Sounds at though John Lennon might have grown up before his untimely death:

John Lennon was a closet Republican, who felt a little embarrassed by his former radicalism, at the time of his death – according to the tragic Beatles star’s last personal assistant.

Fred Seaman worked alongside the music legend from 1979 to Lennon’s death at the end of 1980 and he reveals the star was a Ronald Reagan fan who enjoyed arguing with left-wing radicals who reminded him of his former self.

In new documentary Beatles Stories, s thought he was while he was his assistant.

He says, “John, basically, made it very clear that if he were an American he would vote for Reagan because he was really sour on (Democrat) Jimmy Carter.

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I’ve written several articles skewering HBO for producing political projects destined to air immediately prior to the 2012 election, where the vast majority of the cast and crew are passionate Barack Obama supporters, and where the content is aimed at the Democrat’s two favorite Republican villains: Sarah Palin and Dick Cheney. So, when I sat down to watch HBO’s Too Big to Fail, I prepared myself for the worst. What I didn’t expect was the big surprise awaiting me.

Too Big to Fail, which premieres on HBO on May 23, 2011, features a star studded cast recounting the events that led to the financial crisis and bailouts by the U.S. government in 2008. It is a mini-series packed into a 98-minute made-for-television movie where several essential characters are quickly introduced and where finance and economics are casually discussed. It may help if one has a baseline of knowledge about the crisis before watching the movie. If one doesn’t know who Henry Paulson, Ben Bernanke, and Timothy Geithner are or what Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, and AIG are, it may prove slightly difficult to follow.

Although the Director, Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential, 8 Mile), was limited to telling a very long and complicated story in a very short amount of time, he was able to skillfully pull it off. Perhaps this is because the screenwriter, Peter Gould (Breaking Bad), deftly adapted Andrew Ross Sorkin’s 2009 prize winning New York Times Bestseller, Too Big to Fail. (more…)

God knows I’ve criticized Rachel Maddow before.  She’s trite, pretentious, and smug, a female version of Jon Stewart without any of the charm.  Like Obama, the left loves her largely because of her constant aura of pedantry – do you ever get the feeling that leftists still long for the guidance of the college professors who called them brave for toking up and sexually experimenting? – her supposed brilliance, and her sonorous baritone.

Only one problem: last week she proved that not only was she a raging blacklister, she proved that she was an ignoramus.

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It all went down on last Thursday night’s show.  Maddow decided to “debunk” Mike Huckabee’s “Learn Our History” program, a rethinking of the American journey from the conservative point of view.  Specifically, Maddow had a problem with Huckabee’s “new and improved past, a revised American history carefully constructed to make you feel more comfortable than you might otherwise feel about our national history.”  She then picked out one specific example – the left’s favorite example: “You may remember the House Un-American Activities Committee.  Part of that was Senator Joe McCarthy red-baiting the living heck out of the entertainment industry … In 1947, Ronald Reagan testified before that committee as a friendly witness, as the president of the Screen Actors Guild.  And in 2011, Mike Huckabee reimagines all of this as six words in his animated hagiography of Ronald Reagan for kids: … ‘He worked against Communism in Hollywood.’”  She then proceeded to attempt to blacklist the company that did the animation for the Learn Our History series, explaining, “If you know who brought this amazing animated sauce to life, please get in touch with us.  We would like to know.”

Whoa there, missy.  Let’s start from the beginning here: in ripping Huckabee, Maddow ignores the fact that Huckabee’s history is actually right, and hers is dramatically wrong.  First off, Senator Joe McCarthy had nothing to do with HUAC – a fact she should have realized since he was a Senator while HUAC was a House committee (in doing so, by the way, she missed out on nailing Richard Nixon, a fact that will surely have her bitching out her producers).

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Protest singers have been notoriously silent since Barack Obama took the oath of office two years ago.

Not Ray Stevens.

The man behind smashes like “The Streak” and “Everything is Beautiful” can’t stop recording, and he often does it with tongue firmly planted in cheek. Consider Stevens’ latest song, “The Skies Ain’t Friendly Anymore,” a swipe at the current security measures making life rough for today’s travelers.

I took off my shoes, my rings and watch

Then a guy said I need to check your crotch

And I’ll need to see all your liquid toiletries

He gave me a grope, a squeeze, and a pat

And I’ll tell you friends when I go to the vet

They treat my old bird dog with more dignity

“It’s a funny song, first and foremost,” Stevens tells Big Hollywood. “We gotta have security, but they’re going about it the wrong way. There needs to be a little more common sense used when we’re screening passengers.”

A simple song won’t change the world, but the conservative singer thinks songs can be a stealth weapon against societal ills.

