In a new Instagram post, Will & Grace star Eric McCormack seemingly backtracked from his earlier call to blacklist those who attend a President Trump fundraiser in Beverly Hills. Key word being “seemingly.”

I guarantee not a single Republican or Trump supporter in Hollywood takes his latest statement seriously. (Though most would admire the craftmanship of McCormack’s PR people.) Meanwhile, Whoopi Goldberg understood exactly what McCormack had called for, and she was not happy. 

The Controversy

To refresh, in perfect Woke Supremacist form, McCormack tweeted last week: “Hey, @THR, kindly report on everyone attending this event, so the rest of us can be clear about who we don’t want to work with. THX.” His spot-on impersonation of Sen. Joseph McCarthy was Emmy worthy. 

Hey, @THR, kindly report on everyone attending this event, so the rest of us can be clear about who we don’t wanna work with. Thx. https://t.co/7W3xPG3bI2

— Eric McCormack (@EricMcCormack) August 30, 2019

His Will & Grace co-star Debra Messing, quickly followed suit. “Please print a list of all attendees,” she tweeted, “The public has a right to know.” 

Their tandem call immediate conjured up images of the 1950s Hollywood blacklist against actors thought to have communist sympathies. (The irony? Nowadays having communist sympathies is almost as crucial in Hollywood as having an agent and decent headshots.) 

The backlash against the duo’s tweets has been intense. (Though, tellingly not loudly in Hollywood itself.) And now comes McCormack’s new statement.

McCormack’s New Statement

“I want to be clear about my social media post from last week, which has been misinterpreted in a very upsetting way,” McCormack began his Instagram post. “I absolutely do not support blacklists or discrimination of any kind, as anyone who knows me would attest. I’d simply like to understand where Trump’s major donations are coming from, which is a matter of public record.”

How do I know he’d still use whatever power he had to block, ostracize, deny opportunity to, any Trump supporter who crossed his path?  Because he calls the reaction to his clear call for blacklisting as being “misinterpreted.” His original words were very clear. (Perhaps his next role can be playing Peter “I Can Smell the Deplorables” Strzok.)

McCormack closes by saying “I am holding myself responsible for making educated and informed [decisions] that I can morally and ethically stand by and to to that, transparency is essential.”

What’s that mean? It means “I need to know who the Trump supporters are so I can fulfill my ‘moral and ethical duty’ to avoid working with them and hamper their career.” Put another way, “So I can be discriminate.” He is proposing that he is not calling for the industry to issue a formal blacklist. Just information that “the rest of us” — the non-Trump supporters — can act upon individually. Wink-wink. Nudge-nudge. 

I couldn’t have said it better.@EricMcCormack pic.twitter.com/YPnsFJIrOx

— Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) September 3, 2019

Notice what McCormack did not say. If he was misinterpreted, would he not make clear that he has no problem with Trump supporters working in Hollywood? Would he not make clear that he welcomes working with people of all political views? And that “the rest of us” should follow suit? Wouldn’t he be horrified by any suggestion otherwise? 

He’d make clear that he welcomes Trump supporters as cast and crew on any shows he himself produces. We see none of that.

He’d make clear that he rejects any producer, director, casting director who locks out a Republican or Trump supporter so as to avoid offending “the star.”  

Even after his statement, imagine you’re a casting director for Will & Grace. A nice recurring role is being cast. You’ve narrowed the choice down to three people. Your assistant does a quick social media search and discovers Candidate A has retweeted a few Trump tweets. Are you passing that name on or just the other two? We all know the answer. 

Ask Whoopi Goldberg. She knows what this crowd is up to. 

Whoopi Lays Down a Whipping

On Tuesday’s The View, Whoopi Goldberg demonstrated why she is a national treasure. Goldberg took McCormack and Messing to task. No, she took them over her knee and slapped their snobbish, Woke Supremacist behinds.

“Don’t encourage people to print out lists,” she thundered, “because the next list will have your name on it and people will be coming after you.” Then Whoopi really got going. 

We had something called the blacklist, and a lot of really good people were accused of stuff. Nobody cared whether it was true or not. They were accused. And they lost their right to work. 

You do not have the right! In this country, people can vote for who they want to — that is one of the great rights of this country. You don’t have to like it but we don’t go after people because we don’t like who they voted for — we don’t go after them that way. We can talk about issues and stuff, but we don’t print out lists.

She urged the duo to “remember what the blacklist actually meant to people and don’t encourage anyone — anyone to do it.” 

“Last time people did this, people ended up killing themselves.” 

We’ll see if Whoopi faces backlash for not being Woke enough for the Woke Supremacists. 

Ending the New Blacklist

How did the Hollywood blacklist end? Although some blacklisted writers and behind the scenes types managed to work under assumed names, credit for the first big crack in the blacklist usually goes to Kirk Douglas. In 1960, he pushed for blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo to be given onscreen credit for the epic Spartacus. 

An unsung hero is actress Betty Hutton. A  year earlier, she insisted blacklisted composer Jerry Fielding be hired as the musical director for her new CBS TV show. (Fitting that the woman who played Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun would to stick to her guns.) 

What’s it going to take now? It’s going to take stars with the same courage to loudly draw into their projects actors and crew known to have conservative leanings. It’s going to take directors and producers not only hiring actors and crew regardless of political leanings, but making clear any harassment or de facto blacklisting is not acceptable.

It would be nice to see, but I have little hope the Hollywood actors union SAG-AFTRA would make as much effort to assist conservative performers as they do every other type of minority and special interest in town. In all the years of my wife getting emails from SAG I never saw one workshop or seminar or notice of action that involved the support of or action in defense of conservative actors. Seminars for one-armed transgender little people of color, sure. But conservatives or Christians, nope. Not that I remember. Still, one can pray for change.

Of course, another way is for Trump supporters and all who support free speech and diverse thought to figuratively storm the gates of Hollywood. Come out of the shadows and change the script. 

Further still, work together on their own projects. Take the lead. Hollywood’s single-mindedness, as seen with McCormack and Messing, is poisoning their own soil. 

Plant in fresh soil, and watch what grows. 

 

Al Perrotta is the Managing Editor of The Stream and co-author, with @JZmirak, of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration. You can follow him at @StreamingAl. And if you aren’t already, please follow The Stream at @Streamdotorg.