The New York Post:

A common gripe about Lindsay Lohan, Chris Brown, Kanye West, Charlie Sheen and the rest of our celebrity monster posse is that they’re immature brats whom genetic fortuity gave riches but not brains, morals or character. They are.

But so were the stars of the ’50s. If their serene glamour persists, it’s in part because the movies are still on TV but the scandal sheets that chronicled their misadventures have crumbled to atoms. …

Taylor’s adulterous, drink-fueled hookup with Richard Burton on the set of “Cleopatra” inspired a letter published in a Vatican newspaper that condemned her for “erotic vagrancy.” When the lovers were out of the country, Rep. Iris Faircloth Blitch of Georgia called for them to be denied re-entry into the US “on the grounds of undesirability.”

Katharine Hepburn, the Camilla Parker-Bowles of La La Land, carried on with a married (and Catholic) Spencer Tracy for decades. Errol Flynn probably had sex with two underage girls, yet avoided conviction when his lawyers smeared the victims by bringing up their past sexual histories in a statutory rape trial that gave us the phrase “in like Flynn.” Flynn was also an anti-Semite who wrote to a friend, “A slimy Jew is trying to cheat me . . . I do wish we could bring Hitler over here to teach these Isaacs a thing or two. The bastards have absolutely no business probity or honor whatsoever.”

You can go back even further to the 1920s and just start with Fatty Arbuckle. There’s also the sleazy murder of film director William Desmond Taylor and all the sexual scandal surrounding the death of Olive Thomas — who some believe might have been poisoned by her philandering, syphilis-suffering husband Jack Pickford — brother of screen legend Mary. Hollywood has always been a small community packed with too many young, good-looking narcissists loaded with ambition and willing to do most anything to get ahead. That doesn’t mean there are and haven’t been a number of truly decent and moral people working at high levels of the entertainment industry, but Smith is dead on with his overall point.

The American people are pretty forgiving of this kind of stuff, though. We know none of us is perfect and normally don’t concern ourselves too much with what happens between consenting adults. 

So what changed? Because something sure did.

How did an industry that was once almost universally beloved despite being as badly behaved then as it is today, suddenly become a polarizing punchline with an approval rating lower lower than that of President Bush when he left office?

I have my own ideas but would like to hear yours first.

“The Kennedys” is the best miniseries you almost weren’t allowed to see.

And considering the size of the cable network ReelzChannel’s usual audience, chances are you may still not see it.

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But the miniseries — starring Greg Kinnear as JFK, Barry Pepper as Bobby, Katie Holmes as Jacqueline and Tom Wilkinson as Joseph Sr. — is without a doubt one of the best, most riveting, historically accurate dramas about a time and place in American history that has ever been done for TV.

The eight-hour, $25 million project — produced by Joel Surnow, the guy who brought you “24″ — was originally commissioned by the History Channel and then killed off by ABC, which owns much of the cable channel, after it was completed.

ReelzChannel picked it up at a fire-sale price. Why? There are more conspiracy theories floating around about that than the Kennedy assassination itself.

After watching it, I no longer believe the one about Caroline Kennedy killing it off. Despite Surnow having Hollywood’s most robust right-wing credentials, the movie — which is brutally honest about power-mad old Joe and his anti-Semitic, Hitler-apologist stance — is pretty much the true story.

The series opens on Election Day — and immediately establishes the idea that the old man was in total control.

Read the full review here.

“The Kennedys” airs April 3rd on Reelz.

Fact is, he’s hooked on something far worse than coke or speed. It’s lawyers who defend terrorists.

This addiction – rooted in his bedrock belief that America is to blame for everything, including his mustache – would be fairly harmless if it were held by a nobody – like say, a Daily Kos blogger. I mean, that’s just a harmless sap stuck in the attic taking turns trying on grandma’s underwear. Nope, this junkie is in the White House, and by the looks of it, someone better call Dr. Drew because Holder’s using on the job.

