Martin Sheen's Oedipus Problem, And Ours

"I think he'd like to hand his father Saddam Hussein's head and win his approval for what happened after the Gulf War. That's my own personal opinion ? I don't know if that's true. I hope it's not, but I suspect it is."

That's TV president Martin Sheen musing on the real president's motivation for a sequel to the Gulf War. Sheen, the father of recidivist celebrity Charlie, surely knows a thing or two about a son's desperate need for recognition from a famous parent.

His comments came earlier today, at a Hollywood press conference held by beautiful people (and M*A*S*H second-string second banana Mike Farrell) to announce a letter they'd written urging Dubya to resist war in the Middle East. Reportedly, more than 100 celebrities (and Mike Farrell, who ironically owes his life of luxury to war and the sitcoms it inspires) signed the letter.

The exact contents of the letter were not revealed but given that the likes of Carl Reiner and Elliott Gould were involved, it can be assumed that it wasn't funny. And that its very existence is more disheartening to those of us who actually agree that Iraq can be contained without a full-scale invasion than it is to those on the other side of the issue.