Twenty years ago, Oliver Stone’s ‘JFK’ was released and was less a film than a Molotov cocktail thrown at the “establishment.”  Stone called his film about the 20th century’s most infamous Presidential assassination “a history lesson” (a characterization he quickly withdrew) and hoped to be vindicated by the passage of time.

Stone’s thesis in a film designed to appeal to middle America is as follows: the military-industrial complex, allowed free reign under Eisenhower, killed Kennedy because he was trying to end the Cold War, especially in Cuba and Vietnam (the latter extremely important to the obsessed Stone).  Their point men were apolitical snipers, vengeful anti-Castroites, and a manipulated Oswald.  Far from being an angry leftist loner, Oswald was in fact a perpetrator for the more dovish elements of the American government’s schemes.  The low-level plotters included Clay Shaw, a New Orleans businessman, and David Ferrie, a member of the Operation Mongoose team, a CIA operation in constant efforts to kill Castro.

Like all history lessons, the yardstick is whether further evidence has proved him correct.  On Shaw being a CIA agent, Stone was on sure footing: CIA Director Richard Helms admitted that the New Orleans defendant was an agent.  On Shaw and Ferrie knowing each other (a charge Shaw denied under oath at his trial in New Orleans), evidence in  the form of a car loan for Ferrie co-signed by Shaw has vindicated Stone.

But other revelations have not been so kind.  Far from being a patsy four  floors down from his supposed sniper perch, Oswald was shown in documents released after the film by the Dallas Police that his fingerprints were on the trigger of his Manlicher Carcano.  Re-created shooting by world-class snipers has shown that the head-shots did in fact come from the Sixth Floor Depository.  Computer analysis applied to the grassy knoll reveals that in order for a shot to have come from there the sniper would  have to have been on a forty-foot ladder (a stance that would have attracted notice). (more…)

“What?!  Just look at this article’s title! Here’s typical Cuban- exile, Mc Carthyite, crackpot right-wing, Republican lunacy!  Bourdain’s show is on The Travel Channel, for crying out loud!  On the July 12^th episode of his No Reservations , they ran a show where Bourdain traveled to Cuba highlighting the food, people, sights and sounds, etc. —like he does while traveling all over the world.  What’s wrong with that?  You Cuban-exiles are beyond hopeless! Get a grip—and finally join the 21^st Century.  Geesh! “

Allow me to calmly explain:  neck to neck with Hugo Chavez’ subsidies Castro’s Stalinist regime lives off tourism. And Cuba’s Intelligence and Military sector owns 80 per cent of the Tourist Industry, as documented to Congress by retired Defense Intelligence Agency Cuba analyst, Lieut. Col. Chris Simmons.  Henceforth, yet another Travel Channel infomercial (Zimmern visited in 2009) for Cuba was a godsend to the Stalinist nomenklatura—especially right now with their Venezuelan Sugar- Daddy in perilous health.

Those charming, smiling hosts who escorted Bourdain around Castro’s fiefdom were all regime apparatchiks.  Immediately upon applying for his Cuban visa, well before Bourdain even set foot in Cuba, Castro’s intelligence had Bourdain completely sussed and his future escorts completely briefed. The procedure started the day he applied for Cuban visa, as also explained by Lieut. Col. Christopher Simmons. That your official “guides” while officially visiting a Communist nation were regime apparatchiks was common knowledge even to proto-imbeciles all during the Cold War.  Bourdain was born in 1956. 

“Big deal! So who’s this Simmons guy?! Some Birther- Bircher-Crackpot you rich Republican Cuban exiles pay off!”

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One of the benefits of living on the East Coast (besides being … home), is that it allows me a three-hour jump on Hollywood and the time needed to do what I hope will become a regular feature and, of course, forever change the face of Hollywood as we know it.

First off,  I would be remiss if I did not thank Associate Editor Alex Marlow and all the contributors who gave me great peace of mind during my cross-country move. Big Hollywood didn’t miss a step while I was away. A great job was done by all.  Also, a big, BIG thanks to Andrew Breitbart and his business partner Laurence Solov for simply saying “yes,” when I asked about moving home and, most importantly, for creating the kind of work environment I was eager to return to.

