John Nolte is Editor-In-Chief of Big Hollywood.
John Nolte
‘Independence Day 2′: Exhibit #13,987 Proving Hollywood’s Not Money-Driven
by John Nolte
Director Roland Emmerich at his London home.
“Independence Day” is one of the most profitable films in history — and after the original “Poseidon Adventure,” one of the greatest bad films ever — but there was no sure-fire, money-making blockbuster sequel because President Bush — The Abraham Lincoln of the Middle East — won the presidency:
“In Independence Day, it was about a king who leads his country into a fight against an outside invader. I didn’t want to make that movie during the Bush years. It was not thought that George W. Bush would have made a great king. Now with Obama, it’s another story.”
That’s straight from the director, the ball-less Roland Emmerich.
Sure, Hollywood is packed with the worst kind of greedy people who demand higher taxes as they shelter millions — who intend to hang on to their platinum health-care plans as they push rationed care – who demand Big Business pay their “fair share” as they beg for tax incentives… Sure, Leftist Hollywood wants to make money, bucketloads if possible, but…
….not at the expense of The Leftist Cause. (more…)
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PBS Ombudsman: ‘Sesame Street’ Fox News Slam Crossed Line
by John NolteEarlier this week, Big Hollywood’s Stage Right broke the story of a ”Sesame Street” episode which referred to Fox News as “Pox News” and “trashy.” In response to the episode, PBS also received a number of complaint letters from viewers which prompted a reply from PBS Ombudsmen Michael Getler:
I don’t know what was in the head of the producers, but my guess is that this was one of those parodies that was too good to resist. But it should have been resisted. Broadcasters can tell parents whatever they think of Fox or any other network, but you shouldn’t do it through the kids.
In response to Stage Right using “Sesame Street’s” unfortunate behavior as an example with which to speak for the many, many many parents frustrated with the idea of partisan programming aimed at children, some online outlets responded with the expected and usual dismissive snarky contempt. But now that PBS is on record agreeing with Stage Right, we’re left to wonder if they find PBS ”stupid,” “asinine,” “absurd,” and “idiotic.”
You can read Getler’s full article here, along with some of the complaint letters PBS received. (more…)
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‘L.A. Times’ Writer Slams ‘Anti-Hollywood Crowd’ With Everything But Facts
by John NolteThe other day, the L.A. Times’ Patrick Goldstein responded to this post of mine with a beauty of a headline:
“New Muhammad biopic drives the anti-Hollywood crowd nuts”
You know, sometimes you just have to put politics aside and take a moment to admire the tactics of your opponents, because no matter how you slice it, that is one gorgeous humdinger of a headline.
At a glance, the headline intentionally furthers the whole “conservatives are intolerant” narrative with the inference that I somehow have a problem with a big-budget biopic about the prophet Muhammad. Later in his piece, Goldstein doubles down on that smear with this:
But as usual, the news has aroused a storm of derision from conservative bloggers, who always find a way to be offended by any high-minded Hollywood project.
Odd… Especially when the very first sentence – the opening line — of my piece says the exact opposite: (more…)
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ELEMENTARY EPIDEMIC: 11 Uncovered Videos Show School Children Performing Praises to Obama
by John NolteBig Hollywood has already posted a couple disturbing videos of young school children singing/speaking praises to President Obama, but when eleven more dropped in our email box it came as quite a shock. What seemed like an aberration now appears to be a troubling pattern.
Maybe “epidemic” is a better word.
Each one of the videos below is creepier than the last because the further down you go, the younger the children — brace yourself for kindergartners – except for the last and most disturbing video, which you have to see to believe.
Young captive minds, easily influenced, eager for direction, enlisted into a cult of personality focused on an individual who, other than being the first black president, has yet to accomplish anything of significance.
But Obama’s skin color has nothing to do with this. Does anyone interested in retaining their merit badge for intellectual honesty really want to argue that Condi Rice or J.C. Watts would’ve spawned a dozen-and-counting tribute videos?
