00:00Over 400 Hollywood stars, including Jennifer Aniston, Tom Hanks, and Meryl Streep,
00:05have signed an open letter by the American Civil Liberties Union,
00:08condemning Disney's suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live and supporting free speech.
00:14The letter states,
00:16We the people must never accept government threats to our freedom of speech.
00:20Efforts by leaders to pressure artists, journalists, and companies with retaliation for their speech
00:25strike at the heart of what it means to live in a free country.
00:28Some of the signatories include Selena Gomez, Robert De Niro, Jane Fonda, Olivia Rodrigo,
00:35Michael Keaton, Regina King, Diego Luna, Natalie Portman, Martin Short, Kerry Washington, and Pedro Pascal,
00:42whose trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu movie was released this morning by Disney.
00:47The letter goes on to say,
00:48We know this moment is bigger than us and our industry.
00:51Teachers, government employees, law firms, researchers, universities, students, and so many more
00:57are also facing direct attacks on their freedom of expression.
01:01The message closes by calling on all Americans to fight to defend our right to speak freely.
01:06Kimmel was suspended following a comment in his monologue about MAGA's reaction to the murder of Charlie Kirk that went viral.
01:13FCC Chairman Brendan Carr then threatened affiliate broadcast licenses if they did not take action against the talk show host.
01:19This prompted affiliate owners Sinclair and Nextstar to say they would preempt the show,
01:24which spurred ABC to suspend Kimmel indefinitely.
01:27The move by the FCC and ABC has been followed by widespread condemnation,
01:31even among some Republican leaders such as Texas Senator Ted Cruz,
01:35and pledges to boycott Disney and its subsidiaries.
01:38For much more on this story and all the latest updates, go to THR.com.
01:42This is The Hollywood Reporter News.
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