EXCERPT FROM Burt Prelutsky’s: Liberals: America’s Termites or It’s a Shame That Liberals, Unlike Hamsters, Never Eat Their Young

Although, as a rule, those people who star in movies are more obnoxious than their colleagues in television – perhaps because we’re not inviting them into our homes – the folks on TV tend to be even whinier.           

The question that comes to mind is when appearing on the tube went from being a well-paid privilege to being an inalienable right. 

So far as I know, it first became an issue when “Murder She Wrote,” a CBS staple from 1984 to 1996, was canceled.  The phenomenon may have pre-dated that event, but that’s when I became aware of the sea change.  Prior to that, diehard fans were naturally disappointed whenever one of their favorite shows bit the dust, but it was understood that nothing went on forever. 

However, in 1996, Angela Lansbury went ballistic over her show’s demise, even though it had already made her enormously wealthy.  As I recall, Ms. Lansbury felt that CBS had not treated her and the show with the proper reverence.  She didn’t seem to realize that a pink slip is a pink slip, and should not be confused with a condolence card.  In any case, I felt that someone should have pointed out to the lady that CBS is a corporation and not a friend of the family – although God knows this particular corporation had been enormously generous to her family, most of whom had wound up on the show’s payroll – and that a 13-year run is about as reverential as TV ever gets.  (more…)

As a columnist and blogger, I get sent a lot of books from authors who hope that I’ll write a review praising their stuff.  I try my best to read as many as possible, and I decline to review those that aren’t quite worthy of praise. 

One book I received recently was Burt Prelutsky’s hilarious take-no-prisoners compilation with intro by Bernard Goldberg, Liberals: America’s Termites or It’s a Shame That Liberals, Unlike Hamsters, Never Eat Their Young.  The title pretty much says it all – Prelutsky isn’t afraid to say what he thinks, and his short book is chock full of hysterical one-liners and RPG attacks on the left.  I don’t agree with all of it, but it sure makes for fun reading.  

Prelutsky on movies: “The 60s, the decade during which I did most of my reviewing, was notable for very young, very untalented, essentially illiterate British and American directors who gave new meaning to self-indulgence.”  Whew.   (more…)

Match me, Sidney.

8pm PST - Sweet Smell Of Success (1957) – A crooked press agent stoops to new depths to help an egotistical columnist break up his sister’s romance. Cast: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison, Marty Milner Dir: Alexander Mackendrick BW-96 mins, TV-PG

You could fill pages about the complete greatness of this film, but when all is said and done what impresses most is how so much character and so many plot turns all fit into 96 minutes. As Burt Prelutsky points out in this essay, the all important art of pacing has pretty much vanished in Big Hollywood. When raunchy sex comedies start clocking in at 126 minutes, the canary in the coalmine to warn you something’s gone horribly wrong is long, long dead. (more…)

What an exhilarating week. Big Hollywood is finally up. Traffic is way better than expected.

Greg Gutfeld is posting his wondrous inanities and many pointed yet not vitriolic salvos have been launched against the intransigent Hollywood left and vital ones aimed at the right — for forfeiting culture to the opposition. Movie and television reviews and historical treatises abound, and we’re even breaking news.

John Ziegler launched a massive story where Sarah Palin unleashed on the media for treating her so unfairly. It is easily the mainstream news media story of the week. Big Hollywood is the site to go to for the inside scoop on Ziegler’s forthcoming documentary, “Media Malpractice: How Obama Got Elected“.

Actor-singer-songwriter Joe Lima in a timely fashion came to bury Guevara, but also put usually reliable director Steven Soderbergh in his place for wasting so much studio money and movie watchers’ time with the execrable, “Che.”

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