Ed. Note: Please welcome Glen to the Big Hollywood family and encourage him to return — JN

Right Online 2011 in Minneapolis-St. Paul was the site of the first screening of filmmaker Stephen Bannon’s much anticipated new documentary on the life and career of Sarah Palin, The Undefeated. Bannon had warned the assembled attendees that we would be seeing what he styled as “the R-rated cut.” The pre-screening buzz indicated that this phrasing was in reference to the opening montage of the film where, presumably, a bit of rough language was in store. As promised, the initial three-minute sequence lived up to its billing.

It is difficult to dispute the premise that Sarah Palin is quite possibly the most viciously hated female, not only in the conservative movement, but in the United States. An assorted motley string of D-list Hollywood types/media complex sorts, from Rosie O’Donnell to Sharon Osbourne to Bill Maher, are captured on video, subjecting Palin to the most vile epithets imaginable…replete with the crudest of sexual references. We’re introduced to the “Kill Sarah Palin” Facebook group. (It seems to no longer exist. But this is still out there.) A new T-shirt makes its debut, emblazoned with the legend “Sarah Palin is a C@%T.”

On and on the bilious saga roils. One is forced to ponder the demonstrable truth that this represents a mere few moments in an endless sea of wretched acrimony. All directed at one attractive, slender, 5’5” wife and mother of four five…who also happens to be a former Mayor of Wasilla, Governor of Alaska and Vice Presidential candidate.

We observe how Palin’s formative years in a middle-class, values-oriented family in an almost frontier-like Alaska town contributed to the convictions she embraces today. We see the indelible impression the devastation of the Exxon Valdez oil spill imprinted on a young Sarah’s perspective and how the aftermath subconsciously propelled her to public service.

(more…)

Sarah Palin IS The Undefeated.

 By the time you finish watching this superbly scripted and produced two-hour documentary about the former Alaskan Governor, if you don’t come to that conclusion, you were either asleep during the film or you still  believe that “Community Organizer” trumps true executive experience and success as qualification to serve as America’s Commander-In-Chief.

Dim the house lights…

It is 2008 and Republican Presidential candidate John McCain introduces Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate to a crowd of thousands of enthusiastic supporters.  The beautiful, poised, confident Governor takes the stage at the Republican National Convention to thunderous applause and delivers an electrifying speech with a level of charisma, wit, and passion not seen since Ronald Reagan, that catapulted this relatively unknown Alaskan Governor onto the National political stage making her almost instantly and simultaneously one of the most revered and one of the most reviled politicians in recent memory.

In stark contrast, the film then cuts over to a dramatic 3-minute montage of pure, unadulterated hatred from the left for this VP candidate which history will record as one of the most vicious campaigns to annihilate a public figure.  It was vulgar.  It was brutal.  It was violent.  It was main stream.  It was textbook Alinsky.  And yet, she is still standing…undefeated.

(more…)

When Arnold Schwarzenegger burst onto the political scene a couple of decades ago, he was a Republican pol’s dream: an icon of mostly liberal Hollywood willing to admit he had conservative convictions. But in the ensuing years, Schwarzenegger trampled on many of those dreams, staking out positions in elective office on immigration, cap-and-trade, and law and order that flew in the face of conservative ideology.

YouTube

—–

And his post-gubernatorial admission of a secret affair with his housekeeper — that resulted in a love child he hid from his wife, Maria Shriver, and their children — all but shatters the family values image he tried to sustain.

The question now on most minds: Can the Terminator find a strategy to return to prominence and utter his most famous acting line, ‘I’ll be back’, once again?

I caught up with one of Hollywood’s most powerful and prominent PR players, Michael Levine, to ask that very question. He thinks the Terminator is, well, terminated.

Levine’s firm has represented a Who’s Who of American culture — from Michael Jordan and Michael Jackson to Joe Lieberman, John McCain and Bill Clinton. In short, America’s rich and powerful turn to him for advice when in crisis.

(more…)

So now that Arnold Schwarzenegger is no longer governor, I’d love to see him back on the big screen taking down bad guys.

In fact, I even have a script for him. The working title is “HARD VENGEANCE.” But I’m also toying with “BRUTAL JUSTICE,” “JUSTIFIED VENGEANCE,” VENGEFUL JUSTICE,” And my fave, “HARD VENGEFUL JUSTICE, INC.”

But I also like “THE LAST STRAW.”

But I think people might think it’s about hay.

Here’s the story: Arnold’s character is a hardworking joe (named Fred), whose son is in college having the time of this life. During a party at a frat house, Fred’s son gets into a fight with gang members, who stab Fred’s son to death.

The thugs are captured. To Fred’s dismay, a plea bargain is made to prevent his son’s killers from getting life – after the thugs taunt his family with accusations of guilt, and blaming their actions, mockingly, on gangsta rap.

But Fred gets on with his life.

Then, everything changes.

Yes, it turns out one of the killers had connections. His father was friends with the governor, a well-known celeb. In the final days of his term, the unthinkable happens: the governor commutes the killer’s sentence.

Fred is devastated. His family, distraught.

What does he do? Well in the spirit of all great Arnold flicks like Raw Deal, Commando and Junior, he takes matters into his own hands. (more…)

John Mellencamp might be a famous left-winger (and a helluva songwriter), but at least he’s no elitist. After all, there are some on our side who can’t bring themselves to be this gracious when discussing the former Governor of Alaska…

The legendary rocker says that while he doesn’t support [Sarah Palin's] positions, he is impressed by the mark she’s made on she country since the 2008 election.