The Morning Call Sheet is planned as a new Monday through Friday feature that will be a sort-of summary/round up of the day’s big news from Hollywoodland, as well as other things as they come up. While the marquee is mostly devoted to the intersection of pop culture and politics, the Morning Call Sheet will give you a rundown of that as well as the day’s straight entertainment news. The hope here is to eventually turn this into a regular newsletter. With help and input from others, the Morning Call Sheet is likely to change and evolve over time. Meaning: tips and suggestions can either be noted in the comments or emailed to jnolte@breitbart.com.

But for now, it’s inauguration time…

–BOX OFFICE:

Transformers, Horrible Bosses, and The Zookeeper are doing well. As if movie stars aren’t already having enough trouble (see below), two star-driven vehicles have flopped miserably. The duo of Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks has already collapsed in week 2 and Jim Carrey’s latest is DOA in week 4.

–ANDREW KLAVAN’S FINAL CHAPTER OF HIS “HOMELANDER” SERIES, “THE FINAL HOUR,” IS ALREADY AVAILABLE AT AMAZON. SOME EARLY REVIEWS HERE.

The Homelander trilogy is not only an exciting, extremely well-written, page-turner of a series (even though they’re written for young adults, I read the first two with little difficulty), it’s the rare fiction novel any parent who believes in God, America, and the evil of terrorism can hand to a child without worrying that after they close the back cover, they will demand you throw away your 100 watt light bulbs.

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For those who wish, please watch this quick clip then read the article:

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Superman was created by the sons of Jewish immigrants – Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, and they had a love for America.

When I was growing up as a kid on Long Island, we couldn’t wait to see
the next episode of Superman on TV or get the latest comic. I wanted a Superman costume for Halloween. I proudly wore my red cape and believed I was fighting for truth, justice, and the American way. So did most of my friends. Years later, my two sons – years apart – alsowanted to be the Man of Steel for Halloween.

This may no longer appeal to the bright eyed youth of America. Never will Superman be part of the lexicon for American pop culture. DC Comics, for whatever reason, turned its back on America. Will Superman now fight for Sharia Law to be adopted into England, France, and Germany? This act shows more than anything else the depth that a socialistic based education system has indoctrinated minds and created a cultural battleground for the soul of America.

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Cuban dissident Doctor Oscar Elias Biscet is a 2007 Presidential Medal of Freedom winner, a Nobel Prize nominee and former Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience who was recently released from jail after spending over eight years in the gulags of the Castro brothers for his non-violent, pro-democracy, and pro-human rights activism. Before that internment, he had spent three years in the Castro’s prisons for those same activities. Since the press, both in the United States and internationally, largely ignores the struggles of Cuban dissidents against the Castro’s half-century totalitarian dictatorship, readers are hardly to blame if they’ve never heard of Dr. Biscet, but filmmaker Jordan Allott is working to change that. Jordan’s documentary about Dr. Biscet, “Oscar’s Cuba,” has done much to bring the plight of Dr. Biscet, and that of the Cuban people for whom he fights, to the attention of the world. I reviewed Oscar’s Cuba last March for Big Hollywood, and recently spoke to Jordan about Dr. Biscet.

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BIG HOLLYWOOD: Tell us about Dr. Biscet.

ALLOTT: Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet is President of the Lawton Foundation for Human Rights based in Havana, Cuba. He is a medical doctor and is considered by many to be Cuba’s leading opposition figure. Dr. Biscet was sentenced to 25 years in prison by the Castro regime for his non-violent promotion of human rights and democracy in Cuba. Oscar was recently released after spending about nine years in prison. Before this sentence, Dr. Biscet had spent three years in prison for a number of crimes including, Disrespect and Dishonoring National Symbols. Dr. Biscet only enjoyed 36 days of freedom in between these two unjust imprisonments.

BIG HOLLYWOOD: Have you spoken with Dr. Biscet, or with his wife, Elsa Morejon, since his release?

