But let’s ponder the word yellow. It also means “cowardly,” and therefore serves as an insult to everyone. But it’s also the shade of bananas, the phone book and cabs. I hate bananas, phone books and cabs – but I still don’t hate the color. I really hate Coldplay, for their song “Yellow,” makes me violently ill – but I still don’t hate the color. I just hate Chris Martin. And he’s not even yellow. He’s more asparagus green.

My point is, I’m a grown-up. When a producer accuses me of being “short” to a guest, I know she’s not referring to my height. And, I’m practically a midget. Yet, if I get on my tippy toes, I can see the difference.

So I say to you, Center for Pan Asian Community Service, lighten up. I get the sensitivity over the racial nature of the word “yellow,” but you’re better than that. Accusing city planners of racism over a yellow train line makes you look silly. You can argue until you’re blue in the face, turn red with rage, but in the end, yellow is just a color.

Like fuchsia.

Just not as awesome.

And if you disagree with me, then you’re probably Gwyneth Paltrow.

Tonight, a delightful show!

Jeannine Pirro!

Alison Rosen!

Courtney Friel!

Former Ambassador John Bolton!

“Retracto”
Credits:

Shelli Eaton- Lead vocals
Michael Broderick – Lead guitar, background vocals
Gary Eaton – Guitar, bass, drums, tambourine, background vocals
Retracto - Vocals
Music and lyrics by Gary Eaton

Retracto

The ass says he doesn’t have a horse in this race
But Retracto knows he does now he’s got egg on his face
The donkeys on the left got owned by a kid
They can say it was a crime but Retracto knows what he did

Retracto
The Correction Alpaca
Retracto
He’s comin’ at ya

The story’s gonna come out whether they like it or not
If they told it like it is they wouldn’t be in this spot
Lyin’ to the people gets a psychotic reaction
But Retracto calls them out now they’re makin’ retractions

Retracto
The Correction Alpaca
Retracto
He’s comin’ at ya

We need the news not projection
Or he’s gonna demand a correction
We need the news not projection
Or he’s gonna demand a correction

Retracto
The Correction Alpaca
Retracto
He’s comin’ at ya

Retracto’s theme song debuted on “The Stage Right Show” last week.

Ebert is, like many liberals, showing his true colors – and they ain’t pretty. His obsession with Sarah Palin and Tea Partiers provides the perfect example. He spent ample time Tweeting about the recent Tea Party Convention, where Sarah Palin was a featured speaker and – gasp – was paid $100,000 for her appearance (which he must now know that she pledged to donate to other candidates and causes).  

When Roger Ebert Didn’t Trash His Fans With Pornographic Slurs

Ebert makes a number of references to how much Palin was being paid by both the Tea Party Convention and Fox News - a curious fixation considering he built his long and storied career by discussing the work of screenwriters, directors, actors and actresses – many of whom get paid millions of dollars a pop, as do the ”corporate fatcats” at the studios who back these films.

But here, Ebert goes above and beyond the pale, managing to crassly insult both Palin and the Tea Party attendees by saying:

TeaBagger crowd: polite. The nutjobs who were bussed to Town Halls didn’t get their way paid to Sarah’s $100,000 speech

TeaBagger crowd? Is this what passes for informed commentary? Bashing a group of people with whom you disagree politically by labeling their movement with a degrading pornographic term? Just because the crew at MSNBC thinks it’s a hoot doesn’t mean it’s a great idea. I mean, have you seen MSNBC’s ratings lately?

Did Ebert stop to consider how many of those ”teabaggers” might be Ebert fans who follow him on Twitter? I wonder how many of them read his movie reviews for guidance on their entertainment choices. But like so many of the entertainment world elite, if you disagree with him, you’re a dumbkopf who deserves to be insulted, regardless of whether or not you are a consumer of his product.

