Zucker: Republican is 'the new gay'

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- Film director David Zucker says conservatives are so uncomfortable in Hollywood that being a Republican is "the new gay."

"You sort of feel like you have to hide it," Zucker -- director of "Airplane!," "Top Secret" and "The Naked Gun" -- told EW.com. "When you meet, you give each other a secret look, 'Are you a Republican, too?' It's the new gay."

Zucker and some of his fellow Hollywood Republicans -- including Jon Voight, Kelsey Grammer and Dennis Hopper -- collaborated on the upcoming movie, "An American Carol" EW.com characterized the movie as "Hollywood's first unabashedly right-wing comedy."

"Most political comedies say both sides are bad," Zucker told EW.com. "We're saying, '(Expletive) it.' We're taking a side."

"An American Carol" -- written by Zucker, Myrna Sokoloff and Lewis Friedman -- is the story of an anti-American filmmaker who tries to abolish the July Fourth holiday, and is visited by the ghosts of famous Americans who try to get him to drop his plan.