Ian McKellen: Secret Gay Life Like Being a Jew in Hitler’s Europe

Sir Ian:

“It was illegal for me to do (things) as a private person. Outside London, where I lived, there was no gay pub or bar you could go to. And even if you found one, it was, ‘Knock three times and ask for Louis’. It was horrible living this secret life. You could feel a little bit what it was like to be a Jew in central Europe during a certain period. It was horrible.”

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Tags: europe, Gay, gay life, Hitler, Ian McKellen
Posted Oct 30th 2009 at 8:11 am in Celebrity News, Politics | 255486157 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bighollywood/2009/10/30/ian-mckellen-secret-gay-life-like-being-a-jew-in-hitlers-europe/Ian+McKellen%3A+Secret+Gay+Life+Like+Being+a+Jew+in+Hitler%27s+Europe2009-10-30+15%3A11%3A27Big+Hollywood

The War on Propaganda

“The essence of propaganda consists in winning people over to an idea so sincerely, so vitally, that in the end they succumb to it utterly and can never escape from it.” Joseph Goebbels

There is no shame in artists receiving monetary compensation to sell ideas, products or a presidential agenda. When everything is transparent and contracted aboveboard, this is called advertising. When this process is whispered into being, strategized and set into motion from the shadows of government and from behind closed doors, it is propaganda.

From Sun Tzu to Psy Ops, propaganda has won wars, toppled cultures and changed civilizations. As a self-identified enlightened and educated culture, we  thought ourselves beyond such base manipulation. We were wrong.

Where were the voices of dissent on the NEA conference call when so called “artists” were asked to further the President’s agenda?

I have danced ballets and I have done commercials; one side art, the other side business. What side were the NEA recipients on? (more…)

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Tags: 9/12 DC rally, Constitution Revolution, Goebbels, hate speech, Hitler
Posted Oct 5th 2009 at 6:46 am in Entertainment, Politics | 23500294 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cburgard/2009/10/05/the-war-on-propaganda/The+War+on+Propaganda+2009-10-05+13%3A46%3A35Chris+Burgard

Are You Artists or Propagandists?

Count me as one of the proud, independent and struggling painters who will not be a shill for the current administration. Let me make it clear — the NEA and artists who take orders from Obama’s henchmen are nothing more than shills for one of the most corrupt administrations this great nation has ever seen. It’s one thing when artists make political art out of personal conviction, however misguided or ignorant we may be, but to be put into the service of the White House propaganda machine in return for grants and/or other considerations at the expense of already over-taxed Americans is despicable and dangerous.

When did artists in this country decide it was a good idea to take marching orders from the government? Did I just wake up in some third-world country from a long sleep or am I having a nightmare where I go back in time to Mao’s China, Stalin’s Russian or Hitler’s Germany? No such luck — this is actually happening here and now and some of you artists are too stupid to figure out you’re being had. Wake the $%@# up! Always question the powers that be! The only “change” that has taken place are the faces in high places. Politicians have an agenda-first, last and always — but make no mistake — these guys are worse, much worse! (more…)

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Tags: artists, freedoms, Hitler, Jon Voight, Leftist propaganda
Posted Sep 23rd 2009 at 11:12 am in Art, Featured Story, Politics | 23108260 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/aalvillar/2009/09/23/are-you-artists-or-propagandists/Are+You+Artists+or+Propagandists%3F2009-09-23+18%3A12%3A31Alvaro+Alvillar

Hitler Learns the ‘Avatar’ Trailer Sucks (NSFW)

Highlights: (more…)

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Tags: "Downfall", 3D, avatar, Cameron, Hitler
Posted Aug 27th 2009 at 8:46 am in Entertainment, News, Video | 21241852 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bighollywood/2009/08/27/hitler-learns-the-avatar-trailer-sucks-nsfw/Hitler+Learns+the+%27Avatar%27+Trailer+Sucks+%28NSFW%292009-08-27+15%3A46%3A09Big+Hollywood

Daily Gut: Plants

So you remember Barbara Boxer’s attack on the townhall protesters, calling them disruptive “plants,” because they were too well dressed to be protesters.

