“Occupy Wall Street” (OWS) is getting a little help from its celebrity friends as the movement enters a second month. However, star power also carries risks, commentators say.
Alec Baldwin, star of the hit TV series 30 Rock, showed up late on Wednesday at the camp in a park near Wall Street, just the latest in a string of A-listers.
One of the first was Michael Moore, the hugely successful left-wing documentary maker. Other politically minded Hollywood figures on the bandwagon include actors Tim Robbins and Oscar-winner Susan Sarandon.
John Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, has not visited, but is a vocal supporter.
Rapper Kanye West caused a buzz earlier this month when he arrived with hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons.
Others lending close support include the likes of actors Sean Penn and Mike Meyers, veteran black American leader Jesse Jackson and prominent left-wing academic Noam Chomsky.
Rich Hanley, an expert on communications and pop culture at Quinnipiac University, said the celebrities give the grassroots movement an obvious boost.
“It helps their cause in the number of cameras pointed to the action,” he said. “The celebrities are doing their job of attracting publicity. That’s what they do and they do it well.”
However, the celeb sword is double-edged, Hanley and others say. Someone like Moore, director of Fahrenheit 911, could be seen as too divisive as a figurehead for protesters who want to stay out of normal politics.
And since demonstrators claim to be representing the downtrodden 99 percent against the US’ super-rich 1 percent, what to make of Kanye West and other multimillionaires who make brief appearances in solidarity with the young street idealists?
West, lover of gold bling and the Mercedes Maybach, which can cost nearly half a million dollars, came in for a ribbing in the blogosphere after his visit.
YouTube footage from the protest camp showed him silent, unsmiling and dripping in gold, while Simmons spoke for him.
Hanley said these kinds of celebrity sightings can energize right-wing foes of Occupy Wall Street.
“It opens up a new front on their capacity to criticize it,” he said. “It does open up just a lot of criticism that the right-wing media will pounce on.”
Music consultant Bruno del Granado said on ABC television that the celebrities themselves risk a backlash if they are seen as “condescending.”
“They do make a ton of money,” he said.
However, del Granado said Hollywood is good at seeing which way the political winds are blowing and “they really want to be a part of what’s going on.”
Some of the high-profile protesters have made it clear that their love is not unconditional.
Sarandon was quoted as saying that change “from the bottom” is great, but warning that the leaderless movement should “focus on one thing to be accomplished.”
Baldwin echoed that, Tweeting that “OWS needs to coalesce around some legislative policy.”
What’s sure is the celebrity buzz around Occupy Wall Street is not going away soon.
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Sunday announced a deal with the chief of Kurdish-led forces that includes a ceasefire, after government troops advanced across Kurdish-held areas of the country’s north and east. Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said he had agreed to the deal to avoid a broader war. He made the decision after deadly clashes in the Syrian city of Raqa on Sunday between Kurdish-led forces and local fighters loyal to Damascus, and fighting this month between the Kurds and government forces. The agreement would also see the Kurdish administration and forces integrate into the state after months of stalled negotiations on
RSS