Sean Penn, useful idiot.

V.I. Lenin, first dictator of the Soviet Union, had a phrase for "liberal" Westerners who took the side of the Soviets. He called them "useful idiots."


Sean Penn is trading screenplays for a reporter's notebook yet again. The Oscar-winning actor traveled to Tehran, Iran in June. The San Francisco Chronicle, which has published previous accounts of his travels, is running a five-part series on his experiences this week.

In the first installment, Penn wrote about the difficulties of obtaining a visa to travel to Iran, how women are instructed to cover their faces before landing in the country and some tense moments when he was fingerprinted entering Iran.

The actor compared the bustle of Tehran to Baghdad or Mexico City, saying the city was filled with "Jousting, yelling, horn honking and warm thickly polluted air, mud-splattered motorcycles, winding through human traffic at death-bound speeds." (Thanks to Yahoo!News for the heads up.)

Notice how the Olivier of our age (except Penn can't act and seems to like girls) refrained from punching any photographers from the Iranian Inquirer. Smart move. They'll cut your head off for that.