The irony of his Tweets on politics also seems to be lost upon him. Isn’t he indulging in the same freedom of speech privileges as the Tea Partiers he so casually denigrates? God bless him for utilizing the same citizen democracy ideals espoused by the Tea Party movement. Welcome to the party, Mr. Ebert! Too bad that he’s so busy slamming Tea Partiers that he doesn’t seem to realize that yes, he and the Tea Partiers do have something in common.

Unfortunately, rude name calling is not expounding upon the issues of the day, but using one’s celebrity to throw tasteless, classless insults — something that, until recently, has gone unanswered for lack of a platform.

But no more.

Thanks to the rise of the new media, the liberal elite — which includes entertainment “luminaries” like Ebert – no longer have a political soapbox from which they can lob political bombshells unchallenged. People like Andrew Breitbart are harnessing this new force and using it to change the way the news of the day is disseminated.

“They want to control the narrative,” Breitbart says. “I’m saying, ‘No more!’ The new media has freed it up. I’m sorry, mainstream media. It’s over. Your ability to control the narrative is over.”

So Ebert and his ilk can go ahead and continue trashing their ideological opposites rather than engaging in thoughtful debate. But they can no longer expect to do so unchallenged.

Bring it on.

During Breitbart’s 33 minute long address, he threatens to upend the entire media establishment, calling them out on their hypocrisy while demanding they change their ways, or else.

The entire speech is available in this post and is broken down into four parts, but if you would like to view some of the highlights, you can click on any of the eight links below:

1. It’s You That Sucks!
2. You Better Bet Your Ass!
3. Just Add al-Qaida
4. MSM McCarthyism
5. Breitbart Challenges Soros
6. There Are More Tapes
7. The O’Keefe Arrest
8. Breitbart Issues An Ultimatum To The Media

Full Address Parts 1-4:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Colbert trashes the Tea Party movement and then moves on to call Sarah Palin a “retard” — one of those moments that makes you wonder just when and how our Comedian Class became the very elites they used to deconstruct. 

As Bill O’Reilly said last night, you don’t have to agree with the Tea Party movement’s agenda in order to respect the fact that it’s a real grassroots movement populated by everyday citizens eager to get involved and have their voices heard.

To ridicule this movement is to ridicule the guy who fixes your car and the woman who teaches your children, and yet the Comedian Class (and their unholy brethren in the media) is just too  comfortable playing Palace Guard for Obama — and much more comfortable in their default position of brutally savaging a self-made Governor and mother of 5 in front of the whole world.

Will Rogers would be proud.

More of this, please…

Deadline Hollywood Daily:

Warner Bros is trying to ready its DC Comics stalwart Superman to soar again on the Big Screen, and the studio has turned to Chris Nolan to mentor development of the movie. Our insiders say that the brains behind rebooted Batman has been asked to play a “godfather” role and ensure The Man Of Steel gets off the ground after a 3 1/2-year hiatus. Nolan’s leadership of the project can set it in the right direction with the critics and the fans, not to mention at the box office. Besides, Nolan is considered something of a god at Warner Bros and has a strong relationship with the studio after the success of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Though he wasn’t obligated to do so, he gave the studio first crack at his spec script Inception, and Warner Bros was able to buy it before other studios even got a sniff. While Nolan completes that Leonardo DiCaprio-starrer for a July 16th release, he’s also hatched an idea for Warner Bros’ third Batman installment. Now his brother and frequent collaborator Jonah Nolan, and David Goyer who co-wrote Batman Begins and penned the story for The Dark Knight, are off scripting it.

Let us emphasize that Superman 3.0 is in the early stages of development. And we doubt Nolan would direct. This wouldn’t be a sequel to Superman Returns but a completely fresh franchise.

Read the full piece here.

In the case of this film, the answer is more complicated than in others.  The location of this film is South East Asia and, it is directed by a Thai national.  That is not always the case.  And, more often than not, the location of the film and its director is not even an issue.  Many films that could be shot in America are not.  In fact, many films with American locations are shot outside of America. 

