Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck and hundreds of other celebrities joined in denounce the ABC’s decision to “indefinitely” halt Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show, following his remarks about Charlie Kirk.
A-listers signed a letter written by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Monday, hours before Kimmel’s show returned this week, calling for protection of the “constitutional right to free speech.”
“We must never accept the government’s threat to our freedom of speech,” the letter read. “Efforts from leaders who pressure artists, journalists and businesses retaliated for speech strikes, which are central to the meaning of living in a free country.”
“Jimmy Kimmel was broadcast last week after the government threatened private companies in retaliation and told us a dark moment for our country’s free speech,” the ACLU continued.
“To silence critics, our government has resorted to totally threatening the livelihoods of journalists, talk show hosts, artists, creatives and entertainers.
“This is against the values our nation has been built, and our constitution is guaranteed.”
The ACLU claimed that “teachers, government officials, law firms, researchers, universities, students and more are facing a direct attack on freedom of expression.”
The letter stated that “the voice should never be silent by the powerful,” regardless of whether “political affiliation or engaged in politics.”
“If it happened to one of us, it would happen to all of us,” the letter reads.
The letter concluded with an appeal for Americans to “fight to defend and preserve constitutionally protected rights.”
The statement concluded with “solidarity” and over 400 celebrities signed the letter, including Selena Gomez, Natalie Portman and Meryl Streep.
Tom Hanks, Rosie O’Donnell, Pedro Pascal, Olivia Rodrigo and Jamie Lee Curtis were also listed.
Disney announced later Monday that Kimmel’s show will be back on Tuesday night.
“Last Wednesday, we decided to suspend production at the show to avoid further inflammatory tension in our country’s emotional moments,” the company announced in a statement. “This is a decision we made because we felt that some of the comments were poorly timed and therefore insensitive.
“We spent our last day in thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”
ABC pulled Kimmel’s show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” September 15th, after comments about Kirk, who died in a shooting at Utah Valley University on September 10th.
TV host 57 initially expressed sadness to Kirk’s family via social media, but he later commented that the “Magagang” is “trying to characterize this child who killed Charlie Kirk as something other than them.”
It is unclear whether Kimmel will do that at Tuesday’s show, but has been ordered to apologise and donate to Kirk’s family and Turning Point USA to unsuspend his suspension.
