Christian Toto is a Denver-based movie critic and features reporter. His work appears in The Washington Times, The Denver Post, MovieMaker Magazine, and Denver Magazine. He also contributes movie radio commentary to three stations as well as the nationally syndicated "Dennis Miller Show." His film web site, What Would Toto Watch?, offers original interviews, reviews, and commentary.
Christian Toto
‘Poliwood’: One-Sided, Occasionally Fascinating Look at Politics and Celebrity
by Christian TotoDid you know celebrities have a right to speak their minds about politics courtesy of The First Amendment? Or that the 1960 Kennedy/Nixon televised debate changed the way we saw politicians forever? “Poliwood,” a new film “essay” from director Barry Levinson, uncovers those nuggets and much, much more.
The film, set to bow at the Starz Denver Film Festival this weekend and already airing on Showtime, does offer more than just those recycled themes. It’s an occasionally fascinating look into the modern actor’s mindset as well as the anger the general public feels when they hear celebrities pontificating on events of the day.
Director Barry Levinson
We’re also given a peek at the passions driving some celebrities to speak out on the issues. Yet the film is emblematic of Hollywood productions which strain to achieve balance but come up mostly empty.
The bulk of the film features liberal celebrities from the Creative Coalition, a nonpartisan group, maneuvering around last year’s Democratic National Convention in Denver. (more…)
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Interview: ‘The Canyon’ Director Richard Harrah
by Christian TotoDirector Richard Harrah couldn’t believe his good fortune when the forestry service gave him and his crew permission to shoot in the Grand Canyon for his first feature film, “The Canyon.” So Harrah began scouting locations for the film, which follows a pair of newlyweds (Eion Bailey, Yvonne Strahovski) who get lost within the grounds of the national landmark.
Two weeks before cameras were to roll, the service revoked all their permits. Harrah and crew scrambled for a Plan B, eventually settling on shooting mostly in Moab, Utah to capture the film’s naturalistic setting.
“It was so much better, with a better infrastructure [for filmmakers],” says Harrah, a native of Sun Valley, Idaho.
Harrah ended up shooting a few scenes, guerilla style, in the Grand Canyon.
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‘The Canyon’: Well-Directed Indie Delivers the Chills
by Christian TotoThe horror smash “Paranormal Activity” is scaring audiences silly without spilling so much as a spoonful of blood. “The Canyon,” in turn, delivers chills not with supernatural shocks but the very real dangers within the Grand Canyon. Who needs ghosts or goblins when Mother Nature starts acting up?
The new film, enjoying a brief theatrical release before jumping to DVD Nov. 17, doesn’t reinvent the wheel so much as spin said wheel as smoothly as possible for nearly two tense hours. Yuppie newlyweds Lori (Yvonne Strahovski) and Nick (Eion Bailey) want to see the Grand Canyon via mule, but they don’t have the permits necessary to make the trek.
Enter Henry (Will Patton), a grizzled local who promises he can secure two permits and guide them to some of the canyon’s lesser known sites. Nick can’t wait. He’s a city slicker at heart, and a rough and tumble trip through a tourist trap’s hidden side is an intoxicating challenge.
Henry knows the terrain, and has the scars to prove it, but even a savvy outdoors type can’t prepare for everything the canyon has to offer. Disaster soon strikes, leaving the newlyweds at the mercy of their surroundings. (more…)
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‘Not Evil Just Wrong’ Will Open Eyes to Inconvenient Facts
by Christian Toto“Not Evil Just Wrong,” the new documentary debunking much of the global warming movement, is reaching the public at an opportune time. Not only did the film’s director, Phelim McAleer, just publicly embarrass former Vice President Al Gore at a global warming Q&A, but major news outlets are now revealing the earth’s temperature hasn’t gone up for at least a decade.
Yet, “Not Evil Just Wrong” still won’t get the attention of your average Michael Moore polemic. That’s a shame, since it’s far more balanced than Moore’s body of work and offers a message few mainstream documentaries are willing to touch.
