Big Hollywood

Part 2: Interview — ‘The Stoning of Soraya M.’s’ Cyrus Nowrasteh

by Christian Toto

Note: Part 1 of this 2 part interview can be found here.

The execution scene at the heart of “The Stoning of Soraya M.“ is all force and little subtlety. Some audiences might flinch at the visuals, while others may draw parallels to the violence at the core of “The Passion of the Christ.”

But director/co-screenwriter Cyrus Nowrasteh says a version of the film featuring a shortened stoning sequence didn’t test as well as the full-length movie.

“This movie is a ticking clock to an execution. That execution is a primitive rite we’re witnessing, and we need to go through each stage of it,” he says. ”It’s almost a catharsis.”

Not all audiences are ready to take the journey.

He says about five or so people typically leave the theater during test screenings once the execution starts – but roughly half return to watch the film’s finale.

Nowrasteh, who is of Iranian heritage, has been watching the news reports coming out of Iran in recent days as intensely as any viewer.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Bill Clinton, Bob Iger, cyrus nowrasteh, iran, Iranian protests
Posted Jun 26th 2009 at 1:13 pm in Entertainment, News, Religion | 1688462 Comments2009-06-26+20%3A13%3A22Christian+Toto

Daily Gut: Jackson, Iran RIP

by Greg Gutfeld

Michael Jackson is dead.

I get why this is news, and on a very deep level, why it’s important to a lot of people. But I hope soon we all make room for the things that are equally as important. Michael Jackson’s death doesn’t mean we should forget Neda’s.

Millions of Iranians who were risking their lives – hoping that we might act in solidarity- are now temporarily rendered irrelevant and unwatched by the world, because of the coverage of the death of a superstar. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: iran, Mahmoud, media coverage, Michael Jackson, Neda
Posted Jun 26th 2009 at 11:44 am in Daily Gut | 1716382 CommentsDaily+Gut%3A+Jackson%2C+Iran+RIP2009-06-26+18%3A44%3A23Greg+Gutfeld

News That Matters: Iran, North Korea, Perez Hilton?

by Steven Crowder

I consider myself to be a man with my priorities in order. That’s why I’m so satisfied with the mainstream media’s ability to cover all of the right affairs. Let’s face it, Iran will always be a quagmire. Let’s put them on the backburner and “bear witness.” North Korea? … Eh. Perez Hilton getting punched in the face by the black guy from The Black-Eyed Peas? There’s your cover story right there.

Note: No gratingly bitchy men were actually harmed during the making of this video.

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: bill whittle, iran, North Korea, Perez Hilton
Posted Jun 26th 2009 at 9:57 am in Political Humor, Video | 1714342 Comments2009-06-26+16%3A57%3A46Steven+Crowder

‘The Stoning of Soraya M.’ – A Powerful, Must-See Film

by Pam Meister

As the world watches and waits for the political uprising in Iran to either succeed in toppling the brutal Khomeinist regime or be crushed by it, a movie by the name of The Stoning of Soraya M. opens in limited release today. Far from being your typical summer fun film fare, Soraya depicts the ugliest, most brutal side of human nature and one woman’s crusade to keep it from being swept under the rug.

Directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh (The Path to 9/11) and written by Nowrasteh and his wife Besy Giffen-Nowrasteh, Soraya is based on the 1995 non-fiction book of the same name by Freidoune Sahebjam. Soraya takes place after the Islamic revolution in Iran and centers around Soraya (played by Mozhan Marnò), a woman whose husband, Ali (played by Navid Negahban), has tired of her after 20 years of marriage and wishes to discard her for a younger woman. Actually, “younger” is an understatement, as Ali lusts after a 14-year-old girl. Soraya knows about Ali’s plans, but won’t agree to a divorce because she knows she will be unable to provide for her two young daughters (the two sons will stay with Ali, of course). Ali must then come up with another scheme for getting rid of his uncooperative wife, and he uses guile, cunning and good old-fashioned blackmail to get the key players in place for what is passed off as a religious cleansing rite. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Ali Pourtash, Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh, cyrus nowrasteh, David Diaan, Freidoune Sahebjam
Posted Jun 26th 2009 at 5:03 am in Featured Story, Religion, Reviews | 1681306 Comments2009-06-26+12%3A03%3A22Pam+Meister

Former Team Oscar Member Arrested, Freed In Iran

by John T. Simpson

I know I had said my last BH piece would be it. But I came across a tidbit of slightly older news in the June 19th issue of Daily Variety that perhaps finally brings into total focus and stark clarity all I had said in my Big Hollywood op-ed The Stoning Of Team Hollywood, regarding Team Oscar’s ill-advised soiree to Iran this past March. The fascist alligator has finally bitten one of their own.

