Jane Fonda sharpening her Congressional bona fides

by Smitty (h/t Huffer)

I recently signed a letter protesting the Toronto International Film Festival's decision to showcase and celebrate Tel Aviv. This in the very year when Gaza happened.

I have no idea what that noun/verb combination means exactly.

The decision made the festival a participant in the newly launched campaign to "rebrand" Israel. Arye Mekel, the Israeli Foreign Ministry's Director General for Cultural Affairs, has said that artists and writers must be enlisted in order to "show Israel's prettier face, so we are not thought of purely in the context of war." The protesters felt it was wrong for the much-respected festival to be used in this manner. The role of art, after all, is not to prettify but to expose reality with all its contradictions and complexities.

Not if you're the NEA getting your Goebbels on. Emphasis mine.

I signed the letter without reading it carefully enough, without asking myself if some of the wording wouldn't exacerbate the situation rather than bring about constructive dialogue.

Hey: if she's a tax cheat, then she could be Napolitano's special Veteran Outreach Czar, or something. However, her non-approach to literacy may make her a great candidate for Congress.

Update:
Thanks, Brigette. Can't rely on the spell checker for the title.