Let’s Not Offend Hollywood’s Delicate Geniuses

In 2006, while accepting the Academy Award for playing a husky, grizzled version of himself, George Clooney famously gushed, “…this Academy, this group of people gave Hattie McDaniel an Oscar in 1939 when blacks were still sitting in the backs of theaters. I’m proud to be a part of this Academy. I’m proud to be part of this community. I’m proud to be out of touch.”

My apologies for bringing up old crap, but Clooney’s statement, especially the part about how he’s so proud to be out of touch, is one of the most bafflingly odd things I’ve ever heard coming from Clooney, who’s also famous for telling anyone who’ll listen that everybody tells him all the time how brave he was for making a black and white movie about the red scare. It’s very revealing that Clooney would say this, to cheers, a mere three years after a child-rapist was handed an award by that same Academy. (more…)

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Tags: "Next Karate Kid", "The Sting", academy awards, Arrested Development, Atheism
Posted Oct 30th 2009 at 6:54 am in Celebrity News, Culture, Entertainment | 253134105 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ccannon/2009/10/30/lets-not-offend-hollywoods-delicate-geniuses/Let%27s+Not+Offend+Hollywood%27s+Delicate+Geniuses2009-10-30+13%3A54%3A17Cam+Cannon

EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT: ‘Hollywood on the Potomac’: Actors to Activists

So many big name stars, singers and sports legends have visited Washington over the years, the city is often referred to as “Hollywood on the Potomac.”  So, that’s the title of my new book (available now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Borders) featuring over 200 photographs and stories that detail the fascination between Hollywood stars and Washington power-players — from Presidents Truman through Obama. 

Here’s an excerpt: (more…)

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Tags: "Hollywood on the Potomac", Bing Crosby, Bob Dylan, Bono, Brigitte Nielsen
Posted Aug 27th 2009 at 1:14 pm in Entertainment, Featured Story, Politics | 21247813 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jmeath/2009/08/27/hollywood-on-the-potomac/EXCLUSIVE+EXCERPT%3A+%27Hollywood+on+the+Potomac%27%3A+Actors+to+Activists2009-08-27+20%3A14%3A57Jason+Killian+Meath

Sammy Davis Jr. — Black and White On the Silver Screen?

The life story of a Black star in a White world, a man who arguably was the world’s greatest entertainer, will not be coming to a theater near you anytime soon. If ever.

During a recent interview on my radio program “The Andrea Shea King Show”, Hollywood conservative Burt Boyar, longtime friend and biographer of the late great Sammy Davis, Jr., said he’s concerned that the true story about the talented entertainer who fought and broke through racial barriers will never be seen on the silver screen. Two years ago, Boyar had negotiated a deal to sell his two biographies to filmmakers who were all set to tell the story on celluloid.

Reflection: Sammy Davis Jr. snaps a photo of himself and Jerry Lewis posing in the reflection of a mirror.

What entanglements are keeping the former member of the Rat Pack’s compelling life from being made into a movie?  A life studded with Tinseltown’s glittering constellation of stars whose orbits intersected his?   Luminaries like Sinatra, Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop, Dean Martin, Tony Curtis, Jerry Lewis, Liz and Burton, Paul Newman, Berle, Bacall, Bennett, Damone… when Hollywood was at its most glamorous?

Who is Burt Boyar? And why does he care?

(more…)

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Tags: Al Jolson, Bacall, Bennett, Berle, broadway
Posted Jun 14th 2009 at 7:04 am in Entertainment, Featured Story | 1584142 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/asking/2009/06/14/sammy-davis-jr-black-and-white-on-the-silver-screen-2/Sammy+Davis+Jr.+%E2%80%94+Black+and+White+On+the+Silver+Screen%3F2009-06-14+14%3A04%3A43Andrea+Shea+King

Megan Fox: Another Nail in the ‘Movie Star’ Coffin

There have been liberal movies stars for as long as there have been movie stars. The list of left-of-center Golden Age-era giants is a mile long. My admiration for an actor has ZERO to do with personal politics, but as Skip Press pointed out in his terrific piece last week, class is a big factor. Many of the greats didn’t share my beliefs, but few ever went out of their way to hurl insults at me and mine, either. Undoubtedly, someone could Google up a statement that contradicts me, but I would argue in return that human beings slip, even big-screen immortals. What can’t be argued is that once upon a time movie stars walked the earth who defined themselves, not with elitist, flame-throwing political rhetoric, but with dignity and class.

