GIORDANO: BOSTON’S OWN CHUCK SLAVIN COULD BE THE STAR — HOLLYWOOD’S TARNISHED UNION NEEDS
By Alice Giordano
As Bonnie Tyler belts out in her famous Footloose song — we ennuied movie buffs and sufferers of iconoclastic TV sitcoms, are holding out for a hero.
And we might just have one right here in Boston….
For too long, we have been forced to watch faded celebs and their rakehelly henchmen shipwreck Hollywood. If only they could have aimed for Gilligan’s Island or washed ashore the South Pacific atoll where Tom Hanks made Wilson, found the fruit of liberalism and unfortunately brought back only one of them.
I mean, does anyone even know who Chuckie Sullivan and Will Hunting are anymore?
SAG-AFTRA can’t be blamed for everything that’s bad about Hollywood, but it sure seems to be in line for an Academy Award nomination for the supporting role it played in it.
Afterall, just why are so many people tuning into 1980s reruns and popping Die Hard into the DVD player for the umpteenth time?
One thing for sure, if the leaders of the actors union made up a cast, the movie title would be something along the lines of a lame sequel to Godfather — as in God Help Us.
SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher and her nasally talents worked great in the Nanny. As for its executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, well — as my Boston bred, diehard Catholic mother taught me, if you don’t have anything nice to say about someone, then don’t say it.
Then there’s Joaly Fisher, daughter of Connie Stevens and SAG-AFTRA’s treasurer.
I like that she likes animals. Me too. She’d be great at the ASPCA or PETA. Could use her star power and everything.
Fisher rose to fame with her role in Ellen, yes, that Ellen — the Hollywood’s LGBTQ brick road paved in rainbow colors.
Shows like that were called groundbreaking — breakthroughs. Stars were made. Unknowns at least got their chance to shine and flex their talent.
It’s too bad that the very people who benefited from such foot in the door opportunities have slammed it on others behind them and have turned an actors union into a radical left cult that uses the word diversity as a euphemism for smut, plutocracy and parochial-minded parvenu performers.
Enter Boston actor Chuck Slavin.
In February, Slavin posted on social media an email he sent out to SAG-AFTRA members rallying them to join him in urging President Trump to impose a tariff against movies produced in foreign countries.
Not long after, President Trump announced he was doing just that.
SAG-AFTRA, which represents American actors, stuntmen, film crews and more, quickly debunked the idea, with Fisher — inspiring a pitiful sequel to One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest — spewed the proverbial Trump is Hitler counter attacks in response.
It was the last straw for Slavin.
The Boston’s Finest actor has announced that he is considering taking on Drescher for her job.
Frankly, it was the best news I got since I learned Columbo was going to be available on Blu-Ray.
Sure Slavin doesn’t exactly have Harrison Ford or Johnny Depp stardom, although his stuff is pretty good. Check him out in The Rude, the Mad, and the Funny, and the Ghosts of Nantucket.
But this is a guy who is an ultimate megastar when it comes to crusading for better entertainment and better treatment of actors, as in all of them. He’s a guy who gets it, a guy who signs his emails — “your union brother.”
Slavin to boot has the chops to help Make Hollywood Great Again. Besides being a longtime member of the union’s New England Board and President of New England Talen & Crew, he’s
a human rolodex.
Ever see The Adjustment Bureau? Yeah — that’s Slavin — unsung Hollywood insider who has fought harder than Ethan Hunt in what has been for way too long a real life Mission Impossible to get SAG-AFTRA to actually represent the rest of its 160,000 members who pay annual dues to the union.
Slavin was one of the “Few Good Men” in Hollywood when SAG-AFTRA’s self-aggrandized echelon threw the majority of its members under the bus and bought it to a no jab, no work policy for its less than legendary union members.
He braved outing the union’s squeaky wheel DEI policies in a follow-the-leader industry that launches career-sinking hate campaigns against dissenters.
In doing so, Slavin may very well have salvaged the all but lost faith by entertainment consumers like us left to otherwise conclude that Hollywood really truly had jumped the shark (if you don’t know what this means — look up Hollywood: Part 3, Happy Days).
Braveheart is king. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon would never become big screen legends from Boston if people like Slavin didn’t once helm SAG-AFTRA.
Let’s hope Slavin can pull off a Rocky.