ALLOTT: I have not talked to Dr. Biscet directly since his release. I would like to give him some time to get adjusted to life outside of prison and I realize many people around the world are attempting to contact him. The day after his release Oscar watched our “Oscar’s Cuba” documentary and was very humbled by it. He liked the documentary very much. About six weeks ago I was able to have a quick three-minute phone conversation with Dr. Biscet from his prison outside Havana. During this conversation he sounded strong as he thanked the international community and human rights groups in the United States for the continued support. (more…)

Since the failure on most every front of his latest ode to Marxism, “Capitalism: A Love Story,” Michael Moore’s been desperately scratching around for relevance once again, using every opportunity to get his face on television and name in the paper.

Enter Mr. Wikileaks, Julian Assange.

Any enemy of America has a friend in Michael Moore and what better way to get a little ink and feel the warm glow of those MSNBC studio lights than to post part of Julian Assange’s bail and offer up his own website as an outlet for any and all of this brave truth-tellers leaks. But because there’s a God and because He is a good and noble God with a delicious sense of humor, the best laid plans of rat and liar have just completely blown up in Michael Moore’s face — twice in a single week.

For starters,  in his knee-jerk zeal to defend America’s enemies, Moore brought a public relations nightmare down on his and host Keith Olbermann’s head late last week, earning the label “rape apologist” even from many of his own fans after dismissing some pretty serious rape charges against Assange as nothing more than ”hooey.” 

Then — just when you thought it couldn’t get any better — Moore’s own hero dropped this bomb on the anti-American director regarding his 2007 documentary “Sicko.”

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So, I’m sitting in my local diner staring at a pair of gorgeous breasts that are hovering over my husband’s face as the twenty year old waitress takes our lunch order.  She purrs, “Ready?”  I think she just winked at him.  He pretends not to notice.  I am in the middle of a good story about my wonderful, recent trip to the AZ Freedom Rally II.

After an eternity, the gorgeous, young boobs leave and I resume my tale, ” …the greatest thing about this crucial moment in history is the fact that I am meeting the greatest people on earth…David Saucedo was in jail three years ago…he met Jesus, had an about-face and is now a Christian conservative rapper on the Tea Party Express IV.  

His new rapper name is Polatik.  He owns a construction company and runs a ministry in Waco, TX.  Spending two days with him is like being at a 48 hour Bible study.  He can’t stop talking about his new faith, his new life, his recent reading of the Federalist papers and The Constitution, the Bible, his new wife and two babies…one of which has leukemia.  Yes, Lianna has leukemia and is getting chemo right now and losing her hair.  David is trusting God for her healing. He shows me her picture on his I Phone. He put his life and now, his precious daughter’s life into his Father’s hands.  He is vibrant and real and shimmering with enthusiasm for helping others and helping our country get back on track.”  I’m glowing just from being near him.  Paul nods. We both think about Romans 8:28.

The beautiful 20 year old breasts return and I am distracted from my story again.  My husband pretends not to notice the breasts. The owner of the breasts places our food on the table.  I notice her third button has been strategically unbuttoned.  I clear my throat and continue, “Paul, I sent my letter to the Miami Herald.  Do you want to read it?”  Paul knows he must pay attention to me so he pushes his plate aside, slowly places his glasses on his nose and reads… (more…)

The whales, the wolves, the rainforests, the Stephen’s Kangaroo Rat—seems Hollywood-ites are always trying to “save” something.

Save the Castroite Terrorist-Murderer! has become Danny Glover’s latest cause, though he words it a bit differently.  The Cuban convict Gerardo Hernandez, who Glover visited in jail last week, “has been unjustly imprisoned,” asserts Glover. “His sentence is unusually harsh,” bemoans Glover while reciting his Castro-propaganda ministry handout

“His crime was simply acting in self-defense of his sovereign nation, and his family,” anguishes Glover before the cameras, shortly before the “Cut!” and the whoops and high-fives from the Castroite director and film-crew.

Leave Gerardo ALONE! wails Danny Glover, in a manner to shame Chris Crocker himself.  Glover also echoes his Cuban case-officers in accusing U.S. jailers of visiting horrific torture upon Hernandez.

