At Cannes, off-screen Bush bashing

SEAN PENN has been one of his most vocal critics. “We now have a president who thinks in terms of good and evil and that comes from watching too many Hollywood movies,” Penn said. “In the film aspect as well as the political aspect we have always had a bloodlust.”
Penn is one of 11 directors contributing to a film called “11-09-01: Eleven Minutes, Nine Seconds, One Frame,” which will be released on Sept. 11 of this year.
But the biggest Bush critic has been Michael Moore, whose “Bowling for Columbine” — about the culture of guns and violence in America — has received rave reviews and a 13-minute standing ovation. The documentary is widely considered to be the front runner for the prestigious Palme d’Or award, and Moore’s anti-Bush comments have been lapped up by the foreign press.

“To use the dead of that day as the cover to push their right-wing agenda, to shred our Constitution, to take away civil liberties ... to try and distract people from Enron, ‘because we need to focus on the war on terrorism,’ ” Moore said. “I think it’s immoral, I think it’s abhorrent. . . . You’re being hoodwinked — and it’s despicable.”