This week’s Best of The Stage Right Show features interviews with Gary Graham, Jason Mattera, Dana Loesch, Gabriel Malor, Liz Carter and Adam Baldwin.

We covered topics including the November elections, the Young Conservative Movement, the Erick Erickson controversy, the “Smoking in the Bathroom” scare on United Airlines, Bart Stupak’s resignation and Justice John Paul Stevens calling it quits from SCOTUS. (more…)

ObamaCare and ACORN dominated the subject this past week with guests Mike Flynn, Adam Baldwin, Andrew Breitbart, Kurt Schlichter, Jeremy Boering and Patrick (Patterico) Frey chiming in.

This week’s highlight show also features my repeal strategy for the Republicans, Patterico’s definitive debunking of the lies from the left regarding James O’Keefe’s wardrobe in the ACORN videos, Breitbart’s explanation of his bubble bath photo in Time Magazine, Flynn’s rallying cry for all frustrated Americans and Baldwin handling a very hostile caller with class and grace. (more…)

This past week, the Stage Right Show (below the fold) featured a great line-up of guest hosts because I was travelling on a cruise ship and unable to broadcast.  Guest hosts included Adam Baldwin, Mike Rauseo, Billy Hallowell, Ben Shapiro and Eric Porvaznik.  And, the interviews on this week’s highlight show include Bill Whittle, Jeremy Boering, Kevin Jackson, Dana Commandatore, Jason Mattera, John Nolte and Andrew Breitbart. (more…)

Howard Zinn wants teachers to bring in whatever materials they want to your child’s class room. He wants them to use their own judgement to teach whatever they think is appropriate. He wants them to subvert the rules regarding the approved curriculum at the school you are paying for. Of course, if Zinn’s advice is followed, there is nothing keeping a teacher from bringing materials related to Holocaust denial, or 9/11 conspiracies or creationism into the class room, as well. Unless Zinn is recommending only HIS enlightened view of history should be secretly brought into the classroom.

There are some very important people in our country who have aligned themselves with Zinn. With his philosophy. With his view of history. With his view of the United States. And, with his strategy for getting his message into the public schools outside of the legal construct of School Boards and State Departments of Education.

They made a film of his book.  They walked the red carpet and they posed with the man they admired.  He was the inspiration for their film and they spoke of him glowingly, almost like he was a hero.  They began their film with him striding out alone onto a stage in a theatre full of admirers.  It was his way of taking a curtain call (a standing ovation, by the way) before the show even began. (more…)

On this week’s highlight show (listen in below the fold), we start with John Nolte talking about the incredible back-and-forth he had this week with Roger Ebert over his semi-coherent Twitter ramblings.

We also have an interview with Andrew Breitbart and Adam Baldwin on location in a bar in Hollywood.  They speak about the current political climate and how Big Hollywood is moving the conversation forward and motivating the tea party movement.

Internet sensation Demon Sheep joined us on Wednesday and provided a lot of laughs.  Big Hollywood contributor Gary Graham also joined us and discussed life in Hollywood as a conservative as well as his recent mission to Haiti.

Finally, Big Hollywood’s Patrick Courrielche was our guest for a thorough interview on the NEA conference call story as well as his life and career before the story broke last year. (more…)

On Monday, February 22nd, a very special, one-night-only theatrical event will take place at the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood, CA.  With proceeds going to benefit the American Red Cross, an all-star cast will perform a staged reading of 110 Stories, a theatrical presentation of a series of first-hand accounts of the events of September 11, 2001.

I find it remarkable that September 11th is objectively the most relevant, powerful and  important event of the last twenty years and yet playwrights and producers have been reluctant to address the issue on stage or screen.

And the approach that playwright Sarah Tuft takes in presenting 110 Stories is to take the real stories and the actual words of people whom she interviewed in the days following the attack.  Ms. Tuft then constructed the show by stitching the interviews together as over-lapping monologues.

