I guess Burlington Coat Factory is finally out of Che T-shirts: Brent Baker of NewsBusters spots a New York-based correspondent for NBC displaying a serious case of Communist Chic. And note that his producers apparently didn't mind him going on the air in this rig:

Tim Vincent, the Britain-born New York correspondent for Access Hollywood, sported a hammer and sickle T-shirt on Friday's show as he stood in front of NBC's Rockefeller Plaza complex and introduced a piece on American Dreamz, the movie takeoff of American Idol. Though he wore a jacket over the red shirt with the symbol of the regime which murdered tens of millions and oppressed hundreds of millions more for decades, a gold hammer and sickle was clearly visible inside a red star. The gold-outlined red star, sans the hammer and sickle, matches the Soviet's Red Army emblem. I don't get it. Is this some kind of cool statement with thirtysomethings, elite New Yorkers or Brits? Or is it just part of some promotion for an upcoming movie?

Well, it would certainly sell in the Hong Kong market. But if Vincent really wanted to get a rise out of viewers in Manhattan and Hollywood, he'd wear one of these shirts.

Update: Reporters--even Hollywood gossip reporters--with lingering cases of Communist Chic should read about Hao Wu or Charles Lee.

Another Update: Noting that Steven Spielberg will be an official consultant “in culture and art for the creation of the spectacular ceremonies” for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, Jason Apuzzo writes:

Imagine for a moment if back in 1936 Joseph Goebbels had called up director John Ford for a little help stage-managing the Berlin Olympics. Ford, of course, would’ve turned such an overture down - but seventy years later, well, Hollywood’s a lot more accommodating toward tyrannical dictatorships!