Mellencamp says people get the wrong idea about her intellect “just because she says things and winks.”

He says she “knows exactly what’s she doing” and “she wouldn’t be where she is today if she didn’t.”

Mellencamp gives Palin credit for handling the rough world of politics. He says “she’s pushing the right buttons” and “you can’t be stupid and do that.”

Dear Celebrity Culture: Vote for whoever you want, advocate for whatever you want, and if you can remain gracious while doing so and not insult who we are and what we believe in, we can still love you. 

And on that conciliatory note,  we leave you with one of the greatest pop songs this side of Francis Albert: (more…)

The other day I was asked if I thought I would ever come face to face with writer’s block.  I had to laugh.  Inasmuch as I generally write about things that annoy, frustrate or just plain drive me nuts, running out of material or losing the impulse to complain in print are among the very least of my worries. 

When you factor in that Barack Obama is my president, Joe Biden is my vice-president, Nancy Pelosi is next in line, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer are my senators, Brad Sherman is my congressman, Antonio Villaraigosa is my mayor and Jerry Brown is lurking in the wings to be my governor, do you really think I’ll be turning my pen into a plowshare anytime soon?    

But at least now you might have a better handle on why I look back so fondly on what I have come to regard as the good old days when an American’s major complaint was that he had taxation without representation. 

On top of everything else, I live in Los Angeles and have spent most of my adult life laboring in Hollywood, a place that some people regard as less an actual location than a state of mind.  I agree it is a state of mind in the same sense that paranoia and schizophrenia are states of mind.  (more…)

Mark Twain’s famous quote, “Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel,” resonates loudly in my mind as I finish Sarah Palin’s captivating story, Going Rogue.

But Palin ain’t buying it by the barrel, she’s got a whole pipeline of pure grade indigo flowing from the North Slope as she pumps up the volume on her NY Times #1 bestselling memoir.

When I got about halfway through the book I set it down, stepped outside of my Washington, DC townhouse and went for a run around the U.S. Capitol. Listening to the Outlaws, Marshall Tucker Band, and Lil Bow Wow (my daughter slipped that one in there) on my iPod, the recurrent thought in my mind was that this woman is far more qualified to be president of the United States than the current occupant of the White House. (more…)

On August 29th, 2008, I woke up and, like almost every other American, was stunned by the news that Sarah Palin had been chosen as John McCain’s running mate. It was not that I had never heard of her or didn’t want her to be the pick (I had publicly called for her consideration numerous times), but because it was so clearly a very bold and risky maneuver and a true surprise in an era when we seemingly know everything well before it happens.

Moments after I heard the news I did a radio interview and predicted that the news media would destroy her in their transparent quest to pave the way for Barack Obama’s historic election. I had no idea just how right that “blink” calculation would be and I certainly never would have guessed that I would become a small part of that story by dedicating my life and fortune to documenting just how unbelievably bad it would get.

The last twelve months of Sarah Palin’s life truly bring new meaning to the phrase “what a difference a year makes.” I strongly believe that no public figure in modern America has ever endured more stress, pressure and unfair scrutiny in a more dignified fashion than she has over the past year (though what George W. Bush tolerated over the last three years of his presidency probably comes in a close second).

On August 28th of last year Sarah Palin was a largely unknown governor considered to be a rising star largely because of her willingness to take on Republicans in a way that had endeared her to Democrats. Today she is an ex-governor wrongly perceived by most of the country and virtually all of the news media as an erratic, unqualified, lightweight and ultra-partisan Republican who can’t even mange her own family.  (more…)

It has been amusing to watch the speculation of the Alaska Governor’s motivations and future aspirations after announcing her resignation last Friday. Senate bid? “No, Alaskans would never forgive her for leaving them” said the Sunday shows. Presidential bid? “Not possible now,” say the smartest strategists and campaigners. Host a talk show? Sell books? Go on the lecture circuit? All possible, though not all probable. But the one thing most of the pundits on both the left and the right in Washington D.C. have declared certain – Palin’s political career is D.O.A.

Not so fast, my friends. Since we’re all engaged in wild speculation, allow the reading of one more set of tea leaves, if you please.
 
You can roll your eyes and tease Palin’s supposed lightweight intellectual status. You can bury your head in shame when Charlie Gibson peers down his nose through his reading glasses and stumps her with international policy questions. You may say she had no business on the national stage from the get-go last fall when John McCain announced her as his vice presidential pick. But what you cannot ignore, nor take from her is what she is about to seize on in a big way. (more…)

To the delight of California’s illegal aliens, socialists, unqualified minority job-seekers and militant bicyclers who blow up Hummer dealerships in the name of suffering polar bears, smarmy San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced on Tuesday he is running for governor in 2010.  Newsom chose San Francisco-based Twitter─the de facto, mandatory communication tool for hip celebs and gossipy high school girls─to officially reveal his plans.  Indeed, inexperienced, over-packaged, provincial narcissists with radical agendas, cocaine issues, elitism fetishes, an undeserved sense of entitlement and contempt for the American way of life aren’t just for the White House anymore.  California has found change it can believe in. 

At a time when reckless, lightweight, non-achieving ideologues are all the rage in American politics; when nary a meaningful accomplishment is needed to move up the political ladder; when substance takes a backseat to teleprompters and pedestrian, car salesman charms; Newsom is trying to parlay his overly-bleached smile, expensive suits and camera-ready prop wife (not pictured below) into the most visible governorship in the United States.   (more…)