The Brits, as we all know, have a thing about “class.” For example, your accent not only denotes what part of the country from which you hail, but whether you are “working class,” “middle class,” or “nobility” and all things in between. And if you have the “wrong” accent, good luck getting accepted into certain circles.

For someone who comes from a nation that’s still so hung up on class, Paul McCartney recently demonstrated that he has none.

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McCartney – excuse me, Sir Paul McCartney, obviously a classy guy – was in the East Room at the White House, receiving the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. Despite the non-political nature of the event, which featured McCartney himself and other musicians performing his songs in front of a select audience (including the President and First Lady), somehow Paul couldn’t hold back a snarky remark about Obama’s predecessor:

“After the last eight years, it’s great to have a president who knows what a library is.”

Nice. (more…)

A few weeks ago I was extended a great privilege from Gary Williams, the author of SEAL of Honor: Operation Red Wings and the Life of Lt. Michael P. Murphy, USN. Williams has written a superb new biography of Murphy, who was killed in action on June 28, 2005 during Operation Red Wings and received from President George W. Bush the Medal of Honor for his gallantry in combat.

Gary asked me to deliver a speech during a SEAL of Honor book event this May. Of course, I readily accepted. I never pass up an opportunity to praise our men and women in uniform, but I am Army not Navy, I am a paratrooper not a SEAL, and I had never had the privilege of meeting Michael Murphy.

So I had some work to do to get to know this man on my own terms before I could speak with the authenticity that I desired. I already knew that Lieutenant Murphy and I shared one significant thing in common, which was that we both fought the Taliban in the Korengal Valley. (more…)

What is it with Sean Penn? When he’s not busy wishing rectal cancer on his critics (and looking constipated while doing it), he’s slamming Americans who dare to say mean and nasty things about his pal Hugo Chavez. I kid you not!

In a recent appearance on Bill Maher’s HBO show, Penn showered praise on Venezuela for assisting him in assisting the quake victims in Haiti. He also claimed to have a little sympathy for those who hold America-as-an-evil-empire-looking-to-conquer-the-world views. Then he turns around and says journalists here who call Chavez a dictator (shudder) should do a stint in the hoosegow:

The collaborative opportunity in Haiti, when you talk about Hugo Chavez, and some of the other people who are demonized [think Castro], and you know, when some of these countries accuse us of an occupation – where I believe this was strictly a humanitarian action by the United States military, and an incredible one – I’m a little sympathetic. Because every day, this elected leader is called a dictator here, and we just accept it! And accept it. And this is mainstream media, who should – truly, there should be a bar by which one goes to prison for these kinds of lies.

Okay, so he’s not officially a dictator. Neither was Saddam Hussein, you may recall – he won 100 percent of the vote back in the day. How about we call Hugo “dictator in waiting” instead? Would that make Sean feel better?

Let’s take a look at some of the things Venezuela’s  duly elected leader has done lately: (more…)

[Ed. Note: Since this article was written but before it was published, actor Alec Baldwin has come out against nuclear power at the Huffpo, though the name "Obama" is noticably never used.]

I don’t want to start a new conspiracy theory but a small and dedicated group of Americans has gone missing. Vanished without a trace! Where are the American anti-nuclear people? What has happened to the “No Nukes” crowd? Since President Obama announced his support for new nuclear power plants in his State of the Union Address I have been patiently waiting for the leftist/environmental/green/anti-nuclear power movement to resurface.  

Here we are a full month after Mr. Obama has pledged billions to utilities like Southern Company to kick start a “new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country” and as of yet not a peep from them. No rally at the Capital, no rock concert extravaganza, not even some of those cool death mask costumes worn by a guy on stilts. At least I think he was on stilts. Maybe his growth hormones were horribly affected by his growing up near Three Mile Island! It makes me think something awful has happened to this band of aging hippies!

Back in 1979 there were over 200,000 demonstrators at an anti-nuclear power rally in New York City. That was followed by a five day series of concerts at Madison Square Garden and a multi-million selling album featuring James Taylor, Jackson Brown, Tom Petty and Bonnie Raitt. If our younger readers are unsure of whom these folks are, ask your parents or grandparents they’ll fill you in. They will also be able to tell you what an “album” was. They were difficult to “illegally download” because you had to “upload” them under your sweatshirt in the aisle of the “record” store. Of course that was back when stealing music was still frowned upon. (more…)

One of the things I think most about is national security. Oh sure, my posts here at Big Hollywood are usually snarky takes on the idiocy we witness daily from clueless Hollywoodites like James Cameron, but national security issues feature prominently in many of my writings elsewhere. I also belong to a group in New York City, whose members gather monthly to hear experts speak about the various threats we face, especially from Islamic jihad.

American Nick Berg, just before his beheading by jihadists in 2004

Yes, jihad. That’s what it is. Not “the war on terror,” not an “overseas contingency operation.” Jihad. Say it. It’s not that hard. I often wonder how the experts whose lectures I hear sleep at night, knowing what they know about an ideology whose adherents want to kill us all.