What if global warming is just another wide-scale scare tactic, like Y2K, the killer bees or mad cow disease, but with far more devastating results? These questions are rarely asked in the press, so kudos to “Not Evil” for doing so in such a methodical fashion. The film isn’t as entertaining as a Moore screen rant, but it still looks snazzy while imparting a raft of enlightening material.
Naturally, the film presses its thumb on the scale to favor the skeptics, but the global warming believers here add both texture and perspective. “We live in an age of fear, but humans have never lived longer or been healthier,“ the narrator says. (more…)
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McConaughey Gets It: Rom-Com Star Supports Veterans
by Christian Toto
Matthew McConaughey won’t be in the mix for any Oscar nominations this year, and probably not in 2010 or 2011, for that matter. But the routinely shirtless actor has one up on some of his A-list peers.
At a time when many celebrities risk alienating their fan base by voicing political views, McConaughey is opting to speak out on behalf of our men and women in uniform.The “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” star will appear in a new public service announcement that encourages giving back to veterans, politics be darned. (more…)
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HuffPo Goes All In to Defend Polanski, Readers Revolt **UPDATED/CORRECTED**
by Christian TotoCORRECTION: This post failed to include numerous essays on the site critical of the filmmaker’s actions. While the site did include several strong commentaries speaking out in favor of Polanski, the site’s anti-Polanski posts outnumber them. I should have dug deeper and apologize for the error. –C.T. END CORRECTION
The Huffington Post has made it crystal clear where it stands on the news that director Roman Polanski may have to answer for his 31-year-old crime of child rape: “Move on, everyone. Nothing to see here. Keep on directing, Roman. Love ya!”
The popular liberal site has posted numerous essays since news that Polanski was arrested in Switzerland broke over the weekend, each arguing vehemently against the Oscar winner’s persecution.
- Kim Morgan: “Roman Polanski understands women” – starts with her exasperation over the Polanski witch hunt.
- Bernard-Henri Levy: Let’s start a petition in support of Polanski.
- John Farr: Leniency for Polanski.
But HuffPo readers aren’t buying it. And boy, are they angry.
Check out the comments left on each of these essays and you’ll see faithful HuffPo readers aghast that the site could be defending the indefensible. (more…)
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Cowardly ‘Onion’ Ignores Obama, Ridicules Reagan’s Alzheimers
by Christian TotoIt’s bad enough that one of the snarkiest comedy outlets around, The Onion, can’t seem to find anything funny about President Barack Obama. But the faux newspaper hit a new low this week by insulting former President Ronald Reagan’s Alzheimer’s Disease and his economic record in one nasty twofer.
Week after week The Onion bends over backward not to satirize The One. That’s keeping in line with most of today’s cowardly comics, from David Letterman to Bill Maher.
Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show” has shown some interest in pursuing the president’s comic potential, but it comes in fits and starts. But The Onion’s latest attempt at humor is both vicious and wrongheaded. (more…)
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80’s Has-Beens Jump on Global Warming Celebrity Train
by Christian TotoA gaggle of concerned musicians has banded together to warn the world about global warming.
Huh? Is the world getting warmer? I had no idea. You would think the media, or the movie industry or any other information outlet for that matter would have told us about it by now.
Thank goodness Duran Duran and the Scorpions are here to set the record straight.
Yes, those ’80s rockers, along with actress and certified Truther Marion Cotillard, Youssou N’dour, Bob Geldorf, Khalil Fong and South African archbishop Desmond Tutu have cut a new tune available for free soon. (more…)
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Honoring September 11th: Earle’s Take
by Christian TotoThe September 11 attacks reset plenty of people’s ideological clocks, with Dennis Miller being one of the more prominent folks to reconsider their views.
For me, the attacks showed me a new side of some of the country’s most respected artists. And it wasn’t pretty.
Earle
Artists reacted to 9/11 in a number of ways. Some wrote songs promising a holy whup ass (Toby Keith) on the terrorist nation, while others went on to create stirring work about a city struck without warning (Bruce Springsteen’s “The Rising”)
Alt-country troubadour Steve Earle opted to write a song from the perspective of the traitorous thug, John Walker Lindh, who joined the Taliban against his own country. (more…)
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Let the Media’s Michael Moore Lovefest Begin
by Christian Toto
Director Michael Moore has a new movie coming soon – “Capitalism: A Love Story.”
