Is Hollywood (Finally) Coming to Its Senses?

Conservatives have little patience for modern Hollywood.

They pine for the days of John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart, and they’ve had enough of Tinsel Town circa 2024.

• The progressive messaging
• The woke storytelling
• The forced diversity at all costs

The industry, in return, seemed disinterested in their opinions. Hollywood all but ignores “flyover country” in its product.

Heaven help you if you wanted to work in the industry while harboring conservative views. The Blacklist 2.0 is real.

We’re starting to see signs that Hollywood is coming to its senses, and that’s good news for both conservatives and fair-minded consumers.

This week alone featured three such examples.

Dwayne Johnson, one of the world’s most popular movie stars, gave a stunning interview to Fox News. Johnson, 51, told host Will Cain that he regretted endorsing Joe Biden during the 2020 presidential campaign.

And he won’t make the same mistake twice.

“My goal is to bring this country together…I will keep my politics to myself. It is between me and the ballot box. Like a lot of us out there, not trusting of all politicians, I do trust the American people and whoever they vote for that is my president and who I will support 100 percent.”

Johnson added he’s dissatisfied with the country at the moment but sees a brighter future ahead.

Why the change of heart?

The actor’s 2022 superhero romp “Black Adam” dramatically under-performed, for starters. It’s no time to alienate consumers who might support your future films.

Another Biden endorsement would do just that.

Plus, as Jack Posobiec noted on X, the former WWE great has a new project under way that needs both liberal and conservative viewers to survive.

People are commenting on the Rock going on Fox and hitting Biden without even knowing his big UFL deal is this summer. Knows he needs Trump supporters to watch. That’s all this is

— Jack Poso (@JackPosobiec) April 6, 2024

It’s still a remarkable admission for a star of Johnson’s magnitude. That’s especially during an Election Year when actors are expected to support President Biden at all costs.

And then there’s Ron Swanson.

Actor Nick Offerman played that lovable Libertarian on “Parks and Recreation.” Now, he’s co-starring as the President in “Civil War,” a movie fraught with political baggage. The dystopian thriller, out April 12, features a United States at war with itself.

Offerman discussed the film with a Hollywood Reporter journalist, and he shared this nugget about the film’s apolitical nature. Not only did the star dismiss conjecture that his fascist politician was a Donald Trump stand-in, he summoned the Johnny Carson Model.

Don’t alienate a large portion of the American public.

“It would be so easy to make this movie and lay in some [political] Easter eggs … you would lose half your audience, one wya or the other. Instead, this is like a great novel. It’s for everybody.”

How often do stars stake that position in the modern era? Very, very rarely.

And then there’s Disney CEO Bob Iger.

The Hollywood veteran survived a challenge to his authority this week, but it obviously left him rattled. Here, he reiterates a message he began embracing late last year when he vowed to “quiet the noise” on the Culture Wars raging around Disney.

Most of those issues were self-inflicted, of course.

“[W]e know our job is not to advance any kind of agenda. So as long as I’m on the job, I’m going to continue to be guided by a sense of decency and respect, and we will always trust our instincts.”

Iger told CNBC Disney’s many critics might have a point.

But Iger did seem to acknowledge that critiques of Disney’s content as being “woke” may have a certain degree of merit, though he added, “the term woke is thrown around rather liberally, no pun intended in that regard. I think a lot of people don’t even understand really what it means.

Three prominent Hollywood players. Three public positions that they’d never take just a few short years ago. Could it be tied to streaming platforms hemorrhaging cash? Or box office figures that still can’t measure up to pre-pandemic figures?

Or a Biden economy that has the industry scrambling to make ends meet? Or the fact that the dueling strikes of 2023 left Hollywood permanently damaged?

No matter the reason, these signs of sanity are more than welcome.

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