Trying to find a conservative in Hollywood is a slightly less fruitful task than trying to find a needle in a haystack, or a Jew anywhere in the Middle-East but Israel. Of course, like all minorities, most live in hiding: as Naomi Klein boasts, to admit to conservative views in elite circles is to risk complete social ostracism. As Roseanne Barr found, it’s also a shortcut to career suicide.
Luckily, there are a few conservatives in Hollywood who are big enough and ornery enough not to care. Clint Eastwood, by virtue of an unassailably stellar profile, not to mention talent to burn even as he reaches his 90s, is more or less able to say what he damn well pleases. Ditto, Kurt Russell. Others, like Gary Sinise, are able to openly wear their conservative politics without too dire consequences. The South Park creators are fiercely independent enough not to give a toss what anyone else thinks. Adam Sandler, while a registered Republican, mostly, wisely, just keeps his mouth shut.
Others are not so lucky: Patricia Heaton has been bullied repeatedly into apologising for her conservative views. Tim Allen’s highly popular Last Man Standing, kind of a conservative rebuttal of All in the Family, narrowly survived being cancelled when its contract came up for renewal. Vince Vaughn is libertarian rather than conservative but was mercilessly pilloried by the offenderati, simply for being polite to President Trump. Even the woker-than-woke Ellen Degeneres was virtually tarred-and-feathered, just for being friends with former President Bush.
Another well-liked, high-profile celebrity who has several times faced career assassination because of his openly Christian faith is Chris Pratt, star of the massively popular Guardians of the Galaxy films. Like Eastwood and Sinise, Pratt is also preparing to put his traditional values into celluloid action.
Actor Chris Pratt, an open Christian who has specifically avoided alienating fans with divisive partisanship, has launched a new production company with the expressed mission of bridging “the growing divide in our country and world.”
It will be interesting to see how Pratt’s venture fares. His Avengers co-star, Chris Evans, has mouthed similar platitudes, and even started a site, A Starting Point, meant to “reduce partisanship and promote respectful discourse”. Which is kind of rich, considering Evans’ less-than-respectful approach to political discourse, to date. Gary Sinise, with screenwriter Lionel Chetwynd, founded “Friends of Abe”, a support and networking group for Hollywood conservatives, which wound up in 2016.
In an Instagram post on Tuesday, Pratt offered fans a sneak peek into the new offices of “Indivisible Productions,” a name specifically meant to evoke the Pledge of Allegiance:
“I’ve started a company. Indivisible Productions. One nation under God, Indivisible.
Our mission statement is to create entertaining content, focusing on themes which will help to bridge the growing divide in our country and world. You know, make the world a better place. No biggie, you’re welcome, but it’s whatever.”
Indivisible Productions seems, then, not unlike Walden Media, which focusses on children’s productions and was founded by conservative Christian, Philip Anschutz, with the express purpose of being “entertaining, but also to be life-affirming and to carry a moral message”. Walden’s most notable productions include the Narnia films, Charlotte’s Web, and Dora and the Lost City of Gold.
No other news exists as to exactly the types of projects that Pratt plans to produce at his production company, but if they are in any way aligned with his brand, they will most likely be projects that extol the virtues of faith while being understanding of people’s differences. Though Chris Pratt has never claimed a political label for himself, he has often found himself a target of left-wing cancel culture for being more tolerant of conservative voices and, most of all, for attending a church that preaches biblical sexual morality.
Despite his easygoing persona, one suspects that Pratt is going to be mercilessly flamed by the wokescolds of social media.
After enough backlash on social media, Pratt officially responded […]My faith is important to me but no church defines me or my life, and I am not a spokesman for any church or any group of people. My values define who I am. We need less hate in this world, not more.
dailywire.com/news/chris-pratt-launches-patriotic-themed-production-company-indivisible-productions
Well, good luck with that, Chris. Remember what Douglas Adams said about “one man [who] had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change”.
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