Court says Sean Penn can sue against Hollywood blacklisting
“Is there really a Hollywood blacklist against performers who don’t support the Bush administration? The answer may lie in a Los Angeles courtroom. A California judge has ruled that actor Sean Penn can pursue a legal claim that he was fired from a film because of his piquant political views and a brief visit he made to Iraq last December.
Mr. Penn is perhaps sensitive to the issue. His father, actor and director Leo Penn, was one of 300 Hollywood regulars “blacklisted” during the hearings from 1947 to 1951 of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, which examined the possible Communist underpinnings of the performers. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Irving Feffer, who categorized his decision as “easy,” ruled Friday that Mr. Penn could sue film producer Stephen Bing.”