It is a tale well worth returning to share with you, Dear Readers.

Documentarian James Longley, perhaps best known for his award-winning film Iraq in Fragments, was already filming in Iran in late February when Team Hollywood arrived. According to this March 2nd press release by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences website, Mr. Longley became part of the Team Hollywood crew in Tehran and participated in all activities. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Academy of Motion Picture arts and Sciences, Ahamdinejad, iran, Iraq In Fragments, James Longley
Posted Jun 24th 2009 at 10:03 am in Celebrity News, News, Politics | 1661025 Comments2009-06-24+17%3A03%3A44John+T.+Simpson

The Whitewashing of Soraya M.

by Mark Tapson

While Iranian-American protesters packed streetcorners in Westwood last Saturday afternoon in support of the revolution currently playing out in the streets of Tehran, an historical drama about stoning in Iran got underway at the Los Angeles Film Festival mere blocks away.

For the few who don’t know by now, The Stoning of Soraya M. is based on French-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam’s bestselling book, which relates the true story of a woman in a remote Iranian village, in the years after the 1979 Khomeini revolution, who is falsely accused of adultery and stoned to death by a mob desperate to cleanse themselves of this affront to their collective honor and to their religion. It’s not only a gripping story in its own right, but it shines a harsh spotlight on the almost unimaginable reality that the barbaric punishment of stoning still exists in the Iranian law code, despite a largely nominal 2002 moratorium, the result of pressure from Western human rights groups.

(Full disclosure, even though I’m not reviewing the film here: I’m close friends with the filmmakers Cyrus and Betsy Nowrasteh, I provided Mpower Pictures with a bit of research on the project, I’m friends with other cast and crew and producers associated with the film, and I think stoning is bad. So don’t take my word for it when I say Soraya will be the most important, affecting film you’ll see all year. Instead seek out the multitude of reviewers who recommend the film, including Big Hollywood’s John Nolte and then see it for yourself.)

Following Saturday’s screening was a panel discussion, not so much moderated as simply hosted by Iranian novelist Khaled Hosseini, author of the bestselling The Kite Runner, who personally selected the film for the L.A. Film Festival. The panel also included Soraya’s writer-director Cyrus Nowrasteh, starring actress Shohreh Aghdashloo, and Dr. Reza Aslan, billed as an Islamic scholar. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: cyrus nowrasteh, Freidoune Sehabjam, iran, Reza Aslan, Shohreh Aghdashloo
Posted Jun 24th 2009 at 5:03 am in Entertainment, Featured Story, Politics, Religion | 1674903 CommentsThe+Whitewashing+of+Soraya+M.2009-06-24+12%3A03%3A56Mark+Tapson

Her Name Was Neda: A Generational Chance for Freedom

by Rep. Thaddeus G. McCotter (R-MI)

Her name was Neda. In Farsi, it means “the voice.” True to her name, she loved music; sought freedom; and she’s dead – shot down in the streets by the Iranian regime’s state sanctioned murderers. She must not have died in vain.

Today, Iranians and Americans face a generational chance for freedom – one that ensures a rogue regime’s implosion prevents a nuclear confrontation.

