Hollywood’s biggest night came with an unexpected accessory, and it was celebrities, who wore anti-ICE badges at the Golden Globes on Sunday in tribute to Renee Good, who was shot and killed in her car by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer this week in Minneapolis.The black and white pins featured slogans such as “BE GOOD” and “ICE OUT,” introducing a political angle to the awards show after last year’s relatively apolitical ceremony.
Mark Ruffalo, Wanda Sykes and Natasha Lyonne sported the pins on the red carpet, while Jean Smart and Ariana Grande sported them once inside the ballroom. Smart had the brooch on her dress when she accepted the award for best performance by an actress in a musical or comedy series. Since Wednesday’s shooting, protests have broken out across the country, calling for accountability for Good’s death, as well as another shooting in Portland, where Border Patrol agents injured two people. Some protests resulted in clashes with authorities, especially in Minneapolis, where ICE carried out its largest immigration enforcement operation to date. “We need all sectors of civil society, society, to speak,” said Nelini Stamp of Working Families Power, one of the organizers of the anti-ICE pins.The Trump administration doubled down on its defense of the ICE officer’s actions, maintaining that he was acting in self-defense and thought Good would hit him with her car. A week before Good was killed, an off-duty ICE officer shot and killed Keith Porter, 43, in Los Angeles. His death sparked protests in the Los Angeles area, calling for the arrest of the officer responsible. The idea for the “ICE OUT” pins began with a late-night text message exchange earlier this week between Stamp and Jess Morales Rocketto, executive director of a Latino advocacy group called Maremoto. All the actors were talking about the ICE attack, but what about Iran, where thousands of people are protesting against the dictatorial government?Hollywood couldn’t be bothered to address the issue on Sunday’s Golden Globes telecast. Some predicted this unfortunate situation.This is completely strange, since Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s “It Was Just an Accident,” a thriller about the victims of Iranian political torture, was nominated for best picture and he was there, but Hollywood still didn’t mention Iran in its speeches. However, in Iran, with some honorable exceptions such as JK Rowling or the pop singer Pink, everyone thought of ignoring the place where some 2,000 people were murdered.But why is there no noise at the Golden Globe?There could be two reasons, one was that it was “a symptom of the chronic system of Trump derangement that is still endemic in Hollywood.” Spectator referred to “reports of Iranians naming streets after the US president and seeing him as their best hope for liberation,” and said this “may have given the red carpet brigade pause.” The report adds: “Anything that involves being seen on the same side as Donald is problematic, to say the least.“The second possibility, he said, was “the sheer banality and emptiness of celebrity activism, which is based on a simplistic over/underdog paradigm,” adding that “events in Iran have never quite aligned with this worldview.”Regarding Israel, the article said that “things are simpler,” describing Israel as “an ally of the United States” with “money, weapons, power” that “tends to win its battles.” It said: “The people of Gaza appear at least to be helpless and helpless, demoralized and destitute.” He added that “taking the side of the Palestinians, if you ignore all the inconvenient details and nuances, feels emotionally satisfying and is costless.”According to the report, Iran was “more complicated” and that “mullahs can resort to a narrative of Western oppression and exploitation that disarms or at least confuses the standard celebrity activist.” It also said: “After all, they overthrew the Shah and he was a brutal dictator backed by the West, right? And we didn’t steal their oil for decades?”Even when Hollywood portrayed the Iranian regime “at its brutal worst,” including in the 2012 film Argo, “producers felt the need to offer an explanatory and partially exculpatory prologue describing the West’s abuse of the country (the 1953 coup).” He added: “It was like they were a little embarrassed to broach the subject.”