She had a point: they were well dressed. And most protesters of the lefty persuasion are not–a marker of people who lack real professions allowing them to purchase clean clothes. Boxer believed that these outspoken, button-downed folks were all part of a right-wing plot meant to stir up anxiety, fear, and perhaps soup. And of course, yesterday, President Obama kept the joke alive  his own town hall meeting, saying he didn’t “want people thinking I just have a bunch of plants in here.”

How funny is it then, that when it comes to plants, the leftwing response is beginning to look like a spread in “House and Garden.” Michelle Malkin points out that the little girl that asked that key question about those old people “saying mean things” is actually the daughter of a major Obama campaigner, supporter and donor. (more…)

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Tags: Barbara Boxer, Hitler, John Dingell, KKK, michelle malkin
Posted Aug 12th 2009 at 12:59 pm in Daily Gut, News, Politics | 204290137 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ggutfeld/2009/08/12/daily-gut-plants/Daily+Gut%3A+Plants2009-08-12+19%3A59%3A20Greg+Gutfeld

Story and the Power of Conservative Themes in Film

Boy, did I ever kick a hornet’s nest with my tongue-in-cheek Archie Bunker-on-steroids BH post, “My Secret Life as a Conservative Republican.” Lefties called it Reaffirmation With Senator Smalley, which I expected. But Righties nearly wet their pants in fear, which I did not expect in the least. Where’s the pioneering spirit, self-confidence and gutter-level humor that founded this country?

People, this is OUR Fortress Hollywood! This is OUR sanctuary! Since when the hell do we care about what demagogues like Keith Olbermann think or say? Or any other mental tinfoil hat Lefties like Garofalo for that matter? It’s like Churchill worrying about Hitler calling him a fat cigar-chomping drunk! Who won that fight, and why? And who was in the right, despite all the insipid name-calling?

Time to grow a pair, people. It’s also time to raise the stakes. Now, I’ve heard from some contributors here at BH that it is really bad in Hollywood in places. That people might even lose their jobs if they spoke up like I do here. If true, that’s McCarthyism at its worst. Fortunately, that’s not my experience. I still have great relationships with people in the biz who could care less about politics. All they care about is finding great scripts or literary works to adapt, and telling great stories on film.

And that is where the battle really needs to be fought: on their playing ground. An insurgency of ideas, if you will. Example. Just under the Big Hollywood sign today, I saw the banner “TNT’s ‘The Closer’ Thrives on Strong Moral Foundation.” That PJM-linked article describes how The Closer, a show that portrays the border, the illegals situation, and even the cops themselves in very gritty and realistic fashion, is the top-rated scripted show on ad-supported cable since its inception. (more…)

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Tags: Academy, Afghanistan, al qaeda, American Gangster, AMPAS
Posted Jul 21st 2009 at 10:22 am in Classic Hollywood, Film, Politics, Religion | 184986103 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jtsimpson/2009/07/21/taking-the-fight-to-the-left/Story+and+the+Power+of+Conservative+Themes+in+Film2009-07-21+17%3A22%3A45John+T.+Simpson

The Left Has Spoken: Today, We Are All Extremists

The leader of genius must have the ability to make different opponents appear as if they belong to one category.” – Adolf Hitler.

“At this point, whatever dividing line there was between mainstream conservatism and the black-helicopter crowd seems to have been virtually erased.” – NY Times columnist Paul Krugman.

Paul Krugman

Really sucks to be a conservative these days. I feel like I’m walking around with a big bulls-eye on my back. I know many of the Left, especially Keith Olbermann, Frank Rich, Paul Krugman, the New York Times editorial staff and all the pundits at HuffPo and KOS would find that statement hilariously ironic, given the recent shooting deaths of Dr. George Tiller in Kansas and security guard Steven T. Johns at the Holocaust Museum. Then again, they’re not the ones being branded en masse as co-conspirators in those murders. Conservatives are. (more…)

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Tags: Air America, assassination chic, Axelrod, Bill O'Reilly, Cynthia Dixon
Posted Jun 16th 2009 at 3:31 pm in Politics | 1587586 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jtsimpson/2009/06/16/today-we-are-all-extremists/The+Left+Has+Spoken%3A+Today%2C+We+Are+All+Extremists2009-06-16+22%3A31%3A36John+T.+Simpson

What’s President Obama’s Script For Iran?

