MARINA DEL REY, CA -- The Ad Hoc Committee for Naming Facts, created to endorse the awarding of an honorary Oscar to Elia Kazan, is calling for all Academy Award attendees to wear an American flag lapel pin as a symbol of support for Kazan and his opposition to Communism.

The pin (or any other red, white and blue apparel) should be worn as a representation of American values, which Mr. Kazan displayed in 1952 by testifying as a friendly witness before the House Un-American Activities Committee.

"Elia Kazan is a man of courage who should be given a standing ovation for helping expose members of an organization committed to the eradication of individual rights," said Peter Schwartz, chairman of both the ad hoc committee and the Ayn Rand Institute, which initiated the committee. The committee will further its show of support for Mr. Kazan by holding a demonstration outside the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion during the March 21 Oscar ceremony.

"Leftists denouce Kazan for 'naming names;' we applaud him for naming facts -- facts the leftists have refused to face about Hollywood Communists," said Mr. Schwartz. "The goal of the Communist Party, which was directed and financed by the dictators of the Soviet Union, was to violently overthrow the U.S. government and replace it with a system that would have destroyed freedom in America, including freedom of speech."

"Americans deserve the truth," the committee's statement of purpose reads. "The Hollywood Communists were the villains, not the victims. The real defenders of rights were not the Hollywood Reds, but the brave men who acted to oppose them."