Vastly overweight and carrying her second child at the far-too-young age of 16, Precious is an African-American girl living in the Bronx who’s stuck four years behind her age group in the 7th grade, with a single mother who is verbally, emotionally and physically abusive towards her. Her father is only in the picture enough to come over and rape her, which led to her first child being born with Down Syndrome, and Precious utterly unaware of proper prenatal care or even a delivery date for her second.

The only thing that brings her any sense of joy is her imagination, which Precious uses to block out horrific moments of the past and present with visions of herself on red carpets and other glamorous situations. But when a school official steps in and orders her to go to an alternative school for troubled young women, a concerned teacher, social worker and eventually a male post-natal nurse discover the extent of Precious’ problems and help her take the drastic actions needed to save her life.

This may all sound like a vision from hell, but people like Precious exist all around us in modern society, where the welfare state and ingrained, multi-generational poverty and an often-negligent school system perpetuate rather than solve their problems. But in the new movie “Precious,” this starkly realistic portrayal of one fictional life points audiences in the direction of true hope by showing that it only takes a few concerned people to save a life and turn it around towards productivity and pride.

“Precious” has been a sensation since its January debut at the Sundance Film Festival under its original title of “Push,” which in turn was based on a cult-hit novel by Sapphire that’s been a sensation since its 1996 debut. The two books and their attendant films are drawing extensive comparisons to the classic novel and movie, “The Color Purple,” and not only due to their subject matter of African-American women learning to stand up for their dignity and self-worth – they also both feature what should be career-making performances from heretofore unknown or disregarded actresses.

The film stars the stunning, one-of-a-kind Gabourney Sidibe as Precious and longtime hack comic Mo’Nique as her monstrous mother with a tragic past of her own, in what are likely the odds-on favorite performances for next year’s Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress Oscars. Yet the film also features a wonderful performance by Paula Patton as the teacher who breaks down Precious’ walls by forcing her to learn how to compose her thoughts in a notebook, and surprisingly strong yet small turns by a de-glammed Mariah Carey as Precious’ social worker and rocker Lenny Kravitz as the male nurse who is the first man ever to treat Precious with respect and friendship.

Director Lee Daniels is only making his second film here, following the barely-released and critically derided “Shadowboxer.” But his command of incredibly difficult and dark subject matter is masterful. Following the lead of classic filmmakers who understood it was more effective to leave viewers filling in their own vision of horrific details rather than hammering them with graphic imagery, he shows the bare minimum footage necessary to get the idea of Precious’ abuse across while emphasizing that hope, self-reliance and positive values are essential to overcoming any difficult life situation. And it’s those positive vibes that drew Oprah Winfrey and black filmmaking powerhouse Tyler Perry to attach their names to the film as “presenters,” in the hopes of drawing attention to this valuable enterprise.

If you can handle the depictions of abuse and frequent profanity (which declines as Precious learns to become more eloquent), “Precious” is an unforgettable experience that’s not easily shaken.

NOTE: No bears were actually hit by a bus during the making of this video. Actually, I think there was an incident in Wyoming, but that wasn’t us.

“Who’d have thought that the heretofore ubermeek Obama administration would attempt the first surge of its tremulous tenure against my Fox News Network? As every demented B-lister in a leopard skin fez and a doorman’s outfit from the Plaza Hotel steps up to the psychotic speaker’s corner to tear the Great Satan (uh, that would be us) a new one, our guy has been loathe to return rhetorical fire for fear of stepping on any sandaled toes.

“But Fox News? That’s another story. That’s a sitter at the net for the quasimystical LOTUS POTUS. With the mainstream (downstream?) media more in his pocket than a grizzled train conductor’s pocket watch, he had to look far and wide for a news organization that had not signed a 5 W’s abrogation/suicide pact with David Axelrod. And there stood Fox, still skeptical of public officials and under the stellar rein of Brit Hume, still skilled in the ways of good old-fashioned “Woodstein” shoe leather journalism.

“As The New York Times scribes stand fawning behind the sawhorses placed beneath Ringo-bama’s top-floor window hoping for some acknowledgment, a glimpse, a smile, a hanky, something, anything!!!!! to drift down from the Great One’s penthouse, Fox continues to grind. As the Secret Service actually contemplates filing a restraining order against some of BO’s more amped-up devotees in the liberal press, Shep, Chris Wallace and the boys loom, eyebrows raised higher than a Rastafarian at a Phish concert.

