I'm not going to use that story to formulate my opinion of Sean Penn. Come on, consider the source of the story that started the post. It's from "Iraq Daily -- Published by Ministry of Information" with a smiling pic of Uncle Saddam on the home page. You think the American news media is biased, I bet we see some objective reporting in THAT paper.
Penn's comments in the story don't quite correspond with his comments in the stories I've seen in American news, where he sounds a bit more intelligent. Compare:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/848239.asp?0dm=C24ML
As far as celebrities voicing their opinions on political issues, I personally have no problem with it, including disagreeing with government policy -- that's one of our rights, last I checked. I do respect Penn for this: "He declined to renew his criticism of Bush on foreign soil, saying he would reserve political comments for his return home." In my mind, that spares him from "Hanoi Jane" status. Seems to me like he's just taking an extreme step of visiting the place to make his own opinion.
I think anyone with a pulpit should feel free to voice their opinions. I know I would if I were a celebrity. And people are free to agree or disagree with the celebrity's opinion based on the opinion's merits or lack thereof. If people agree with the celebrity just because they're a celebrity, well, it's not the celebrity's fault that there are stupid people.