Opinion: Mike Farrell’s M*A*S*H Pit At the Sheinbaums’

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Mike Farrell, one of the slashly styled who dislikes the construct—in his case, actor/activist—can now add ‘author’ to that, and given his politics, he could comfort himself by referring to it as a forward slash.

On Sunday, he began his book tour for Just Call Me Mike: A Journey from Actor to Activist from Betty and Stanley Sheinbaum’s Brentwood living room, the lauchpad for scores of progressive causes and candidates. Farrell’s own causes range from Greenpeace and non-color-specific peace, to international refugee and human rights issues.

Among the throng on chairs and sofas around the room: Marge Tabankin, Farrell’s longtime political partner, two other slashees, actor/environmentalist Ed Begley Jr., and actress/political activist Morgan Fairchild, and Richard Walden of Operation California. Cindy and Ed Asner brought their friend, former California GOP congressman Pete McCloskey. McCloskey took on über-conservative Rep. Richard Pombo in last year’s Republican primary. McCloskey co-authored the Endangered Species Act that Pombo wanted to gut. McCloskey lost, but then, in the November general election, so did Pombo.

Farrell managed to get the roomful of chatty progressives quiet, and his remarks were more in the way of thanks to the likes of the Sheinbaums, friends for more than three decades. The prospect of delivering an actual speech, he said, ‘is torture.’ A voice from the back called out, ‘We’re against that.’

Proceeds from the book go to one of Farrell’s many causes, Death Penalty Focus. He’s against that, too.