You know, people, I really wish I knew what the story was regarding President Obama’s puzzling diplomatic approach to Islamist Iran. Inquiring Minds Want To Know. This ain’t no movie, and I really don’t like the storyline to date. Haven’t since 1979. So what’s the script? White House Productions seems to be holding the storyline in blackout mode, and at this point I’m ready to put former FOX reporter Roger Friedman on the job of rooting it out. He sure did a bang-up job on “Wolverine.”

To be fair, I actually gave the President credit in this March 26th opinion piece entitled “Is President Obama Turning The Tables on Iran?” See, it occurred to me that the President might be undertaking a very brilliant strategy toward the Islamic Republic. If the President offers the Iranian regime nothing but carrots and gets nothing but sticks in return, then the regime is exposed as the hard case it really is. Nobody could say the President hadn’t tried every means at his disposal to make peace. (more…)

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Tags: al qaeda, Ali Khamenei, AMPAS, anti-gay pogrom, Argentina
Posted Jun 8th 2009 at 8:15 am in News, Politics | 1515784 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jtsimpson/2009/06/08/whats-president-obamas-script-for-iran/What%27s+President+Obama%27s+Script+For+Iran%3F2009-06-08+15%3A15%3A14John+T.+Simpson

Into the Gathering Storm

If you’re a history buff and you’ve got HBO, then have I got a movie for you: Into the Storm. (And if you’re cable-less, add it to your NetFlix queue.) Yes, it’s made-for-HBO, but it’s from the John Adams/Band of Brothers wing, not the Recount/Angels in America department.

It’s a sequel of sorts to The Gathering Storm, known informally around my home as the Greatest Churchill Movie Ever Made. And in answer to the first question on your mind right now, no, the new HBO/BBC co-production is not quite as good as Gathering Storm. (But then, we just have to resign ourselves to the fact that nothing ever will be.)

Partly it’s Albert Finney’s fault. They say nobody’s perfect, but they haven’t seen Finney play Winston Churchill. (He most deservedly won both an Emmy and a BAFTA.) You’ve heard the phrase “tears of joy”? A largely alien experience to me, a pretty stoic, manly guy. Alien to me no more, my friends, once I watched Gathering Storm for the first time.

I regret to report that Brendan Gleeson, who essays the role in the sequel, gives it a yeoman’s try, but can’t quite measure up. There are simply more and richer layers to Finney’s performance, perhaps due to nothing no less unfair than a longer and more experienced life, even (dare I say it, oh what the hell) more talent. Janet McTeer, who plays wife Clemmie in the new movie, fares better, nearly matching Vanessa Redgrave’s marvelous performance in Gathering Storm. (Why, they even look alike.) (more…)

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Tags: Albert Finney, brendan gleeson, Churchill, Film, hbo
Posted Jun 4th 2009 at 8:14 am in Military, Reviews | 150698One Commenthttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/aleigh/2009/06/04/into-the-gathering-storm/Into+the+Gathering+Storm2009-06-04+15%3A14%3A07Andrew+Leigh

On the Record, Off the QT and Not Very Hush-Hush

Dear Big Hollywood readers, it gives me great satisfaction to report to you that BH has been out on point not only on compelling film industry issues, which will never be covered in promo rags like Variety and the Hollywood Reporter (but then again, AMPAS and the studios aren’t buying us off), but on many controversial issues being played out in America and the greater world at large as well.

I know this to be true. Being a news junkie myself, I have found time after time as I was reading about a supposedly breaking subject, like ABC’s recent coverage of the targeted LGBT murders in Iraq, that it had already been on display for all to see in Big Hollywood posts for months.