This is about brainwashing our children into Leftist identity politics. Sure, the schools can argue that they had some kind of parental permission — which, if true, is somehow even more disturbing — but who even considers doing something like this with young minds? That’s a rhetorical question. (more…)
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Christ Gets Pissed On, Muhammad Gets a $150 Million Biopic
by John Nolte
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a respectful, big-budget biopic of the prophet Muhammad – that’s not the point – but it’s well worth remembering that while he was one of the biggest movie stars in the world, Oscar-winning director Mel Gibson had his ”Passion of the Christ” turned down by every studio in town. You know, even though 70% of Americans identify themselves as Christians.
Now, if Gibson had produced “The Pissing on the Christ…”
Producer Barrie Osborne cast Keanu Reeves as the messiah in The Matrix and helped defeat the dark lord Sauron in his record-breaking Lord of the Rings trilogy. Now the Oscar-winning American film-maker is set to embark on his most perilous quest to date: making a big-screen biopic of the prophet Muhammad.
Budgeted at around $150m (£91.5m), the film will chart Muhammad’s life and examine his teachings. Osborne told Reuters that he envisages it as “an international epic production aimed at bridging cultures. The film will educate people about the true meaning of Islam“.
The article then goes on to inform us that out of respect for Islamic law Muhammad will not be shown on the screen. If only such respect was extended to every major religion. Which isn’t to say religion, including Christianity, is above satire, but what we have here is another example of the mindset of those who control the most powerful propaganda machine ever created. Think about it: “The Passion” remains one of the most profitable films ever and yet an industry frequently ridiculed for reproducing ad nauseum anything resembling a hit will have none of it. (more…)
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How the MSM Might Survive: Come Out of the Ideological Closet
by John NolteWhenever reading Politico, everything should be washed through this filter. You must always keep in the front of your mind that this supposed “news” organization took the time to dig up and publicize dirt on a private citizen whose only sin was asking a perfectly reasonable question of a public figure. Politico’s warning to the everyday American was clear: get in the way of our guy and we will summon all our resources to publicly humiliate you. This all goes to prove that Politico is nothing more than a digital version of the Dinosaur Media — and just as clueless and dishonest as their unholy brethren, especially when it comes to explaining why their counterparts are drowning in the tar pits of obsolescence.
To hear Politico tell it, CNN’s stuck in humiliating fourth place behind FOX, MSNBC and their own Headline News because they’ve made the mistake of not appealing to the great unwashed who prefer partisan bickering and echo chambers:
With the proliferation of media across platforms these days, there’s less shared knowledge among people, who are increasingly heading to niche outlets for information. At the same time, there’s a large appetite for the new media world where the MSM gatekeepers no longer hold as much clout, and “he said, she said” journalism gives way to strong point of view. …
There’s no doubt that the over-the-top, and politically partisan, hosts are having more success attracting viewers on nights when there’s no major news event.
And what better place for Politico to get an opinion on such a matter than The Nation aka: “The flagship of the left“:
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NEA Chair Rocco Landesman Mocks Critics
by John Nolte
About ten days ago, in a widely ridiculed address to the 2009 Grantmakers in the Arts Conference – so widely ridiculed he had to walk his Obama-Caesar gushing back some – embattled NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman took a moment to launch a shot at his critics:
Am I starting to sound like an advocate? Well, that seems to be a touchy subject. Some quote-unquote “journalists” have recently accused this agency of losing its independence and becoming a propaganda machine.
Ooh, ouch, that stings: “quote-unquote journalists.” I would have responded sooner but the insult went over my head. You see, in the world where I reside — the land of Where Decent People Try To Do The Right Thing – accusing someone of “not being a real journalist” is like accusing them of “not being a dishonest left-wing poseur with more affectations than a washed-up Shakespearean stage actor.”
But what a punk thing for Landesman to do; acting like the big mouth kid who after a well-deserved playground thumping runs home to talk big in front his fat, fawning Aunts. Gee, Rocco, if you and yours hold so much contempt for your critics, why respond to their criticisms in such dramatic ways: (more…)
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Pissing on Jesus: Hollywood Hates Us Exhibit 11,567
by John Nolte
“Larry David would never do this to Muslims. He doesn’t have the guts.”
