So Capt. Owen Honors was canned as commander of the USS Enterprise after airing “sexually charged” videos taken aboard the carrier. A lot of people weighed in on this, all saying the appropriate thing.

Which is: the videos were offensive.

Yeah, offensive.

I haven’t seen the clips, but I heard they showed simulated masturbation and shower scenes with women.

I.e. the same crap you see on Parker/Spitzer.

Anyway, I suppose I should follow the correct response, and say it’s “offensive.”

But I don’t see it as much as offensive, as it is stupid. But I get why people say it’s offensive. Because we have to say that. My feeling is, there’s very little in life we actually find offensive. It’s just that the stuff we laugh at privately, we must condemn publicly.

We’re hypocrites.

But the real truth is – this guy is losing his job, because he thought he was funny. That’s it. He had the Michael Scott disease. Scott’s the character in The Office – the boss of a paper company. But he’s also a frustrated entertainer, who, when given the chance, makes videos, tells jokes, performs skits… all awful and unsuitable for the workplace.

Captain Honor’s infraction is that he wanted to be funny – when he was just inappropriate. I don’t know if that should kill his career. (more…)

I’m a mom with a full-time job and two dogs, so spending $75 on a babysitter and a couple of movie tickets so I can take a nap in a dark theater is not my idea of a good time.  Television isn’t much better.  I anxiously awaited HBO’s The Pacific only to be given a selective recollection of World War II as seen through a post-9/11 prism.  Then there was AMC’s The Walking Dead. It really had me up until the final episode’s waning moments when a member of the CDC explained that, when it came to the Zombie Apocalypse, the French scientists were the picture of courage while the Americans cried like babies.  Yeah, right.  The reanimated dead are walking the earth?  Okay, fine.  But the world’s foremost country in waving the white flag is now the paragon of bravery?  That’s a bridge too far.

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Since 2010 only got me out to the movies twice (that I can remember) to see The Town and The Social Network, the internet became one of my main forms of entertainment.  That was where I found Drinking with Bob. Sure, he looks a little angry, but so am I.  However, thanks to Bob, I don’t need to get my blood pressure to the boiling point; he’s here to do it for me.  I was starving for an alternative viewpoint.  Sick and tired of being distracted by liberal celebrities and their need for attention, I needed some meaning.  And strangely enough, Bob delivered.

Somewhere in between Facebook, Sean Hannity, and the occasional Tivo’d Red Eye, I found Bob’s rants.  His website and YouTube channel represent the reason the internet has become an alternative venue for entertainment for so many.  It doesn’t have any sponsors or politically correct audience to temper its intent or its delivery.  Sure there is a lot of crap, but when you come across a gem like Drinking with Bob, it makes it all worthwhile.  Each installment starts off with: “What’s next? I’ll tell you what’s next…” and then blasts off into a tirade over anything from the NFL cancelling a game due to snow to why he thinks Ben Affleck is a hypocritical d-bag.  He covers it all and no one is safe, especially President Obama and his nonsensical policies.  You know the ones that make you want to punch your own head, like spending millions on a census commercial during the Super Bowl?  (more…)

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Tonight:

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So in a recent issue of the Advocate, aging actor Richard Chamberlain told fellow gay actors to stay in the closet.

Chamberlain, famous for heart-throbby roles as docs and brooding priests, kept his gayhood secret for decades because he feared it would destroy his career. He says, ‘Despite all the wonderful advances that have been made, it’s still dangerous for an actor to talk about that in our extremely misguided culture.’

So yeah, it’s our culture’s fault. Our extremely gay culture, one that not only accepts all things gay, but lavishes upon them stupendous wealth and accolades.

Whatever, Chamberlain’s advice comes at a perfect time for people like me who need to write stuff: just days after the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

How hilarious is it that, as the military now dumps that strategy, a Hollywood icon is imploring actors to embrace it!

Anyway, I wonder why we don’t demand from Hollywood, what Hollywood demands from the military. I have absolutely no data to back this up, but I bet the percentage of gays employed in film exceeds those in foxholes.

Which is why homophobia seems worse in Tinseltown. The fact is, the troops can handle gays; Hollywood can’t. (more…)

B-sides and outtakes just won’t cut it for John Ondrasik when he’s compiling CDs for the Troops. The talent behind the popular band Five for Fighting wants only the best tracks for his song collections, each designed to show the music industry’s support for the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces.

Big Hollywood caught up with Ondrasik to get the latest on his new military-themed release, “CD for the Troops IV” and how we works with artists who might not fully support the military’s mission at any given moment.

Big Hollywood: Any unifying themes to the new album that might not be apparent on a first or second listen?

John Ondrasik: We have some younger artists on IV like Ingrid Michaelson and Mat Kearney to go with the established artists such as Matchbox 20, Wynonna and Barenaked Ladies. There’s a wide range of styles as well from Brandi Carlisle to Finger 11. As in previous compilations I try to provide something for all musical tastes.