Read the full piece here.

As a fan, I didn’t want Letterman to move into Carson’s chair.   Not because Letterman couldn’t handle it.  It just seemed too refined for someone as eccentric and edgy as Letterman.  Turned out NBC saw it that way too when they awarded “Tonight” to Leno.  It pained Letterman.  But it helped to foster that continued edgy, underdog status that led fans like me to follow him to CBS.

Letterman’s historically large deal with CBS was fascinating.  He was granted an enormous contract and complete ownership of his own show.  A show that could be built from the ground up with no expectations or standards set by a previous host like Carson at NBC.  More importantly, Letterman answered to no one.  He became his own boss – a dream scenario for an entertainer who always answered to someone else.

For fans at home it was like watching the underdog finally win one.  He won by remaining true to his “Late Night” formula.  Silly characters, Stupid Pet and Human Tricks, Top Ten Lists all made the trip to the new show.   Though Letterman only enjoyed one year atop the ratings heap versus Leno - it mattered not to me and people my age.  Ask a high school or college kid at the time who was the “cool” host, or the “funny” host – Letterman won in a landslide.

As a college student in the rural Midwest, I applied to become an intern with my broadcasting hero.  I would later discover hundreds of kids a semester applied for one of fifteen spots as interns on the show.  Although I presumed I stood little chance, the internship coordinator informed me that Letterman’s show favored Midwesterners.  Letterman was a Midwest kid himself, and the show was of the mindset that Midwest kids were generally polite, conscientious, and hard working.  It was the most exciting, promising, thrilling moment a young college kid with a broadcasting dream could have.

It took only a few months of my internship to learn a thing about the business of comedy, at least as it relates to Letterman.   It was not an epicenter of fun and creativity.  Rather, it was an atmosphere of employees who worked for a man many of them never saw and seldom, if ever talked to.  Many of his employees seemed to resent his cold distance.  He was most certainly guarded and unapproachable.  This was not the irreverent showman I came to adore. The wide-eyed enthusiasm I arrived with in New York was quickly dashed. 

To be clear, I never witnessed anything inappropriate as it relates to Mr. Letterman.   I was not mistreated nor was there any juicy gossip overheard during my stay.  The knowledge I came home with regarding Letterman was purely observational. Honest students of “Late Show” and comedy in general have certainly come to the same conclusion.  Letterman, we must sadly confess, is seldom funny anymore.

It’s hard to know just when his entertainment value began to decline.  It most likely began the day he became his own boss, ironically.  Letterman’s personal work ethic he admired in Midwesterners like me seemed to be wanting.  He slowly phased out any sketch comedy that featured him.  It was a staple of his old shows.  The Alka-Seltzer-covered suit he sported before jumping in a tank of water and the Velcro suit that left him stuck to a wall of fabric were no longer.  His roving interviews and interaction on the streets of New York became less and less.  It was as though the thing that made Letterman so likable – his ability to be silly and laugh at himself – disappeared.  He was too important for that now.

Letterman’s personal politics have become so strident and hostile in just the last two years, any conservative feels unwelcome to watch.  He would regularly pontificate about the war in Iraq.  “George Bush is a dumb guy” jokes were told with such frequency it became rote.  When candidate John McCain had the “audacity” to cancel a scheduled appearance in 2008, Letterman blasted McCain with both barrels until Election Day.  A tasteless shot aimed at Sarah Palin’s daughter seemed to be the joke that broke the audiences’ back.  Letterman, after much public outrage, eventually apologized for the remark.  Then, the recent hour-long sit down with Barack Obama.  It seemed to be the host’s final admission.  Dave’s a pundit, not a comic. He’s not interested in entertaining the masses any longer.  Just the partisans. 

Letterman’s admission of sex with members of his staff and stories of sex in the office dominated his show in the last week.  News of his personal life, his humiliated and injured wife, his six year old son, and his beleaguered employees made a once entertaining show of comedy and variety nothing more than a television tabloid.  Ratings, while high, weren’t due to the quality of show being produced by the legendary host.  America is tuning in to see a famous man’s life crash and burn around him. 

