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James Woods went off on President Obama on Twitter this week, despite what he implied was the virtual inevitability of being blacklisted in Hollywood as a result. Conservatives in the entertainment industry are certainly a minority, but is it true that the 66-year-old actor would actually be punished for this? According to Mell Flynn, President of the Hollywood Congress of Republicans, discrimination against Republicans in Hollywood indeed runs rampant. “I have known quite a few people who were let go from a job after they made their political affiliation known. Maybe it was a coincidence, but I doubt it,” he said. “This type of discrimination is hard to prove though, especially where actors are concerned. They just won’t get hired or even called in to read for a part.” Producer Gary Michael Walters noted that “outspokenness can definitely be held against someone’s career prospects” in the largely liberal land of L.A. Another show business insider told Fox News that a director friend won’t take on any conservative-type projects for fear of not getting future work. In other case, one star feels “closeted” in her conservative leanings: “I have a prominent actress friend who lives in holy terror of losing her position on a TV show if she is outed as a born-again Christian and conservative.” Last year, Kelsey Grammer implied that he was surprisingly snubbed for an Emmy nomination for Boss due to his “out-of-the-closet Republican in Hollywood” status. Not long after Obama first won the White House, Rizzoli & Isles ‘ Angie Harmon said she was given the “racist” label for vocalizing her disappointment in him. “The Hollywood names who advocate acceptance are the first to shut the door on a conservative,” observed Angie Meyer Olszewski, who works in PR. “But Republicans are finding their voice. They’ve had enough.” It may not help his cause to go off the way he did, but James Woods is far from alone in the political views that sparked his online outburst this week. To name a few, there’s Gary Sinise, a devout GOP-er who is deemed one of the most respected TV actors as a star on the long-running CSI: NY . There’s Patricia Heaton, who has managed to keep her job on the ABC sitcom The Middle . And of course there’s Clint Eastwood, perhaps the most visible of all. Even after talking to an empty chair , he’s pretty celebrated.

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James Woods Obama Rant: Will it Really Get Him Blacklisted?