Hollywood celebrities are finally supporting the sovereignty of national borders and are praising a former television star who became a president. Of course, the borders are the Ukraine's and the former television star is Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. I guess we will have to take what we can get.
At the 2022 Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards on Sunday, February 27, celebrities wore pins with the colors of the Ukrainian flag and offered support for the embattled country in their acceptance speeches and on the red carpet.
"There's so much going on in the world and my heart goes out to Ukraine," Lady Gaga said before the show began. "I think tonight we should all really sit in the gratitude of this."
“While tonight is a celebration, we are all at the same time holding a place in our hearts for the people of Ukraine and sending our thoughts, prayers, and hopes for impending peace,” Hamilton star Leslie Odom Jr. offered at the start of the show.
The moral support for Ukraine continued throughout the ceremony. (Will Hollywood also speak out in support of Taiwan if China ever invades that country? Communist China butters Hollywood's bread nowadays.)
Related: 'Yellowstone' Star Won't Attend SAG Awards Due to Vax Mandate
While accepting the award for best drama ensemble, Succession star Brian Cox lauded Zelensky's experience as a television star.
The President of Ukraine [Volodymyr Zelensky] was a comic. He was a wonderful comic performer. And we should respect that. To come to the presidency was amazing. But the thing that really distressed me is what’s happening in Russia, to my fellow actors and actresses and performers and writers and critics. They are told, under pain of high treason, they cannot say a word about Ukraine. I think that is awful. I think we should all stand together also for those people.
So glad to hear Hollywood is finally vocally supporting the rights of actors to express themselves without fear of reprisal.
While standing in solidarity with the Ukraine, the Screen Actors Guild still made sure to maintain the sort of annoying optics that remind Americans why they hate Hollywood. Staff and crew at the ceremony remained muzzled with masks while celebrities went mask-free. Celebrities were originally supposed to wear masks, but SAG changed the rules at the last minute. SAG also imposed vaccine mandates that left one particular star, Yellowstone's Forrie J. Smith, unable to attend.
Still, for one night, Hollywood stars put aside the usual left-wing conservative-bashing to focus instead on the war abroad. Of course, no star criticized Biden administration incompetence for contributing to the conflict in Ukraine. I doubt that if Trump were president, the actors would have been so gracious.