That’s missing the point.
Hypocrisy or a fear of how some wacko extremist might react has nothing to do with this. Hollywood constantly singles out Christians for cruel ridicule and the worst kind of stereotyping for one simple reason…
They hate us.
They hate our guts.
There’s nothing more complicated to this question than that.
I promise you that if every Muslim on the planet was as gentle as a kitten, it would still be Christians singled out by the entertainment industry at every opportunity. (more…)
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Gore Vidal Describes Polanski’s Victim as ‘Young Hooker’
by John Nolte
In an interview published today, The Atlantic describes Gore Vidal as “a sharp provocateur, as irascible and irreverent as ever.”
I’m assuming that’s some kind of internal Atlantic-code for ”twisted old has-been degenerate desperate for attention“:
ATLANTIC: In September, director Roman Polanski was arrested in Switzerland for leaving the U.S. in 1978 before being sentenced to prison for raping a 13-year-old girl at Jack Nicholson’s house in Hollywood. During the time of the original incident, you were working in the industry, and you and Polanski had a common friend in theater critic and producer Kenneth Tynan. So what’s your take on Polanski, this many years later?
VIDAL: I really don’t give a fuck. Look, am I going to sit and weep every time a young hooker feels as though she’s been taken advantage of?
Vidal then goes on to blame Polanski’s legal problems on… (more…)
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Polanski Might Not Fight Extradition
by John Nolte
Out of options?
Considering the shocking ineptitude and counterintuitive moves by the White House lately, I was starting to wonder if they might add to their woes, cave to their Leftist Hollywood friends and quietly let the deadline pass to request Roman Polanski’s extradition — effectively letting him off the hook. Thankfully, word comes today that the U.S. has made a formal request to the Swiss to hand the child-rapist over. Better yet, Polanski’s lawyers are floating the idea that Polanski is considering a voluntary surrender to U.S. authorities:
Polanski’s legal team has sent out mixed messages on its strategy. Temime has insisted the Oscar-winning director will fight extradition. But earlier this week, Georges Kiejman, another of Polanski’s lawyers, told French radio that, instead of spending years in a Swiss jail, Polanski might voluntarily decide to face justice in the U.S.
The 76 year old child-rapist is pretty much out of options. The court battle over extradition could take years, and with no hope of bail that means those years would be spent in prison. If he then loses that fight he’ll still have to face whatever penalty awaits him here in the States. At his age, there aren’t many years to waste. Taking his chances here is probably the wise move. (more…)
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Michael Moore: Epic Failure or Right-Wing Double Agent?
by John NolteBesides being intellectually dishonest, anti-liberty and just plain wrong, the Daily Kos, HuffPo, Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow and Michael Moore all have another thing in common: a smidgen of my respect for being upfront regarding their political agendas. Each fights dirty and dishonestly, but at least they’re in uniform — unlike those left-wing spies hiding pompously behind “objectivity” at CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, Washington Post, ABC, PBS, NPR, CBS and NBC.
I digress…
I like Michael Moore. I like his movies and while there are a number of stories floating around describing him as an awful human being, he seems affable enough during television interviews and personal appearances. Most of all, I like him because he lays completely bare his anti-all-things-freedom agenda for the world to see. He’s my ideological enemy, but unlike the coward Bill Maher who hides behind libertarianism and the coward Jon Stewart who hides behind being a “comic,” Moore makes no secret of the Statist goals he shamelessly pursues.
Too bad for his side he sucks at it. (more…)
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ObamaVision: The EIF’s Implausible Deniability
by John Nolte
Yesterday, The L.A. Times ran a story referencing our Thursday series covering the leaked network network memo and those “organically” produced network television shows running this week designed to funnel the unsuspecting to creepy Internet portals eager to direct your children to Planned Parenthood:
More than 100 programs on ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and cable networks such as Nickelodeon and Lifetime will spotlight community service, either through explicit story lines or public service announcements featuring actors such as Emily Deschanel, Eva Longoria Parker and Rainn Wilson.