Why?  The answer is simple:  cost.  Because of the ridiculously high labor costs and other production costs in America, it is just simply not feasible to make a movie in America anymore; especially a lower budget independent film.  And, unfortunately, this is a symptom of the entire economic problems facing America today.  I would love to work in the United States and be home with my family, friends and my little kitty Sidney.  I cannot. 

The clothing industry does not manufacture in America.  The steel industry is all but gone.  The automobile industry is all but gone.  There are countless others.  It is just too expensive to create almost any type of product in America.  Unfortunately, this is leading to the elimination of our middle class.  The working man can no longer work in America.  If my father were still alive, I do not know how he would make a living.

 The remainder of this article will be about the film industry as that is my area of expertise.  But, keep in mind while you are reading that these problems are prevalent in all of the industries mentioned above, as well as others, not just the film industry. 

Independent films and many studio films are now shot mostly in Eastern Europe, Canada, South East Asia and/or South Africa.  The only real production in America these days is in heavy tax incentive states such as Louisiana, Michigan and the Carolinas.  New York and Los Angeles, the homes of film production and the industry since its inception, only have production that either involves a star with the leverage to force production in those cities or if they are location specific to either state (and not always in that case either).  In fact, we have shot films that take place in New York in Bulgaria on occasion. 

The major culprit in the destruction of this industry and in most others is, as always, the unions.  The unions refuse to work with the producer to make shooting in America cost effective.  The average independent producer has a fixed amount of money to make his movie.  The pocket is not deep.  Even studio films are looking for ways to save money now.   When you are a producer with fixed funds, you shoot the movie where your available money will bring the most bang for the buck and insure the existence of your ever decreasing profit margins. 

For example, you could make a low budget action movie in 1995 for about 2.5 million dollars and be pretty sure you would get 3.5 million dollars back within 18 months.  Now, that same movie can only be made for about 1.5 million dollars and the producer is struggling to get 2.0 million dollars back.  Keep in mind that the same movie you made in 1995 for 2.5 million dollars would now cost 3.7 million dollars. (Calculated using an average of economic indicators, not just CPI)  So, by making that movie for 1.5 million dollars you are making a far lower quality product. 

If you tried to make that film for 3.7 million dollars, you would make the equivalent of the same film but you would almost guarantee the producer a loss as the sales on such films have gone way down in the past 15 years.  You would probably only get the same 2.0 million in sales that you would have gotten if you made the film for 1.5 million dollars. 

The average cost of shooting outside of the United States is often about 30-40% of the cost in the United States.  For example, you can shoot an action film in Eastern Europe for about $700,000 per week.  That is about one-third of the cost in Los Angeles and about 70% of the cost of shooting in a major tax incentive state. 

I am shooting this movie in Thailand for even less.  In fact; substantially less.  We are shooting this film for 48 days of principal photography and our overall production cost is about ½ of the cost of Eastern Europe.  No wonder I am forced to spend four months in a hotel room in Thailand.  Do you blame the investors? 

If I were to go to the unions in Los Angeles and say, “I want to make this movie in Los Angeles.”  They look at you and say to pay the union rates, the standard pension, health and welfare and residuals.  You are told if you do not have the money to pay them, then do not make the movie.  You are never given the opportunity to negotiate a deal that works for the particular film in question.  You are given a mandate and told to live by it.  And if you do not like it, then tough. 

Further, when you do shoot a film in the States, you are forced to obligate yourself to the payment of residuals forever.  I ask you, in what other business is the investor/owner forced to pay the employee for work done years ago, every time he makes a dime? 

The union people are now going to say that I am typical management and do not care about the working man.  They will say that residuals are cheap.  If the movie is made with all entertainment unions, the total cost of residuals is less than 10% of the total income.  But, if you are only making a 25% return on your money, the residuals eat up approximately 10% of that return, leaving you with only a 15% profit.  A motion picture production company cannot survive on that. 

I would think that the working man in the United States of which I am one would rather work at a lesser rate inclusive of the medical protection than have the work go overseas.  But, the general consensus is not. 

