‘Journalist’ Sean Penn tours Venezuela with Chavez

Actor-director Sean Penn told the Associated Press in Venezuela, where he traveled the countryside with President Hugo Chavez at the wheel of a Jeep, that he was “here as a journalist” for an undisclosed publication.

Among other events, the pair drove through fields of corn, potatoes and lettuce, then slipped into white lab coats and toured an agricultural research laboratory.

There was no indication if the Hollywood actor took out a pen and made copious notes.

Grumpy Editor feels that should make those who are solidly in the journalism field squirm a bit.

Penn’s past “journalism” credentials stem from a June, 2005, visit to Iran where he wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Now, how would Penn --- who received an Academy Award for best actor in 2003’s Mystic River --- welcome a movie “extra” to his set who claimed to be a seasoned actor, maybe even a veteran director?