Jimmy Kimmel was already extremely well-liked in Hollywood before he became a free-speech martyr. Now, as Kimmel and Disney reportedly continue to negotiate his return to air, he has the industry rallying around him. On Monday, the ACLU published a letter in support of the late night host signed by over 400 celebrities. Among the A-listers backing Kimmel include Tom Hanks, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Natalie Portman, Cyndi Lauper, Richard Kind, Lena Dunham, Regina King, Annette Bening, Billy Crystal, Jamie Lee Curtis, and “Weird Al” Yankovic.
“We the people must never accept government threats to our freedom of speech. Efforts by leaders to pressure artists, journalists, and companies with retaliation for their speech strike at the heart of what it means to live in a free country,” the letter reads. “Last week, Jimmy Kimmel was taken off the air after the government threatened a private company with retaliation, marking a dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation. In an attempt to silence its critics, our government has resorted to threatening the livelihoods of journalists, talk show hosts, artists, creatives, and entertainers across the board. This runs counter to the values our nation was built upon, and our Constitution guarantees.”
The letter acknowledges that attacks on freedom of expression are also affecting non-famous people like teachers, students, government employees, and more. But “if it happens to one of us, it happens to all of us,” the logic goes. The signees profess a love of the country, concluding, “This is the moment to defend free speech across our nation. We encourage all Americans to join us, along with the ACLU, in the fight to defend and preserve our constitutionally protected rights.”
Other signees of the Kimmel letter include Michael Shannon, D’Arcy Carden, Abbi Jacobson, Parker Posey, Kerry Washington, Noah Wyle, Katherine LaNasa, Olivia Rodrigo, Timothy Olyphant, Sarah Paulson, and Kennedy scion Jack Schlossberg. Unlike some other pledges that have circulated the entertainment industry of late, this one doesn’t include a specific call to action like a boycott. However, there’s been a movement to cancel Disney streaming services, with Business Insider reporting that Google searches for “cancel Disney+” and “cancel Hulu” spiking over the last several days. On Monday’s episode of The Howard Stern Show, Stern said he’s sympathetic to ABC but “someone’s gotta step up and be fucking saying, ‘Hey, enough, we’re not gonna bow.'” He added, “Now it might sound stupid, but the thing I did this morning, I’m canceling my Disney+. I’m trying to say with the pocketbook that I do not support what they’re doing with Jimmy.”
Across the industry, celebs are finding ways to signal their unhappiness with Disney. Sarah McLachlan and Jewel pulled a performance in conjunction with the ABC News Studios’ Lilith Fair: Building A Mystery premiere “to show solidarity in support of free speech.” (The performance was rumored to feature ACLU letter signee Olivia Rodrigo, per The Hollywood Reporter.) And The View, which conspicuously did not mention the drama on its network last week, finally addressed the subject on Monday. “Did y’all really think we weren’t going to talk about Jimmy Kimmel? I mean, have you watched the show over the last 29 seasons? No one silences us,” Whoopi Goldberg said (via Variety), adding that the show waited to address the situation to see if Kimmel himself would comment.
“You can not like a show and it can go off the air. Someone can say something they shouldn’t and get taken off the air. But the government cannot apply pressure to force someone to be silenced,” Goldberg said. “It’s not up to [FCC chairman] Brendan Carr. It is not up to him. I don’t understand how you are the man in charge of the nation, and you still don’t understand how the First Amendment works.” (Carr has also threatened an FCC investigation of The View.) The other hosts joined Goldberg in condemning Kimmel’s suspension, with Goldberg adding that freedom of speech is one of The View‘s main tenets: “[We] fight for everybody’s right to have freedom of speech because it means my speech is free, it means your speech is free.”