It could only mean one thing – OK, many, many things:
- Rave reviews from at least 80 percent of film critics. And I’m being conservative.
- More press coverage than any documentary filmmaker could ever dream of.
- Few, if any, labels associated with him in the press. Liberal? Nah, he’s a muckraker, an iconoclast, a rebel, a truth teller…
- Oscar buzz aplenty. Feel badly for any other documentary filmmaker who did great work this year. Chances are you won’t be taking home the Oscar for your troubles. Better luck next year.
- More softball questions thrown his way by alleged journalists – this time, Oprah herself will get in on the action.
Moore, who won the Best Documentary Oscar for “Bowling for Columbine” and gave us the factually challenged “Fahrenheit 9/11,” has helped shape the film industry for better and worse. (more…)
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Interview: ‘Caddyshack’ Star Cindy Morgan Discusses Her Support of the Troops and Why She Wouldn’t Apologize to Chevy Chase
by Christian TotoHard to believe the lovely actress Cindy Morgan was once told she belonged behind the camera, not in front of it.
Morgan, who became a pop culture sensation by playing Lacey Underall in “Caddyshack,” started her career in broadcasting. “I ran camera, I ran sound,” Morgan tells Big Hollywood. “But they wouldn’t let me on camera. ’You’ll never get a job,’ they said.
A few years later, she was sharing the screen with Chevy Chase in the 1980 comedy classic.
Morgan’s “Caddyshack” role gave her an early lesson in how Hollywood works, and it wasn’t pretty. The day before her nude scene, a producer called to say a Playboy photographer would be on set to snap pictures which would run in the nudie magazine. (more…)
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Interview: ‘Not Evil Just Wrong’s’ Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney
by Christian TotoThe upcoming documentary “Not Evil Just Wrong” skewers global warming alarmists in the media and around the world. But filmmakers Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer contend their movie isn’t a conservative one.
“It’s a liberal, socialist film. It’s about poor people in Africa and America,” McAleer says. “We’re not interested in insulting anyone or winning political points,” McAleer continues. “I don’t care about your politics and I’m not going to demonize you.”
But what McAleer and McElhinney won’t stand for is watching people suffer while serious, glaring misinformation guides public policy.
That happened during the misinformation campaign surrounding the use of DDT years ago to stop the spread of malaria, they say, and it could happen soon if the U.S. adopts cap and trade legislation which will hamper industry – and curtail American prosperity. (more…)
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Another Reason to Like Chris Isaak
by Christian TotoRed-blooded males aren’t supposed to stock their CD shelves – or iPod Shuffles – with songs by handsome crooner Chris Isaak. But I’ve got plenty of Isaak’s music spread throughout my eclectic collection – being a fan of both Dwight Yoakam and the Monkees qualifies the “eclectic” label.
It isn’t just Isaak’s retro music, a heady crush of rockabilly and no-nonsense pop that endears him to me. It’s his attitude. He’s hopelessly self deprecating, a singer with talented pipes and a movie marquee mug who never gets lost in his own hype.
He’s also smart enough to know his limitations. Just listen to him dodge a baited question from a Washington Post interviewer over the weekend. (more…)
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‘Entertainment Weekly’ Hearts Perez Hilton
by Christian TotoThe folks at Entertainment Weekly see little wrong with the tabloid exploits of blogger Perez Hilton. The fevered mind behind Perezhilton.com, a site that makes US Weekly look like The Economist, gets a glowing feature article in this week’s edition. The mag allowed Hilton, known for scribbling angry/hateful/pornographic images all over celebrity pics, to decorate his own portrait with terms like “Zexy,” “Faboosh” and “Hawt.”
But that’s nothing compared to the kid glove treatment Hilton gets in the accompanying text.