An all-star cast has volunteered their time to perform the play:

Maria Conchita Alonso (Caught, Saints & Sinners, Broadway’s Kiss of the Spider Woman)
Ed Asner (Up, Elf, The Mary Tyler Moore Show)
Michael Beach (Third Watch, True Romance, Soul Food)
John Hawkes (Deadwood, Eastbound & Down, American Gangster)
Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters, Oz, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle)
Sharon Lawrence (NYPD Blue, Grey’s Anatomy)
Katharine McPhee (American Idol, The House Bunny)
Gail O’Grady (American Dreams, Boston Legal)
Stelio Savante (110 Stories – Original Cast, Ugly Betty, My Super Ex-Girlfriend)
Sophie Sinise (CSI: NY, Anatomy of Gray)
Nicholas Turturro (NYPD Blue, World Trade Center)
Diane Venora (Bird, Heat, The Insider)
Malcolm-Jamal Warner (The Cosby Show, Malcom & Eddie, Sherri)
Michael Welch (Twilight, New Moon, The Riches)

Narrated by Nic Harcourt (KCRW; Editor at Large: Music and Culture for LA: The Los Angeles Times Magazine)
Directed by Mark Freiburger (Dog Days Of Summer) (more…)

On this week’s highlight show, we start with the hilarious”feud” between Andrew Breitbart and “TV’s Andy Levy” from Fox News’ “Red Eye” that began on Twitter and ended up on “The Stage Right Show.” They were arguing about Ben Shapiro’s Top Ten Most Over Rated Directors list which drove Andy Levy over the edge.

Next, we had Ben Shapiro on the show to respond.  Also, Billy Hallowell came on to discuss the habit the left has of screaming “Racist” at any conservative they don’t like and to tell us about his last post at Big Hollywood about ‘Rock the Vote’.

Andrew Breitbart called in with a very unique anecdote about his travails in renting a car in Palm Springs.  And Adam Baldwin was our featured interview in a wide-ranging discussion about Hollywood, politics, education and Twitter. (more…)

Last week, Howard Zinn passed away. It was only a few weeks after the History Channel had premiered the film “The People Speak” honoring his controversial book “A People’s History of the United States.”

Prof. Zinn never hid the fact that he wrote “A People’s History” not as a reference book to collect dust on the shelf but as a field guide for the re-making of our society.  In a 1988 interview with the University of Georgia, he summed up the legacy of his work better than anyone.

A quiet revolution is a good way of putting it. From the bottom up. Not a revolution in the classical sense of a seizure of power, but rather from people beginning to take power from within the institutions. In the workplace, the workers would take power to control the conditions of their lives. It would be a democratic socialism.

In the wake of his death, conservative commentators who had been critical of Zinn’s lifework were accused of “spitting on his grave” when responding to interview requests about Zinn’s legacy.  At Big Hollywood we have less interest in trashing Howard Zinn, the man, as we have in shining a light on what his actual beliefs and agenda were, and still are. (more…)

“A chill wind is blowing in this nation. A message is being sent through the White House and its allies in talk radio and Clear Channel and Cooperstown. If you oppose this administration, there can and will be ramifications.” – Tim Robbins, National Press Club, April 15, 2003

Nearly seven years after those over-the-top, melodramatic words at the National Press Club, many of us are still waiting to see the “ramifications” for opposing the Bush Administration.  If you want to call winning Oscars, signing huge TV contracts (despite awful ratings), and selling millions of recordings “ramifications” then, baby, sign me up!

Mayor Ron Dellums

But, anyone with a semi-balanced view of the industry we work in will see that the vast, vast majority of repercussions for being on the “wrong side” of a political issue are reserved for those of us on the political right.  And, unfortunately, it is not the rich and famous conservatives in the entertainment world who bear the brunt of it.  It is the regular, everyday workers in the industry who are intimidated into keeping their political leanings a secret.

Stories like the downfall of Scott Eckern serve as a clear warning shot that if you speak out about an issue like keeping the definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman, you must fear for your job.  That is the climate that we all know we work in and we reluctantly accept.  Private companies and organizations have the right to pick and choose who they have working for them, we understand that.  We don’t like it, but we ultimately understand it because … we are conservatives.  We embrace liberty and freedom, for everyone. (more…)

The first thing you need to know about “Race,” the new play by David Mamet currently running at the Barrymore Theatre on Broadway, is that it isn’t really about race.  Well, not entirely about race.

The setting is a conference room of a law firm.  Henry Brown (David Alan Grier) and his white partner Jack Lawson (James Spader) are interviewing a prospective client (Richard Thomas).  The client, a wealthy white man, is standing trial for the rape of a black woman.

Two expert attorneys interviewing a prospective client is the perfect device for Mamet to not only inform the audience of the facts at hand and the idiosyncratic personalities of the characters we will spend the next hour and a half of our lives with, but it also serves as a perfect showcase for the playwright’s legendary use of dialogue, timing, over-lapping speech patterns and no-holds-barred language.  For a Mamet addict, this is heroin.