“The human brain is a funny thing, it’s very susceptible to tempo and melody,” he says. “You put the right words to it and it becomes very influential.” (more…)

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A beautiful, heartfelt speech, eloquently delivered with nothing divisive that would turn off those fans of his who might not share a similar affection for President Ronald Reagan. There really is a way for big stars to thread a political needle without alienating half their audience, and Sunday morning at the Reagan Library, Gary Sinise showed the way. 

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Ed. Note: Monday, HBO will air Eugene Jarecki’s documentary “Reagan.” The video embedded below is a 40 minute interview with the director that we’ve added to the Fox News piece. More on the great man here at Big Hollywood tomorrow, the Centennial of his birth.

Hollie McKay over at Fox News:

President Ronald Reagan is getting a lot of attention across the United States this week, including a special video tribute during the Super Bowl, as the country honors the centennial of his birth.

In conjunction with the commemorations, Eugene Jarecki’s new documentary “Reagan,” which explores the “glamorous leading man with the common touch,” debuts on HBO Monday night. Jarecki told FOX411 that most Americans will probably be surprised to learn about the “real” Ronald Reagan, a man he feels is quite different from the one portrayed by the media and history books. …

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“One of the great myths about Reagan was that he was an amicable dunce – a guy that floated his years throughout the White House and was just the puppet of smarter men. That could not be farther from the truth from what I saw in getting to know Reagan very intimately through the footage and interviews that I did with people who knew and loved him and worked with him, and also people who were very critical of him,” Jarecki said. “He was a shrewd thinker in many ways, and far smarter than people gave him credit for. He was also a man with blind spots and shortcomings. But the idea that he was just a figurehead and not the driving force of his presidency is to not understand that he was really the driving force of a massive life that began with small town roots and ended up in the most powerful office in the world and arguably one of the greatest presidential legacies in the world. That did not happen by accident.”

Interestingly, Jarecki also told FOX411 he didn’t think doesn’t Reagan, an advocate of limited government, would necessarily approve of the Tea Party, a vocal proponent of limited government. Why? Namely, the issue of immigration. (more…)

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This via a press release from the Young America’s Foundation (YAF). Reagan paraphrases a bit of scripture in the preview below, “I look to the hills, from whence cometh my strength.” Reads the actual scripture, “I lift up my eyes to the hills from whence cometh my help. My help comes from the Divine; Maker of heaven and earth.”

SANTA BARBRA, CA – Young America’s Foundation announced today that their inaugural film production, Still Point in a Turning World: Ronald and his Ranch, will premier at the conclusion of the Foundation’s Reagan 100 Gala with Vice President Dick Cheney. The dinner banquet will be held at the Reagan Ranch Center on Saturday night. The film, written and directed by Stephen K. Bannon, is the definitive examination of Ronald Reagan’s beloved ranch and its personification of his philosophy and values. Ronald Reagan’s Rancho del Cielo, the “‘Ranch in the Sky,” was not just a respite from the chaotic world that his Presidency encountered, but also a living embodiment of the values he held dear. The Ranch was where hard work and self-reliance showed themselves in the principles he championed for all Americans: Freedom, Prosperity, Victory.

The thought of an homage to Reagan’s Ranch left me thinking about Sarah Palin’s recent travelogue from Alaska, which some in the establishment viewed as un-presidential. Somehow I doubt they would dare say the same thing about former President Reagan drawing strength from his ranch. It’s also worth noting how his Crawford ranch played such a significant role in the presidency of George Bush. The theme of a rugged outdoorsman, or perhaps one day a woman, and the American spirit, and even the presidency, goes all the way back to Teddy Roosevelt, if not further. (more…)

Nothing’s funnier than watching left-wing Hollywoodists whine over the fact that their precious Obama refused to raise taxes on those making over $250,000 a year — in the middle of a lingering recession that shows no signs of getting better any time soon. And Adam McKay isn’t the only millionaire demanding that “the wealthy,” or as I call them, The Job Creators, have their taxes raised at the worst possible time.

Adam McKay wearing Aaron Sorkin’s glasses and his little sister’s scarf…

On the pages of the Huffington Post, the uber-wealthy “Anchorman” director tries to hide his class warfare (something only wealthy liberals can afford to wage because the rest of us count on the “rich” to hire us and buy our goods) as some sort of concern over the federal deficit, which is the very definition of disingenuous:

As disappointing as Obama has turned out to be I think he still knows that $110 billion more added to the deficit in the next two years is a bad idea.