For the uninitiated, Hilton runs one of the most popular tabloid sites on the Web, and his most recent claim to fame was grossly insulting Miss California, Carrie Prejean, after she dared to oppose gay marriage during the recent Miss USA pageant. (more…)
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DVD Review: ‘Do the Right Thing’ (20th Anniversary Edition)
by Christian TotoDirector Spike Lee’s third film, “Do the Right Thing,” hasn’t aged a day since its 1989 release. The film’s misguided views on violence were wrong-headed the second it hit theaters. And the election of President Barack Obama surely puts some of the film’s victimization subtext in fresh perspective. But as sheer entertainment, “Thing” remains a blistering experience, the culmination of every one of Lee’s unique gifts as a filmmaker.
The film’s re-release on DVD June 30 reminds us Lee hasn’t come anywhere close to matching “Thing’s” raw power in the intervening years.
“Thing” stars Lee as Mookie, a disinterested pizza delivery man working on the hottest day of the summer in the Bed-Stuy section of Brooklyn. Pizza shop owner Sal (Danny Aiello) is thoroughly old school, and his bickering sons (John Turturro and Richard Edson) are hardly paragons of virtue. But Sal doesn’t have hate in his heart for his customers, who are almost all black. His food has fed them for years, he says with pride. (more…)
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Part 2: Interview — ‘The Stoning of Soraya M.’s’ Cyrus Nowrasteh
by Christian TotoNote: Part 1 of this 2 part interview can be found here.
The execution scene at the heart of “The Stoning of Soraya M.“ is all force and little subtlety. Some audiences might flinch at the visuals, while others may draw parallels to the violence at the core of “The Passion of the Christ.”
But director/co-screenwriter Cyrus Nowrasteh says a version of the film featuring a shortened stoning sequence didn’t test as well as the full-length movie.
“This movie is a ticking clock to an execution. That execution is a primitive rite we’re witnessing, and we need to go through each stage of it,” he says. ”It’s almost a catharsis.”
Not all audiences are ready to take the journey.
He says about five or so people typically leave the theater during test screenings once the execution starts – but roughly half return to watch the film’s finale.
Nowrasteh, who is of Iranian heritage, has been watching the news reports coming out of Iran in recent days as intensely as any viewer.
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Part 1: Interview — ‘The Stoning of Soraya M.’s’ Cyrus Nowrasteh
by Christian TotoDirector Cyrus Nowrasteh has news for people who think the public execution scene at the heart of “The Stoning of Soraya M.” is too long, too graphic or too uncompromising in its horror. The real thing is worse. Much worse.
Nowrasteh’s “Stoning,” which debuts in select cities June 26, tells the true story of an Iranian woman accused of adultery by her narcissistic husband and subsequently stoned, per Sharia law, for her crime. The film, based on the book by journalist Freidoune Sahebjam, reveals its critical sequence via the title. But audiences will still recoil at the monstrous behavior on display.
“I want people never to forget what a stoning is,” Nowrasteh says. “I’ve seen it on tape, and it’s much worse.”
Nowrasteh, who wrote the ABC miniseries “The Path to 9/11,” read Sahebjam‘s book back in 1994 but figured no one would green light a film based on the harrowing true story. The story stuck with him all the same, and years later he and his wife, screenwriter Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh, decided to try to make such a movie themselves. Wresting the legal rights to the book took time, but they had very little competition, he says. Only two Italian directors flirted with the notion of making the book into a movie, as did, briefly, director Costa-Gavras (“Missing”). (more…)
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Has the Left Tired of Michael Moore’s Shtick?
by Christian Toto
Whenever Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore releases a new documentary the reaction in the press is typically jubilant. Rave reviews. Fawning interviews which rarely ask tough questions. Oscar buzz aplenty.
But this time could be different.
Moore’s last film, “Slacker Uprising,” didn’t go straight to DVD. It went straight to download. Now, Moore’s catching heat from Movieline.com, the online film magazine which routinely taunts conservative targets like Gov. Sarah Palin. The site’s new Moore-related post swats the filmmaker for a less than sharp attempt at marketing his upcoming film about the country’s economic collapse. The movie blogger sets up his critique here: (more…)
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‘True Blood’ Star William Sanderson: ‘Shouldn’t we support our soldiers?’
by Christian TotoWilliam Sanderson says he likes to fly under the radar. The in-demand character actor’s resume just won’t let him get away with it. Sanderson‘s career has brought him to the past (“Deadwood“), the future (“Blade Runner“) and a few surreal points in between (the long-running “Newhart“).
