For the second time in less than three years, Sean Penn is back in the Middle East working as a journalist for the San Francisco Chronicle.
The Oscar-winning actor has left a wake of excited fans and bewildered clerics around the Iranian capital while on a special assignment for the San Francisco Chronicle to cover Friday's presidential elections. Last week, Penn attended Friday prayers at Tehran University where worshippers gave the well-known chant of "Death to America." On Monday, he told an audience at Tehran's Film Museum that such cries hurt prospects for starting a dialogue between Iran and the United States. His trip has offered Iranian photographers the rare taste of paparazzi-style celebrity hunting. Iran has a highly respected domestic film industry that has won countless international awards, but few Hollywood stars have visited since the Islamic Revolution. Given a press credential by Chronicle Executive Editor Phil Bronstein, Penn visited neighboring Iraq in late November 2003, shortly before Saddam Hussein was captured. He wrote a series of stories for the newspaper. Penn, 44, won a best-actor Oscar in 2004 for his portrayal of a grief-stricken father seeking revenge for his daughter's death in Mystic River, directed by Clint Eastwood. His screen credits also include I Am Sam,Sweet and Lowdown and Dead Man Walking.
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