And yet McKay registered no righteous HuffPo indignation, not a peep of HuffPo hand-wringing over what ObamaCare and the $800 billion union/bureaucrat giveaway we now call The Failed Stimulus would do to the deficit. In fact, over at McKay’s “Funny or Die,” Big Movie Star support for the budget-busting ObamaCare bill (that makes $110 billion look like piggy bank shakings) was everywhere.

Adam McKay cares about the deficit like I care about the upcoming “Tron” sequel.

McKay and the legions of dishonest Leftists like him only care about the deficit when such a posture works as convenient propaganda in order to sound like fiscal hawks and further their socialist agenda. McKay doesn’t even care how silly and hypocritical he looks because the shame gene is non-existent in these folks. Reading the likes of McKay fret over a $130 billion deficit increase is like watching the Little Dutch Boy put his finger in the dyke after its burst and then stand there with a smug look that says, “I am selfless and amazing.” (more…)

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“It’s beyond what you can think of as bankruptcy,” says documentary filmmaker Ray Griggs of the current state of U.S. debt. “In our world, you go bankrupt. In the government world, they just keep writing checks.”

In his new documentary, I Want Your Money , which opens nationwide in more than 400 theaters on October 15, Griggs examines the fiscal crisis the U.S. faces today by comparing two iconic presidents—Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan—and their views on the proper role of government.

Griggs talked with Reason.tv’s Ted Balaker about our nation’s mounting debt, his controversial iPhone app, Bobble Rep , and the difficulties he faced making a conservative documentary in Hollywood. (more…)

FIRST CONTACT 

In this excerpt, pilots from the People’s Liberation Army Air Force serving as “volunteer” supporters for an Islamic uprising in Tunisia engage Italian F-104s, and are engaged by Lieutenant Renee Patterson and Commander Marissa O’Malley. 

DRAGON ONE 

Chin closed in on the Italian fighter. It would be his third kill of the night. He forced himself to remain calm as he waited for radar lock. This had been much easier than he had anticipated. The Americans had not responded yet. 

He thumbed the laser range-finder in his IRST, and smiled. He waited for a radar lock. These were hardly worthy opponents for him and his Flanker, but he had to destroy them nonetheless. 

Chin took a deep breath, and when the tone signaling he had a radar lock sounded in his earphone, he smiled. (more…)

From the Hollywood Reporter:

The story of Ronald Reagan’s life — from boyhood to Hollywood actor to leader of the free world — is about to spill out on the big screen in a way quite different from the miniseries that caused such a stir seven years ago.

The feature film, titled “Reagan” and sporting a $30 million production budget, is set for release late next year and will be based on two best-selling biographies of the 40th U.S. president by Paul Kengor: “The Crusader” and “God and Ronald Reagan.”

Mark Joseph, who optioned the books four years ago, is co-producing with Ralph Winter and Jonas McCord wrote the script…

Said Joseph: “This is a great story. I’m just glad no one else in Hollywood thinks so, or they’d have made this film by now.”

The “Reagans” miniseries starred James Brolin as the president and was supposed to air on CBS until a controversy erupted over alleged left-wing bias… (more…)

Vignettes from my new book Hollywood Stories: Short, Entertaining Anecdotes About the Stars and Legends of the Movies!

Don’t Practice What You Preach

Warren Beatty was fired up to direct and star in the 1981 drama Reds, which told the story of John Reed, the founder of the American Communist Party. The forty-four-year-old sex symbol Beatty had scored big at the box office with the 1978 comedy Heaven Can Wait, and now wished to tackle much more serious subject matter. Leery of the politics, but wanting to be in the Warren Beatty business, Paramount Studios’ executives reluctantly agreed to pony up twenty-five million. Warren led a large cast through a punishing nine-month schedule in which they recreated the 1917 Russian Revolution. The completed Reds got great reviews, won a Best Director Oscar for Beatty, but struggled to earn back its costs. The leading man’s passion for his project inadvertently drove up the film’s expenses; at one point during the production of Reds, several extras became so inspired by one of Beatty’s anti-capitalistic speeches that they went on strike. (more…)

After the moribund Carter years, the age of Reagan issued in a new era of American confidence. And with that confidence came a wave of films full of male bravado after a decade of paranoid, navel gazing films with negative endings.

Carter capped off the sad decade of the 70s, where America bailed on Vietnam, a president resigned in shame and Carter let Iran fall into Islamo-Fascist hands and then failed to rescue our hostages, which Iran humiliated before the world. His economy was as terrible as this one. And the Democrats of his day echoed the same defeatist sentiments of this period, claiming people better get used to high unemployment and an moribund economy because it’s here to stay. American cities were decaying. The Big Apple was said to be rotting and it’s best days were over.