Below please find a few items that somehow didn’t make the final cut of Danny Glover’s Castroite videos and press releases: (more…)

At 58 Chrissie Hynde doesn’t feel up to the rigors of pregnancy and parturition. But hey, it’s the thought that counts. “This is for the baby we’ll never have,” recently proclaimed Hynde’s new bandmate/inamorato, JP Jones. 

His “this” refers to the couple’s new song “Fidelity.” The song and title, they’re proud to announce, bubbled into the puppy-lovers’ consciousness during a recent pilgrimage to Stalinist Cuba, where the cheeky free-spirits and human-rights champions “saw pictures of Fidel Castro everywhere!”

Imagine that!

“I found my perfect lover, but he’s only half my age, “sings Hynde about JP Jones in another recent recording.  (Weren’t Liz Taylor and even Madonna less exhibitionist in these matters?) (more…)

“Multi-Millionaire Hispanic pop star holds fundraiser for Democratic Party!”

“OK?  And dog bites man?  So where’s the story here?”

The fundraiser at the $10 million Biscayne Bay island estate of internationally-acclaimed and multiple Grammy-winning pop-star Gloria Estefan featured a $30,400 a couple “cocktail party” that helped raise $2.5 million for the Democratic Party!

….. “OK,…. and?”

Obama’s hostess at the posh event, Gloria Estefan, is Cuban-American!

…… “OK…and?”

The Fundraiser has raised a ruckus in South Florida of such proportions that even the Associated Press and Reuters are reporting the details!

……….. “Hunnnh?…. But why?  Isn’t such behavior perfectly typical—indeed, almost obligatory—for folks in her line of work?”

OK, a little background might help. Exit polls show that Cuban-Americans voted against Obama by the highest margins—and by far—of any U.S. ethnic group, including “anglos.” We’re going on almost 50 years of their exile but not all the King’s Horses nor all the King’s Men have been able to bring Cuban-Americans around to follow the lead of the majority in their adopted country and register Democratic. Even with the third generation registering to vote, a measly 13 per cent of these incurably obtuse and unenlightened people register with America’s majority political party. This is the most diminutive Democratic registration of any ethnic group in the U.S. And 72% of these obviously incurable reactionaries are registered with America’s minority party (Republican).  This is the highest for any ethnic group in the U.S. (more…)

This is our sixth month of Obama Nation strips. Huzzah!

In his movie The Lost City, about an upper middle-class Cuban family crumbling during free Havana’s last days, director and star Andy Garcia, along with fellow Cuban-exile screenwriter Guillermo Cabrera Infante, insist on depicting some historical truth about Cuba.

This unforgivable gaffe blasted the bugles for a pile-on by critics. Their fantasies of pre-Castro Cuba, of Che, of Fidel, and of Cubans in general were badly jolted. Their annoyance and scorn spewed forth in review after review.

If only Garcia’s characters had spoken with accents like John Belushi’s as a Saturday Night Live Killer Bee! If only they’d dressed like The Three Amigos! If only they’d hammed it up like Cheech Marin! If only they’d mimicked the mannerisms and gait of Freddie Prinze in Chico and the Man! If only the women had piled a roadside fruit stand on their head like Carmen Miranda in Road to Rio! If only the cast had looked like the little guy who handles my luggage at the hotel in Cancun! Or the guys who do my lawn! Everybody knows that’s what Hispanics look like!

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Michael Moore gets the Michael Moore treatment in a new documentary created by a fellow Michigan resident. Accountant turned filmmaker Kevin Leffler isn’t a dyed in the wool Republican trying to score cheap shots off the liberal gadfly. He’s just a regular Midwesterner who knew the guy being trumped up in the press as the straight talking Everyman wasn’t the real deal.

Leffler grew up in the same part of Michigan as Moore, attending the same Catholic Church and even working together on a local youth hotline. So when Leffler calls out Moore, it means something.

“Shooting Michael Moore” lets Leffler deconstruct the Moore myth. It’s a project with a tiny budget and little Hollywood razzmatazz – Leffler is a CPA and college professor, not a slick documentarian.

