Sean Penn's Marxist Chickens are Coming Home to Roost

Yeah. Imagine that Sean. Not too many people are as fond as socialist dictators as you.

SEAN Penn is getting worried that his cozying up to Marxist dictators might cost him an Academy Award. We reported last month how Penn was smacked by the gay Advocate magazine over his visits to Fidel and Raul Castro, whose regime murdered and imprisoned gays. Last week, Penn called José Miguel Vivanco, head of Human Rights Watch's Latin America division, and asked for a meeting. Vivanco flew to San Francisco to dine with the star Thursday and brief him on the situation in Cuba and Venezuela. Vivanco was thrown out of the latter country by Penn pal President Hugo Chavez. "Tom Cruise let Scientology make him a household name for weirdness. Sean is entering into similar territory as a p.r. stooge for left-wing dictatorships," said a Hollywood insider. "It's never too late to do the right thing," says Thor Halvorssen of the Human Rights Foundation. "Political prisoners in Venezuela and Cuba could use the help of someone like Sean Penn."