The Price Of Fame

An actor's life is not an easy one in the new Egypt:

A court found Egypt’s most popular comic actor guilty on Tuesday of insulting Islam in roles in films mocking religious hypocrisy, alarming liberal-minded artists and intellectuals already anxious about the growing power of Islamists here after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.

The court fined the actor Adel Imam about $170 and gave him a suspended sentence. Mr. Imam is expected to appeal. Although laws criminalizing insults to Islam or Christianity have been on the books for years, convictions have been relatively rare, especially in the context of popular movies.

Mr. Imam was convicted for performances in the blockbuster films “The Terrorist,” in which he plays a radical Islamist hiding among a moderate, middle-class family, and “Terrorism and Kabab,” in which his character becomes enraged at a lazy civil servant pretending to pray to avoid work.

Mr. Imam’s films routinely use humor to skewer many layers of society.

Heba Morayef, a researcher with Human Rights Watch, said the case was one of several similar ones since Mr. Mubarak’s ouster. “We are seeing a growing number of convictions,” she said, calling it “very, very frightening, if this is considered normal.”

Yeah, and how's that working out for ya?