Janine Turner spoke with CNS News briefly at the launch of her new project, Constituting America, a project with a proclaimed mission to “reach, educate and inform America’s youth and her citizens about the importance of the U.S. Constitution and the foundation it sets forth regarding our freedoms and rights.” Sounds like a Tea Party kind of effort in an age of nanny-state dominance, right? Turner, though, isn’t your typical grassroots Tea Party activist, however. Most people will know her as the star of the quirky television series Northern Exposure, with a long career as a character actress in Hollywood. Now she’s coming out of the political closet as a conservative in a bastion of Leftist thought, and Turner tells CNS News that a price has been paid for her politics:

Actress Janine Turner said it is “hard for conservatives in Hollywood because they’re afraid to step out,” for it can affect their career in a place where the political and social environment is “very left.”

At a press conference in Washington, D.C., to announce her new organization, Constituting America, CNSNews.com asked Turner if she would “elaborate a little bit more on the environment in Hollywood for conservative actors and actresses such as yourself.”

Turner said: “Well, I think it’s hard for conservatives in Hollywood because they’re afraid to step out. Because when they do, there could be repercussions where they don’t have work, and that can mean – I think there are a lot of conservatives in Hollywood, whether they’re actors or producers or directors or crew members – but there’s not sort of en masse stepping out, and so everyone, no one is really willing to take the first step.”

“And I don’t blame them,” she said. “I mean, it’s affected my career too. And I think it’s hard, when you, when you step out as a conservative, it’s just such a – the environment is very left, very, very different to our type of environment.”

Why speak out, then? Turner says she’s tired of people in her industry who meet in secret and “won’t take a stand.” She’s taking her case public, offering video podcasts of her thoughts on the Constitution, very informal segments that entertain as well as enlighten. The site also offers more serious analysis by Constitutional scholars such as Professor Michael Krauss of George Mason School of Law’s essay on the amendments today. Be sure to check it out and keep checking back for more.