And I often wonder how serious President Barack Obama is about keeping Americans safe. Considering the results of his first year in office, I’m definitely not encouraged. (more…)

We can look back today and see that George W. Bush’s departure from Washington on 1/20/09 was when the oceans stopped rising, the Earth began healing and, for Hollywood, when an unprecedented era of right-wing oppression and stifling conservative ideological conformity ended.

It is hard to believe the oppression we endured under Bush from our vantage point here in this age of openness and transparency – are you as sick as I am of those endless health care reform negotiations that C-SPAN keeps broadcasting?  Before 1/20/09, our artistic community huddled in collective terror at the specter of a midnight knock on the door should they dare to dissent from the Bush regime’s party line in public.  Hollywood’s silence was deafening.

But with the dungeons of Guantanamo Bay finally closed, the threat of government repression of dissident voices has completely vanished, and the demonization of opposition voices is a thing of the past.  Once again, we have a mainstream media that dares to break and run with news stories that speak truth to power, aided by a White House press office dedicated to providing straightforward, truthful answers to reporters. (more…)

President George W. Bush left office a year ago today.  The occasion was marked for me, not so much as the grand event of inaugurating our first black President, as it was a societal harbinger of ominous times ahead.  Mr. Bush congratulated Mr. Obama warmly, embracing him with the camaraderie reserved for that elite membership of U.S. presidents.  The accompanying catcalls and boo’s cast a pall upon what was heretofore a somber, and joyous occasion; but now colored a sick patina as the true vitriol and hateful venom rose with cruel and vindictive openness.  The taunting jeers, the rude remarks, the derision of contempt.  Well…there goes the neighborhood, I thought to myself.

It seemed that occasion marked another milestone in America:   the death of class.

And long before the new politics of Chicago-style thuggery became evident in the new administration, I was appalled at the sheer intensity of hatred for President Bush.   Bush Derangement Syndrome became a pandemic.  I was expecting the CDC to announce immediate inoculation centers opening up to stem the outbreak.  Bush bashing became our new favorite national pastime, celebrated in the press and codified on college campuses everywhere. (more…)

Because he is a good and gracious man, George W. Bush worked with Ted Kennedy on No Child Left Behind. He held his hand out across the aisle (something Obama has yet to do), and brought the Senator on board to help craft and put his stamp on that piece of legislation.

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Just a couple years later, in the middle of a tough war in Iraq, Kennedy would play the scorpion to Bush’s frog when his ugly, ungrateful, unpatriotic, selfish, leftist default position would rear its ugly partisan head when he accused Bush of being a fraud who cooked up the war for personal political gain.

Today, let us celebrate the delicious irony that Kennedy the Horrible’s Senate seat is about to be occupied by a rock-ribbed conservative who believes in and campaigned on everything Kennedy the Horrible opposed. Yes, a pro-water-boarder will sit where “The Lying of the Senate” once did.  (more…)

President George W. Bush:

On the one-year anniversary of President George W. Bush leaving office, let us recall his words spoken in the National Cathedral, September 14, 2001 (please take a moment to watch the video):

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“This world He created is of moral design. Grief and tragedy and hatred are only for a time. Goodness, remembrance and love have no end, and the Lord of life holds all who die and all who mourn.

It is said that adversity introduces us to ourselves.

This is true of a nation as well… 

America is a nation full of good fortune, with so much to be grateful for, but we are not spared from suffering. In every generation, the world has produced enemies of human freedom. They have attacked America because we are freedom’s home and defender, and the commitment of our fathers is now the calling of our time.” (more…)

One year ago today President Bush left the White House. It’s been said before, but I think on this anniversary it bears repeating.

George W. Bush is an idiot.

That’s right. He’s a dolt. A moron. A cowboy. An anti-intellectual. A dummy.

I don’t use these words lightly and I firmly stand behind them. Of course, I’m not using the traditional definition of these adjectives. I’m using the current, leftist lexicon in describing the man.

The left loves to rename things. They call acts of terrorism “man caused disasters.” The call a bill that takes away secret ballots for workers the “employee free choice act”. Expensive health care is renamed “affordable” and when they flush $800 billion of taxpayer money down the toilet they call it an economic “stimulus.”

They call a bunch of snotty, elitist, knuckleheads who are completely clueless about economics and foreign policy “smart power.” And they refer to their leader, famous for dodging responsibility and voting “present,” as “pragmatic.” (more…)

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The Oscar-nominated movies in recent years have been enough to make a grown man cry… Or worse. Consider “There Will Be Blood,” “No Country for Old Men” and “The Reader” as a sampling of the morbid films jockeying for Oscar glory. This year, add Oscar wannabes “The Road” and “Precious” to the list.

Newsweek scribe Ramin Setoodeh writes about the trend in the liberal magazine’s latest edition. Setoodeh bemoans the fact that some of the best films lately take a too sober view of society. On that we can agree.

