Penn gets no peace for efforts

Actor joins long line of celebrities wading into politics

? From the moment Sean Penn arrived in Baghdad, eager to advance the cause of peace, he was doomed — a dead man talking.

He was a celebrity, like so many other celebrities who have waded into the treacherous waters of politics or international relations. So he walked gingerly — he was there, he said, “to learn and not to teach.” He avoided reporters. And he was careful not to say or do anything that would cause a meltdown at home.

So the Iraqis did it for him.

Penn “confirmed that Iraq is completely clear of weapons of mass destruction and the United Nations must adopt a positive stance toward Iraq,” the official Iraqi News Service reported.

Before Penn could deny it, the New York Post had published its top 10 reasons Penn would be a great U.N. arms inspector (No. 2: “After ‘Shanghai Surprise,’ Penn certainly knows what a bomb looks like.”). Craig Kilborn of the CBS “Late, Late Show” also scorned Penn’s peace efforts.

“Hey, isn’t that Bono’s job?” Kilborn asked.

No. Bono is the one who flew to Africa with the since-defenestrated treasury secretary, Paul O’Neill, promoting the fight against hunger. Not to be confused with the late Sonny Bono, who was elected to Congress because he sang next to Cher (who called radio stations during the 2000 presidential campaign to support Al Gore).

Sometimes, it seems there are more actors on soapboxes than in soap operas.

Actor Sean Penn walks past a picture of President Saddam Hussein during his visit to al-Mansour children's hospital in Baghdad. By traveling to Iraq, Penn toured the hospital Dec. 13.

Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, Edward James Olmos, the various Baldwin brothers, Ted Nugent, Tom Selleck, Harry Belafonte, Woody Harrelson, Angelina Jolie, Ben Affleck, Warren Beatty — the list of politically active celebrities is long and ever-growing.

Jesse Ventura started out administering sleeper holds and ended up Minnesota’s governor; Bill Bradley started out shooting jumpers and ended up in the Senate; Ronald Reagan started out co-starring with a chimpanzee, and ended up in the White House.

Charlton Heston started out parting the Red Sea, moved on to marching with Martin Luther King, and ended up waving a musket over his head for the National Rifle Assn.

“Celebrities often have assumed political roles, but it’s becoming more frequent all the time,” says Darrell West, co-author of the book “Celebrity Politics.”

West says celebrity politics is almost inevitable. Anyone with an opinion and a platform is likely to speak out, and political groups are eager to help them.

Do they know more than the average nonentity? Probably not. “You just have to hope that they have smart people advising them,” West says.

Actress and activist Jane Fonda, surrounded by soldiers and reporters, sings an antiwar song near Hanoi during the Vietnam War. Fonda, seated on an anti-aircraft gun, is pictured in July 1972.

Mostly, celebrities are good at attracting attention. “It’s harder to gauge their policy impact,” says West, though someone like Christopher Reeve clearly has had success in persuading legislatures to spend money on research to treat paralysis.

Most of the time, West says, notables know enough not to generate bad publicity for their causes and themselves. But occasionally, they fail.

The most famous example of ritual celebrity disembowelment was that of Jane Fonda, who went to North Vietnam in 1972, at the height of the Vietnam war, and posed in an anti-aircraft gun. Thirty years later, despite her apologies, she is still widely known as Hanoi Jane.

Sean Penn obviously gave her story much thought. “I don’t imagine I’ll be apologizing as she did at some far point in the future,” he told The New York Times before his trip to Iraq. Lot of good it did him.

Others have suffered lesser debacles. In October, fervent Democrat Barbra Streisand was excoriated for a performance at a party fund-raiser. She had read a quote — “Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war,” it began — and attributed it to Shakespeare, falsely.

In fact, a poll by The Hollywood Reporter earlier this year found that Jane Fonda, Alec Baldwin and Streisand were the celebrities least admired for their political views.

The flip side were those most admired for their politics: Bono, Oprah Winfrey and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who this year successfully promoted a California proposition that dedicated more than a half-billion dollars to before- and after-school programs.

In an online forum in 2000, actor William Baldwin — Alec’s brother — said everyone, celebrity and noncelebrity alike, should “use the voice you’re given. … You use the tools you have; you use the resources you have, the power you have, the influence.”