Iranian dissident Akbar Ganji swaps hunger for Hollywood

It is a long way from the brutality and deprivations of prison in Iran to the well-appointed salons of Hollywood, but Akbar Ganji, the recently released Iranian dissident, found himself right at home in the company of some of the movie business's heaviest hitters.

The 47-year-old investigative journalist and reform advocate was treated as a bit of a star himself as he addressed a carefully selected crowd of about 80 people at the Beverly Hills spread of the veteran producer, Mike Medavoy. He spoke through an interpreter for about an hour, before taking questions from some familiar faces.

"Is that Warren Beatty? My God," his interpreter exclaimed after one noticeably eloquent question was delivered from the back of the room. It was indeed Warren Beatty, along with his wife, Annette Bening. And the man in the crumpled blue suit was indeed Sean Penn, one of the evening's co-hosts. Jake Gyllenhaal - of Brokeback Mountain and Jarhead fame - was there, so was Just Like Heaven's Mark Ruffalo, and so -- was Brad Pitt.

More important than the celebrity factor, though, was the fact that this is the closest thing the West Coast gets to a gathering of the intellectual elite. Los Angeles doesn't have the immediate power-broking clout of Washington, but it does have glamour, name recognition, and the peculiar intelligence of rich, influential people prone to looking for meaning in their lives.

On his current swing through the US - designed, above all, to raise awareness of political prisoners in Iran - Mr Ganji has spurned official channels. He turned down an invitation to the White House, preferring instead to meet the dissident intellectual Noam Chomsky.

Wednesday night's gathering had its share of mildly silly moments - someone asked Mr Ganji what foods he missed when he was on hunger strike at Evin prison - but mostly it was a robust exchange of ideas.

Beatty asked what the outside world should make of Iran's radical new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "Are we too afraid of what he says?" the actor asked. "These are empty slogans to appeal to the masses," Mr Ganji replied. "You shouldn't be that afraid, but we Iranians should be afraid. They can't do much against you.

The testiest moment came when Haim Saban, the billionaire television producer and prominent Democratic Party fundraiser, challenged Mr Ganji's assertion that the US has to stop its one-sided support of Israel.