I regard Alec Baldwin and Susan Sarandon not as real people, much less as talented actors, but as walking parodies of the polystyrene-headed Hollywood crowd that issues ill-informed pronunciamentos on whatever anti-American cause happens to be currently in fashion. (Yeah, yeah, Sarandon did a great job in “Dead Man Walking,” but that was 200 years ago–and what’s Baldwin done lately?). That’s one reason why I loved the gross but hilarious Team America: World Police, in which those real-life marionettes of political correctness got smashed to smithereens as the “South Park” team’s cinematic marionettes of political correctness. (See my Team America”–Not Pretty But Pretty Funny, Oct. 18.)


Now, unbelievably, as Michelle Malkin reports, it seems that some people actually take Baldwin and Sarandon seriously, even after “Team America.” Those people would be the People for the American Way, the ultra-lib Bush-bashers who, as Michelle points out, a few days ago awarded the two “Hollyweird blowhards” their prestigious (?) “Spirit of Liberty” awards as “defenders of democracy” (except in Iraq, of course). No, again, this wasn’t a “South Park” parody.


The awards ceremony was in Washington, D.C., and the Washington Post’s gossip columnist, Richard Leiby, attended–only to report that the featured entertainer, has-been comedian Chevy Chase–put on an anti-Bush routine that was so foul-mouthed it had even the PAW people running for cover. Leiby wrote:


“Even certified Hollywood liberals were reeling after Chevy Chase’s potty-mouthed Bush-bashing Tuesday night at the Kennedy Center, where the actor hosted an awards ceremony staged by People for the American Way.


“After actors Alec Baldwin and Susan Sarandon delivered speeches accepting their Defender of Democracy awards, Chase took the stage a final time and unleashed a rant against President Bush that stunned the crowd. He deployed the four-letter word that got Vice President Cheney in hot water, using it as a noun. Chase called the prez a ‘dumb [expletive].’ He also used it as an adjective, assuring the audience, ‘I’m no [expletive] clown either. . . . This guy started a jihad.’


“Chase also said: ‘This guy in office is an uneducated, real lying schmuck . . . and we still couldn’t beat him with a bore like Kerry.'”


Both Ralph Neas, PAW’s president, and Norman Lear, PAW’s founder, hastened to distance themselves from Chase, Leiby reported, with Neas calling the comedian’s remarks “inappropriate and offensive.”


A couple of Democratic Party politicoes were also in attendance, most notably former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, who had to follow Chase at the podium. Daschle seemed a wee bit fazed, Leiby’s report implied.


But that’s what happens when you hang, not just with Hollyweirdos but with dead Hollyweirdos.