Not to toot my own horn, but…well, okay, I’m tooting my own horn. And those of Andy Breitbart and John Nolte, who have given I, and so many other wonderful and insightful Hollywood right-wing fringe types, a magnificent bullhorn we otherwise would not have. We appear to be doing the dirty jobs our media just refuses to do. It’s a labor Hercules would completely sympathize with. (more…)

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Tags: abc, Academy of Motion Picture arts and Sciences, Adrianne Curry, Ali al-Sistani, AMPAS
Posted Jun 3rd 2009 at 5:20 pm in Entertainment, Politics | 1476823 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jtsimpson/2009/06/03/on-the-record-off-the-qt-and-not-very-hush-hush/On+the+Record%2C+Off+the+QT+and+Not+Very+Hush-Hush2009-06-04+00%3A20%3A57John+T.+Simpson

One Critic’s Review of ‘Roxana: A True Story’

Now that ‘Roxana: A True Story’ has come to a most satisfying and happy conclusion for Roxana Saberi, her parents, myself and millions of others around the globe (a conclusion not always assured, and which looked very grim in some scenes), it is now time for Your Most Humble and Obedient Critic to give you the full skinny on ‘Roxana: A True Story.’

Or, by its Hollywood acronym, RATS. Funny. I actually found that startling contraction fitting, not for Roxana (not hardly), but for all of the major black hats and clueless morons who populated this nerve-wracking Thugocracy Studios production, which had civilized people everywhere both riveted and outraged in its most grueling and suspenseful moments.

Not to mention for Roxana and her parents. But before we get to heroes and villains, let us look at the story to date with all its dramatic twists and underpinnings, many with significant international implications. Just like a good Hitchcock drama should. And I caught ‘em all!

By pure happenstance, Your Most Humble Critic and Boy Reporter was already hot on the job covering Iran (unlike some people) and hammering AMPAS for their tea and finger-cookie soirees with these guys, when I saw what Iran was pulling with Roxana and called it for what it was: a hostage crisis. And on the same day HRW called it the same in a press release on March 13th, which I didn’t find out until the 19th thanks to our on-the-ball Vein Stream Media. (more…)

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Tags: -1, abc, Academy of Motion Picture arts and Sciences, Ahmadinejad, al qaeda
Posted May 13th 2009 at 8:13 am in Entertainment, Politics | 132142One Commenthttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jtsimpson/2009/05/13/one-critics-review-of-roxana-a-true-story/One+Critic%27s+Review+of+%27Roxana%3A+A+True+Story%272009-05-13+15%3A13%3A00John+T.+Simpson

What if President Obama Were a Republican?

In my Big Hollywood post of April 27th, I decried the media’s acting as a cheerleading fourth branch of government, in which the MSM has not only assumed a Dear Leader-like reverence and awe for our new president, but attacks any and all critics with slander, ridicule, and even intimidation, and discounts any real concerns by the public as right wing extremist rabble-rousing and racism.

Given my love of true reporting and Woodward and Bernstein-like investigative journalism, which is really nowhere to be found in this Messianic Media Age of Obama, it was a very depressing piece to write. But after the recent flyover of New York City by Air Force One and F-16 fighter jets, which sent half of the Big Apple fleeing for their lives, it occurred to me.

How would the Left report the news if Obama were a Republican, i.e. an Uncle Tom, as many on the Left call now-GOP Chairman Michael Steele? Eureka! That’s it! See, it’s one thing for me to point out the obvious, as I did in my media slam yesterday. But what if we walked GOP President Obama’s media coverage through the mirror darkly, as was SOP for President Bush?

