Rolling Stone reports:

More than 550 actors, directors, writers and musicians — including Jane Fonda, Billie Eilish, Pedro Pascal, Gracie Abrams, Spike Lee, Viola Davis, Barbra Streisand, Ben Stiller, John Legend, Janelle Monae, and Natalie Portman — have teamed up to relaunch the Committee for the First Amendment, a group originally formed in 1947 during the Red Scare. In its original incarnation, the group stood in opposition to the House Un-American Activities Committee’s Joseph McCarthy-era interrogations of Hollywood figures suspected of communist sympathies.

“The McCarthy Era ended when Americans from across the political spectrum finally came together and stood up for the principles in the Constitution against the forces of repression,” the group wrote in a statement Wednesday. “Those forces have returned. And it is our turn to stand together in defense of our constitutional rights. The federal government is once again engaged in a coordinated campaign to silence critics in the government, the media, the judiciary, academia, and the entertainment industry. We refuse to stand by and let that happen.”

Actor and activist Jane Fonda, whose father, Henry Fonda, was among the original committee’s members, is leading the effort. In a letter to industry colleagues released Wednesday, she wrote that the group aims to present “a united front against government censorship, intimidation, and fear.” Other signatories include Aaron Sorkin, J.J. Abrams, Whoopi Goldberg, Anne Hathaway, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Larry David, Bill Maher, Julianne Moore, Glenn Close, Helen Mirren, Barry Jenkins, Judd Apatow, Kerry Washington, Mark Ruffalo, Sean Penn, Ted Danson, Billy Crystal, Nicolas Cage, Quinta Brunson, and Fran Drescher. [Continue reading…]

Jane Fonda explains to Dana Bash why, at the age of 87, she says “this is the most frightening moment of my life”: