It is Sean Penn's curse to be a man of multiple extraordinary talents. He is arguably the greatest actor of his golden generation (This includes: George Clooney, Johnny Depp, and Brad Pitt - all of them born within three years of each other). The films he directs show a deep understanding of the parts of American society that tend to be examined only in the songs of Bruce Springsteen and Steve Earle.

Yet somewhere inside Sean Penn there is an op-ed columnist or Pacifica radio talk-show host yearning to break free.

Penn's vociferous activism for left wing causes frequently takes the shape of advocacy journalism. This explains his recent interest in the revived British-Argentine dispute over the Falkland Islands, or Las Malvinas, as Argentina calls them, which broke out recently while the actor was in Buenos Aires. Penn made some comments about Prince William's current deployment to the Falklands as an example of "archaic colonialism."