The message will be nearly ubiquitous, starting in the morning with programs such as “Today” and “The View,” and then echoed on soap operas, prime-time series and late-night shows.
Isn’t “Today” a news show that’s supposed to be doing, you know, news and not jumping to the tune of a memo that opens with “President Obama has called for…”? (more…)
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Courrielche Debates ObamaVision on ‘O’Reilly’
by John NolteMy favorite part of this debate is how the NY Post’s Linda Stasi, when referring to the infamous leaked memo, mentions the “military family” part of the memo twice, but never once “health, or “environmental conservation.” And, of course, this is why, in the laundry list of suggested topics, “support for military families” was added (last) — so that people like Stasi could parrot that particular talking point as bipartisan cover:
My second favorite part is Stasi’s statement about how the memo “doesn’t talk about Obama’s health care…”
What a canard. Like the NEA conference calls, there’s no need to force feed fish marked “ObamaCare” to an audience of partisan seals. All you have to do is toss the issue out there. The White House knows this and so, I suspect, does Stasi. In her own circular logic she actually makes that point when arguing ”Old Christine” produced a pro-ObamaCare episode without even being asked. Thank you, Linda — this is exactly why the memo didn’t have to mention “Obama’s health care” specifically… Minions don’t need GPS. Just point. (more…)
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ObamaCare TV: Preview of ‘Organically’ Produced Television Shows?
by John NolteIn my piece posted earlier today, I mentioned previous television network public service campaigns and the “clunky exposition awkwardly inserted into your favorite show” to further whatever that campaign was. Last week’s episode of “The New Adventures of Old Christine” might have provided an early preview of how the networks will — per the infamous memo – “organically produce and create as many stories as possible about service and volunteerism” — and if so, it appears as though I owe “clunky exposition” an apology.
Put your politics on hold for a second and at right around the 2:38 mark watch and listen to two awkward minutes of lazy, poorly written pro-ObamaCare propaganda:
For those of you not willing to put yourself through it, the entire episode is littered with jarring references to the 45 million uninsured (I thought it was 30 million, or have 15 million lost their jobs and insurance since the stimulus?), “jokes” about the long lines at American hospitals and even a line desperately seeking a rim-shot about death panels. (more…)
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LEAKED NETWORK MEMO REVEALS: Obama Controls Your Television Set
by John NolteOn September 10th of this year the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) posted a press release informing the world that “from October 19-25, more than 60 network TV shows [will] spotlight the power and personal benefits of service,” and that this “unprecedented block of TV programming is the first wave of a multi-year ‘I Participate’ campaign.”
On its face this all sounds rather benign in that silly, liberal do-gooder kind of way. The networks have launched these kinds of campaigns before and other than some clunky exposition awkwardly inserted into your favorite show to meet the mandate — no harm, no foul.
But this year there are a couple new strangers in town: “Volunteerism” and “Service.” You’ve heard of them. Their names have been bandied everywhere since President Obama took office, and this internal memo from the EIF to network showrunners obtained by Big Hollywood shows that the entertainment industry is well acquainted and eager to introduce both to as vast an audience as possible: (more…)
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My Apology to Leftist Hollywood
by John Nolte
My apologies, Leftist Hollywood.
When you stepped over causes like childhood diseases, health-care reform and the homeless to spend political capital defending a fugitive child-rapist, I was certain you really were stupid enough to further tarnish an already devastated reputation under the misguided impression that tsk-tsking child sodomy made you look sophisticated, as opposed to wicked and grotesque. Thankfully, I’ve seen the light and am man enough to admit that my right-wing kneejerk got the better of me. How embarrassing to have missed your Harvey Weinstein and Minions Master Plan:
Roman Polanski realises that some of the support he got in his battle against US child sex charges was “counter-productive”, his lawyer said Sunday, adding he was worried about the detained director’s health.
“The filmmaker is very touched by the support he has received,” Herve Temime told AFP after visiting his client on Friday in his cell in Switzerland, where he is being held on a US warrant.