It is a chance to watch a conversation that anyone outside that room was never meant to hear.  And the language the characters use reflect the comfortable and brazen style reminiscent of Glengarry Glen Ross and Speed-the-Plow, the unique vernacular often referred to as “Mamet-Speak.” (more…)

The same country that brought us Leni Riefenstahl is now set to deliver Hope: The Obama Musical.  I’m serious, they are really doing this.  The musical is set to open in Frankfurt on Jan. 17th and, in all fairness, it would be wrong for me to give any kind of opinion on the quality of this show before John Nolte flies me out to Germany to see it (John?  I’m waiting…hello?  Is this thing on?) [Ed. Note: Absolutely! Just bring back all your receipts and, uhm, I'll get to them when I can.]

Luckily, the press office for this soon-to-be classic has assembled a slick little YouTube video highlighting all of the big moments of the show.  Believe it or not, this video is meant to inspire you to buy a ticket.

Great, terrific, perfect…  um…  a couple things. (more…)

Another day, another left-wing slander using computer animation.  This time it is aimed at the Tea Party Movement.  The only difference:  This time, the video is hosted on a web site that YOU are funding!  That’s right my fellow racists, the NPR web site funded in large part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

YouTube

No, NPR did not create the video, it is the work of Mark Fiore.  But, strangely, NPR embedded the video in its blog without any further comment.  It is clearly an implicit endorsement of the views contained therein.  And it is an outrage, to say the least. (more…)

For the uninitiated, Steve was the original host of the children’s show “Blue’s Clues.” I have sat through many repeated episodes of Steve hunting down that little puppy’s paw-print clues, and Steve’s performance and interaction with the camera made most of those sittings not only tolerable, but at times quite entertaining.  Unfortunately, I just discovered that during last year’s campaign, he used his incredible talents for a piece of fact-challenged propaganda targeting Sarah Palin and done in the same style he used to educate so many of America’s children about more mundane things like counting and sharing.

–

Despite an alarming number of urban legends pertaining to Steve, it turns out he did NOT overdose on heroin and his arms are NOT all covered with tattoos (many thought this to be the explanation as to why he was ALWAYS seen in long-sleeves).  The truth is, Steve spent a few years writing and performing alternative rock with his friend Steven Drozd of the Flaming Lips.  Although his music never made it really big, it did receive some pretty high praise from critics and fans.
(more…)

It has been almost one year since I began writing here at the Big Blogs of Breitbart.com.  When it all began, I was motivated by the events that brought down Sacramento Music Theatre executive Scott Eckern.  Ironically, his story, which inspired this new avocation also served as a real-life lesson in the new political world we inhabit.  You see, Mr. Eckern was forced to resign his position because it was discovered that he donated money to the anti-same sex marriage Prop. 8 campaign.  Knowing that, I would have been a fool to put my name on the things I’ve written here.  So, “Stage Right” was born.

Since then, I have been fortunate enough to have free-reign on all things theatre at Big Hollywood (gently guided by the collective wisdom of Andrew Breitbart and John Nolte) and I’ve had a fantastic time writing about the industry, about the non-profit world… even about my favorite shows.  But now, things have changed just a bit.

It started with Patrick Courrielche’s now famous expose’ on the NEA Conference Call.  Just like the Scott Eckern story, what bothered me most at the time was the media and especially the left-leaning theatre writers’ attack on Patrick.   Instead of showing any level of skepticism over the appropriateness of staff members of the NEA and the White House coordinating discussions with artists about how they can help move the President’s agenda by creating works of art in favor of specific issues, Patrick was attacked and libeled for the sin of telling the truth and bringing the subject to light.

Next came the media’s reaction to James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles’ blockbuster series of videos exposing the corruption at ACORN offices from sea to shining sea.  Again, the venom and outrage is directed at the messenger while the message gets rationalized and obfuscated.  This story raised my ire to such a degree that I began posting at Big Government. (more…)

I have been presented the opportunity to reach out and communicate my views about politics and entertainment to a wider audience over the coming weeks.  Given these exciting opportunities it is clear that it would be inappropriate to have to be identified as “Stage Right” on nationally syndicated radio and other outlets.

