During the telecast of the 59th Annual Emmy Awards on Sunday, Sally Field won the award for “Outstanding Lead Actress In A Drama” for her work on ABC’s “Brothers and Sisters.”

While accepting the award, she thanked her crew and fellow cast mates. She

then began talking about the character she plays on the show and how this

character is a mother, and how her award belongs to all the mothers of the world, especially the mothers who wait for their children to come home from war.

She then spent an awkward few seconds not remembering what she was talking about and finally closed her acceptance speech with: “Let’s face it, if mothers ruled the world, there would be no goddamn wars in the first place.”

I thought this was an awards show, not a forum for political debate. Sally Field is now another member of a long list of celebrities who take it upon themselves to shove their political ideology down America’s throats. Why? Because they can.

Celebrities are realistically a huge part of Americans’ lives. We see them in television and movies, hear about them on the news and flip through magazines with their faces plastered on the pages at a consistent basis. When celebrities talk, people listen.

Luckily, whenever celebrities do have their sudden burst of wisdom and decide to parade their thoughts around Hollywood, there are always plenty of cameras, members of the press and television time to satiate their hunger for attention.

Although their intentions may be sincere and the issues they discuss could be relevant to American life, the main point of criticism is how these celebrities always have some sort of documentation and proof at hand in order to demonstrate how noble they are.

Kanye West’s famous “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” tirade during a Hurricane Katrina relief telethon made national headlines.

When Marlon Brando won an Academy Award for his work on “The Godfather” in 1973, he refused to accept the trophy because of his objections to the way Native Americans were being portrayed in films. He sent an actress dressed as an Apache to reject the award on his behalf.

After Hurricane Katrina, political vigilante Sean Penn hopped on his private jet down to New Orleans, jumped in a boat and began aiding victims from the horrible tragedy. Thankfully, there were camera crews galore so Americans could see just how heroic and politically obsequious Penn was to his countrymen.

In the appropriate forum, I see no problem with celebrities using their credentials to help a cause or make an issue that they are passionate about public.

Philanthropy and genuine humanitarian efforts are much different than appearing on live television and speaking about political issues that have zero relevance to their acceptance speech or pre-written dialogue on a teleprompter.

Michael J. Fox has used his celebrity influence in Hollywood and Washington to further the research and development of a cure for Parkinson’s Disease. U2’s front man Bono has done extensive humanitarian work for Darfur and the AIDS epidemic in Africa. Martin Sheen has quietly protested political events for years and yet we see nothing of his work on the front page of the newspaper.

I don’t care if Vince Vaughn is a registered Republican or if Oprah is endorsing Obama in 2008. Celebrities are here to entertain us, not emulate Abbie Hoffman.

If they care so much about politics and want everyone to know their stance on issues, become a politician. It worked for Arnold.