Jessica Lange Speaks Out Against Bush Administration
Academy Award winner Lange makes speech at daughter’s college graduation
By Matthew B. Zeidman
BRONXVILLE, NY (Hollywood Today) 5/26/08 – Noted actress Jessica Lange has long been a critic of President Bush, having called his administration “a self-serving regime of deceit, hypocrisy and belligerence” at a 2004 Democratic fundraiser, so it was no surprise when she took another public stab at Bush Friday, during her daughter’s commencement ceremony at Sarah Lawrence College, where she addressed the graduates.
“We are living in an America that, in the last seven-and-a-half years, has waged an unnecessary war, established prison camps, condoned torture, employed corporate armies, eliminated the right of habeas corpus [and] practiced extraordinary rendition,” said Lange.
Though the timeline mentioned by Lange roughly corresponds with the start of Bush’s first presidential term in 2001, it was unclear if her comments applied to the post-Sept. 11 invasion of Afghanistan or just operations related to the ongoing war in Iraq, which began in March 2003.
Said the performer later in her speech, “Some of you may feel that this is not the proper occasion to make mention of this. However, I would be remiss in addressing a group of young adults if I were to deliberately ignore the political realities that they are facing.”
Lange, 59, made her first big-screen appearance in the 1976 remake of “King Kong” as the requisite damsel in distress. Other films to her credit include “Tootsie” (for which she won an Oscar), “Cape Fear” and “Big Fish.”
