Robert De Niro, Pedro Pascal, Natalie Portman, and other Hollywood stars condemn Jimmy Kimmel's cancellation

The suspension of Jimmy Kimmel 's American talk show after controversial comments he made following the death of Charlie Kirk has sparked a wave of protests in the US. On Monday, more than 400 Hollywood stars, including Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, Pedro Pascal and Natalie Portman , signed a letter condemning what they consider "unconstitutional and un-American."

"This is a dark moment for freedom of expression in our country," reads the message, issued by the American Civil Liberties Union. "The government is threatening private companies and people with whom the president disagrees," they argue, referring to the sudden suspension of the late-night show, whose host compared the murderer of American right-wing figure Charlie Kirk to Trump voters.

"The MAGA gang is desperately trying to portray this guy who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and they're doing everything they can to score political points with it," were the words for which Kimmel was suspended "indefinitely."

All indications are that Brendan Carr, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and a Trump ally, pressured Disney, owner of ABC, to cancel Kimmel's talk show.

The presenter's dismissal "goes against the values" of the United States, "protected by the Constitution," signed by several dozen well-known figures such as Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, Pedro Pascal, Natalie Portman, Tom Hanks, Jane Fonda, Selena Gomez, Joaquin Phoenix, Ben Stiller, Jamie Lee-Curtis, Michael Keaton, Jennifer Aniston and Rooney Mara, among others.

Mark Ruffalo, who plays the Hulk in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has written on his Threads account that the Hollywood industry "doesn't really understand what's going on right now, but what they do understand is that our freedom of expression is under attack." He also took a direct swipe at Disney, which also owns the rights to Marvel, blaming it for the company's 7% stock market decline following the withdrawal of 'Jimmy Kimmel Live'.

The show's withdrawal from the schedule after more than 20 years was celebrated by Donald Trump , who also suggested the idea of ​​retaliation against other television stations that are critical of him: "I would say maybe we should take away their license." Faced with this prospect, colleagues (and also competitors) of the 'showman' such as Jimmy Falon or Seth Meyers have taken a stand against it, some ironically and others, like Stephen Colbert, more directly: "You can't give an autocrat an inch."