But he digs deep enough into Moore’s activities to reveal a more complicated, and damning portrait of the Oscar winner.

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“We will obtain the liberty of the Cuban people.” — Doctor Oscar Elias Biscet

Filmmaker Jordan Allott’s documentary, “Oscar’s Cuba” paints a compelling portrait of Cuban dissident Oscar Elias Biscet, whom Armando Valladares, former Reagan administration Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Commission and himself a former political prisoner of the Castro dictatorship, cites as the most important living figure in the struggle for Cuban liberty.

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In 1998 Doctor Biscet dared to publish a report in which he interviewed many Cuban mothers who testified that their infants had been born alive and then killed by the regime. The totalitarian regime that controls Cuba views problematic pregnancies or unhealthy infants as a threat to their much-touted low infant mortality rates. Cuba has the highest abortion rates in our hemisphere, with 6 in 10 pregnancies ending in abortion. Thanks to Dr Biscet, we now know that many of these abortions were not the choice of the mothers involved, that said abortions were coerced, and indeed that many of these infants were born alive…then terminated. When Dr. Biscet made this issue a matter of public record, he gave the regime a black eye. The regime was not going to let this go unpunished. Dr Biscet continued to speak out for human rights and democracy on the island, and he paid a price for it: in 1998 and 1999 he was arrested more than 20 times.

On March 18, 2003, seven years ago today, Dr Biscet was arrested along with more than 70 other dissidents in what has come to be called “la Primavera Negra,” the Black Spring of 2003.  He was sentenced to a 25-year sentence, which he is currently serving in the notorious Combinado del Este prison outside of Havana. Dr. Biscet spends much of his time in solitary confinement, incarcerated in an underground cell. Yet Biscet endures, and continues to defy the regime. (more…)

Hugo Chavez’ inspirational debt to Ernesto “Che” Guevara is such that he titled his regime’s socio-economic model, “Mision Che Guevara.” Don’t look for much of this in the MSM–but as I write Venezuela’s youth are hitting the streets in the tens of thousands and with raised fists–against socialism (having gotten a taste of it.)

In response, Chavez’ police and brownshirt goon-squads (some mimicking their national leader by wearing Che T-shirts) bludgeon, tear gas, shoot and arrest hundreds of rebellious Venezuelan youth.

In fact, nothing could be more fitting. In a famous speech in 1961, Che Guevara denounced the very “spirit of rebellion” as “reprehensible.” “Youth must refrain from ungrateful questioning of governmental mandates” commanded Guevara. “Instead they must dedicate themselves to study, work and military service.”

And woe to those youths “who stayed up late at night and thus reported to work (government forced-labor) tardily.” Youth, wrote Guevara, “should learn to think and act as a mass.” Those who “chose their own path” (as in growing long hair and listening to Yankee-Imperialist Rock & Roll) were denounced as worthless “lumpen” and “delinquents.” In his famous speech Che Guevara even vowed, “to make individualism disappear from Cuba!  It is criminal to think of individuals!” he raved. (more…)

Well, Soderbergh and Del Toro’s Che was just released on DVD-Blu-ray. As a bonus, the Criterion release contains a behind-the-scenes “Making Che” section, featuring interviews with Soderbergh, Del Toro, the screenwriters, along with audio narration by the film’s chief consultant (except Fidel Castro), author John Lee Anderson. 

An obsession among all involved with this monstrosity (271 minutes), we learn, was “historical accuracy.” As a professional duty, last year I sat through this thing. For the sake of this review  let’s forget the films’ “omissions,” namely the only success in Che’s life: the mass murder of defenseless men and boys. This being a shoot-em up war movie, we’ll instead focus on the battle scenes and the attendant dialogue. 

For starters, the only “guerrilla war” fought in Cuba during the 20th Century was fought, not by Fidel and Che, but against Fidel and Che (more on this shortly.) 