 
Sinatra and Ava for Democrat Adlai Stevenson

Where classic Hollywood mostly held their activism to advocating for their causes, too many of today’s classless breed defines their activism through the hurling of invective at the other side - at 50% of the customers. They do it up on the screen and they do it while hiding behind a Hollywood media-machine owned and operated by sycophants who mostly agree. There’s nothing wrong with passion, humor, disagreement and debate, that’s what Big Hollywood is all about, but ad hominem that dehumanizes is the tactic of a new generation eager to fit in with the A-list.   (more…)

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Tags: ava gardner, hollywood, megan fox, Paul Newman, Politics
Posted Jun 8th 2009 at 3:52 pm in Celebrity News, Politics | 1548266 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2009/06/08/megan-fox-another-nail-in-the-movie-star-coffin/Megan+Fox%3A+Another+Nail+in+the+%27Movie+Star%27+Coffin2009-06-08+22%3A52%3A44John+Nolte

Big Hollywood’s Top 100 Screen Legends

The American Film Institute went a little list-crazy a few years back. Most of their surveys were fun and about the pure pleasure of movie watching (top 100 chills, quotes, songs, laughs… ), but 1999’s “100 Years…100 Stars” definitely caught my eye because it was less about fun, more about creating something defining and just that bad.

For starters, the list was a bit of a cheat. There weren’t 100 stars, there were 50; 25 men and 25 women. But in order to get to the number 100, the AFI counted the 50 stars and celebrities who acted as on-camera hosts and presenters. In other words, the television show produced around the list was more important than creating a serious, comprehensive list. (more…)

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Tags: 100 Years...100 Movies, AFI, American Film Institute, bob hope, charlton heston
Posted Mar 26th 2009 at 1:33 pm in Entertainment, Top 5 | 89550No Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2009/03/26/big-hollywoods-top-100-screen-legends/Big+Hollywood%27s+Top+100+Screen+Legends2009-03-26+20%3A33%3A22John+Nolte

The Liberal Bastille

I’ve been a professional actor for 40 years and, when asked, an open conservative for at least 43 years. Frequently I’m asked to explain why Hollywood is so liberal, a question which I hate because I’m not really qualified to explain the pack mentality or mental illness. My response is always something like, “Ask Spielberg or Oliver Stone why they love that stinking bastard Castro. They’re the ones who can answer your question.”

The second most frequent query is two pronged and relates to a conservative blacklist in Hollywood and what minority status is like on a day to day basis. This I can comment on. I believe Hollywood is now a liberal Bastille. This was not always so, but it is the reality now.  The atmosphere is intimidating and oppressive, but that’s not an official blacklist.  It’s more like viral note taken on wet cocktail napkins secretly passed between smug lib execs describing a young actor as a redneck loving Nazi simply because he said he supported President Bush. It’s a social network where you might have no advocates, but then again you might if you just happened to pull in $35 million over the weekend. I don’t want to borrow a phrase from Don Rumsfeld , but I only know what I know.  I don’t know what I don’t know and well, you know the rest; so I’ll rely only on my actual  experiences during my daily Hollywood business, and encounters of the first kind with two famous and now deceased liberal  Hollywood game players, Bruce Paltrow and Paul Newman. (more…)

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Tags: "Fat Man and Little Boy", Blythe Danner, Bruce Paltrow, charlton heston, Hollywood Blacklist
Posted Mar 16th 2009 at 5:02 am in Entertainment, Featured Story, Politics | 78910138 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/dschultz/2009/03/16/the-liberal-bastille/The+Liberal+Bastille2009-03-16+12%3A02%3A34Dwight+Schultz

Fake Crash Pilot Obviously Not a Movie Fan

Hey, Marcus Schrenker (formerly the missing pilot guy), what were you thinking? You want to disappear off the face of the earth and go into hiding, and this is how you do it? Let me get this straight; Your plan was to parachute from your jet aircraft, allow it to go down in flames in a residential area, ask a cop for directions, and check into a motel. Then, when you were caught, you were holding a road atlas and campground directory. Way to go “off the grid,” buddy.

This guy is an embarrassment to all men. Women probably don’t know this, but all of us have sketched out elaborate plans in our head as to what we would do if we ever had to go “dark” and vanish for a while. Don’t worry, we are not planning to, but we’ve got to be ready just in case.

Some guys would walk into the woods with nothing but a rucksack and a hunting knife, other guys would go the Swiss bank account/Jason Bourne route, just speed-walking around Europe occasionally having to deck effete policemen using Tae Kwon Do. Personally, I prefer the former, as I like to avoid confrontation.

But one thing you never, ever want to do is create such a splash with your escape method that it gets the attention of Greta Van Susteren and Nancy Grace. Show some subtlety, brother! You are giving us all a bad name. Remember the Scout motto: Be Prepared. (more…)

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Tags: alcatraz, escape, movies, papillon, Paul Newman
Posted Jan 17th 2009 at 12:15 pm in Entertainment, News, Video | 1797332 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/tshillue/2009/01/17/fake-crash-pilot-obviously-not-a-movie-fan/Fake+Crash+Pilot+Obviously+Not+a+Movie+Fan++2009-01-17+20%3A15%3A55Tom+Shillue