Regrettably, our president’s “post-American” foreign policy presumes talk can thaw the murderous mullahs’ hearts and attain a “grand bargain” for peace in our time; consequently, while Iranians demanded their freedom from a barbarous regime, the president vapidly opined: “It is up to Iranians to make decisions about who Iran’s leaders will be… We respect Iranian sovereignty.” (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Carter, Freedom, iran, liberty, Neda
Posted Jun 23rd 2009 at 6:39 pm in Military, News, Politics | 16780613 Comments2009-06-24+01%3A39%3A23Rep.+Thaddeus+G.+McCotter+%28R-MI%29

Iran Is Not Film School

by Scott Graves

Okay Class, stop sniffing your Sharpies in a futile attempt to reach a state of intoxication and try to take notes using that writing instrument and what brain cells you have left. Remember, if you can, that information you believe to be useless is, indeed, of no value whatsoever if you are unable to apply it in real-life situations, or at the very least for pc gaming “cheats.” Otherwise your very existence is no better than a work of fiction and bears no resemblance to any human being, past or present, living or dead. (Or in your cases, “living dead” or zombie, if you prefer, or the more inclusive term “differently animated.”)

Aristotle, in Poetics, slops the pearl that “art” is a “representation of reality.” By this definition, presentations of the creative sort contain something, if only a je ne sais quois, that can be recognized as a reflection of the human condition and the historical present. Reach back in time to The Epic of Gilgamesh, and out of the cuneiform pressed in clay comes the tale of a king’s hubris, lust for immortality, and ultimate understanding of his place in the world. Fast forward and select at random. “The Counsels of the Bird” by Rumi, Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, Eliot’s “Quartets,” “The Short Happy Life Of Francis MacComber” by Hemingway. Consider Andy Warhol’s body of work as a commentary on the superficiality of modern culture; look at the content of films, popular songs and television programs, comic strips and “illustrated novels,” with their wide diversity of theme and thought. All these arts, of varying degrees of cultural significance, may be seen to generally adhere to Aristotle’s commentary. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Art, Film, iran, journalism, media
Posted Jun 23rd 2009 at 5:41 pm in Entertainment, News | 1425262 CommentsIran+Is+Not+Film+School2009-06-24+00%3A41%3A20Scott+Graves

Daily Gut: The Bystander in Chief

by Greg Gutfeld

“We don’t know how this thing is going to play out.”

Somehow, that statement doesn’t blow your mind like “hope and change,” but that’s exactly how Obama feels about Iran.

“We don’t know how this thing is going to play out.”

Which, as you know, is a stance that has never stopped our President from immediately re-imagining health care, trying to end enhanced interrogations, or reducing carbon dioxide emissions via something ridiculous called cap and trade legislation. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Cap and Trade, carbon dioxide emissions, enhanced interrogations, hope and change, iran
Posted Jun 23rd 2009 at 1:54 pm in Daily Gut, News, Political Humor, Politics | 1673428 CommentsDaily+Gut%3A+The+Bystander+in+Chief+2009-06-23+20%3A54%3A23Greg+Gutfeld

Crossroads in Middle East as Obama Stays Silent

by Frank DeMartini

I am on vacation in South East Asia visiting friends and touring some areas that I am quite familiar with and some not so much. I have not had much access to news or the internet until the last two days. However, from what I have heard recently, there are definitely a few things that need to be addressed.

A few days ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a speech in we he agreed for the first time to the possibility of a two state solution. To many countries in the world, this is considered a major breakthrough in the Palestinian conflict. For the first time in recent memory, Israel is ready to consider giving the Palestinians a homeland. The entire western world applauded the concessions. Of course, the Palestinians did not: they condemned them. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Benjamin Netanyahu, Chamberlain, Chinese, Egypt, Foreign Affairs
Posted Jun 22nd 2009 at 5:11 pm in News, Politics | 166074One Comment2009-06-23+00%3A11%3A04Frank+DeMartini

Tweet This Movie: #TheStoningofSorayaM

by Andrew Breitbart

This week’s Washington Times column:

Last Tuesday as I was driving home from a screening of “The Stoning of Soraya M.,” a profoundly moving and eerily timely drama that comes out Friday, I found myself stuck in a bizarre late-night traffic jam thinking of ways to spread the word about this potentially transformative movie that thrusts its audience into the day’s headlines and draws attention to the plight of those who could potentially topple Iran’s cruel and menacing theocracy.

