Canceled stars rarely get swift second chances.
It took years for Hollywood to embrace Mel Gibson again, for example, after his drunken, anti-Jewish rants. Roseanne Barr may never be forgiven for one racially-charged Tweet. The same is true for comedian Louis C.K. after he admitted in 2017 to pleasuring himself in front of multiple women.
The latest cancelled stars may rebound in a New York Minute.
“Scream” alum Melissa Barrera lost her gig in the seventh film in the horror franchise after her repugnant views on Israel went public.
Over the weekend, Barrera joined the Sundance Film Festival merriment, got interviewed by Variety and marched in a virulently anti-Israel protest in Park City, Utah.
(WATCH) Melissa Barrera joins pro-Palestine demonstration at #Sundance. Almost 100 people have shown up to march on Main Street pic.twitter.com/GXGJkXvos3
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) January 21, 2024
Said protest featured familiar chants, including “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “Intifada everywhere.” The former is near-universally acknowledged as a call for Israel’s elimination.
The Anti-Defamation League is a deeply flawed organization, but here’s what it says about the latter phrase.
The chant is a reference to violent Palestinian uprisings against Israel, specifically acts of terrorism and indiscriminate violence against civilians by terrorist groups, including suicide bombings in buses and restaurants. This slogan has been chanted at anti-Israel rallies for years. Jews and Israelis hear this slogan as a call for indiscriminate violence against Israel, and potentially against Jews and Jewish institutions worldwide.
Barrera, 33, marched with the pro-Palestinian protest, which disrupted some of Sunday’s festival events. She may no longer have that “Scream” gig, but there’s little sense her career will directly suffer from her incendiary comments.
She’s currently co-starring in the Sundance feature “Your Monster.” Her IMDB.com page features two projects in post-production and one in pre-production.
Should Barrera suffer for speaking her mind? Let’s set that matter aside for now and consider how Hollywood deals with free speech issues.
Sarandon, 77, lost her representation following her crude public comments regarding Jews and Palestinians late last year. She apologized for part of her speech but has turned her X account (formerly Twitter) into a nonstop, pro-Palestinian propaganda arm.
She’s done more than that.
According to The New York Post, Sarandon signed on with the group Film Workers for Palestine. Other celebrities to join the group include John Cusack, directors Mike Leigh and Mira Nair (“Monsoon Wedding”) and Barrera.
Here are some of the baseless claims and moral relativism found in the group’s charter.
We are shocked by the deaths of countless journalists, poets, and other artists who have been targeted by airstrikes [emphasis added]. We mourn this loss of life, as we mourn the civilians killed on October 7th by Hamas, and those killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank since then.
It also suggests the Oct. 7 terror attacks by Hamas were justified.
We reject the double standard that presumes that only the allies of the U.S. have a right to defend themselves.
Disney, and by extension, Hollywood, canceled Gina Carano for comments comically deemed “anti-semitic.” It’s one of the worst injustices in recent screen history, and Carano has yet to make a project within traditional Hollywood systems since.
She’s starred in The Daily Wire’s “Terror on the Prairie” and Breitbart News’ “My Son Hunter.”
Will Sarandon, Cusack, Barrera and more face similar banishment for hurling far more inflammatory accusations?