One of the perks of being a film critic is getting access to the stills shared by film studios.
Example? The film “Champions” offers multiple photos from the film’s production to flesh out reviews and features based on the Woody Harrelson comedy.
One image featured director Bobby Farrelly of “There’s Something About Mary” fame coaching his young actors while wearing a mask.
It’s not an isolated incident. Similar stills show masked-up artists on sets, often working with maskless actors. That’s Hollywood, at least as it stands three years after the COVID pandemic swamped the planet.
The rest of society has mostly ditched pandemic restrictions, many of which seem to have had little impact on curtailing the virus. Not Hollywood, where masking, vaccine mandates, and more remain the norm.
And a small group of stars is fighting back.
“The Nanny” alum Fran Drescher, the current SAG-AFTRA president, excoriated her peers for pursuing vaccine mandates long after their alleged usefulness was exposed. She shared that message during the recent SAG Awards gala.
SAG AFTRA, or the Screen Actors Guild — American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, is a labor union representing artists from across the creative spectrum. Think movie stars, directors, models and radio personalities.
“As the nation declares an end to the COVID emergency this May, I hope we will see everyone return to work in equal opportunity,” she said during her podium time, demanding an end of the “bulls***” COVID vaccine mandates.
Her message came roughly the same time as Woody Harrelson uncorked a “Saturday Night Live” monologue that poked holes in the virus protocols we’ve been forced to live under for years. The “Champions” star shared a fictional, funny story about a wacky script in which Big Pharma forced everyone to take their medication or stay locked in their homes in perpetuity.
And Harrelson wasn’t done disrupting Hollywood’s lockstep COVID narrative. He told The New York Times that a free country doesn’t force its citizens to take medicine against their will.
“I don’t think that anybody should have the right to demand that you’re forced to do the testing, forced to wear the mask and forced to get vaccinated three years on,” he said. “I’m just like, let’s be done with this nonsense. It’s not fair to the crews. I don’t have to wear the mask. Why should they? Why should they have to be vaccinated? How’s that not up to the individual? I shouldn’t be talking about this [expletive].”
Drescher and Harrelson’s views came months after Oscar-winner Tim Robbins excoriated his industry for similar protocols.
Robbins admits he sounded like every Hollywood star early in the pandemic. Do as your told. Lock down indefinitely. Listen to Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Then, the “Bull Durham” star reached out to other people who questioned the narratives embraced in near uniformity by Hollywood, Inc. And something didn’t feel right, especially when we learned the vaccines neither prevented transmission or stopped the recipient from becoming infected.
He shared his growing skepticism with Britain’s Russell Brand, the quasi-socialist comic who has been aggressively red-pilled in recent years. Robbins noted talk of science came with an asterisk.
“…to continue the policy of lockdowns or mandates after that didn’t seem to be following the science. It was following a political agenda.”
Robbins also wondered why natural immunity, an established way to combat past viruses, was dismissed by so many, including Dr. Fauci, the nation’s revered expert on the matter.
Forcing artists to obey these rules, or else, made Robbins speak out on the matter. That practice crushed the careers of more than a few stars, including Clifton Duncan. The Broadway actor essentially left the industry because he refused to take the vaccine.
By any measure comedian Rob Schneider was ahead of the curve when it came to protocol skepticism. The “Deuce Bigalow” star, who has drifted to the Right in recent years, publicly shared his unease with the COVID vaccines on Twitter in 2021 while nearly all of his peers signed off on the treatments.
“Just say no… And keep saying no… Over Half of the US population is continuing to say no to this unapproved experimental gene therapy! “My body, my choice!”
These voices still represent a fraction of the modern Hollywood landscape. Many stars might agree with them, but they fear professional repercussions for admitting so. Others cheated, plain and simple. They were part of a counterfeit vaccine status market where they pretended to play by the rules but still avoided the COVID jabs.
Others appear happy with the status quo — performing without masks while others mask up from start to finish.
Stephen Colbert recently told his “Late Show” audience about President Joe Biden’s decision to rescind the emergency status tied to the pandemic.
“I wish you could see the smiles on the faces in my audience. And I wish I could, too. Because they’re still wearing masks.”
Colbert may represent the industry’s rigid groupthink on the matter. When Colbert, a reliably progressive voice, learned that the Department of Energy determined the lab leak theory tied to COVID is the likely source of the outbreak he did all he could to deny the truth.
“No! No! Bad Energy Department. No bio-labs until you finish building your electric car-charging stations. Stay in your lane!”
No matter what Drescher, Harrelson, or Robbins think, the industry’s COVID protocols will stay in place through April 1 … if not longer.
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic and editor of HollywoodInToto.com. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at @HollywoodInToto.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.