With an LAPD helicopter hovering above me in the night sky, I called home to ask my wife why our neighborhood was cordoned off, with traffic enforcement redirecting cars around the perimeter of the Los Angeles Federal Building. She couldn’t find anything on TV. When I reached home, I discovered via Twitter that thousands of Iranian-Americans, plentiful in West Los Angeles since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, were demonstrating solidarity with family and friends in Tehran by protesting the rigged Iranian election results and drawing attention to the regime’s long-standing human rights abuses.

The closure of a segment of Wilshire Boulevard, a key east-west artery, spoke to the urgency and magnitude of the situation. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: cyrus nowrasteh, iran, The Stoning of Soraya M., twitter
Posted Jun 21st 2009 at 8:17 pm in Entertainment, Featured Story, News, Politics | 1660222 Comments2009-06-22+03%3A17%3A34Andrew+Breitbart

(I)Ran

by Chris Muir

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: coward, iran, Obama
Posted Jun 21st 2009 at 12:08 pm in Art, Political Humor | 165642One Comment%28I%29Ran2009-06-21+19%3A08%3A33Chris+Muir

Monday’s Gregalogue – Now, Because I’m Pissed

by Greg Gutfeld

Am I an old fart or am I right to be pissed that some jackass is skateboarding down the halls of the White House while all this Iranian shit is going down?

We truly have succumbed to the idiocy of the MTV/Mountain Dew/Road Rules backward hat and baggy short culture. Did I miss something, or is the White House the future set for the next Real World? Where are the wallet chains? Is Hot Topic handling our foreign policy? Obama should be grounded for a week for letting Tony Hawk play in OUR house. Where in hell are the adults?

Look: Tony Hawk is in his mid forties. He’s a grown man…and he skateboards. Could you imagine your dad or anyone who lived during World War II treating a man who skateboards with anything less than scorn and ridicule?

Right now, people are risking their lives for the glimmer of freedom, and Tony Hawk is in the White House tweeting about Frosted Flakes. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: iran, Obama, Reagan, skateboard, Tony Hawk
Posted Jun 20th 2009 at 10:33 pm in Daily Gut, Featured Story | 1657785 Comments2009-06-21+05%3A33%3A03Greg+Gutfeld

Poem for Iran: ‘Tomorrow is Saturday. Tomorrow is a day of destiny.’

by John Nolte

–

No comment is really necessary. Just a reminder of the power of art. Reports say this was recorded last night. The transcript is below: (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Demonstrators, iran, June 19th 2009, Poem, Revolution
Posted Jun 20th 2009 at 7:45 am in Art, Politics, Religion | 1655585 Comments2009-06-20+14%3A45%3A16John+Nolte

The ‘Net’ Generation: Dumbing Down What Matters Most

by Leigh Scott

Because televised news has been rendered obsolete by technology (who needs Christine Amanpour when every citizen has an HD camera, YouTube, and Twitter?), I turned to the Internet to keep up with the events transpiring in Iran. I logged into Twitter and found this massive “Twitter-grid” of people in Iran and people around the world communicating. It went something like this….

#iranstudent:please help.they are attacking the dorms.

#crzygrl:EVERYONE WEAR GREEN TOMORROW TO WORK AND SCHOOL

#iranstudent:my god. where is help? they will kill us.

#Evlhaliburton:this is just like US in 2000.

#iranstudent: please send troops. they shot my friend. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Al Gore, computer, conservative, CurrentTV, internet
Posted Jun 20th 2009 at 7:03 am in Politics | 1634908 Comments2009-06-20+14%3A03%3A09Leigh+Scott

The Stoning Of Team Hollywood

by John T. Simpson

The crime is complete. Judgment has been passed. The killing stones are in hand. As per the harsh stoning penal code of Iran’s Islamist thugocracy (for however long that lasts) where the crime took place, my stones are not so big as to kill right away, not so small you can’t call them stones. And I’m winding up like Nolan Ryan. Feel free to pick up a stone of your own. But wait for it!

And let me make this perfectly clear, even if they do say Jehovah!

