THE REALITY - AT 5:17 P.M. ET:  If you think I've been exaggerating in my references to political correctness in Hollywood, please note this item from the New York Post's "Page Six," about actor Ron Silver, who died over the weekend:

THE Hollywood blacklist still exists. It's no longer aimed at Communists and their fellow travelers from the Cold War. Now it's aimed at Republicans. Long before Ron Silver was diagnosed with cancer, the brilliant actor who co-founded the Creative Coalition was dead as far as his career was concerned. "After I made that speech for President George W. Bush at the Republican Convention here in Manhattan [in 2004], Hollywood and Broadway dried up on me," Silver told radio station magnate William O'Shaughnessy last year when they saw each other at Le Cirque. "The phone stopped ringing . . . nada . . . not a thing."

COMMENT:  Many people think of political correctness as a kind of joke, or mild harassment.  It is not.  Political correctness is an ugly, often brutal form of discrimination that destroys careers, and worse.  It is wrong no matter which side practices it.  It is very much alive in Hollywood today.  I know.  I've felt it.  You have no idea.

March 17, 2009