The high cost of Bush-bashing
JANEANE Garofalo's relentless bashing of President Bush might have doomed her new ABC sitcom.
Garofalo is set to play a producer of a TV newsmagazine on "Slice O'Life." But ABC has been deluged with calls and e-mails from patriotic types threatening to boycott the network and its advertisers if the sitcom gets on the schedule, reports MSNBC.com's Jeannette Walls.
"We do not wish to see the faces of liberal Hollywood, particularly those that provided aid and comfort to Saddam Hussein," one protestor, Jon Alvarez, e-mailed ABC. "We will stand up and fight for our right to request their exclusion from shows and sponsors that seek our attention."
ABC reps had no comment.
The war "is a manufactured conflict for the sake of geopolitical dominance," Garofalo declared to the Washington Post in January, in one of her many outbursts against the president. "There is no evidence of weapons of mass destruction. You never even get that idea floated in the mainstream media. If you bring it up, they hate the messenger. You've ruined everyone's good time.
"I won't stick my head in the sand and have history roll right over me," she declared. "I refuse to allow my government and the mainstream media to bully me into accepting a war that is immoral and illegal. If it means people make fun of me or think I'm a jerk, or I lose a job here and there, that means nothing to me."
Meanwhile, an ad the Dixie Chicks shot for Lipton Brisk iced tea might never air. The commercial was filmed before lead singer Natalie Maines told a concert crowd last month they were ashamed that Bush hails from their home state of Texas.
Radio stations around the country banned the Dixie Chicks' music and their new album suffered a 40 percent decline in sales.
Chicago-based ad agency Leo Burnett created the Lipton commercial which - unbeknownst to Lipton or the Dixie Chicks, sources say - was shot at the former Spahn Movie Ranch outside L.A., the infamous Manson family hangout.
Brisk is a joint venture between Pepsi and Unilever. Execs at both corporations fear a Dixie Chicks endorsement might actually hurt sales and are debating whether to air the spot. A Pepsi rep referred to it as a "Unilever situation" and referred calls to their rep, who could not be reached.