Sentence must be read before being carried out. And unlike Soraya M., the board members of the Asylum of Motion Picture Airheads and Stooges will deserve every rock that’s thrown their way. I also believe that, in light of events in Iran today, the following commentary will stand out in much starker prominence than it did when I first started reporting on them in early March, when Team Oscar first set off for the Unfriendly Skies of Islamist Iran. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Academy of Motion Picture arts and Sciences, Ahmadinejad, Al Franken, Alireza Davudnejad, Ambush Bay
Posted Jun 19th 2009 at 5:45 pm in Entertainment, News, Politics | 1641062 CommentsThe+Stoning+Of+Team+Hollywood2009-06-20+00%3A45%3A26John+T.+Simpson

Iran at a Crossroad: Mr. President, Where Are You?

by Chris Burgard

After Friday’s Iranian Presidential election, Mohammad Asgari allegedly released results showing that the Iranian government used new software to rig the results in favor of Ahmadinejad. After a mysterious car accident, Mr. Asgari is now dead.

Mohammad Asgari worked for the Iranian Interior Ministry to protect the security of their IT network. Officially President Ahmadinejad received two thirds of the vote with around 24.5 million votes, while his closest rival, Mir Hassein Mousavi, received over 13 million votes. According to figures leaked by Asgari, President Ahmadinejad came in third.

Hundreds of thousands of Iranians are in the streets demanding liberty. Officially 37 have been killed: shot in the streets and in their dorm rooms. Iranians are standing up to the Mullahs. They are standing up for freedom and they are being killed.

These are not people who were promised a day in the park for a free rock concert, sausages and beer. These are people who are risking everything to go against an evil theocracy. It is no longer simply a matter of candidates, the Mullahs are in real danger of losing their power, and they know it. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: green, iran, Mohammad Asgari, President Ahmadinejad, President Obama
Posted Jun 19th 2009 at 9:22 am in Uncategorized | 164922No Comments2009-06-19+16%3A22%3A11Chris+Burgard

Terrorists and Tyrants Go Straight to Hell

by Gary Graham

At the risk of earning my place in The Masters of the Obvious Hall of Fame… I gotta say it. They’re not ‘freedom fighters’, they’re not ‘brave Jihad warriors’, they’re not ‘overseas contingency operators’…they’re terrorists. And they’re evil. True, they are going to ‘meet their destiny’ but it’s not going to be what they think. There are going to be some very disappointed souls who come to find that everything they believed in, indeed, so strongly that they sacrificed their short, pathetic, deluded lives for…was a total lie. They have an appointment with eternity waiting for them, but there won’t be 72 virgins for them to defile forever. Or even for an hour and a half. Nah, none of that. Ain’t gonna happen. (And as Dennis Miller once said, “Hey, 72 virgins? I can see it for a while, but after seven or eight of them…I’m gonna want to call in a pro.”)

Nope. Not saying I’ve consulted the Creator, but…I have it on good authority that that virgin-in-paradise thingie is just a cheap, bucket-o-baloney BS recruiting tool.

Psych!

So all you would-be jihadist bombers with a hard-on to plant the IED’s that are designed to kill our brave servicemen… hey, find something else to do with your hard-on, Sparky, instead of waiting to use it on those 72 clueless virtual babettes. If you’re that lonely and pathetic and worthless, hop on the ubiquitous 25-hour Internet porn sites, take tool in hand, and work out three minutes of your destiny right there in the privacy of your mud hovel. Keep the explosives at home! Your imagined glory doesn’t give a sh*t about you and you blowing up an American G.I. won’t keep you from an eternity of teeth gnashing and anal herpes, so get your head out of your poo-hole, and go get a real job – like maybe something that helps people instead of kills them. Just a thought. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: 72 Virgins, ACLU, Christianity, extremism, IED
Posted Jun 19th 2009 at 5:03 am in Featured Story, Politics, Religion | 164606No Comments2009-06-19+12%3A03%3A10Gary+Graham

A Limited Recount in Tehran

by Jeffrey Jena

Q. How many young Iranian voters does it take to oust Ahmadinejad?

A. More than they have, apparently!

Remember student council elections in high school? You took it so seriously… As if you just elected the right person you’d get rock music over the PA in the morning and no final exams. When I look at things like the beauty contest election in Iran for President, an office with about the same amount of power as class president, I wonder how afraid the puppeteers on the council of twelve high muckity-mucks must be that they won’t allow someone who they had to approve to run for office actually win.