The actor is currently co-starring in HBO’s vampire drama “True Blood,“ set to begin its second season at 9 p.m. EST June 14. Sanderson plays Sheriff Dearborne, a character whose normalcy stands apart from the show’s menagerie of shape shifters, neck biters and mind readers. “You can hide when you have beards and mustaches. I don’t have a lot of that,” he says of the straightforward sheriff.
What he and his colleagues do have is the respect of HBO’s higher ups. HBO executives “trust the creators of their show,” he says. “They set the tone. If they’re under pressure, Lord, it’ll reach us,” he says.
The 65-year-old actor is at a loss as to why the vampire genre cannot be killed, adding even show creator Alan Ball (“Six Feet Under”) can’t break down the appeal of the undead. (more…)
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Another Men’s Mag Votes for The One
by Christian TotoIt’s time for me to end another men’s magazine subscription. Sad. I thought this one might last an entire 12 issues. “Details” just declared its unconditional love for President Obama with a “think” piece teased on the front cover – “Can Obama make you better in bed?”
The editor’s note accompanying the piece is even more outlandish.
I started to notice other Obama-esque characteristics cropping up in my life. Was I being more direct with people? Calmer? Cooler? Was I being – wait for it – transparent?
The article itself is even more nauseating, detailing the O-effect on men. (more…)
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DVD Review: ‘Powder Blue’
by Christian TotoIt’s a cinch to see why actors like Ray Liotta, Forest Whitaker and Jessica Biel signed up for the gritty drama “Powder Blue,” out this week on DVD. The film lets them wallow in bleak, bleary-eyed scenarios, the sort of heightened reality that acting school monologues are made of.
It’s even easier to see why “Blue” shot straight to DVD.
The film goes the “Crash” route, a trail that, more often than not, gets most screenwriters hopelessly lost. Jessica Biel famously sheds her top to play Rose, a single mother and stripper who goes by the name Scarlett on stage. What, Rose wasn’t strippery enough?
Her son is in a coma and it’s all she can do to make ends meet while keeping her cretinous boss (Patrick Swayze, enlivening a very silly role) at arm’s length. She’s less wary of Jack (Ray Liotta), a new strip club customer who doesn’t seem very interested in watching her doff her clothes. We also meet Charlie (Forest Whitaker) a man whose personal grief has left him suicidal. Charlie meets un-cute with a waitress (Lisa Kudrow), but he’s too numb to respond to her advances. He doesn’t need a Friend. He needs a shrink – or a more fully realized character to play. (more…)
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MacFarlane’s ‘Cavalcade’ of Comic Misfires
by Christian Toto
Critics harp on Seth MacFarlane’s use of comic cutaways on his popular animated show “Family Guy,” calling the technique lazy and uninspired. You know the technique – family patriarch Peter Griffin makes an aside, and suddenly it’s blown into a flashback of comic exaggeration.
Now, “Family Guy” fans can sample an entire hour of disconnected snippets with “Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy,” out this month on DVD.
Not a smart move. (more…)
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Russell Brand’s DVD Shows Two Sides of Bawdy Brit
by Christian Toto
Russell Brand is only on the first few ticks of his 15 minutes of fame, but he’s already a tough sell to conservative audiences. The British comic unleashed a crude anti-Bush tirade while hosting the MTV Video Music Awards last year, all the while begging viewers to vote for then-Sen. Barack Obama.
Brand proves he isn’t the Molotov cocktail-throwing comedian he appears to be in his new stand-up comedy DVD, “Russell Brand In New York City: Extended and Uncensored.”
He’s actually the male Kathy Griffin. (more…)
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GI Film Festival: Where Hollywood Fears to Tread
by Christian TotoBrandon L. Millett has crunched the numbers and come up with a formula Hollywood doesn’t want to compute. Films featuring U.S. soldiers as the enemy don’t sell tickets. Period. So Millett decided to create the G.I. Film Festival, an annual event honoring movies that depict soldiers in a positive light.