David Letterman has, in fact taught this intern something.  He is a cautionary tale of the ultimate success story.  Success can be achieved through hard work, tenacity, and staying true to your style.  Success can also breed complacency.  Success can breed arrogance and narcissism that places your personal needs, wants, beliefs, and desires ahead of all others.  Success can ultimately be your undoing.

I wish I could have interned for that edgy, Midwestern underdog at NBC.

In comparison to “real” businesses, I think I can say from personal experience inside and outside the bubble that Hollywood is the most systemically ruthless, amoral, deceitful, cruel and thuggish enterprise outside of Mexican drug cartels and (possibly) D.C. Politics.  For all its self-proclaimed “progressiveness,” compared to the daily operations of corporations in the real world, management practices in Hollywood exhibit all the “compassion” of a mid-19th century Dickensian sweatshop.

When I first “broke in” (note that the very term for initiating one’s career in entertainment is synonymous with criminal trespass), I was shocked at how terrified everyone seemed to act. It was as if the whole machine was lubricated with a mix of adrenline and flop-sweat.

For example, early in my career, on location, I accidentally spilled a full 16 ounce cup of lemonade on one of the supporting actors. Before I could blurt an apology, the poor man, aware that I was a producer, shouted, “It’s okay! Really! It was all my fault!” As he staggered toward the costume trailer, frantically waving off a swarm of angry (possibly Africanized) bees attracted by his newfound lemony-fresh scent, I just stood there, flabbergasted, wondering, “Huh…?”

Then there were the P.A.’s and various assistants, all of whom seemed to deal with me as if I was a.) a hair-trigger homicidal psychopath; b.) a road-side I.E.D.; or c.) a rabid, meth-crazed pit-bull. It was as if they were frightened I would fly into a rage and fire them at the slightest provocation.

At first, I wondered whether I was putting out some kind of serial-killer vibe.  Eventually, I realized their terror had nothing to do with me, but with others they’d worked for in the past–the screaming, telephone-hurling, profanity-spewing, tantrum-throwing, raging monster sociopaths that are more a rule than an exception in this wonderful business–jerk-sticks that would be tolerated for exactly five minutes in any other line of work.

But in Hollywood, not only are these trolls tolerated, but celebrated. Operatically crude, nasty, cruel behavior simply “adds to the legend” in a town where notoriety is routinely granted greater cache than talent. After all, who is more likely to command respect in a classroom full of ill-mannered children: The juvenile delinquent or the math-whiz?

Meanwhile, for the last quarter-century in the “real world,” contemporary management techniques have stressed the carrot over the whip. Companies have found that productivity is inexorably tied to employee morale. Furthermore, happy employees incur fewer sick-days, injuries and lawsuits. Low or no-cost incentives such as a clean working environment that encourages creativity, independence and mutual respect are the hallmarks of the modern corporate success-story.

Is it, then, any wonder why marriages between major entertainment conglomerates and modern tech-based companies are often acrimonious and doomed?  Trying to wed contemporary corporate culture with old Hollywood is like introducing a trickle of fresh water into a vast stagnant open sewer.  Sure, it may smell a little better, but I sure wouldn’t drink from it.

And then there’s the lying! Not just little, inconsequential lies, but big, bold, beefy, I-don’t-care-if-you-know-I’m-lying-I’m-gonna-lie-anyway lies.

In the corporate world, I found that honesty–at least a reputation for honesty–is a critical asset to a company if it wants to build a clientele. Dishonesty was fairly rare, and usually assumed the form of omissions or misleading statements. Hollywood-style bald-faced deception was virtually non-existent and was considered very bad form. A former corporate colleague of mine once put it succinctly when we discovered we were lied to by a marketing representative: “It’s not just that he lied, but I was able to expose it with one lousy phone-call!”

In Hollywood, such is the corruption that being openly lied to is not only tolerated, but welcome, often with a smile from the recipient. Because in Hollywood, being addressed with honesty and directness is the surest sign that one’s career is dead. As a writer friend groaned after being fired by his agent, “I can’t believe it! The sonofabitch didn’t even respect me enough to lie to me!”