In a statement the Guardian Council said they might be willing to have a limited recount of some ballot boxes. Remind you of anything? That is exactly what the Al Goristas wanted to do in Florida a few years back. Fortunately for us (you too, Progressives), we let the lawyers handle it while we had a cookout and a few beers and when it was over we traded snide comments rather than bullets in the streets. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: "unauthorized gathering", Ahmadinejad, Al Gore, Elections, Guardian Council
Posted Jun 18th 2009 at 6:04 pm in News, Political Humor | 1644823 CommentsA+Limited+Recount+in+Tehran2009-06-19+01%3A04%3A05Jeffrey+Jena

A Revolution Named Zahra

by Kathleen Parker

There’s a “new” old name suddenly in circulation that is both filled with ancient history and ripe with a revolutionary spirit for today’s game-changing events.

Zahra.

Well known to Muslims, Fatima az-Zahra was one of four daughters of the prophet Muhammad. Today, Zahra is also the name of two important, outspoken women of Iran.

One is Zahra Rahnavard, the courageous and charismatic wife of the allegedly defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. The other is Zahra Khanum, the equally courageous and charismatic woman portrayed in a new movie, “The Stoning of Soraya M.,” about the death of an Iranian woman on trumped-up charges of adultery.

Begging forgiveness for this confederacy of cliches, but we seem to have a perfect storm of tipping points. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: cyrus nowrasteh, Fatima az-Zahra, iran, Iran election, Kathleen Parker
Posted Jun 17th 2009 at 7:20 am in Entertainment, Featured Story, Politics | 1634702 CommentsA+Revolution+Named+Zahra++2009-06-17+14%3A20%3A12Kathleen+Parker

What’s President Obama’s Script For Iran?

by John T. Simpson

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…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: al qaeda, Ali Khamenei, AMPAS, anti-gay pogrom, Argentina
Posted Jun 8th 2009 at 8:15 am in News, Politics | 1515784 Comments2009-06-08+15%3A15%3A14John+T.+Simpson

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

by John T. Simpson

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…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

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 Comments2009-06-04+00%3A20%3A57John+T.+Simpson

Why Reagan Was a Better Friend to Gays Than Obama

by John T. Simpson

I really thought my Republican platform piece here at BH would have been my last for awhile. Plenty for readers of all stripes to chew on. And I got too many other things to do. The reason for my reluctant return is yet another critical issue the Obamamedia and our LibDem government are completely flat-lining on: the officially sanctioned exterminations of LGBTs in Iraq, and on our dime. Not to mention State’s cold and lame response. More on that later. Too much more, actually.

First, the one of the main points of this fact-based opinion piece. And I know I’m going to catch hell from the Streisand and Brolin crowd on this one! Ronald Reagan was a hero to gays, and Obama has not been to date. I know, I know. The Evil Ronald Reagan, who practically invented AIDS? Reagan, the Adolf Eichmann of the Gay World? Not true. Not by a country mile!

In fact, Ronald Reagan was a better friend to gays and lesbians in his age than Barack Obama has been to gays in his. But don’t even go by what I say. I’m a right wing extremist, and very biased to what I believe. I admit it. Who isn’t these days? The press? LOL! But here are some irrefutable facts on The One and The Gipper I thought I’d throw out there. A gay buffet for thought, if you will. With swimming pools. And movie stars. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: academy award, Academy of Motion Picture arts and Sciences, al qaeda, Ali al-Sistani, AMPAS
Posted May 8th 2009 at 6:39 am in Politics | 12720213 Comments2009-05-08+13%3A39%3A47John+T.+Simpson

Jon Stewart Courageously Defends His Bottom Flank

by Eric Golub

It takes a big man to admit he screwed up and take a principled stand. It takes a phony liberal elitist to apologize for the sake of protecting his television ratings.

Jon Stewart makes Arlen Specter look principled.

Like Pee Wee Herman, Jon Stewart launched his intercontinental ballistic missile, and he could not put the missile back on the launching pad. In his case, the only thing that seeped out was stupidity.

