The stars align against the war

Surrounded by a phalanx of TV cameras -- which is exactly what they wanted -- nearly two dozen stars from your favorite TV shows transformed a trendy bar for weekend hipsters into a makeshift headquarters for anti-war declarations.

Calling themselves Artists United to Win Without War, they gathered Tuesday morning at Les Deux Cafes in Hollywood to read a statement protesting the costs and risks of going to war with Iraq. They said they were using their faces, their images and their celebrity to get the message out.

The reporters adjusted their microphones and cameras and craned forward.

The actors, including Mimi Kennedy, Robert David Hall, Tony Shalhoub, Martin Sheen and Wendie Malick, said they offered no solutions, just a chance to speak out against the drumbeat for war.

They said they hoped that by speaking out publicly they would encourage those with less media access -- ordinary citizens, those in organized labor, education, religious groups -- to exercise their free speech rights. Even if there are no TV cameras to capture the moment.

Actor-activist and co-organizer Mike Farrell read the five-paragraph statement:

“We are patriotic Americans who share the belief that Saddam Hussein cannot be allowed to possess weapons of mass destruction. We support rigorous U.N. weapons inspections to assure Iraq’s effective disarmament.

“However, a preemptive military invasion of Iraq will harm American national interests....It will make us less, not more secure.”

More than 100 industry players and celebrities -- ranging from Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny to Laurence Fishburne and Michael Stipe -- have signed the statement, which urges the disarming of Iraq through “legal diplomatic means.”

Several actors read short, individual statements Tuesday, which ranged from a defense of democracy to a plea to give peace -- and the U.N. weapons inspectors -- a chance. Shalhoub, displaying none of the neurotic tendencies of “Monk,” the obsessive-compulsive detective he plays on TV, said the idea that one country has the right to launch a preemptive strike against another is not consistent with democracy.

Ed Begley Jr. encouraged Americans to drive energy-efficient vehicles, like he does, to reduce dependence on foreign oil. Kennedy said she was there to exercise her free speech rights. “Violence is not the solution for our national security,” she said.

They didn’t claim to be military specialists or policy wonks. But they brought along retired Rear Adm. Eugene J. Carroll Jr., U.S.N., a noncelebrity signatory to the statement, to add some heft.

“No one is going to quit their day job to come up with the perfect solution,” producer-director and co-organizer Robert Greenwald repeated several times.

“We are not experts. Whatever access celebrity provides, we are going to use that to get the word out. So people will know they are not alone.”

Nevertheless, when the floor was opened to questions, the reporters grilled the stars with the intensity of the White House press corps.

“Mr. President,” began one reporter, as she addressed Sheen, star of “The West Wing.”

“I’m not the president,” Sheen quipped. “I’m just the acting president.”

Still, it was as if some reporters expected the stars to play out their roles as CIA officials and law enforcement officers in real life.

An aggressive reporter from KNBC reminded Farrell that he hadn’t supported the Persian Gulf War either. Would Farrell say that wasn’t a success?

A writer from the Hollywood Reporter asked Sheen that if he saw Iraqis dancing in the street after a U.S. invasion, liberated from the dictator Saddam Hussein, would he admit he was wrong?

As the session wound down, the KNBC reporter asked if there were any Republicans among them. Farrell had said it was a diverse group, with diverse political opinions, but the reporter said it looked like the same old group of Hollywood liberals.

The press conference was over. The stars turned away, the cameramen climbed off their ladders and broke down their equipment.

The KNBC reporter kept yelling, insisting on an answer -- asking, pleading, daring any Republicans in the group to raise their hands. No hands went up. “They’re here,” Farrell said. “They just don’t want to out themselves.”