Let's take Mark Ruffalo at his word. It's not easy, but go with it.
The "Avengers" star isn't an antisemite, and his bizarre comments tying the Paramount/Warner Bros. Discovery merger with Israel have nothing to do with bigotry of any kind, even if several Jewish groups have called him out.
Got it?
Well, he must have used his celebrity platform to rage against the Oct. 7 atrocities that killed a thousand Israelis and captured hundreds more. The slaughter. The savagery. The sexual assaults. The ghouls who captured some of the barbarism on video.
Sheryl Sandberg made a haunting documentary about the massacre.
Surely Ruffalo led Hollywood in its collective outrage, right?
Right?
Sadly, no. He's been far more vocal supporting the Palestinian cause over the last two-plus years.
We can't say the same about Patricia Heaton. The sitcom legend ("Everybody Loves Raymond," "The Middle") has been consistently vocal on the subject of not just Oct. 7 but the vile spike in antisemitism in the U.S.
Heaton isn't Jewish, but she understands how devastating that attack was to both Israel and the western world. Seeing the instant, anti-Israel reaction rocked her. She shared as much with Andrew Gold on the most recent edition of his "Heretics" podcast.
Heaton, when asked if she was shocked by the response of her fellow actors to the Oct. 7 attacks, broke out into a stupefied expression.
"Yeah," she muttered, the memories still fresh in mind. "I was shocked by my whole country."
The searing documentary "October 8" captures her outrage, recalling how swiftly academia types rallied against Israel the very next day.
"It wasn't just that the people I expected to speak up didn't speak up. College campuses exploded, blaming Israel for the slaughter they had just experienced," Heaton said. "Suddenly, everybody was wearing a keffiyeh on Oct. 8. This has been planned and in the works for quite a while."
Heaton described the antisemitic explosion as a "liberal" obsession, but she soon saw it with some far-right Catholics, Christians and right-leaning podcasters. Gold name-checked Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson, two formerly conservative pundits who became obsessed with Israel in recent months.
Heaton didn't disagree.
"The response was just crickets from the people who should say something, I was really taken aback. Somebody has to say something," she recalled of her reaction at the time.
So she did. And she hasn't stopped.
Heaton isn't completely alone in this regard. Other stars who have spoken out on this critical topic include singer John Ondrasik (Five for Fighting), actor/comedian Michael Rapaport and "Will & Grace" alum Debra Messing.
Ondrasik repeatedly mentioned the Israeli hostages while touring America and sang on stage with a hostage survivor earlier this year.
Rapaport and Messing contributed to "October 8" and have used their social media platforms to raise awareness for the hostages and call out antisemitism.
Rapaport went so far as to perform a faux Oscars monologue mocking his fellow actors for their stupefying silence on the extended hostage crisis.
You won't see anything like that on "Saturday Night Live." It's tragic.
