Dan Glaister in Los Angeles
Wednesday July 21, 2004
The Guardian
The American singer Linda Ronstadt got a taste of the acrimony of this polarised election year in the US when she was escorted from a Las Vegas casino after she had dedicated a song to the filmmaker Michael Moore.
Calling Moore a “great American patriot” and “someone who is seeking the truth,” she urged her audience to see his film Fahrenheit 9/11.
But Bill Timmins, the manager of the Aladdin hotel-casino, took exception to the introduction of politics into the Nevada holiday city.
“It was a very ugly scene,” Mr Timmins told the Associated Press. “She praised him and all of a sudden all bedlam broke loose.”
The singer’s actions, he said, “spoiled a wonderful evening for our guests and we had to do something about it. As long as I’m here, she’s not going to play”.
After her comments, dozens from the 1,300-strong audience left,with some reportedly tearing down posters. Ronstadt, 58, was not permitted to return to her suite and was removed from the building.