Fast Times In Caracas

Jonathan Blanks | August 6, 2007

Of all the Americans who opposed the war, Hugo Chavez holds Sean Penn among the most important:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has praised Sean Penn for his critical stance against the war in Iraq, saying the two chatted by phone and soon plan to meet in person.

...

"Welcome to Venezuela, Mr. Penn. What drives him is consciousness, the search for new paths," Chavez said Wednesday in a televised speech. "He's one of the greatest opponents of the Iraq invasion."

...

Chavez said the two plan to meet Thursday. He called the actor "well-informed about what is happening in the United States and the world, in spite of being in Hollywood."

What's more, Chavez said, "he's made great films." The Venezuelan leader said he recently watched Penn's Oscar-winning performance in the film "Mystic River."

Perhaps Mr. Chavez is fond of Mystic River because it depicts a paranoid thug forcing a false confession out of an old friend before murdering him and throwing his body in the river. Or maybe he giggles whenever Spicoli orders that pizza. No, probably the first one.

Comments

|8.6.07 @ 10:05AM|#

Or maybe it's that blinding hatred the capitalist system that made them both rich. Oh, and of George Bush, too.

|8.6.07 @ 10:07AM|#

"He's one of the greatest opponents of the Iraq invasion."

Well, one of the most totally gnarly opponents of the Iraq War, sure. I don't know about "greatest."

|8.6.07 @ 10:10AM|#

With his investment in Danny Glover's Toussaint L'overture movie, and this Chavez clearly has a jones for hollywood. It's probably because he's a meglomaniac like so many who inhabit that city.

|8.6.07 @ 10:19AM|#

Should go well, unless Penn says something about Chavez' daughter.

|8.6.07 @ 10:19AM|#

Dude, play "Kasmir"--it really turns authoritarians on.

Episiarch|8.6.07 @ 10:42AM|#

Maybe Mr. Hand could straighten Hugo out.

|8.6.07 @ 10:58AM|#

I thought the "greatest" opponent of the Iraq invasion was Saddam Hussein. How did things work out for that guy?

|8.6.07 @ 11:01AM|#

Not as well as for us!

|8.6.07 @ 11:58AM|#

Mr. Chavez, war opponents don't need your "help", caudillo.

What the hell is Penn thinking? Is he trying to make Iraq war opponents look like loons?

|8.6.07 @ 12:36PM|#

What the hell is Penn thinking? Is he trying to make Iraq war opponents look like loons?

Yeah, I thought that was Cindy Sheehan's job.

Bopo|8.6.07 @ 1:28PM|#

"What the hell is Penn thinking? Is he trying to make Iraq war opponents look like loons?"

We already have Ron Paul doing that for us.

Gahan|8.6.07 @ 3:33PM|#

Thanks, F.A.G. You sure made the world a safer place, didn't you F.A.G.?

S.A. Miller|8.6.07 @ 5:28PM|#

Is he trying to make Iraq war opponents look like loons?

They didn't already?

|8.6.07 @ 9:44PM|#

They didn't already?

Sorry S.A.(B?) Miller, people who currently still support the Iraq War are the biggest loons in the universe.

|8.7.07 @ 12:36PM|#

people who currently still support the Iraq War are the biggest loons in the universe.

Damn them for not wanting to set off a savage round of ethnic cleansing that will plunge the region into chaos! Damn them to hell!