MARTIN SHEEN - SHEEN SLAMS BUSH FOR BEING 'ALL IMAGE'

Hollywood legend MARTIN SHEEN has blasted US President GEORGE W BUSH, insisting he's "all image" and handled criticism from country trio the DIXIE CHICKS heartlessly. The veteran actor, who played PRESIDENT JOSIAH BARTLET on US political drama THE WEST WING, believes Bush responded badly to singer NATALIE MAINES' comment about being "ashamed" to share her home state of Texas with him, insisting his statement saying, "I don't really care what the Dixie Chicks said" shows his lack of heart. He fumes, "He had this image, that he's a regular guy you could sit down and have a beer with. But it's all an image. Take the Dixie Chicks - you know, those girls who said around the time of the invasion of Iraq, 'We're ashamed to be from the same state as Bush'? "Now, if you're the president, and you're sitting on a 70 per cent approval rating, you just let these girls hang out to dry. They're getting death threats, their CDs are being burned and concerts cancelled. And you say nothing, because that's who you are. "Or if you're clever, you say, 'This is an opportunity, let's invite them to the next barbecue and if they don't turn up we'll just play their records, because by God I love their music and I don't care how they feel about me'. But he couldn't leave it alone. He didn't have that kind of heart."