bear for best film at Berlin earlier this year for In This World, based on the experience of refugees, said he was inspired to make Code 46 after meeting the dispossessed in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkey. The film was shot using "guerrilla tactics" on the streets of Dubai, Shanghai, India and London and cost £5m. Robbins was persuaded to hire a bodyguard during filming for the first time in his career. But he said his anxiety had "no basis in reality". "People in the Middle East make a distinction between governments and individuals. They say they disagree with my government but not with me. I live now in a lot less fear, now I have turned off my TV," he said. The actor, who is a supporter of liberal causes, said he was worried about the atmosphere in the US. "I think we are being fed a lot of fear by people who would rather we were afraid than aware," he said. In April, the Baseball Hall of Fame cancelled its celebration of the 15th anniversary of Bull Durham, the film about the sport during which Robbins and Sarandon met. Its president, Dale Petroskey, said he could not invite them after they joined anti-war marches. Morton said working on Code 46 had been one of the most testing experiences of her career. "We would just turn up and start shooting in the streets, which made it real but it was dangerous too, we were nearly knocked by cars a couple of times and in India there were elephants just walking around," she said. Andrew Eaton, the film's producer, poked fun at the Film Council, which believes that films should go through years of pre-production. "Film makers just want to go out there and shoot. The really slow and sometimes pointless stuff is everything you have to go through before that," he said.