BH: Do the contributing bands select the songs they donate, or is it a collaborative selection process between you and them?

JO: It’s collaborative, but I push for the artists’ biggest hits and, to their credit, usually win out. From the beginning I wanted popular songs, not B-sides, as that would make a statement on the gesture itself, and it’s what most folks want. One exception is if the artist has a patriotic or military-related song they would like to include.

BH: Has it been hard to get such major artists to contribute songs to these discs, or is it getting easier now that you have an established track record?

JO: Every effort you need a big name in before the dominoes start to fall. On the first CD once I had Melissa Etheridge and Billy Joel we had no problem filling out the line up. In similar respects, once we had Adam Sandler on the comedy CD, all his buds were cool coming in. This round I have to credit Rob Thomas kicking us off with the Matchbox 20 hit (“If You’re Gone”). This far into the project we have developed a credibility that helps going forward, and though we have had some who have passed, we get more yeas then neas. (more…)

I’m pleased to present “CD For the Troops IV,” a continuing compilation of popular bands and songwriters donating their biggest hits to the troops. 

In my book every day is Veterans Day, and the soldier provides the ongoing Thanksgiving that is our America. I’d like to thank my partners Operation Homefront, Triwest Healthcare, Sony Manufacturing, AAFES, and all the artists and labels behind this effort.

To our troops and their families:

We owe you a debt that can never be repaid. For you may these songs be a piece of home, an inspiration, an escape from the daily grind. From us, let each tune represent a Thank You and an example of the free expression you provide.

The CD will be available for free download to active duty servicemembers, veterans and their families worldwide with a valid military ID at www.shopmyexchange.com. An additional 200,000 hard copies of the CD will be sent to military bases, USO centers and other locations across the nation and overseas, courtesy of TriWest Healthcare Alliance and Operation Homefront.  (more…)

Retired U.S. Marine Capt. Dale Dye says working with director Oliver Stone means hearing two very different nicknames on the set. “The crew calls [Stone] Ho Chi Minh and me John Wayne,” the decorated war hero says.

But Stone and Capt. Dye share something that trumps ideology – the drive to authentically capture soldiers on screen. Capt. Dye has been serving as a military consultant for filmmakers like Stone for the past 25 years.

His expertise has colored projects like “Saving Private Ryan.” “The Pacific” and “Band of Brothers.” When he’s on the set, you can be sure the actors reflect the real spirit of the U.S. military.

For years Capt. Dye would complain about the “offensive” way studios portrayed soldiers.

“It ran the gamut … from the wrong weapons and the wrong uniforms to people doing things they‘d never do with weapons,” says Capt. Dye, who survived 31 combat missions and earned Three Purple Hearts during his military career. “Those [characters] didn’t act like soldiers, didn’t relate to each other like soldiers and didn’t talk like soldiers. That was leaching the true drama out of those stories.”

So after retiring from the military in the early 1980s he started investigating the reasons why such egregious mistakes kept cropping up in film. He learned very few Hollywood players had first hand knowledge of the U.S. Armed Forces. (more…)

Tomorrow, the nation honors our Veterans. We at the Big sites are proud of our own Jon David Kahn for putting into words and music how so many of us feel about our Veterans and active duty military personnel. It is a day for all of us to be grateful…and to Honor Back.

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I Honor Back – written by Jon David Kahn

You have seen the truth
And held your brother’s hand
You bled your way through dust and wind
In some strange and foreign land

Miles in the darkness
With courage by your side
You brought the battle to them
So we can sleep at night

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The award-winning GI Film Festival announced today that it has established a ground- breaking new partnership with The Military Channel, the nation’s only cable network dedicated to military programming, which will provide unprecedented exposure for films that honor American warriors. Beginning on November 12th, the Military Channel, which is currently available in more than 57 million homes, will begin featuring weekend blocks of the festival’s award-winning productions. (See opening weekend schedule below.)

Actor Kerri Turner attends the GI Film Festival

“This effort between the GI Film Festival and the Military Channel will be invaluable in putting the heroism and the sacrifice of the nation’s bravest men and women on full display for all of America to witness. This has been the Festival’s core mission from day one,” said GI Film Festival Chairman Stephen K. Bannon.

The G.I. Film Festival is the first and only film festival in the country dedicated to honoring the successes and sacrifices of American GIs. The festival’s documentary and narrative films showcase themes ranging from the courage and ingenuity on battlefields throughout history to the struggles of homelessness and post-traumatic stress on the home front.