You wanna know how bad it’s gotten? The New York Times, of all places, reported that Rahm Emanuel even proposed “hiring a minder” for Holder – much in the way a band manager might do for a heroin-addicted lead singer. Minders generally keep you from missing a gig; in this case the minder was meant to keep Holder out.

But still, the addiction is in full force. If you look at his department, it’s full of lawyers who defend our enemies.

As the New York Post reports, last November, Republican Sen. Charles Grassley demanded to know how many Justice Department lawyers previously defended terrorist-detainees. Finally, Holder confessed. Among the nine (!), there was Principal Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal, who defended Osama bin Laden’s driver, and Jennifer Daskal, the “detainee point-person for Human Rights Watch.” If you don’t know what HRW is, it’s no wonder. They only care about the rights of creeps who want to take your rights away.

Anyway, Holder won’t ID the other seven. Which is natural for an addict. You gotta hide your stash to the very end. Even if it ultimately leads to your own ruin.

And if you disagree with me, you’re worse than a racist Nazi who wears fur to a cockfight.

Tonight we’ve got the great Andrew W.K., the delightful S.E. Cupp, Ron Geraci, and a special massive interview with Ozzy Osbourne! (no need to write intro’s for Ozzy, the interview was taped last night!).

In this episode, “NewsBusted” covers: The National Deficit, President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Teleprompters, Vice President Joe Biden, New York Post, New Yorkers, Obamanomics, Walter Cronkite, All Star Game, Chicago White Sox, Comiskey Park, Smoking in the military, and La Toya Jackson.

Oh, big city critics loved them some “Borat,” which spent 95% if its screen time manipulating, editing and boiling down average, working class, not-bothering-anyone Americans (and Romanian peasants) into the worst possible caricature imaginable. How they laughed and found genius and insight into the machinated savaging of everyday folks just minding their own business. But listen to some of them squeal and squawk now that the satire is turned on someone other than us. Here’s a sampling:

San Francisco Chronicle: 

Imagine if a white comedian went into the Deep South, disguised in a very convincing blackface and started acting like Stepin Fetchit.

Hollywood Reporter:  

Consequently, the character’s gayness reads false. Baron Cohen needs to spend more time in certain gay bars if he wants to learn how to do “flamboyant” and “fabulous.” It’s a ghost of the real thing.

The New Yorker: 

You can’t honestly defend your principled lampooning of homophobia when nine out of every ten images that you project onscreen comply with the most threadbare cartoons of gay behavior.

New York Post:

Not to get all PC on you, but the straight, outrageously dressed Baron Cohen camps it up in what has legitimately been criticized as swishy gay equivalent of blackface.

So here’s the lesson: Preying on unsuspecting everyday people, misleading them, manipulating them, pushing them until you get the reaction you desire and then editing them into something even worse, is a-okay. But… An obvious, over-the-top satire of gay men crosses the line.

As I said in my review, the only thing that mitigates the mean-spiritedness of “Bruno” is that, unlike “Borat,” everyone’s taking satiric fire. But now that the guffaws aren’t so one-sided, some aren’t guffawing so much. Worse, someone who isn’t gay lampooning flamboyantly gay men finds himself tarnished as a kind of “blackface” comedian. How interesting, when…

Everyday — on the big screen and small — we see Christians, Southerners, Republicans, Pro-lifers, Red Staters and the working class, ridiculed and savaged by actors who are none of those things. Where’s the cry of “blackface” then?

Baron Cohen is obviously a very talented actor, but there was nothing “brave,” “illuminating” or “ballsy” about “Borat.” Trashing the “great unwashed” is what’s known as a resume enhancer in Hollywood and Manhattan — about as “ballsy” as bringing beer to a frat party. ”Bruno,” on the other hand, actually is somewhat brave for risking charges of “insensitivity” (and worse) from the usual suspects.   

