Last night at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center in Downtown Los Angeles a very unique and inspiring event took place.  Entitled "Voices of a People's History of the United States", the event sampled speeches, letters and more by the likes of Susan B. Anthony, abolitionist John Brown, Mark Twain and Cindy Sheehan.  These excerpts read by many of Hollywood's great actors and political advocates, including Viggo Mortensen (LOTR, History of Violence), Marisa Tomei (My Cousin Vinny), Sandra Oh (Grey's Anatomy), Josh Brolin (Into the Blue), Kerry Washington (Ray) and Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon).  The material was both moving and funny in turn. 

One reading by Oh was written by a Japanese American woman who was removed from her home in San Pedro in 1941 and sent to a concentration camp during the war.  Another piece told of a factory worker in Chicago who was one of the first women to organize unions in that state for better conditions and rights.  A very moving rendition of Cindy Sheehan's speech about her son being killed in the Iraq war and her subsequent trip to try to talk to President Bush in Crawford, TX was given by Tomei. 

 

Each of the readers for the evening was clearly passionate about the material both Mortensen and Vanessa Martinez (Lone Star) read their passages both in Spanish and English to the delight of the mixed crowd.  Danny Glover had flown in from Florida and arrived midway through right off of the plane to participate.  Mortensen made one of his now famous antiwar/anti Bush shirts which stated "Impeach, Remove, Jail".  He was still sporting the red and blue paint on his hands! 

 

The panel was moderated by Howard Zinn who wrote the book that this reading was based on "A People's History of the United States" and Anthony Arnove who is the writer of "Iraq Under Siege: The Deadly Impact of Sanctions".

 

It was very interesting and enjoyable to hear these words of many people in history who are not as famous and often overlooked for their views.  If you have an opportunity to pick up a copy of Zinn's book, please check it out, I think you will find it fascinating. -

 

The evening was marred, however by an event that took place directly after the event.  An autograph hound (those people who attend various Hollywood events to gain multiple copies of signatures from celebrities to sell and try to make a living) was there to have some things signed by Viggo Mortensen.  Viggo rather politely told the small crowd of people who were looking to get his autograph that he would rather not sign any Lord of the Rings memorabilia only because he wanted the focus to be on the event and the corresponding book, not his own prior work. 

The auto hound freaked out, to say the least and began screaming at Viggo and his assistant from his publishing house.  This man was very insulting and vulgar and everyone in the area was appalled at what he was saying.  Viggo was very upset and briefly walked away from a quickly escalating situation that could easily have become physical.  Viggo returned a few minutes later and said that he would sign autographs for everyone that was waiting, and even offered to make things right by this clearly disturbed man who had seen fit to start all of this ruckus and put a stain on the night for everyone that was around. 

I have to say that I personally applaud Viggo for the way that he handled the situation.  Celebrities do not owe anything to the public.  They are paid to appear in films, do some publicity for them and that is all.  Most celebrities are very cognizant of their fans and how important they are and with a few exceptions, they are most often gracious to a fault with their fans.  What I found so ironic about this particular situation is that I had seen Viggo the week prior directly following the premiere of his new film HISTORY OF VIOLENCE and even though there was a huge crowd of people mobbing him, he never lost his cool, was very generous with taking photos and signing autographs for just as many people as he was able.  I hope that experiences like this one and other paparazzi involved stalking of celebs will not make them wary around their fans in the future, most of whom are very polite and grateful to just have that small moment with their idol.