LOS ANGELES, July 20: US singer Linda Ronstadt was booed off the stage and kicked out of a Las Vegas casino after praising polemical filmmaker Michael Moore's film "Fahrenheit 9/11," the casino said Monday.

The management of Las Vegas Aladdin Casino and Resort evicted the famed crooner from the premises after members of the audience reacted furiously to her praise of Moore, whose film bashes US President George W. Bush, during a concert on Saturday night.

"She was removed from the hotel towards the end of the concert," a hotel official said. "The company decided to remove her from the property after she dedicated a song to Michael Moore. This angered our guests who spilled their drinks and demanded their money back," the official said.

The liberal Ronstadt, 58, a 10-time Grammy Award-winner and an icon of the politically-agitated 1970s, praised Moore as a "great American patriot" who "is spreading the truth."

She also dedicated the song "Desperado" to Moore and urged the audience to go and see "Fahrenheit 9/11," which mercilessly slams Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq and his handling of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

According to local media, members of the 4,500-strong audience stormed out of the concert hall, tore down concert posters and tossed cocktails into the air. Hotel president Bill Timmins then ordered security guards to escort Ronstadt off the premise, even denying her access to her suite.

Moore reacted furiously to the hotel and casino's decision in an open letter to Timmins on the filmmaker's website. "What country do you live in?," Moore asked in the letter. "Last time I checked, Las Vegas is still in the United States.

And in the United States, we have something called 'The First Amendment'" which guarantees the right to free speech. "For you to throw Linda Ronstadt off the premises because she dared to say a few words in support of me and my film, is simply stupid and Un-American," Moore continued. -AFP