How is that celebrities, even relatively sane ones (there are a few) who don’t usually air their politics in public, so frequently come out with praise for Fidel Castro and his totalitarian Cuban government?

Newsbusters passes on a report from the Canada Free Press, which provides a simple answer. They were blackmailed.

“When the celebrity visitors arrived at the hotels Nacional, Melia Habana and Melia Cohiba,” says Fernandez, “we already had their rooms completely bugged with sophisticated taping equipment. But not just the rooms, we’d also follow the visitors around. Sometimes we covered them 24 hours a day. They had no idea we were tailing them.”

Say what you like about old Fidel, but he always knew how to speak a language they understand in Hollywood.

Tip: Conservative Grapevine.