A Dash of Independence

When we had the pleasure of co-hosting actress, and first time author Stacey Dash at our first author’s night this year, I noted that she frequently stressed her pride in being independent-minded in interviews.

As she shows in her newly published memoirs, the industry she works in has tried to stifle her independence and doesn’t give her credit for having much of a mind. The powers-that-be in Hollywood are wrong on both counts.

Hollywood was never a particularly conservative place nor was the industry it is famous for especially right-leaning. Yet and still, in days of yore there was a dynamic in which conservative actors such as John Wayne and Clark Gable faced off against more left-leaning peers and at least produced apolitical entertainment that was genuinely entertaining. Moreover, they made the classics that viewers still apparently prefer to new releases.

Nevertheless, given the enduring popularity of old westerns, one has to wonder whether audiences prefer the “criminal justice reform” in them to efforts by big city mayors and Washington pols.

As for Ms. Dash’s mental equipment, it was certainly in perfect working order at the panel we co-sponsored with the Conservative Book Club at the Conservative Political Action Conference in March. She did not utilize the giggle she employed at the Oscars for which her peers in the industry heaped derision upon her.

She did use it a lot in her breakthrough role, as the friend of the heroine in the movie Clueless. It’s understandable for an audience to not recognize that an actor is working in character but other actors should not be so clueless.

Editor’s Note: Dash’s book, “There Goes My Social Life,” is available at Amazon. She even poked fun at being a token black conservative at this year’s Oscars ceremonies, which Hollywood and the Left felt that the joke fell flat:

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