Jon Stewart, for those who are not “trendy,” “hip,” or “cool” (brie-cheese-eating-elitist-snobs according to the Tygrrrr Express dictionary), has a nightly political television show where he presents the news with all the accuracy and fairness of the Jayson Blair Times. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: "Crank Yankers", Al Queda, Arlen Specter, Bill Clinton, Cliff May
Posted May 7th 2009 at 8:03 am in Celebrity News, Entertainment, Media Criticism, News, Politics | 1272622 Comments2009-05-07+15%3A03%3A36Eric+Golub

A Republican Platform For The 21st Century

by John T. Simpson

I have been a proud conservative Republican my entire life. My father and Jimmy Carter saw to that. My first vote ever was for Ronald Reagan in 1980, and I have never voted for a Democrat. Ever. Even today, the reasons for my being so have not changed, despite the media’s and liberal Democrats’ tireless efforts to discredit my belief system. Though the times may change, core principles never do. I have also served this nation proudly in uniform for six years, and don’t regret a minute of it.

In the early 1980s, my military service brought me to some of the darker corners of the world. I spent time in South Korea and Marcos’ Philippines when both countries were under martial law. Knowing I could be shot just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time really woke me up to what exactly it is we have here in America. Seeing a thousand Vietnamese Boat People pulled out of the South China Sea in one day only reinforced my belief in America, Sweet Land of Liberty.

Today, the Party of Lincoln and Reagan appears to be in political disarray, which is why I am writing this OpEd now. Yet many promising developments, along with some huge mistakes by Congress and the Obama Administration, have opened many new doors for us. If only we will enter. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: abortion, Africa, Al Franken, amnesty, apology tour
Posted May 2nd 2009 at 3:13 pm in Featured Story, Politics | 12196215 Comments2009-05-02+22%3A13%3A08John+T.+Simpson

Why is Hollywood Silent on Roxana Saberi?

by John T. Simpson

I see a great story in Roxana Saberi. Don’t you? A can’t fail, high-concept, four-quadrant script with a unique storyline. In fact, I’d expect a bidding war no less severe and cutthroat for the rights to Roxana’s story as that for Lone Survivor. You know. A MARIE in Iran meets MISSING kinda thing.

A young and beautiful former Miss North Dakota and reporter for the BBC and NPR, among others, falsely arrested by misogynist Iran and tagged with a series of escalating charges, from buying wine to reporting with expired credentials to espionage, charges even Roxana’s lawyer has not officially seen to date, but upon which Ms. Saberi was just sentenced to eight years in the Iranian Hell of Evin prison in a one-day kangaroo court trial. Coercion was also involved, including a threat to kill her.

Any questions as to who and what we’re really dealing with here now? (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Academy, Afghanistan, Barack Obama, bening, Congress
Posted Apr 25th 2009 at 1:23 pm in Media Criticism, Politics | 1096867 Comments2009-04-25+20%3A23%3A20John+T.+Simpson

Hollywood Diplomacy All Around

by John T. Simpson

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…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: ballistic missile, Bashir, bush, Chamberlain, Churchill
Posted Apr 11th 2009 at 5:03 pm in Celebrity News, Media Criticism, Politics | 1016264 CommentsHollywood+Diplomacy+All+Around2009-04-12+00%3A03%3A17John+T.+Simpson

Adventures in the Scream Trade, Take One

by John T. Simpson

If you’re wondering if I was about to opine on the craft of gut-twisting horror stories, you’d only be half right. I’m actually talking about real life here. As many of you may know from my earlier posts, I first flame-throwered onto the scene here at Big Hollywood about a month ago, on the occasion of Team Oscar’s could-not-be-more-ill-advised taking off for the unfriendly skies of Islamist Iran.

I knew they were going to get punked! They were going to Punkedville! In fact, I was so sure of it, I was the one who broke the story in the US off the French wires to Drudge and Nikki Finke. One Hollywood Jihadi PR roadside bomb detonated. War Is Hell.