The G.I. Film Festival block runs on Military Channel from 9-11 PM ET on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays throughout November starting on Friday, November 12, the day after Veterans Day. (more…)

This past Thursday night, I attended the Prima Notte Gala at the Los Angeles Feast of San Gennaro in Hollywood, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla.  This was a fundraising event and auction held to pay tribute to the US Military and recognize the outstanding efforts that Italian-Americans have made to serve America during times of war and to support the San Gennaro Foundation.

Robert Davi and Connie Stevens

Jimmy Kimmel, producer Douglas DeLuca and some of Los Angeles’ most prominent Italian-American citizens created The San Gennaro Foundation to benefit underprivileged children and the homeless in Los Angeles.

Master of Ceremonies, Mark DeCarlo, hosted the evening’s celebration that featured performances by Pete Jacobs’ Wartime Radio Review, an old-fashioned USO show, complete with a swinging band.  Actors Connie Stevens and Robert Davi were recognized for their charitable work, especially their work with our military.

I arrived early and was able to sample much of the food that’s available at the Feast.  I had purposely skipped dinner so I was ready to dive in.  I stopped by a booth run by “Nonna” (Italian for “grandma”) and she gave me a sample of some biscotti that was out of this world.  When I came back for seconds, she shooed me away with a wink while surreptitiously slipping some more biscotti into my hand.  If you get a chance, look up Frankie’s Old World Biscotti.  You won’t regret it.  Another standout was Pagano’s Seafood.  Don’t pass their booth without buying something. (more…)

There are three important things going on in “The Tillman Story” (in selected theatres today), two of which almost make the conspiracy-mongering documentary worth your time. The first and best is the opportunity to get to know better the extraordinary and extraordinarily complicated and interesting Pat Tillman. In the best sense of the word, this was a fierce and fiercely passionate man — fierce on the football field, fierce on the battlefield, and fierce in his personal beliefs. This was also a man who only ever dated one woman, the woman he would marry the same week he enlisted; and my guess is that Tillman was the kind of man and husband who found leaving the fame of professional football much easier than leaving his young bride. 

You also meet Tillman’s family; his parents, brother and wife – a decent, loving, inconsolable group dealing with the terrible loss of someone they obviously loved and miss very much. This is a family furious with a United States government who didn’t know all the facts before they told the story of Tillman’s death to them, and to the American people. And as far as that goes, they are right to be angry. 

Unfortunately, you also witness a partisan filmmaker attempting to prop up the absurd anti-Bush conspiracy theory that it wasn’t the ever-reliable incompetence of government bureaucracy that caused what was probably the second worst day in this family’s life – the day they were told Tillman had been killed in a friendly fire incident, but rather a sinister plot hatched by the Administration and the Pentagon to use Tillman’s death as a flag-waving symbol to bolster military recruitment and support for the war. The Tillman family agrees wholeheartedly with this conspiracy, believes that the memory of their heroic son was maliciously abused in this way. But with all due respect to them (and they are due our respect), neither logic nor facts come close to making that case.    (more…)

This Memorial Day, comedian Sarah Silverman was a guest on “The View.” Sarah has quite a large following, as well as a new book she’s promoting, and after catapulting into the scene over the last few years with her television show, movies, magazine articles, and online viral successes, she’s very well liked by many television hosts. Silverman’s certainly made it, she’s a success, and good for her.  So with all that she has to be grateful for, what would possess her to put an audience filled with military personnel in for New York City’s Fleet Week on the spot?

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After a warm introduction and resounding applause, Sarah jumps on the couch in the fashion that she usually does and was asked what she thought of the military audience. She stated that however you feel politically, these people are heroes, and at that moment I’m thinking that was a nice, appropriate, and classy thing to say. Then, as quick as you can hear Tipper Gore shutting the eco-friendly door on Al’s backside, the politics came out of nowhere. The next sentence she uttered was:

“Wouldn’t this be a great opportunity to ask you guys about ‘don’t ask don’t tell’….to me, it was like a stepping stone to equal rights…now its like a silly relic.” 

Did Sarah have a moment where she thought she was headlining at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles? Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar immediately jumped in to inform her that military personnel are required to refrain from speaking publicly about political issues and therefore cannot and will not answer. And note the wild applause from the audience for Elisabeth Hasselbeck after she states: (more…)

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Watch it ALL!

It only gets better as it rolls on. (more…)

The Obama White House, so filled with Harvard graduates, is obviously more interested in teaching than in learning.

“Teachable moments,” remember?

Why the Obama Nation should retain so many slow-learners, spoiled brats refusing to recognize, amidst their Marxist Mania, the reality of Islamic terrorism?

It still takes Sarah Palin to remind these Harvard Czars and their Attorney General that a Chicago, Illinois high school willing to boycott an Arizona basketball game was also willing to send its students off to Red China.

That is obviously the high school’s four-year course in Progressive treason.

The Arizona immigration bill is a human rights offense and Red China is not?!