I’ve also been stunned by the prevalence of corporate misconduct that blithely continues in Hollywood as if the last thirty-five years had never happened. Nepotism; discrimination; ageism; sexual harassment; retaliation and the practice of blackballing have been largely vanquished from the “real world” by the risk of expensive lawsuits and fines.

But Hollywood’s culture of fear has effectively inoculated it against legal recourse. How often have we all heard an aggrieved industry colleague threaten to sue, only to met by others with the hushed admonition, “Are you crazy? Don’t you want to work again?”

I long wondered why Hollywood is so crooked. My personal theory is that it was built on a foundation of larceny.  In order to cheat Thomas Edison out of royalties on his Kinetograph, the original moguls placed a continent between themselves and the Wizard of Menlo Park’s fancy-pants east-coast lawyers.

As a crooked foundation inevitably gives rise to a crooked house, I believe Hollywood’s corruption is as unfixable as it is immutable. So thorough is its baseness that one could argue that it cannot be further debased–after all, a cancer cell cannot contract cancer.

But despite the fact that I’m a “when-in-Rome” pragmatist when it comes to playing in the Hollywood sandbox, accepting Weinstein’s statement that Hollywood has “the best moral compass” to judge a man who drugged and raped a 13-year-old is a little too much like going for thirds at the all-you-can-eat irony buffet—even for this grizzled hack.

To Harvey, to you and to myself, I say. “Shut up and keep living the dream.”

Proving once again its claim to the hotly contested title of Stupidest Television Network, ABC has canceled “The Goode Family” and “Surviving Suburbia,” continuing their business strategy of desperately trying new things and failing to give them a chance to succeed.

No wonder the cab/sat USA Network actually beat ABC (and the CW network) in the national ratings last week. USA’s formula of original series with unusual but likable characters and sound values carries consistently impressive audience appeal.

Although the ABC cancellations were expected–given the fact that the network had brilliantly moved both series to Friday night, a network television Dead Zone, thus guaranteeing that the shows would not be able to generate an audience over time–they nonetheless prove that ABC hates anything with decent values and ideas and cannot appreciate good, solid entertainment with real sense (Castle being the rare exception).

Expertly produced by Mike Judge (”Beavis and Butthead,” “King of the Hill,” “Office Space”), the animated sitcom “The Goode Family” expertly satirized the conformist, braindead nature of much Green thinking and brilliantly identified the movement’s evolution into a commercialized lifestyle. Judge and co. also made merciless fun of countless other aspects of lefty conventional thinking, such as the passion for being seen as encouraging homosexuality and supporting public radio and other big-government nonsense.

They accomplished all this, moreover, while managing to make the central characters likable in spite of the silliness of their pursuits, by emphasizing their good intentions.

Naturally, Disney-owned ABC, widely known as the “gayest” network and a tireless promoter of statist hedonism, couldn’t tolerate the program once it realized what Judge and co. were actually delivering.

Given the high expense of animated shows, it’s unlikely that “The Goode Family” will be picked up by a cable network. It would seem perfect for Fox, of course, but that network seems committed to destroying the last semblances of taste and common sense in this society through its presentation of Seth McFarlane animated shows such as “Family Guy” and “American Dad.”

Like “The Goode Family,” the Bob Saget sitcom “Surviving Surburbia” was a sprightly, often satirical comedy which promoted sound values. Naturally, it couldn’t last on the network that has long promoted itself as the youthful, innovative, clever alternative but has in fact become a stagnant, boring bastion of statist hedonism.

Coming after the cancellation of the interesting and appealingly unconventional police comedy-drama “The Unusuals,” the jettisoning of “The Goode Family” and “Surviving Suburbia” show that even as it plunges ever-further into the ratings basement, ABC refuses to deviate from its evident mission of pushing modern liberalism instead of providing good, appealing television.

Somehow, I knew he was going to be disappointed.

That violence is always blamed on those protesters by Ahamadinejad and other hardliners, as well as FARS and other state-run mouthpieces, all of whom are doing their damndest to demonize the Green protesters as enemies of the state, foreign agents, even domestic terrorists. Glad we don’t have that kind of stuff in America, huh? Ya, as if! What country are YOU living in?

