Last March, Venezuelan raised actress Maria Conchita Alonso wrote a NewsBusters published open letter to Sean Penn in which she scolded the Oscar winner for his ill-informed support of Hugo Chavez.
On Sunday, Alonso had a run-in with Penn at the Los Angeles airport, and as she told Steve Malzberg filling in for Chris Plante on WMAL radio Monday, she ended up calling her foe a "communist a--hole" (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary, mild vulgarity warning):
Alonso was at the airport picking up her mother from Miami. While waiting for the luggage at baggage claim, she noticed that Penn was also by the same carousel.
After mulling over in her head whether or not she really wanted to discuss her differences about Chavez with Penn, Alonso finally approached him.
Once he recognized her, he said with scorn, “Oh, it’s you.”
Alonso replied, “I really would like to talk to you about all this.”
“I don’t want to talk to you,” Penn said. “You speak badly about me. You insult me on TV.”
According to Alonso, she told Penn that he's been lying about Hugo Chavez being a “good man.” This irritated him and led him to accuse Alonso’s brother of possessing guns in order to assassinate Chavez.
As the conversation inflamed, Alonso said, “You are in favor of Ahmadinejad.”
This, according to Alonso, really angered Penn to the point that he called her a pig.
As this was all happening in public, and voices were starting to get raised, others in the airport were beginning to notice the ruckus.
Sensing this, Alonso moved away from Penn to a more neutral part of baggage claim and the two didn’t say another word to each other.
As the interview wound down, Malzberg asked, “Why is it that the Left has never met a dictator that they don’t love? I’m sure that people like Sean Penn today are mourning the death of Kim Jong Il.”
“Yeah,” Alonso replied. “And also, why are they communists or extreme leftists and still live well?”
She at that moment recalled saying to Penn, “It’s great to be a communist and live the way you do.”
Alonso elaborated, “The communists and extreme leftists they have very good propaganda, extremely. And the propaganda is, you know, to help the poor, which I’m in favor of.”
She continued, “But then it’s also, being rich is bad, you know, being independent and having your own company. So why are all these people that are in favor of Chavez and Fidel Castro and all of these dictators that have money and live well, so well, they can’t call themselves communist.”
“If you’re a communist," Alonso said, "and you live as you preach, I have to respect you. I do. Even though I don’t agree with you. But you live the way you’re supposed to, then I would say, 'This is a real one. He really believes in this.'”
Maybe Alonso needs to read Peter Schweizer's "Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy."
Then she'll understand hypocrites like Sean Penn better.