NOW we’re gonna have some fun! (more…)

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Tags: abc, Air America, Al Franken, assassination, bush
Posted Apr 29th 2009 at 4:07 pm in Celebrity News, Politics | 11890614 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jtsimpson/2009/04/29/what-if-president-obama-were-a-republican/What+if+President+Obama+Were+a+Republican%3F2009-04-29+23%3A07%3A47John+T.+Simpson

Hollywood Diplomacy All Around

If you think this is another hit piece on Team Oscar’s abortive soiree to Islamist Iran, I only wish it were just that bad. It’s actually worse. Much worse. It seems the rest of the civilized world, particularly America under the Obamamessiah, are adopting exactly the same failed principles of diplomacy as Team Oscar in Iran.

In short, the world in general, and the Obama Administration in particular, are overlooking every horrific crime known to man, in order to establish ‘peaceful’ relations with fascist totalitarian regimes that not only actively seek our violent demise, but swear it loudly and publicly to the rafters every day.

I would call it Neville Chamberlain diplomacy, but that would be too generous. Even Sir Neville had seen enough of Hitler and Nazi Germany, after Hitler abrogated the Munich Agreement by invading the rest of Czechoslovakia, to know that the policy of appeasement with Hitler had been an abject failure. It seems today that the civilized world can’t get slapped in the face hard enough by Iran, Sudan and North Korea to realize it’s long past due to slap back. Hard. (more…)

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Tags: ballistic missile, Bashir, bush, Chamberlain, Churchill
Posted Apr 11th 2009 at 5:03 pm in Celebrity News, Media Criticism, Politics | 1016264 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jtsimpson/2009/04/11/hollywood-diplomacy-all-around/Hollywood+Diplomacy+All+Around2009-04-12+00%3A03%3A17John+T.+Simpson

We’ve Heard The Arguments For Stem Cell Research Before

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Tags: and a comment about stem cell research, Hitler, Nazi, Obama, Pajamas TV
Posted Mar 10th 2009 at 7:04 am in Politics, Video | 7675059 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/arachel/2009/03/10/quick-update/We%27ve+Heard+The+Arguments+For+Stem+Cell+Research+Before2009-03-10+14%3A04%3A24Alfonzo+Rachel

One Critic’s Review of ‘Mr. Ganis Goes To Tehran’

If anyone wrote a script like this, no one would believe it.

But I already read the book.

That they even went to Iran in the first place was an abomination, especially given their three-hour gay rights infomercial called The Oscars just five days earlier.

And it only kept getting worse. (more…)

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Tags: Alfre Woodard, Ali Larijani, Alireza Davudnejad, AMPAS, Annette Bening
Posted Mar 9th 2009 at 3:07 pm in Celebrity News, News, Politics | 7465419 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jtsimpson/2009/03/09/an-open-letter-to-hollywood-and-gay-rights-activists-on-iran/One+Critic%27s+Review+of+%27Mr.+Ganis+Goes+To+Tehran%272009-03-09+22%3A07%3A51John+T.+Simpson

A 12-Step Liberal Recovery Program

Most 12-step programs start out by requiring that people understand that they’re powerless over their addiction and that only by turning their lives over to a Power greater than themselves can they be restored to sanity.  Far be it for me to suggest that I am that Power, but clearly someone has to step in and try to rescue these poor liberal souls.  Even the most harebrained among them deserves that much.

First, though, they have to acknowledge that Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, John Murtha, Dick Durbin, Charles Rangel, Harry Reid and Charles Schumer, are not moderates, but, rather, leftists with a Socialist agenda.  Furthermore, they must recognize that the New York Times, the Washington Post, the L.A. Times, CNN, the three major networks, the news magazines and the New Yorker, are not objective in their reporting of political events, and neither are Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann and Bill Maher, in their commentary.  If these entities and individuals are not on the payroll of the DNC, they certainly should be.  They certainly put in longer hours than Howard Dean. (more…)

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Tags: "under God", 10 Commandments, 12-step programs, abc, ACLU
Posted Mar 6th 2009 at 2:42 pm in Media Criticism, Political Humor, Politics | 7413869 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bprelutsky/2009/03/06/a-12-step-liberal-recovery-program/A+12-Step+Liberal+Recovery+Program2009-03-06+22%3A42%3A04Burt+Prelutsky