After the glorious victory over Batista some of the Castroite “guerrillas” explained the harrowing battlefield exploits (so “expertly” dramatized by Soderbergh) to Paul Bethel who served as U.S. press attaché in Cuba’s U.S. Embassy in 1959. “We had a helluva time, Paul!” laughed one guerrilla’s named William Morgan. “We used a short-wave radio to broadcast the so-called battle. We yelled fake battle commands into the mic while a few of the muchachos shot BARs and pistols into the air for the sound effects. We really whooped it up!” (more…)

Chris Crocker has nothing on most Che Guevara fans. His anguish in “Leave Britney Alone!” pales to what I’ve seen and heard from “hecklers”during many college lectures. The more painstakingly-documented the facts I discharge into the fog of ignorance that blankets many campuses, the more shrill and anguished comes the reactions, often from faculty! 

Facts matters little to diehard, teen-beat type Castro/Che fans. Many “document” their rebuttals to my blasphemies with scenes from Godfather II, that famous documentary on pre-Castro Cuba. “Fidel, I love you,” gushed a young Francis Ford Coppola. “We both have beards. We both have power and want to use it for good purposes.” Not that such sentiments could have possibly flavored his masterpiece. 

To depict Havana streets on New Year’s Eve 1958, Coppola cast more people than stampeded through a battle scene in Braveheart. For what it’s worth, Havana streets were deathly quiet that night. Not to be outdone, in his Havana, Sydney Pollack cast Cuban President, Fulgencio Batista, with light skin, blond hair and blue eyes. The late Cuban-exile novelist (and screenwriter for Andy Garcia’s The Lost City) Guillermo Cabrera Infante, later bumped into Pollack at a Hollywood party where the learned director flinched and went red-faced when a laughing Cabrera informed him that Batista was, in fact, a Black.  

“But these are merely movies, Humberto,” Some might counter. Yes, fine. But Pollack boasted of his knowledge of Cuba, often visiting Castro’s fiefdom starting in 1977 and even meeting with Fidel Castro himself.  (more…)

“Che” film gets thumbs up in Cuba,” ran the headline from CNN’s Havana Bureau last December 8. Benicio Del Toro, who stars as Che, was being feted as the Castro regime’s guest of honor during the Havana Film Festival while presenting the movie he co-produced. “The lengthy biopic of the Argentinean revolutionary won acclaim from among those who know his story best,” continued the CNN story.

“Objectivity is impossible,” self-styled “peoples’ historian” Howard Zinn once remarked, “and it is also undesirable. That is, if it were possible it would be undesirable, because if you have any kind of a social aim, if you think history should serve society in some way; should serve the progress of the human race; should serve justice in some way, then it requires that you make your selection on the basis of what you think will advance causes of humanity.”

History serving “a social aim,” rather than chronicling the past in a detached manner, is what readers get in A People’s History of the United States. With any luck, “The People Speak,” the History Channel documentary based on the book that premieres this Sunday, will be, like so many Hollywood productions, unfaithful to the original. Given A People’s History of the United States’ infidelity to facts, this might be the only chance viewers have of seeing anything resembling an accurate retelling of history.

Through Zinn’s looking-glass, Maoist China, site of history’s bloodiest state-sponsored killings, transforms into “the closest thing, in the long history of that ancient country, to a people’s government, independent of outside control.” The authoritarian Nicaraguan Sandinistas were “welcomed” by their own people, while the opposition Contras, who backed the candidate that triumphed when free elections were finally held, were a “terrorist group” that “seemed to have no popular support inside Nicaragua.” Admitting some human rights abuses, Zinn writes that Castro’s Cuba “had no bloody record of suppression.”

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If you didn’t know any better, you would almost think that Sean Penn wants to make it extremely easy for conservatives to criticize Hollywood for being overly liberal. He’s flown to Cuba to interview his hero Fidel Castro:

Oscar-winning actor and political activist Sean Penn flew to Cuba hoping to interview its revolutionary icon Fidel Castro, entertainment news website TMZ reported Sunday.

“Sean (Penn) is going to the land of Fidel as a journalist, writing a story for Vanity Fair (magazine) about how the (Barack) Obama administration has affected Cuba,” TMZ reported…

“Barclays sources say Sean and Diana are going to meet (Fidel) Castro — presumably because that’s what Diana told them,” the website reported. Penn’s representative also told TMZ a meeting was possible.

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