What, in essence, are the Basiji? Are they not an ideologically and violently overzealous arm of the fascist Iranian thugocracy? Well, if terrorizing innocent citizens over ideology with full political backing is the key issue here, then what do you call the three menacing baton-swinging racist epithet-spewing New Black Panther Party poll watchers in Philadelphia, paid in full by Democrats, who uttered such overzealous statements as “you will soon be ruled by the black man, cracker”?

And what do you call the government that applied pressure from the highest levels to compel trial-eager career lawyers at DOJ who prepared the case for months to drop the charges, even with default convictions for violating the 1965 Civil Rights Act? Unheard of at Justice! Is that not whitewashing and enabling violence and intimidation at the highest levels? Just as no doubt happens with violent basijis every day in Iran? A free pass to be the best Brownshirts they can be?

Those racist thugs have been already been cleared to work the polls again in Philly next year! And perhaps town hall meetings on ObamaCare much sooner, given the President’s call to “get in our faces and hit back twice as hard!” NBPP poll watcher thug-in-chief and crakkka-killer wannabe Jerry Jackson is even an elected member of Philadelphia’s 14th Ward Democratic Committee, and has a COLORED ONLY sign outside his house. And we protesters are the ones “acting stupidly”?

Feeling Green yet, America? No? Okay, let’s mosey on over to St. Louis. Hey lookey there! Well whattaya know! Looks like some American Basijis in SEIU shirts and jackets just called a black conservative a nigger for selling Don’t Tread On Me flags, punched him in the face, and kicked him when he was down. I’d call that ideologically and violently overzealous. And it’s not just in St. Louis.

My Fellow Americans All, there is a dark and growing danger here. Let me lay it all out for you. In the past, when any administration’s bill or policy went as far south as ObamaCare (as Hillary’s own health care initiative went bad in 1993), even the most loyal Congressmen and women cut and ran, no matter how popular the president, if the answer to the question “Will this cost me my cushy job?” was in the affirmative. Yet even Hillary, who could not be more dedicated to the cause of socialized medicine, eventually dropped one of the major hot potatoes of her husband’s presidency.

By stark contrast, the reaction from today’s Left-leaning liberal Democrats in Congress, the White House and their Lefty lapdog media has not been to analyze the issues at hand, or to ask tough questions as to why Obama’s polls and support for ObamaCare are tanking, but an overwhelming, sweeping, indiscriminate and now-violent backlash against the American people as swastika-waving mobs of teabagging birthers and corporate lobbyist-paid right-wing Nazi extremists.

Sound familiar? Accusations of said mob rule at town halls by Congressional reps like Pelosi, Schumer and Durbin now abound. The packing of town halls with Democrat plants, now topped off with the unleashing of SEIU thugs on noisy yet peaceful non-violent protesters, followed by reports of violence at town hall meetings nationwide. Wasn’t a problem until SEIU showed up. Why is that?

This is no way to run a democracy, people. And it’s no way to run a “mainstream” press either. They’re all supposed to be OUR watchdogs looking out for OUR interests, not going to war with us or covering up real crimes! Nationwide days-long coverage for Dr. Skippy Gates over a hoax cry of racism, but not a newsflash for the racially slurred and beaten Kenneth Gladney? Need more? How about Keith Olbermann comparing ObamaCare protesters to Hamas and Hezbollah, and SEIU’s brand new “teabaggers” video blaming the protesters for the violence they themselves are causing?

You can see where this is all going, people. I see south. Way south. And the best way we can show our opposition to this violent and propagandistic assault on freedom of assembly, speech and expression is to show up at future town hall meetings in large peaceful numbers, just like Gandhi but as firm as Patton. Beat the SEIU and ACORN plants to the Potemkin town halls early. And always, ALWAYS bring your videocams! This goes way beyond ObamaCare now. This goes to the heart of who we are as a free people to express ourselves.

I guess that eternal vigilance being the price of liberty thing wasn’t far off the mark. In closing, I would strongly advise the Obama administration, the SEIU, liberal Democrats in Congress and their media lapdogs like Olbermann and Matthews that campaigning against, demonizing and scrapping violently with large swaths of innocent ordinary American citizens can come to no good end. Historically speaking. Lastly, Mister President, even Peggy Noonan thinks “You Are Terrifying Us.”

Send any concerns of your own to flag@whitehouse.gov. Looks fishy to me! The website, I mean