“He also knows that some of it is counter-productive,” he added, without elaborating. (more…)
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Maybe DVD Sales Collapsed Because Movies Suck
by John NolteEveryone seems to have an opinion as to why DVD sales have cratered since hitting their peak in 2006, but no one’s looking at the obvious answer. Plunging sales have been blamed on piracy, competing technologies such as video games and low-priced rental outlets like Redbox … everything but the quality of the actual films.
First and foremost, I’m a movie lover. Nothing competes for my attention in this regard, including dollar rentals and the like. But I’m just not buying anywhere near the number of new releases I did just ten years ago. Obviously, this is anecdotal evidence, so make your own comparisons:
1998 – I purchased 15 of the top 20 money makers…
1999 — 18 of the top 20.
2000 — 16 of the top 20.
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Russell Simmons: God Will Destroy Us If We Don’t Follow Barack
by John NolteOver at HuffPo, Russell Simmons has let go of the wheel and bounced off a guard rail. His apocalyptic melodrama sounds like the typical Hollywood cliche of a Christian right-winger. But these lefties are all about projection, so that’s to be expected.
A normal celebucrat post has a pull quote or two you can highlight and make sport of, but Simmons is all pull quote — a bonanza of crazy — so where to begin? Hey, I know, let’s play a game. Here are ten quotes, nine are from Simmons, one is not. Can you pick out the lunacy that doesn’t belong?
1. The president’s honest attempt to promote world peace through the same methods taught by Jesus Christ are met with contempt by a country whose collective consciousness is extraordinarily fearful and at times, sacrilegious. (more…)
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Poor Polanski: Depressed, Facing Longer Sentence Today than in ‘77
by John Nolte
Nothing plays on that little violin inside my heart more than hearing some child-sodomizing fugitive has got himself a case of the incarceration blues:
Director Roman Polanski is feeling depressed two weeks after his arrest in Switzerland to face U.S. extradition for a 1977 case involving the rape of a 13-year-old girl, his lawyer was quoted as saying on Sunday.
“I found him to be tired and depressed,” Herve Temime told the Sonntag newspaper, one of two newspapers he talked to after visiting the Oscar-winning director in a Zurich prison.
“Roman Polanski, who is 76, seemed very dejected when I visited him,” Temime told another newspaper, NZZ am Sonntag.
“Polanski was in an unsettled state of mind.”
“Dejected,” “unsettled,” “depressed.” About 1/1000th of what his victim went through. Michael Cieply’s New York Times piece over the weekend probably didn’t do the fugitive director’s mood much good. Cieply makes a very convincing case that had Polanski taken his medicine in 1977, he would have received a lighter sentence than what he’s likely to face today if extradited: (more…)
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Did President Obama Learn Nothing from Ving Rhames?
by John Nolte
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One of the classiest moments in the history of show biz starts at right around the three-minute mark.
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EXCLUSIVE: Gene Hackman Talks Iraq, Gitmo, and Celebs Who Talk Politics
by John NolteQuietly, with dignity and without fanfare, The Mighty Gene Hackman retired from acting in 2004 to live with his wife in New Mexico and tap out the occasional novel, his latest being “Escape From Andersonville,” a piece of historical fiction he co-wrote with Daniel Lenihan.
Though there were no announcements I’m aware of, almost immediately I knew he had retired … because almost immediately there was a disturbance in the force. Sometime during the early eighties, Hackman replaced John Wayne as my favorite working actor and rarely did a year pass without a new Gene Hackman movie – and sometimes there were as many as two or three. So when the movies stopped coming, something just felt off. (more…)
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The Polanski Culture: Hollywood’s Push to Normalize Sex With Children
by John NolteThe vocal, sanctimonious Free-Polanski uproar is merely a symptom of an entertainment culture infected with a moral cancer – a culture that regularly practices up on the screen what we’ve heard them preach this last week on behalf of a confessed child rapist.