Then, Setoodeh whips out his trusty Bush bashing cudgel and starts a whacking:

You can blame Hollywood’s doom and gloom on the Oscars, but I’m not going to. Instead, I think it’s George W. Bush’s fault. Most liberal directors felt restless under his presidency, and they pushed the envelope with over-the-top, operatic tragedies. (more…)

I finally had a chance to be one of “those people.” You know the ones, they read the book and see the movie so they can say, with more than a twinge of superiority, “The book was so much better.” They’re also the same people that added the Walter Matthau-Robert Shaw version of “Taking of Pelham 1-2-3” to the Netflix queue about a month before the Travolta-Washington version hit the screens. You know, so they could say, “The original was better.” It’s of course true that the original was better, but I worked at a Blockbuster in Hollywood for five years and not once did anyone request that movie until the trailer for the remake hit multiplexes.

Anyway, I digress. Here’s what I think about “The Blind Side.”

The book was better. But the movie’s pretty daggum good too. I only read the book because a friend told me it would never work as a movie, anyway, and there was no point in waiting. My friend was right, the book is dense and wordy, and roughly half of it is about the evolution of the left tackle position in professional football. The Michael Oher stuff takes up the other half, and that’s what John Lee Hancock focuses on here. He gets the vast majority of it exactly right.

Sandra Bullock is well-cast as Leigh Anne Tuohy, a well-to-do Memphis interior decorator who takes in a homeless kid who is also a very hot football commodity. His name’s Michael Oher, and he’s immense. Huge. Massive. Surprisingly, he’s also quick on his feet, agile, and has a pretty sweet jump shot. The movie finds a clever way to use his hoops skills to introduce Michael to his future high school football coach, Coach Cotton. (more…)

I awoke this morning with a splitting headache.  As I staggered to the bathroom I blew past the mirror without a glance, fearful of the report.  I hadn’t felt this awful since I can’t remember when.  Though memory eluded me as to the details, I was certain that I had tied on the Mother of All Benders.  As I stared blearily into the commode bowl, I studied it disinterestedly for any and all evidence my stomach contents may have divulged as to just what the hell had happened the previous night.   

Nothing came to me but more questions.  Satisfied that no further gastric contributions could tell the tale, I rose from the bathroom floor, shrugged unconvincingly and hit the flusher.   What a perfect way to end unseemly encounters.  Flush them. 

I proceeded to weave an unsteady trail down the hallway in the general direction of a coffee pot.  My daughter had arisen before me and FOX News was already drifting in from the other room; Bill Hemmer recounting the latest on the decision to move the admitted 911 terrorists to NYC for trial. 

And then it struck me like a wet trout.  (more…)

In another scene, set at one of those dreary government offices where bored civil servants provide occasional slow-motion service to frustrated citizens, Leigh Anne demands to know who is in charge. The clerk points, in a non-sequitur nonpareil, to a portrait of then-president George W. Bush. — John Boot in Pajamas Media

You need not work in Hollywood to understand that this is the single most intolerant industry in America today — just watch their product. I wasn’t surprised to learn from Christian Toto that ”The Blind Side” filmmakers couldn’t control themselves. Unless it’s outside the mainstream Hollywood system, a film marketed to traditional American conservatives — much less, Southern Christians! — has to hit us with a leftist sucker punch one way or another. It’s an unwritten rule… 

Hollywood is high school and if you want to sit at the cool kids’ table (i.e. work) you better fit in, and if you’ve been involved in the writing, directing or producing of a film sympathetic towards the most hated demographic (yes, even more hated than terrorists — again, watch the product) in the 9-0 zip code, you had better inoculate yourself.

And that’s what the gratuitous, unnecessary, jarring, take-you-out-of-the-movie shot at Bush is: an inoculation. The filmmakers want to work again; they want to be invited to all the right parties. But if you’re remembered as the person involved in bringing to life a movie only Glenn Beck could love, no matter how big of a hit, that’s not a good thing on the ole’ resume’. (more…)

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Christian Toto:

“The new drama “The Blind Side” tells the story of a homeless black teen who is taken in by a Christian family led by Sandra Bullock.

“It’s a heartwarming story based on the life of NFL lineman Michael Oher.

“So why does the film feel the need to awkwardly squeeze in a slam at former president George W. Bush?” (more…)

Director Roland Emmerich at his London home.

“Independence Day” is one of the most profitable films in history — and after the original “Poseidon Adventure,” one of the greatest bad films ever — but there was no sure-fire, money-making blockbuster sequel because President Bush — The Abraham Lincoln of the Middle East — won the presidency:

“In Independence Day, it was about a king who leads his country into a fight against an outside invader. I didn’t want to make that movie during the Bush years. It was not thought that George W. Bush would have made a great king. Now with Obama, it’s another story.”

That’s straight from the director, the ball-less Roland Emmerich.

Sure, Hollywood is packed with the worst kind of greedy people who demand higher taxes as they shelter millions — who intend to hang on to their platinum health-care plans as they push rationed care – who demand Big Business pay their “fair share” as they beg for tax incentives… Sure, Leftist Hollywood wants to make money, bucketloads if possible, but…

….not at the expense of The Leftist Cause.   (more…)

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