Look at their trip from my POV. I remember the whole balls-to-the-wall anti-Apartheid campaign from the mid-eighties. ‘I Ain’t Gonna Play Sun City,’ remember? By the way, wasn’t Little Stevie great in that video? Love him! Point being, if the racist South African apartheid regime was unworthy of cultural exchange, why was the gay-hanging, women-stoning, child-executing, blogger-killing, hostage-taking fascist regime in Iran worthy of a gold-plated Academy PR kiss? (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: AMPAS, Andrew Breitbart, angelina jolie, Annette Bening, ben stiller
Posted Apr 6th 2009 at 5:58 am in Celebrity News, Entertainment, News, Politics | 9749410 Comments2009-04-06+12%3A58%3A54John+T.+Simpson

Hollywood as Willie Horton and Team Oscar’s Iran Blog

by John T. Simpson

Some interesting news on Team Oscar in Iran. It seems both Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei (he of the murdered blogger and post-Obama video Death to America rallies) and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are actually using Team Oscar’s visit to Iran as hard-line ideological weapons against their “soft” political opponents in upcoming elections.

In the Iranian Daily Kayhan, Ali Khamenei’s own personal Islamist rag, the Supreme Asswipe in his March 2nd Op-ed titled “What Are the Producers of Anti-Iranian Films Doing Here?” called Team Oscar, “the planners and heads of a new Hollywood project against Iranian national security.” (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Academy, AMPAS, bening, Ganis, hollywood
Posted Apr 1st 2009 at 11:57 am in Celebrity News, Media Criticism, Politics | 938029 Comments2009-04-01+18%3A57%3A56John+T.+Simpson

Team Oscar Praises Film, Women’s Rights in Iran

by John T. Simpson

In a recent interview in Iran with the Hollywood Reporter (THR), AMPAS President Sid Ganis and actress Annette Bening made the following comments on the state of Iranian film culture and women’s rights today.

First up, Mr. Ganis:

It is as buoyant as it is. They are making movies all the time, though they are not distributing them necessarily in Iran, but around Europe, Asia, and winning prizes all the time for it.

If by buoyant Mr. Ganis meant uplifting, I agree. Nothing’s more uplifting than a truck bomb. In fact, Martyrdom Productions, the Iranian Thugocracy’s film arm, recently landed a $500,000,000.00 defamation lawsuit from Anwar Sadat’s family for its killer thriller “Assassination Of A Pharaoh,” depicting the Hero Martyr Khalid Islambouli, who assassinated former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1979 for the heinous crime of signing the Camp David Peace Accords with Israel in 1978. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: AMPAS, bening, Film, Ganis, hollywood
Posted Mar 25th 2009 at 6:27 am in Entertainment, Politics | 87758One Comment2009-03-25+13%3A27%3A00John+T.+Simpson

Posts Tagged ‘iran’

Part 2: Interview — ‘The Stoning of Soraya M.’s’ Cyrus Nowrasteh

Daily Gut: Jackson, Iran RIP

News That Matters: Iran, North Korea, Perez Hilton?

‘The Stoning of Soraya M.’ – A Powerful, Must-See Film

Former Team Oscar Member Arrested, Freed In Iran

The Whitewashing of Soraya M.

Her Name Was Neda: A Generational Chance for Freedom

Iran Is Not Film School

Daily Gut: The Bystander in Chief

Crossroads in Middle East as Obama Stays Silent

Tweet This Movie: #TheStoningofSorayaM

(I)Ran

Monday’s Gregalogue – Now, Because I’m Pissed

Poem for Iran: ‘Tomorrow is Saturday. Tomorrow is a day of destiny.’

The ‘Net’ Generation: Dumbing Down What Matters Most

The Stoning Of Team Hollywood

Iran at a Crossroad: Mr. President, Where Are You?

Terrorists and Tyrants Go Straight to Hell

A Limited Recount in Tehran

A Revolution Named Zahra

What’s President Obama’s Script For Iran?

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

Why Reagan Was a Better Friend to Gays Than Obama

Jon Stewart Courageously Defends His Bottom Flank

A Republican Platform For The 21st Century

Why is Hollywood Silent on Roxana Saberi?

Hollywood Diplomacy All Around

Adventures in the Scream Trade, Take One

Hollywood as Willie Horton and Team Oscar’s Iran Blog

Team Oscar Praises Film, Women’s Rights in Iran

Featured

Daily Gut: Ignore the 9/11 Show Trials

Twitter

Links