{"id":50443,"date":"2025-10-02T03:38:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T03:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/50443\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T03:38:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T03:38:09","slug":"billie-eilish-gracie-abrams-pedro-pascal-join-free-speech-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/50443\/","title":{"rendered":"Billie Eilish, Gracie Abrams, Pedro Pascal Join Free Speech Fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tMore than 550 actors, directors, writers and musicians \u2014 including Jane Fonda<\/a>, Billie Eilish<\/a>, Pedro Pascal<\/a>, Gracie Abrams<\/a>, Spike Lee<\/a>, Viola Davis<\/a>, Barbra Streisand<\/a>, Ben Stiller<\/a>, John Legend<\/a>, Janelle Monae<\/a>, and Natalie Portman<\/a> \u2014 have teamed up to relaunch the Committee for the First Amendment, a group originally formed in 1947 during the Red Scare. In its original incarnation, the group stood in opposition to the House Un-American Activities Committee\u2019s Joseph McCarthy-era interrogations of Hollywood figures suspected of communist sympathies.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe McCarthy Era ended when Americans from across the political spectrum finally came together and stood up for the principles in the Constitution against the forces of repression,\u201d the group wrote in a statement <\/a>Wednesday. \u201cThose forces have returned. And it is our turn to stand together in defense of our constitutional rights. The federal government is once again engaged in a coordinated campaign to silence critics in the government, the media, the judiciary, academia, and the entertainment industry. We refuse to stand by and let that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tActor and activist Jane Fonda, whose father, Henry Fonda, was among the original committee\u2019s members, is leading the effort. In a letter to industry colleagues released Wednesday, she wrote that the group aims to present \u201ca united front against government censorship, intimidation, and fear.\u201d Other\u00a0 signatories include Aaron Sorkin, J.J. Abrams, Whoopi Goldberg, Anne Hathaway, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Larry David, Bill Maher, Julianne Moore, Glenn Close, Helen Mirren, Barry Jenkins, Judd Apatow, Kerry Washington, Mark Ruffalo, Sean Penn, Ted Danson, Billy Crystal, Nicolas Cage, Quinta Brunson, and Fran Drescher.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe committee\u2019s revival comes amid growing tensions between the entertainment industry and the Trump administration over free speech, which peaked with ABC\u2019s temporary suspension<\/a> last month of Jimmy Kimmel<\/a> Live! after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr criticized <\/a>Kimmel\u2019s\u00a0 commentary around the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Sept. 17, hours after Carr appeared on a conservative podcast calling Kimmel\u2019s remarks \u201ctruly sick\u201d and warning that Disney faced \u201ca very, very serious issue,\u201d ABC announced it was suspending the late-night show indefinitely. Two major broadcasting groups that own ABC affiliate stations, Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group, had already announced they would preempt the program at the time.<\/p>\n

\n\tPresident Donald Trump praised the suspension and suggested on social media that NBC should fire late-night hosts Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers. After a widespread outcry from Hollywood and boycott threats from consumers, ABC resumed<\/a> airing Kimmel\u2019s showron Sept. 22, and Nexstar and Sinclair eventually returned to carrying the show.<\/p>\n

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\n\tThe original Committee for the First Amendment brought together major stars of its era \u2014 Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra \u2014 who produced radio broadcasts and traveled to the Capitol in protest. Despite their efforts, the Hollywood Ten \u2014\u00a0 writers and directors who declined to answer questions about their political affiliations \u2014 were jailed for contempt of Congress and effectively banned from working in Hollywood for years. The blacklist effectively ended by the early 1960s.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn their statement released Wednesday, the newly reformed committee said free speech and free expression \u201care the inalienable rights of every American of all backgrounds and political beliefs \u2014 no matter how liberal or conservative you may be.\u201d The group has not yet announced specific plans for action beyond the joint statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 550 actors, directors, writers and musicians \u2014 including Jane Fonda, Billie Eilish, Pedro Pascal, Gracie Abrams,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[38946,3991,1852,458,146,17402,85,46,19569,38947,4176,15319,38948,460,746,38949],"class_list":{"0":"post-50443","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-barbra-streisand","9":"tag-ben-stiller","10":"tag-billie-eilish","11":"tag-celebrities","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-gracie-abrams","14":"tag-il","15":"tag-israel","16":"tag-jane-fonda","17":"tag-janelle-monae","18":"tag-jimmy-kimmel","19":"tag-john-legend","20":"tag-natalie-portman","21":"tag-pedro-pascal","22":"tag-spike-lee","23":"tag-viola-davis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}