Maybe this is just the beginning for Baron Cohen, maybe he’s working his way towards something truly “fresh” and “brave” … something where he sends a Christian into a GLAAD meeting, a cowboy into a La Raza gathering… We’ll see what happens to a parked car with a “NObama” sticker at NYU or MSNBC, or to a screenwriter pitching a pro-Bush script at a Hollywood studio… Better yet, a Berkeley student with a Palin t-shirt, or a white South African running for elected office in a Democrat primary as an “African-American.”

Now that truly would be an ”illuminating” look at American prejudices, and one that required much less editing than “Borat” to make its subjects look bad. But maybe that’s just my prejudice talking.

“Reagan” is a one-man play that doesn’t portray the 40th president as a fascist. It’s by Lionel Chetwynd, whose scripts for television and film include “The Hanoi Hilton,” “Color of Justice,” “Kissinger and Nixon” and “DC 9/11: Time of Crisis.” ….  Chetwynd declined to comment on “Reagan,” except to say with a laugh, “It will change lives and the course of history.” A copy of an early script portrays Reagan as thoughtful, determined, sly (when necessary) and winning. Talking to the audience from the main room of his California ranch, Reagan explains his journey from FDR Democrat to conservative Republican. Along the way, he offers a spirited defense of conservative principles. At least three top directors have passed on the play because, says a source, “They can’t stand Ronald Reagan.”

The other play cited is “Girls in Trouble (Formerly Three Abortions)” by Jonathan Reynolds.

In “Girls in Trouble,” Reynolds presents a balanced view of pro-lifers while taking some swipes at the NPR crowd. The play ends with a harrowing confrontation between two women — one pro-life, the other pro-choice — that’s not for the squeamish. “Thus far, its claim to fame is that it’s been turned down by all the theaters in New York,” Reynolds says of his play. “It was commissioned by the Long Wharf, but they wouldn’t put it on. There was a theater in the suburbs of Washington, DC, that said they wanted to present the ‘other side’ of the abortion debate. But when they read it, they said it would “infuriate our audience.” Oskar Eustis, the head of the Public Theater, told Reynolds that his staff “didn’t go for it,” but that he would take a look at it himself.

Forgive me for not jumping up and doing a victory dance quite yet… It has always seemed a no-brainer to me that a positive telling of the Ronald Reagan story would be a hugely popular hit.  Not only is his story compelling, inspiring and quintessentially American, but he was and continues to be incredibly popular.  The drama contained within the pages of Peggy Noonan’s “When Character Was King” screams for a stage adaptation.  I hope Chetwynd’s work does Duke justice… the fact that many directors have turned down the piece is a sign that it does.

But, to me the real story in this article is less about the plays that are being shopped as it is a story about the doors that are shut to plays that have this kind of content.  My favorite passage is Oskar Eustis at the fledgling Public Theater.  The staff of the Public “didn’t go for it.”  Hm.  The staff of the Public has succeeded in running the once thriving non-profit to the brink of bankruptcy in recent years.  Maybe we, the theatre-going public don’t go for your staff, Mr. Eustis.  And what a weak-kneed response, too.  Can anyone imagine the original founder of The Public Theater… that titan of New York non-profit theatre Joe Papp, saying that his organization would not produce a play because “his staff didn’t go for it”?  No, Papp would be a man and take the responsibility himself.

I think it would be instructive to take a look at what Eustis’ staff DID “go for” in the 2008 and 2009 seasons.  Perusing their website you will see that these seasons’ plays are chuck full of diversity.  You can’t GET any more diverse than the Public Theater right now.  Black, White, Native American, straight, gay, male, female, Latino, Asian… diversity, thy name is Eustis.  So, what is missing?  How about diversity of THOUGHT AND OPINION?

