Actress Confronts Sean Penn Over His Support for Chavez: ‘You Are a Communist A**Hole!’

Alonso and Penn

Video follows below: 

Cuban-born, Venezuelan-raised actress Maria Conchita Alonso and actor Sean Penn had a contentious exchange at Los Angeles International airport recently, in which Alonso called Penn a “communist a**hole“ and Penn called Alonso a ”pig.”

Over a year and a half after Alonso penned an open letter to Penn asking him why he supports socialist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the two met up serendipitously (or not so) at LAX while both were waiting to claim lost luggage.

Alonso, who starred alongside Penn in the 1988 film “Colors,” described the exchange to Steve Malzberg on WMAL.

“I go ‘Hello,’ and he smiles and says, ‘Oh, you lost your bag too?” Alonso told Steve Malzberg on WMAL.  “And I’m like, ‘No, my mother (lost her bag).’  And at that moment he recognizes me because he didn’t recognize me before, and he goes, ‘Oh, it’s you.’”

Alonso says she calmly told Penn she wanted to speak with him about the tension over Chavez when Penn blew up at her.

“He goes, ‘I don’t want to talk to you.  You speak badly about me.  You insult me on TV,” Alonso said.

Alonso says the conversation escalated when Penn accused Alonso’s brother of attempting to assassinate Chavez, which Alonso says is not true.

“So I’m like, ‘You are in favor of Hugo Chavez and [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad.’  Because I also saw a picture of footage from TV where Chavez and Ahmadinejad are together and Sean Penn is next to them.  And, you know, he‘s like ’I’ve never said that about Ahmadinejad.  You’re a pig.’  And I go to him, ‘And you are a communist, Sean Penn!’”

Listen to Alonso relay the details of her fiery exchange with Penn below. Caution, strong language is used:

“The second time I called him a communist I said ‘You’re a communist a**hole,” Alonso elaborated.  She claims that while she regrets using profanity she is not sorry for calling Penn a communist.

“I’m not apologizing for calling him a communist because that is what he is.”

WMAL adds:

Alonso‘s criticism of Penn stems from comments he made on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” in which he painted Chavez in favorable terms for the nation’s work with aid in Haiti.

“It was a sort of ironic collaboration that birthed our organization in Haiti between the support of Venezuela and the United States army,” Penn told the HBO host in early 2010.  “And we hope that those kind of collaborations can set an example for future approaches to many other issues.  And today was a very productive day.  So again I just want to thank President Chavez.”

Alonso, who claimed the pair’s heated exchange caused a scene, added that she finds it “sad” because Penn is “an amazing actor.”