So, tomorrow, here on the pages of Big Hollywood, I will reveal my real name and my background.  I think it is only fitting to do this the day before Christmas Eve as it is in the true spirit of an Obama Administration “Friday Afternoon Document Dump.”  This way, if people in the industry or liberal friends of mine, eventually find out a few weeks from now I can just “Do a Gibbs” and say “That’s OLD news, the American people don’t care about that. Now let me get back to doing the business of the American people… no more questions, please.” (more…)

Over the past few months I have been developing an Internet Radio Show at Blog Talk Radio.  I wanted my show to be truly interactive and inspired by the stories here at Big Hollywood and Big Government.  Based on the style and subject matter you could almost call the show “Big Breitbart Radio”.

The show has gone through quite a few changes and refinement over this extensive preview period, and now, after month’s of previews, tonight will be my official opening night.  And it is fitting that my big debut at Big Hollywood will feature a special guest known very well to the readers here:  Gary Graham. (more…)

When Big Hollywood correspondent Patrick Courrielche exposed the infamous NEA Conference call, where members of the NEA staff and the White House encouraged artists to use their talents in promoting causes that were closely associated with President Obama’s aggressive, left-wing agenda, apologists and defenders on the left and in the media began to parrot the Administration’s defense as if it were Gospel Truth.

The most linked-to and referenced defense came from Ben Davis at the well-respected artnet Magazine.  After spending many paragraphs attacking Patrick and questioning the nefarious motives behind his unforgiveable act of betrayal (I’m not referring to Patrick recording the conference call, the real betrayal was Patrick appearing on “The Glenn Beck Show”), Davis goes on to repeat the Obama talking point:

This notorious conference call, in other words, was essentially a pitch for artists to make glorified PSAs about volunteer work. As far as I can tell, the truth is exactly the opposite of the ominous attempt to yoke artists to the Obama Agenda that critics suggest; if anything, the call was an effort to take the inspiration for radical change that led many creative types to vote for Obama and channel it into low-level, local activism.

This article has been rallied behind and taken as the final word on the subject as far as the left-wing blog world is concerned.  Only problem:  it’s spin and obfuscation.  First, through the Freedom of Information aAct, Courrielche further proved that artists responded to the call with tangible, policy-oriented ideas that went way beyond a call for volunteer work. (more…)

Last week under mounting pressure from protesters, the Iranian Government promised a new and deadly crackdown.  “From now on, we will show no mercy” to protesters or their families, the government’s chief prosecutor, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, said Tuesday. It is par for the course in a totalitarian regime to not only threaten protesters, but to also target their families for punishment.  This acts as a cruel yet effective means of intimidation in silencing dissent.

Which brings me to Hollywood Producer Jane Hamsher.

‘Hollywood Jane’  Hamsher

After cutting her teeth in the business by producing what many feel is the most offensive and degrading main-stream film of the past twenty years (and, some would say, screwing Quentin Tarantino in the process) Hamsher seems to have finally found her calling as a more abrasive, and dangerous version of Arianna Huffington.  With her oddly named blog FireDogLake (named after her three favorite things, sitting by the fire with her dog watching Lakers games) she has created a left-wing haven for bloggers not merely content with attacking their opponents with words, but with some serious action. (more…)

In a publicity event for the new History Channel film “The People Speak” held at UCLA last week, actor/producer Josh Brolin was charming, self-effacing, funny, and down-right likeable.  And, that was the whole reason he was there.  We live in a culture obsessed with celebrity and in full adoration of movie stars in particular.  In short, we are a nation of Star-F%*#ers.  And people like Howard Zinn know it.

Part of the discussion at Friday’s Q & A event centered on the appearance of hypocrisy by the filmmakers for using big-name stars in their film, considering the overall thesis of Zinn’s world view is that REAL history is made by the individual struggling against the elite in power.  Producers Chris Moore and Brolin agreed with the criticism but lamented that the only way to get the History Channel to air this movie would be if stars were connected to it.  Understandable.  But, the inclusion of big name, likable Hollywood stars like Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Morgan Freeman, Marisa Tomei and Brolin serve a greater purpose than just aiding the pitch meeting at the network. (more…)

America is an inherently racist country.

Oh, sure, we elected a black President (or is this our second black President?  That whole Clinton-as-first-black-President thing always confuses me).  And yes, our biggest sports, TV, music and film stars tend to be black.  And sure our past Secretaries of State, National Security Advisers and the current Chairman of the Republican Party are all black.  But this proves nothing, NOTHING!

If you ever wanted more proof that America is, at its heart a racist society, Universal has provided us with the perfect smoking gun:  They re-designed a film poster for overseas distribution and in re-designing it, they removed two black actors.  I will let the horror of what they did soak in for a moment while you read the report from London’s Daily Mail: (more…)