I did not know that Martin Sheen was an interesting guy.... two BBC articles.

Stars send anti-war message to Bush

President George Bush is to receive an anti-war letter from more than 100 celebrities - including his opposite number in TV political drama The West Wing.
Kim Basinger, Samuel L Jackson and Jessica Lange are among the stars who have signed the letter, which will be made public on Tuesday.

Also on the list is Martin Sheen, who plays President Josiah Bartlet in the hit White House TV series.

The letter was written after actor Mike Farrell - who played Captain BJ Hunnicut in war series Mash - set up a group called Artists United To Win Without War.

Ambassador's support

He will reveal the contents of the letter at a press conference with Anjelica Huston on Tuesday.

Also among the signatories are a retired admiral, Eugene Carroll Jr, and a former United States ambassador to Iraq, Edward Peck.

Actors Matt Damon, Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman and Laurence Fishburne have also signed up, organisers said.

The details of the letter will be released as anti-war protestors hold demonstrations across the US.

The biggest protests are expected to take place in Lafayette Park, opposite the White House, and in New York.

A number of people from the entertainment world, including Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon and Harold Pinter, have already spoken out against military action in Iraq.

Sheen has previously described President Bush as a "moron".

The actor has been arrested 70 times for his involvement in protests for issues such as nuclear disarmament and homelessness.

In 2001, he was sentenced to three years' probation after demonstrating against the "Star Wars" missile defence system at a US military air base.

The same year, his portrayal of the president earned him a Golden Globe award for best actor in a TV drama - and one member of Congress has said that he would not be surprised if Sheen ran for political office.

The anti-war letter follows a similar message put together by Farrell against a plan to bury nuclear waste at Nevada's Yucca Mountain.

Stars including Alec Baldwin, Tim Robbins, Barbra Streisand and Harry Belafonte signed that letter.

Sheen slates 'bad comic' Bush

US actor Martin Sheen, who plays the US president in hit series The West Wing, has said he cannot bear politics and that George W Bush is a "moron".
Speaking to the Radio Times, Sheen, 60, said he could not imagine why anyone would want to become president, adding he was bewildered by last year's drawn-out election.

Mr Bush won the closest US election in more than a century last November, after a drawn-out legal battle in Florida.

The actor, best known for his role in Apocalypse Now, stars in the fictional White House-based TV series, which recently swept the Emmy awards.


Sheen, a prominent Democrat Party supporter, did not mince his words about the Republican president.

"George W Bush is like a bad comic working the crowd, a moron, if you'll pardon the expression," he said.

He also said the role as president was not one he found remotely desirable.

"Your life is over as soon as you say you want to occupy the Oval Office," he said.

"We elect an institution, the family of the guy, his entourage. He has to be someone with enormous ego who fancies he'll have an impact on history."

'Oddball'

The actor has been arrested 70 times for his involvement in protests for issues such as nuclear disarmament and homelessness.

He went on to also criticise the US, saying "Alcoholics Anonymous and jazz are the only original things of importance" it has exported to the rest of the world.

But the West Wing star did lavish praise on President John F Kennedy, whom he played in a TV drama in 1983.

"These stories of womanising that unravelled after his death made him more substantial and human to me," he said.

"We idealise our leaders, raise them up so we have the power to knock them down. The American psyche is oddball.

"As soon as a man becomes president, suddenly there's no more original sin - as if he isn't going to have a sex life."

'Enormous love'

He also said there was a lot of hypocrisy in politics and he was proud of "fighting it and not giving in".

"I have such an enormous love and respect for him, a heroic man," he said.

"I'm afraid that's a minority view in America, but as time goes by he'll have a different image when we realise his contribution," the actor added.

It is not the first time Sheen has hit headlines with his views.

Last September he endorsed the views of Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman that Hollywood is obsessed with sex and violence.

Sheen, speaking during a visit to his hometown to raise money for the Democratic Party, said: "Half the business called Hollywood is sleaze."

He added: "A lot of what we do has very little to do with art. It has to do with sleaze and gratuitous sex and unnecessary violence."