Last year Miramax released “Doubt,” a high-profile piece of Oscar-bait starring Academy Award winners’ Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Streep plays a puritanical nun on a moral crusade to expose a Priest (Hoffman) who she believes is sexually abusing a 12 year-old boy. Both characters are portrayed as unsympathetic (especially Streep’s) but in just a couple scenes the boy’s working-class mother (Mrs. Miller, played by Viola Davis) is established as the moral center of the film – the only one truly interested in the welfare of her child. When Mrs. Miller’s informed that her son’s being molested, the Moral Center Of The Film responds that her 12 year-old boy is gay, a social outcast, and beaten regularly by his homophobic father … so maybe the best option for him is a sexual relationship with a forty-something child predator.
Starring Aaron Eckhart, Maria Bello, and written and directed by Oscar-winner Alan Ball, last year’s “Towelhead” is a film Roman Polanski might have seen many, many times while wearing a rain coat. The protagonist is 13 year-old Jasira (played by the then barely eighteen Summer Bishil) and the story surrounds her sexual abuse at the hands of a number of men, including Eckhart’s Gulf War Vet. Rather than the repeated abuse damaging the young girl, the filmmaker portrays the rapes and molestations as a healthy and sexually liberating experience. More than once the audience is “treated” to lingering shots of Jasira’s bare legs as she discovers the joys of the orgasm while masturbating to photographs of naked women.
Kate Winslet won last year’s Best Actress Oscar for her role in “The Reader,” in which she plays a “sympathetic” Nazi guilty of mass murder who seduces and then engages in a steamy sexual affair with a 15 year-old boy. The sex scenes between this mature woman and a child lean heavily on the erotic, as opposed to the creepy. (The “sympathetic Nazi” issue we’ll save for another post.) (more…)
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(UPDATED) School Kids Sing Praises of Health Care Reform on CNN
by John NolteBig Hollywood should have started a pool where we could all drop a buck and guess the date and time a national news network would highlight a bunch of school kids singing for Dear Leader’s flagging bid to take over our nation’s health care. This is what the Left does, after all. Correcting bad behavior that furthers their cause is out of the question. So instead, they get us used to their bad behavior by performing it over and over again as if to say, “Would I be doing this so brazenly if it was wrong?”
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Predictably, CNN comes to the rescue, absolving all those awful school teachers who abused their captive audience with some of the creepiest child behavior since “Pet Sematary.” And I say “CNN” because Wolf –I lost on Jeopardy, baby– Blitzer just isn’t smart enough to figure all of this out on his own. (more…)
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The Oprahfication of David Letterman
by John NolteSure, holding it all in might have taken 15 years off of our lives but at least when men were stoic they died with their dignity intact. Watching the once mighty David Letterman confess, apologize and then re-apologize like some narcissistic nobody who suddenly finds Oprah’s attention and camera on him is just another exhibit in the trial of How Far Men Have Fallen.
Compounding his mistake from last week, we got this last night:
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Of course Letterman didn’t think about how the media would hound every female who ever worked with him as he bared his precious soul for ten minutes last week. How could he when he was thinking only of himself? Anyone who spends ten minutes confessing their sexual indiscretions on national television obviously hasn’t yet figured out that everything isn’t all about him. If he had, he would’ve issued a short statement, taken the incoming fire without comment, and quietly and privately begged forgiveness from those he hurt. (more…)
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Socialism and Christian-Bashing Crash at Box Office
by John Nolte
Tough times for leftie Hollywood. Nothing’s gone right this week. None of this is their fault, of course. In order to understand that it might not be a good idea to rally around a child rapist, bash religion in a religious country or trash capitalism in a capitalist country you have to live in the real world…
Michael Moore’s CAPITALISM tanks!
Ricky Gervais has launched his second consecutive box office bomb as The Invention of Lying (Warner Bros) only mustered $2.2M or so to start the 3-day. The comedy should finish #5 with approximately $6.5M for the weekend. … (more…)
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When You’ve Lost Eugene Robinson: ‘Hollywood’s Shame’
by John NolteThe Polanski divide isn’t a left/right issue, it’s a culture issue, and while there are many good and moral people working in the entertainment industry, there’s also a dark underbelly of money, power, sex and fame among the most powerful. They’re terrified to judge Polanski because they don’t want to open that door. If “judgment” is allowed in the room, it could turn on them.