The diversity that is being celebrated at the Public Theater is the laziest kind of diversity.  Diversity of appearance.  Big deal.  It’s like Eustis is at a dinner party and he makes himself feel good by saying “Some of my best plays are black.”  I thought the over-educated, uber-intellectual, non-profit theatre staffs were a little more interested in being challenged with new ideas.  I thought they are in favor of “speaking truth to power.”  I thought maybe the staffs at non-profit theatres, fresh from Yale Drama School and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, were originally drawn to the non-profit theatre world so through their art they could give voice to the voiceless and speak for those who do not have an outlet to speak for themselves.  Instead, Mr. Eustis’ staff give us “Why Torture is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them” and “The Good Negro.”  Yes staff, those plays will truly be intellectually challenging to your well-educated, upper-class, liberal, New York audience.  Truth to power, my brothers and sisters!  Pat yourselves on the backs; you should be so proud.

Is it cool that there are a couple of playwrights getting attention for shopping conservative-themed plays in New York?  Yes.  Is it really cool that the New York Post wrote an article which pretty much ridicules the New York intelligencia for not having enough room in their club for even one play every few years that doesn’t preach to the secular choir?  Yes.  Is it enough that these plays have been written and are talked about even if they never get produced?  Hell no.  Let’s not let this story end here.  Apply the pressure to Mr. Eustis and his staff now.  If there is room in the budget for “Tales of an Urban Indian” then there should be room for a positive play about Reagan or a play which dares to suggest that maybe abortion is wrong.

A little historical perspective is perhaps in order. This nation was born in a world of chattel slavery. On the heels of a bloody civil war that ended the institution of slavery came lynchings, Jim Crow Laws, separate but equal education and literacy tests at the polls. The fact that the best Sidoti could come up with to bolster her argument were a few off-color emails speaks volumes.

Ignorance, petty politics and downright human ugliness will always be with us. What is more telling is how a society responds to it. There was a time when jokes such as that passed along by Grose would be told in public and greeted with huge guffaws. Thankfully those times are long gone. Today such jokes are relegated to the anonymous and not-as-private-as-the -mayor-thought world of the internet. If and when such attitudes come to light they are met with outrage, ridicule and the indulger is bathed in public humiliation and suffers political ruin. Grose was not celebrated; he resigned in disgrace.

There are a vast number of Americans that are not even aware that there are ambiguities surrounding the president’s birth certificate or that those questions remain unanswered. The issue is not one promulgated by the opposition party, nor is it one entertained by any mainstream conservative or Republican writers. Sidoti herself writes that this is a conversation relegated to the fringe. This is hardly proof of the boogey-man.

Finally there is the well worn issue of the chimpanzee and the Post. I would love to comment. However, it seems a bit disingenuous for me to object to the portrayal of apes in relationship to this administration when my dear fraternity, the oldest and coldest Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. has adopted a gorilla as its mascot. I would have loved to be in the meeting in which that was decided. At the next national convention I really ought to leave the bar and attend the breakout sessions. Are all depictions of apes in connection with black folk racist or is it only racist when that connection – no matter how tenuous – is made by white people?

What is most distasteful about Sidoti’s article is that it continues to foster the notion that the primary impediment to black success is white racism, and we must therefore remain ever vigilant for signs of its existence– even if we must wander into the brush and beat the bushes to find it. That is not to say that racism no longer exists or that we must extinguish the lamp of vigilance. It is to say that the social power of racism is greatly diminished and that the lamp must now begin to illuminate those cultural and behavioral memes that are now the largest stumbling block to the black community’s finally reaching “the mountaintop.”

As repulsive as we all find ugly stereotypes and as bitter as the world of real politick may be- neither impacts the individual life as much as the rejection of marriage and the embracing of illegitimacy. Off color jokes told amongst a few idiots does not wreak havoc on a community the way a 50% drop out rate does or 40% violent crime rate does. Cartoons can’t steal the soul of a man the way drug abuse can and it is impossible for internet whispers to corrupt the moral intellect the way 40 years of cultural revolutionary defiance has.

No doubt some of the sensitive set will berate me with epithets because of my conclusions. However, if in the age of Obama we are going to bridge the racial divide it is clear we must decide that the focus on what “the man” is doing only distracts us from what we can and should be doing for ourselves.

Joseph C. Phillips is the author of “He Talk Like a White Boy” available wherever books are sold.