NO WAY,

KEMOSABE...

Johnny Depp as Tonto in

Lone Ranger Movie?!?!!!

I read in USA Today that Johnny Depp is going to play the Lone Ranger's sidekick, Tonto, in a new movie. If true, that is ridiculous!!

The Lone Ranger was one of my childhood heroes, so I am not pleased to hear about inaccurate casting like this. Tonto, of course, was a Native American. What "updates" do they have planned for the Lone Ranger himself? That would be tampering with an American hero. Something that Hollywood and comic book publishers have enjoyed doing in recent years.

As Bob Dole would say, "where's the outrage?"

Are Native Americans going to embrace a white man as Tonto? (Yes, I know that Depp is claiming a fraction of Cherokee heritage, according to the newspaper - but he appears as Cherokee as Chevy Chase did "Comanche indian.")

This sort of thing happens in Hollywood all too frequently because TV and movies do not cast Latinos or Native Americans in many starring roles.

Is Hollywood saying that there is no Native American actor who can play Tonto? Don't young Native Americans - many of whom grow up in difficult environments on reservations - deserve to have a hero onscreen? Especially when the character was a hero on the screen already?

How is it that we claim on the one hand to be making progress on race relations, when on the other hand, our self-proclaimed "morally-superior" Hollywood liberals are casting a white man as Tonto?

That was your cue, Mr. Palance....

Johnny Depp as Tonto.

"Believe it... or not!"