Variety Admits to Hollywood Blacklist 2.0, Doesn’t Care

Zachary Levi knew he was taking a risk by endorsing President Donald Trump last year.

The “Shazam!” alum dubbed it, “career suicide.”

Whoopi Goldberg claims Hollywood is a “very right leaning town” after Zachary Levi says endorsing Trump might be “career suicide” for him.

According to Goldberg’s math, Jon Voight and Dennis Quaid getting work makes Levi’s fear “BS.” https://t.co/Htt7GTTdAM pic.twitter.com/m3zM67zD7s

— Zachary Leeman (@WritingLeeman) October 1, 2024

“The View’s” Whoopi Goldberg, one of the least informed media pundits on TV, disagreed. The facts scream otherwise. Just ask Kevin Sorbo, James Woods, or a crush of lesser-known artists who stay silent for fear of career retribution.

Now, Variety is admitting Levi’s political musings hurt his career months after that endorsement. And the far-Left publication doesn’t care.

No outrage. No worries about the First Amendment. No cries of “fascism.” Nothing.

Why?

Variety likes it this way. The publication wants right-leaning stars to stay scared and quiet. Is there another explanation? We’d love to hear it.

The Variety interview with Levi shares plenty, from Levi’s plans to create a movie studio in Austin, Texas to his prediction that the Hollywood of 2025 is on borrowed time.

The best we can say about the profile is that it isn’t cruel or punitive. Still, consider passages like this about Levi questioning the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines.

It was the kind of vaccine skepticism that had already dinged the career prospects of fellow superhero stars Letitia Wright and Evangeline Lilly, but Levi doubled down. The following year, he endorsed presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — a reviled figure in Hollywood for stoking fears about vaccine schedules and COVID boosters….

While [Joe] Rogan is untouchable as Spotify’s golden goose podcaster and [Woody] Harrelson gets a pass because he only strays from Hollywood orthodoxy on the vaccine issue, Levi is particularly vulnerable; his career was already cooling before he spoke out.

Variety pretends this is still 2021 and the COVID-19 boosters did exactly what the media said they did – prevent people from getting sick from the virus and spreading it to others. Side effects? What side effects?

We know better today. Much better. And the government just hit the brakes on booster shots for the 65-and-under crowd.

Levi wasn’t sold on their efficacy at the time, and he was more right than wrong. For that, the actor must be punished. Still.

Did Hollywood punish Arnold Schwarzenegger for telling people to “screw their freedom” if they didn’t want the vaccine? Jimmy Kimmel said people who didn’t get the jab shouldn’t be treated in hospitals. Howard Stern shared similar thoughts.

Did that cruel, illogical thinking “ding” their career prospects? Hardly.

Another part of the Levi interview describes how some Hollywood executives won’t work with people who don’t align perfectly with their view of the pandemic. Not everyone falls in line with that thinking, though.

…there are some executives who, whatever their own politics, are willing to work with talent they once believed were reckless about COVID measures.

How brave of them. Why, it’s almost like there’s a blacklist of stars who don’t think precisely as the power brokers do and must be punished for it.

George Clooney is currently starring on Broadway about the first such blacklist. Yet Clooney and co. has nothing to say about the newer version.

Levi emerges from the interview as kind, thoughtful and forgiving. His co-workers share similar thoughts about him. Levi even expressed a fondness for Rachel Zegler, who was vilified for her cruel comments against Trump supporters and for trashing the Disney IP she brought back to life via the ill-fated “Snow White.”

“So should I hate her because she’s downstream of all of these voices that are telling her that he’s Hitler and the people who vote for him are Nazis? She’s a really talented girl, and I do think that she wants the best for the world deep down.”

We need fewer stars like Levi in Hollywood, according to Variety.