The five-day festival, which kicks off its third year Wednesday (May 13) at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C., just keeps growing as a result. This time around, the festival will feature 48 film screenings – up from 30 last year. “Brothers at War,” which won the festival’s prize last year for best documentary, got a theatrical distribution deal thanks to its festival appearance.
Stephen Baldwin, James McEachin, Brandon Millett, Gary Sinise – 2008 Festival
Oscar winner Robert Duvall will lend his star presence to the proceedings, along with Sen. Fred Thompson and Kelsey Grammer.
“We didn’t know how big it would get and how quickly it would grow. It took on a life of its own,” says Millett, Festival President. Millett pins the blame squarely on Gary Sinise, Hollywood’s hardest working actor on behalf of U.S. soldiers. (more…)
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DVD Review: Killshot
by Christian Toto
Something must be seriously wrong with “Killshot,” the straight-to-video flick starring the resurgent Mickey Rourke. The movie features not just Rourke, but rising star Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Diane Lane, Rosario Dawson and Thomas Jane – reputable actors, all.
And it’s under the direction of John Madden (”Shakespeare in Love”), working from an Elmore Leonard story. And it still rocketed past every movie theater save one in Arizona earlier this year, netting a measly $18,000?
The film, heading to DVD May 26, deserved a better fate. (more…)
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Newsweek: Bias? It’s Your Eyes That Lie, Young Jedi
by Christian Toto
Any clear thinking media gazer can tell you Newsweek magazine has tilted to the left in recent months. Not that it ever was a fair and balanced media organ to start with, mind you. But Newsweek managing editor Jon Meacham told Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly this week that his magazine doesn’t have a liberal agenda. Really? Then how do you explain the latest issue featuring a “Star Wars”/”Star Trek” casting sidebar ripped from today’s political headlines?
The magazine, in a fit of adolescent whimsy, casts real-life political figures who might stand in for Captain Kirk, Darth Vader and other characters from the space franchises’ galaxies. (more…)
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Apology Accepted, When You’re a Democrat
by Christian Toto
Jamie Foxx is really, really sorry he said some horrible things about pop princess Miley Cyrus. He did so on “The Tonight Show” last night while host Jay Leno meekly set up his apology.
And that will most likely be that.
The same thing happened when President Barack Obama made an ugly crack about Special Olympics athletes on the very same “Tonight Show” venue. One apology later, all is forgiven.
I bet Don Imus wishes he got treated the same way. (more…)
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Lourdes Help Us – Is Madonna’s Kid the Next Style Icon?
by Christian TotoYou don’t have to be a cultural conservative to be alarmed about the path Madonna’s child, Lourdes, may be on.
The 12-year-old offspring of the Material Woman and ex-beau Carlos Leon has led a fairly private life up until now – by celebrity kiddie standards.
That’s no easy feat considering the circles her mamma sashays in. But that appears to be changing and it’s hard not to cringe at the possibilities.
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Tomlin Attacks Palin, Cavuto in New Vid
by Christian Toto
Lily Tomlin’s newest video blasts Gov. Sarah Palin and Fox News’ Neil Cavuto.
But Tomlin forgot to bring the funny.
The ageless comedian’s new “humor” clip can be seen at The Women on the Web’s site. In it, she dresses up as her iconic Ernestine character, the opinionated telephone operator, to lash out at those she thinks are cruel to animals. It plays out like one of Jon Stewart’s “Daily Show” rants. Yeah, that bad. (more…)
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Newsweek Even Bungles Celebrity Chats
by Christian TotoIt’s hard to argue Newsweek hasn’t fully embraced the ideological left. Just how many times did the magazine put fawning images of Sen. Barack Obama on the cover last year? And its recent unflattering cover photo of Rush Limbaugh, not to mention the accompanying article, spoke volumes of its editorial choices.
Why a news weekly would decide, in a very difficult market, to parrot nearly every other magazine’s liberal bent is a head scratcher. But Newsweek can’t even get its celebrity interviews right.
The latest assault on basic journalism comes courtesy of Ramin Setoodeh who chatted up actress Emily Blunt for the issue on newsstands now. If you’re squeamish, please read no further. Here’s how it starts: (more…)
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