From the annals of corporate censorship

Aladdin expels Ronstadt after political remarks
By Jerry Fink

Aladdin President Bill Timmins ordered security guards to escort pop diva Linda Ronstadt off the property following a concert Saturday night during which she expressed support for controversial documentary filmmaker Michael Moore.

Timmins, who was among the almost 5,000 fans in the audience at the Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts, had Ronstadt escorted to her tour bus and her belongings from her hotel room sent to her. Timmins also sent word to Ronstadt that she was no longer welcome at the property for future performances, according Aladdin spokeswoman Tyri Squyres.

How much weight that carries is debatable, since the bankrupt Aladdin is in the process of being sold to a group headed by Planet Hollywood International Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Robert Earl.

Near the close of her performance, Ronstadt dedicated the Eagles hit "Desperado" to Moore, producer of "Fahrenheit 9/11," and the room erupted into equal parts boos and cheers.

She said Moore "is someone who cares about this country deeply and is trying to help."

Ronstadt has been making the dedication at each of her engagements since she began a national tour earlier this summer, but it has never sparked such a reaction.

Hundreds of angry fans streamed from the theater as Ronstadt sang. Some of them reportedly defaced posters of her in the lobby, writing comments and tossing drinks on her pictures.

Timmins told Las Vegas Sun gossip columnist Timothy McDarrah: "We live in a city where people come from all over the world to be entertained. We hired Ms. Ronstadt as an entertainer, not as a political activist.

"Whether you are politically on the left or on the right is not the point. She went up in front of the stage and just let it out. This was not the correct forum for that."

Timmins said she was wrong to bring her politics to the stage.

"Our first and only priority is the enjoyment of our customers," he said. "I made the decision to ask Miss Ronstadt to leave the hotel. A situation like that can easily turn ugly and I didn't want anything more to come out of it. There were a lot of angry people there after she started talking.

"If she wants to talk about her views to a newspaper or in a magazine article, she is free to do so. But in a stage in front of four and a half thousand people is not the place for it."

Squyres said half the audience walked out, an estimate that might have been high. But the number was substantial, nevertheless.

"The hotel's policy is that we hired her to entertain guests, not to express her political views," Squyres said.

Yes, I'm absolutely certain that in the history of Las Vegas, no entertainer has ever expressed conservative or anti-liberal views from a casino stage, supported the establishment, the war in Vietnam or the invasion of Iraq, extolled the virtues of or criticised the President (depending on who's in power) or made explicit their views on, let's say, the Second Amendment. Never happened, not in the Sixties, not during the Clinton administration, and certainly not today.

I mean, to do so would be just so, you know, outrageous.

(Of course, given that the Alladin is apparently bankrupt, perhaps the judgment of its president is not stellar in many ways.)