The worst sin imaginable among the Harvey Weinsteins who run this town and the Whoopi Goldbergs desperate to hold on to their celebrity, obviously isn’t the sodomizing a thirteen year-old child. The worst sin is making a moral judgment against another — unless that “other” is someone who makes them ashamed through the upholding of a personal moral standard, like a Christian.
But the whole thing is burning down around them and they don’t even see it. The world now senses something dark and ugly at work among those who control the world’s most powerful propaganda tool, and the last two decades of being written off as a bunch of fuzzy headed, out-of-touch liberals are about to be remembered as the good old days. (more…)
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dun DUN: Rene Balcer Murdered ‘Law & Order’
by John NolteWhen “Law & Order” first hit the airwaves in September of 1990, I was an immediate fan. The concept, the ignoring of the personal lives of the lead characters, the wonderful acting and especially the endless plot twists hooked me a few seasons before the public would catch on and make the show a regular ratings hit. The first four seasons are among four of the best ever produced for dramatic television, thanks mainly to Michael Moriarty’s exceptional work as Assistant District Attorney Ben Stone, a resourceful, Robert F. Kennedy-style hard-nosed prosecutor determined to see justice done (though the whole cast was top-notch).
After 88 episodes Moriarty left, Sam Waterston (one of my favorite actors) took his place, and while the show was never quite the same, it remained regular viewing until around 2002.
The program’s eventual deterioration was a case study in the boiling frog theory. The quality of the production and acting remained, but the politics slowly shifted to the far left almost without my noticing. And it wasn’t the actual politics that first became apparent; it was the negative effect of those politics on the quality of the storytelling. (more…)
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Whoopi ‘Not Rape-Rape’ Goldberg: Child Advocate
by John Nolte
Toys-R-Us: ”I’m Whoopi Goldberg and I love kids.”
The View: “I know it wasn’t rape-rape. … It was something else but I don’t believe it was rape-rape.”
Are those who declare themselves “child advocates” required to go through some sort of accreditation or licensing program in California? Because if they are, maybe Whoopi missed the part about actually “advocating” for children, as opposed to, say…. millionaire, celebrity child-rapists.
Here’s the definition of “advocate”: to speak or write in favor of; support or urge by argument;
I must lack the sophistication necessary to understand how this works, but it doesn’t sound like “child advocacy” to me when someone argues on national television that drugging and sodomizing a thirteen year-old girl against her will doesn’t meet the definition of rape. Or could it be that Whoopi’s definition of advocacy is to “speak in favor of” splitting hairs for those who do irreparable damage to children? (more…)
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Polanski Vs. Kazan: A Tale of Two Oscars
by John NolteSome are under the mistaken impression that Hollywood’s rallying behind behind Polanski because he’s a a fellow artist. That has nothing to do with it. Polanski made a few classic films but his resume pales in comparison to the great Elia Kazan — a man who, until his death in 2003, remained something of a pariah in Hollywood even though sixty years had passed since he named names before the House Un-American Activities Committee.
In Hollywood there’s something worse than being a communist (or a child rapist) and that’s being an anti-communist. Kazan, a former member of the Communist Party of America, died a die-hard liberal but once he came to understand the crimes against humanity committed under Stalin he left the communist party and eventually went before HUAC where he named Stalinists, not innocent liberals. He also never apologized: (more…)
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CBS Early Show: ‘Friends Defend Polanski’
by John Nolte
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Wow. That is quite a moment in the “60 Minutes” interview when director Roman Polanski says of the 13 year-old girl he drugged, raped and sodomized:
“She wasn’t unschooled in sexual matters. She was consenting and willing…”
First off, the victim disagrees. Secondly, if she was so willing, why the Quaalude?
Polanski may be a monster, but he’s Hollywood’s Monster, and they are the rich and powerful elite in this town and that matters. And what does it say about Polanski’s defenders in both the entertainment industry and media that they consider his living luxuriously in Europe as ”a horrible, soul-wrenching price for the infamy surrounding his actions“? (more…)
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