Of course, if you shoot outside of the United States, you do not pay residuals at all except for some money to the Screen Actors Guild* who must be used no matter where you shoot.  You get to keep your measly profit and hopefully put it another movie that will keep residents outside of the United States employed. 

I can go on with this column for another 10 pages or more and never repeat myself and maybe I will in the future, but for now, I am going to spend the rest of my afternoon relaxing.  I have a big week coming up.

 Chapter One
The Killer In The Mirror – Part 2 

You have to understand:  a trained man with a knife is as deadly as anything, even more dangerous in some ways than a man with a gun.  You might grab a gun.  You might wrestle it away.  But you can’t get hold of a knife without getting cut.  And if the knife-man knows what he’s doing, he can carve you up with a blade just as fast as a bullet.

And this guy knew what he was doing all right.  All the karate training in the world wasn’t going to save me if I didn’t act fast and act smart.  If I fell and he came down on top of me, I’d be dead in seconds.

I knew it even as I was falling.  The panic raced through my belly.  The thoughts raced through my head:  I have to do something.

I hit the tiled floor and kept rolling, fast, away from the oncoming killer.  I rolled and leapt up, gaining my feet in the back of the bathroom, pressed up against the far wall, the urinals on either side of me.

Before I could even think, he was there, he was on me, driving the knife toward my gut, the black blade glinting in the light.

A cry escaped me in my desperation.  I only just managed to leap out of the way, to grab his wrist with my two hands.

But I couldn’t hold him.  He yanked the knife back and if I hadn’t let go, he would’ve slashed my fingers off.  Immediately, he came at me again.  His round, clean face was now a mask of fury.  His blue eyes were full of death.

I was losing this fight.  I knew it.  It was only a matter of time before the knife slipped home.  There was no way to overpower a trained assassin like this.  No way to outfight him.

There was only one chance.  I had to out-think him.  Somehow, in my terror, in my panic, with murder hanging over me like a sword, I had to figure a way out.

The killer kept coming at me, the blade weaving before me like the head of a cobra.  He kept the point in my eyes so I couldn’t see it clearly, couldn’t gauge the distance.  He was forcing me toward the middle of the room, to where I’d be hemmed in between the stalls and the sinks with nowhere to move.  I stepped backwards quickly, waiting for the fatal strike. 

Then, with snake-like swiftness, the strike came—and at the same time, there came a desperate thought.

As the blade lanced toward me, I spun away, shouldering through one of the stall doors.  He tried to come in after me.  I grabbed hold of the door and slammed it on him, catching his arm for a second.  He pulled free—and before he could force his way in, I slammed the door shut and shot the bolt.

This had to be fast—lightning fast.  The door was light, the lock was flimsy.  He would break through in an instant.

I didn’t wait for him.  I dropped to the floor.  I ducked under the gap between the stalls.

There was an enormous crash as the knife-man  kicked his way in to the locked stall—the one I’d just left.

I flew out the door of the other stall and in a split second, I was behind him.

The killer already realized he’d been tricked.  He was starting to turn from the empty stall, to turn toward me.

Too bad, brother, one mistake is all you get.  I punched him fast and hard in the nose.  His head flew backward, blood bursting from his nostrils.  I didn’t let him recover.  I grabbed hold of his wrist—the wrist of his knife-hand—so he couldn’t cut me.  With my other hand, I grabbed his hair and bent him forward.

I dragged him out of the stall, turning my body to give me momentum.  I slammed him face first into the hard edge of the sink.

His knees buckled and he crumpled to the floor, unconscious.

I stood over him, gasping for breath, amazed that I was still alive.

This is part two of a two-part excerpt. Part one can be read here.

“The Long Way Home” is the second book in Andrew Klavan’s Homelander Series. He discussed the series and the first book, “The Last Thing I Remember,” with Big Hollywood back in April. You can read that interview here and here.  

“The Long Way Home” is available at Amazon.com.

Here’s a new feature we’ll be posting nightly that allows you to see what’s been posted throughout all the Bigs over the course of the day.