From Brendan DuBois; A New Censorship in Hollywood?

Hi Ed ---

Not sure if you got the news or not, but I've heard that Bill Tapply, author of the Brady Coyne mysteries and a host of other books, died last night of cancer.

Damn.

He was active in the New England chapter of MWA, for a while we shared agents, and he was overall just the best... and he will be missed.

Well, thought you'd like to know.

And I visit your site at least twice a day; it's one of my favorites...

You take care.

All best, Brendan DuBois

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A NEW CENSORSHIP IN HOLLYWOOD

(The London Times online)


Hollywood calls — but only if your face fits
The film industry is being stalked by a new McCarthyism that is more dangerous for being so insidious
Michael Freedland

Every time you go to a cinema, you should remember the acronym HUAC. More importantly, film-makers should have those letters engraved on their hearts. It is now more than 60 years since they seemed to represent a death sentence for the movies. The worrying thing is that, subtly, it could all be happening again.

HUAC stood for the House Un-American Activities Committee, which dedicated itself to rooting out what were quaintly known as reds under the beds. Any movie — or moviemaker — seen as vaguely communist, even just for associations with organisations bearing the word “peace”, was blacklisted. Film projects with themes that the committee did not like never got made.

Hollywood was a convenient target — because every time a prominent film-writer or a film star was brought before HUAC, camera bulbs flashed and the newspapers had pictures of them trying to answer the question “Are you now or have you ever been a communist?” It was wonderful publicity for a committee made up of congressman demagogues — including Richard Milhous Nixon — whose big dream seemed to be to make the Cold War grow hot.

This was the start of what became known as “McCarthyism”, although the evil Senator Joseph McCarthy hadn’t yet gone into business running his own show in the US Senate. It captured the public mood, resulted in the Hollywood Ten, mainly writers, going to jail, and destroyed careers — and lives.

For the rest go here:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6729592.ece