Hollywood stars in China have to learn the political lines

[ellisonz]

Hollywood filmmakers risk having their movies shut out of the lucrative market if they criticize China's government. But if they are too friendly, human rights groups may complain.
By Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times
February 17, 2012
Reporting from Beijing—

The Chinese Communist Party sent a pointed message to Christian Bale recently: You will not work in this town again.

The movie star's attempt to visit a prominent Chinese dissident under house arrest ended in a televised scuffle with plainclothes police and a chiding from authorities in December.

"If he wants to create news, I don't think that would be welcome in China," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said of Bale, who had been in Beijing for the opening of his film "The Flowers of War."

The Bale dust-up was the latest collision between Hollywood heavyweights and autocratic China. These days, the lure of the world's fastest-growing entertainment market is irresistible to productions from abroad, and China is eager to entice them for the cachet that comes with having global movie stars pump up the domestic film industry.

More: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/asia/la-fg-china-culture-20120217,0,4907172.story?track=rss

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