What's Right.(entertainment industry and War on Terror)(Column)

Oil Smear

A year ago, Hollywood was volunteering to join the war on terror. Last week, some of its leading luminaries defected to the other side.

A group of influential people from the entertainment world, including Laurie David, the wife of Larry David, creator of the Seinfeld series, is producing a series of advertisements intended to convince Americans that the real cause of terrorism is -- wait for it -- the Sports Utility Vehicle.

The group has written a series of commercials that parody government anti-drug messages. The commercials will show ordinary Americans looking out the windows of their cars, cheerfully announcing: "I helped hijack an airplane"; "I helped blow up a nightclub"; "I funded a terrorist training camp in a foreign country" -- and then chorusing, "And we did it all just by driving our SUVs." The campaign's slogan: "The biggest weapon of mass destruction is parked in your driveway."

Scott Burns, the author of the "Got Milk?" ads, has volunteered to direct the ads, and Arianna Huffington, my friend and radio sparring partner, is raising the funds to broadcast them.

Like most people who don't drive them, I don't much care for SUVs. People with children, in my view, should face facts, accept that they are parents, not jungle adventurers, and save themselves $10,000 or more by buying a minivan.

But it's a free country, and we allow Americans to make much worse choices than the choice to drive a small truck. Yet somehow it is that most harmless of choices that most irks liberal Hollywood.