Hollywood Politics Watch

For some reason, I always imagined that Vincent D'Onofrio -- best known as "Private Gomer Pyle" or "Private Disgusting Fatbody" in Full Metal Jacket -- was a pretty grounded, with-it kind of cat.

As usual, I was wrong:

November 11, 2004 -- VINCENT D'Onofrio, the star of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," passed out while shooting the hit TV series yesterday morning — prompting insiders to gossip that the actor is "losing it." "Ever since John Kerry lost the election, [D'Onofrio] has lost his [bleep,]" said our on-set insider.

"He has been getting into fistfights with people, and when he passed out today, we all thought he was faking it. But then he insisted they call 911."

An ambulance raced to the Queens studio, where paramedics found nothing wrong with the gifted actor...

Tensions on the "Criminal Intent" set are running high. "No one thinks Vincent will last for much longer," the insider said.

...

D'Onofrio, a big Kerry supporter, was said to be devastated over President Bush's re-election. "When PAGE SIX [last week] wrote about 'Law & Order' putting up signs forbidding political discussions on set, it was funny," our source said. "Those signs were put up because of [D'Onofrio]."

About a month before the election, D'Onofrio "insisted" on putting up anti-Bush posters and fliers, "and would attack anyone who disagreed with him," the spy added.

In response, "Law & Order" producers posted signs banning political discussions or anything else that would impede work on set, implying that D'Onofrio had held up taping of the show with his political zealotry.

Sheesh.

But the Lord never closes a door without opening a Cliff Claven. Cheers star John Ratzenberger seems to be making some serious conservative noises here:

"In school we said the Pledge of Allegiance and in summer marched in parades on streets decorated with American flags," says the actor, who appearing before one recent audience criticized this country's "silly educational emphasis on multiculturalism" that "only causes people to be hyper-aware of color instead of being colorblind."

...

The actor warns that "structures and organizations, even countries, don't survive forever on momentum."

...

As for Hollywood and its impact, he says: "I'm concerned about the insidious influence of the media's bad messages that undermine the lessons parents try to instill in their sons and daughters."

He speaks of a recent conversation he had with a high-ranking network executive, the son of a studio executive born and raised in Los Angeles, who turned down a series proposed by Mr. Ratzenberger that would center around life in a truck stop.

"I kid you not, this guy had never heard of truck stops," says the actor, whose father was a truck driver. "I should have educated him by pointing out that if New York and Los Angeles were to suddenly disappear one day, all the other American cities would quickly learn to adjust ... .

"I have a lot more in common with my gardener that I do with guys like him," he concludes. "It appalls me that the people who decide what Americans will be watching on the tube have never been to the United States. Not the real United States.

"To them, the real United States is just flyover country. The pollution they produce, market, sell, and show to billions around the world is at its core contemptuous of the country that gave them better lives than nearly 100 percent of everybody who's ever lived. And they pass that contempt along for everyone to see."

I'm starting to think that he really might have a potato chip that looks like Richard M. Nixon.

The Sergeant Really Did Hate Private Pyle: R. Lee Ermey, the DI from FMJ (and a thousand other movies), apparently is no big fan of Michael Moore.

He doesn't call him a disgusting fatbody, but he does call him fat and ugly.

Update: Hard to believe, but Roger L. Simon says that liberal Beverly Hills went 42% for Bush.

At the moment, I'm filing this in the strange-but-not-necessarily-true category.