http://www.variety.com/blog/130000613/post/1680030968.html

Peter Bart is the editor in chief of Variety and the co-host of long-running AMC talk show Shootout.

“If stars are wary about backing Obama, Jon Voight has showed no such inhibition in his support for McCain. Writing an op-ed piece in the Washington Times, Voight warned that an Obama win would trigger “a socialist era” in America.

Voight reminded readers that he had endured the sixties in this country when, he recalled, “The radicals undermined our Vietnam initiative” and “were successful in giving the communists power.” Voight predicted that others in Hollywood would soon rally on McCain’s behalf.

Personally, I appreciate Voight’s fervor, but worry about his intellectual equipment. I remember that moment in the early ‘70s when Paramount offered Voight the lead role in “Love Story,” opposite Ali McGraw. Voight had just achieved stardom thanks to “Midnight Cowboy” and suddenly had his choice of roles.

As a young production executive at the studio, I was trying to push “Love Story” forward and joined colleagues in trying to interest Voight in the part. However the more we prodded, the more reluctant he became.

He finally blurted: “The character in this movie is a Harvard student. He’s bright. He reads books. I could never be believable as that smart young guy.”

So, Mr. Bart, Voight shifted from the left in the seventies (when he didn’t read) to the right in the naughties. Did you ever consider what the reason for that might be? Perhaps he started to read.

Dr. Charles G. Waugh on August 9, 2008 at 8:37 PM