I do agree that this may be the first time in history that an actor has complained about people specifically coming to a show to watch them. That’s called “star power,” “box office draw,” etc. and usually is looked upon quite favorably.

In other words, Hudson believes she was cast exclusively so the hordes of zombie families roaming Times Square would recognize a name on the poster and happily drop a grand for a wad of tickets

Aren’t employers generally able to squash political discourse of any kind? I mean you can be straight up fired for political party association in many states.

I don’t think it’s a straw man, necessarily. When you’ve got groups of students invoking the idea of “safe space” to administrators because someone wrote the word “Trump” on the sidewalk in chalk instead of drawing chalk dicks on it, something has failed.

What worries me a lot more than the concept of safe spaces, are universities who disinvite speakers because of them being controversial. That’s a real issue that hurts free speech and prevents students from exchanging ideas and debating with those who disagree with them.