Anti-war casualties?

Stars with leftish views are again dredging up the term blacklist to give their activism a touch of martyrdom. Martin Sheen says NBC isn't comfortable with his anti-war activities. Sean Penn charges that he lost a big movie deal because of his politics.

And last week the Screen Actors Guild rushed to defend the massive anti-war majority in Hollywood and denounce the b-word. "Even a hint of the blacklist must never again be tolerated in this nation," SAG officials said in a statement.

With what is disclosed thus far, SAG can count on one finger the number of actors who claim they lost work over their anti-war beliefs. In a lawsuit last month, Mr. Penn accused producer Steven Bing of reneging on a $10 million movie deal after Mr. Penn publicly opposed war with Iraq. (Mr. Bing countersued, saying that Mr. Penn nixed the project.)

Martin Sheen still has his job on NBC's The West Wing, and on Feb. 26 the virtual president led a "Virtual March on Washington," which was essentially a spam campaign bombing the Capitol with e-mail.

So far the strongest volley against the Hollywood anti-war clique came from former Sen. Fred Thompson, who just resumed his acting career as Law & Order's new DA. He taped a pro-war TV ad. "Thank goodness we have a president with the courage to protect our country," he said.