Radical Islam’s war against America does not exist?! Might Islamic terrorism be a part of a Marxist plan to achieve the so-called Progressive New World Order?

An American, bipartisan political movement, The Progressives, who own the White House, the Congress, the Supreme Court and the Mainstream Media are being embarrassed into making a common sense decision by what would appear to be a group of backward-thinking, bourgeois Americans: Fox News, the Tea Partiers and recent popularity polls. (more…)

Although James Blunt hit the big time with his hit, “You’re Beautiful,” I had never paid much attention to him until he guest starred in the “Las Vegas” finale singing “Same Mistake.” It was a haunting song and I went to YouTube to watch the video which I found somewhat uninteresting. But I wouldn’t find out until later that some military-themed lyrics were omitted from the video.

I then clicked on another video of Blunt singing, “Carry You Home” and was very moved by the video’s sad story that explained the song. The words, “I’m watching you breathing for the last time,” are spoken by a soldier watching his friend die in combat and removing something from the dead man’s pocket which he then delivers to a grieving loved one near the White Cliffs of Dover.  “A song for your heart, and when it is quiet I know what it means and I’ll carry you home, carry you home.”  

I must have played that video over and over and I went to another site and read what people thought the song meant and was amazed how few couldn’t figure it out and obviously hadn’t yet seen the music video. Being the obsessive that I am I hunted down Blunt’s background and discovered that he had been a captain in the British army and had been among the first to arrive in Kosovo’s capitol. It’s highly likely that he wrote about what he had dealt with personally in that conflict.  (more…)

In light of the recently released  “Iron Man” sequel, I recently re-watched the first “Iron Man” movie starring Robert Downey Jr., Jeff Bridges and Gwyneth Paltrow. Although many superhero movies are goofy and clichéd, “Iron Man” stands out as a solid example of what a smart superhero film looks like.

If you have not seen it, “Iron Man” tells the story of Tony Stark, a man largely known because his company is a massively successful weapons manufacturer. Stark is a talented builder, a charismatic leader and an egotistical playboy, and he is brought to life by the talented Robert Downey Jr.  He is an icon to many (including members of the military who use his weapons) but loathed by others who detest his success at building and selling weapons.

In the beginning of the film, Stark is taken hostage by a group of terrorists in Afghanistan and is forced to build a weapon for them. Instead he decides to build a metal suit built with weapons inside of it in order to break out of the cave where he’s imprisoned. He makes his escape and when he returns to the United States, he starts to build a better, stronger “Iron Man” suit. The movie chronicles him building the protective suit and using it to fight against thea man who has betrayed him. (more…)

Fresh and innovative, Patrol Base Jaker  is a captivating retelling of the remarkable history of Afghanistan from the Russian invasion to the current U.S. counterinsurgency operation. Walk in the boots of the Marine combat and civil affairs teams in Helmand Province, Afghanistan as they fight to turn the tide against a resurgent Taliban and Al Qaeda. Travel to the front lines where U.S. Marines stand at a wicked intersection of war, radical Islam, international drug trade, reconstruction, and a counterinsurgency strategy designed to reestablish the rule of law in Afghanistan.

vimeo Patrol Base Jaker

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Did you ever hear Jimmy Carter sound like a war hawk? Neither had we. Until we saw Patrol Base Jaker. Seriously, check out the trailer and you won’t believe your ears. And this is no Michael Moore hatchet job either…piecing together sound bytes to create some sort of Franken-statement. It’s all authentic Jimmy.

But aside from the shockingly pro-military statements from Carter (and Obama, by the way) what we really loved about PBJ is the fact that it documents a tremendous US military success story in Afghanistan…the kind you’ll never find in the pages of the New York Times or on any of the so-called “mainstream” news networks. (more…)

From Baghdad to Beijing, Warrior Champions tells the emotional and inspiring story of a group of severely wounded American Soldiers, as they fight to turn nightmares of war into Olympic dreams. Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans Kortney Clemons, Scott Winkler, Melissa Stockwell, and Carlos Leon set out to do what many thought impossible; to compete in the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing.

vimeo

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Though at times heart wrenching, Warrior Champions is not a sad tale of the tragedy of war, but rather an uplifting testament to the human spirit that challenges preconceived notions of what it means to be disabled.

There are really two types of wounded warrior films that people submit to the GI Film Festival. The first category exploits the experiences of injured veterans to make a political statement about war. (Perhaps the most obvious example of this category is a film we received in our first year- but did not screen – which splashed a running tally of dead and injured veterans from “Bush’s War” at the bottom of the screen. Others are a bit more subtle, but no less cynical.) The second category, while pulling no punches with respect to the brutal consequences of war, takes a different approach. These films focus on the inspirational stories of wounded warriors overcoming their disabilities to accomplish unbelievable feats. Warrior Champions exemplifies the very best in this latter category. (more…)