The 70’s movies, echoed the sentiments of many film makers of that era, which showed a government that was corrupt and predatory. America was seen as a hopeless, crime ridden nation where the little guy had to fight corruption at every turn. Hollywood cranked out revenge films, crime films, conspiracy films. Many of them had an unhappy ending. The few exceptions, like Star Wars were a huge hit, but they were an exception to the rule. (more…)

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Who doesn’t like a good biography movie? In Hollywood they’re called bio pics and they often do very well at the box office, especially when the subject has a compelling life story. Of course, filmmakers are like any other type of creative artist in that they tend to focus on subjects that interest them.

Hollywood doesn’t seem very interested in the life stories of conservative icons unless they’re slandering them as in Oliver Stone’s hit piece on George W. Bush called “W.” which was released (sheerly by coincidence) a month before the 2008 presidential election.

Stone is currently working on a documentary series about Hitler, Stalin, Mao and other fiends which is, in his own words, designed to educate the American people so we can learn to “empathize” with them. Well isn’t that just ducky? I can hardly wait to be taught how to empathize with Hitler and Stalin.

In recent years we were treated to biographies like Steven Soderbergh’s heroic homage to Che Guevara, the murderous villain whose face can be seen on numerous t-shirts at your local hipster joint. And who could forget the Ed Harris tribute to the poor misunderstood genius Jackson Pollock? He revolutionized the art world when he wasn’t getting drunk and abusing his wife. (more…)

If you’re a first generation watcher of MTV, you must remember the year 1984 and  Band Aid. Bob Geldof and other musicians from Duran Duran, Genesis, Culture Club, The Police and U2 teamed up to make a record which would raise money to buy food for starving people in Africa.

How? Through record sales. In other words: Capitalism.

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They didn’t demand that any government should pay the tab for the recording, production or distribution of their product. They relied on the free market system to solve the problem.

There was no politically correct objection to the song’s refrain which clearly references “Christmas” by saying “feed the world, let them know it’s Christmas time again.” (more…)

“Objectivity is impossible,” self-styled “peoples’ historian” Howard Zinn once remarked, “and it is also undesirable. That is, if it were possible it would be undesirable, because if you have any kind of a social aim, if you think history should serve society in some way; should serve the progress of the human race; should serve justice in some way, then it requires that you make your selection on the basis of what you think will advance causes of humanity.”

History serving “a social aim,” rather than chronicling the past in a detached manner, is what readers get in A People’s History of the United States. With any luck, “The People Speak,” the History Channel documentary based on the book that premieres this Sunday, will be, like so many Hollywood productions, unfaithful to the original. Given A People’s History of the United States’ infidelity to facts, this might be the only chance viewers have of seeing anything resembling an accurate retelling of history.

Through Zinn’s looking-glass, Maoist China, site of history’s bloodiest state-sponsored killings, transforms into “the closest thing, in the long history of that ancient country, to a people’s government, independent of outside control.” The authoritarian Nicaraguan Sandinistas were “welcomed” by their own people, while the opposition Contras, who backed the candidate that triumphed when free elections were finally held, were a “terrorist group” that “seemed to have no popular support inside Nicaragua.” Admitting some human rights abuses, Zinn writes that Castro’s Cuba “had no bloody record of suppression.”

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If indeed former Alaska Governor and Vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin is the joke the new left claims her to be, one wonders why they don’t simply ignore her. On the contrary, they devote an unusual amount of energy into making her the butt of their jokes and seeking every opportunity to discredit her and cover her with political dirt. The Associated Press for example assigned 11 reporters to fact-check her new book “Going Rogue.” The AP assigned exactly 2 reporters to read through the more than 4 thousand pages of the Obama healthcare bills. So much attention seems to belie the New Lefts claims that Palin is a light-weight– not worthy of our respect or attention.

Such a focus of energies seems a tacit acknowledgement that Palin and the principles she represents are a force to be reckoned with.

The primary knock against Palin is that she is dumb, or what is more politely called an anti-intellectual. Of course, the new liberal narrative views all conservatives as not only evil, but downright stupid – not ill informed or teachable, but simply intellectually inferior. From Carter to Obama the new left has consistently claimed a superior intellect. (more…)

So President Obama says he’d like to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki – something no sitting U.S. president has ever done. Of course, there’s a reason they haven’t: it could be seen as criticism of a painful decision that ended the bloodiest war in history.

Now, I don’t mind if Obama wants to go, and it’s probably presumptuous of me to criticize him for what he might say there, since he hasn’t gone yet.

But if I didn’t, then I wouldn’t have a Gregalogue, and that’s not fair to me, or to those delightful unicorn voices in my head.

And besides, I can pretty much go by what I’ve seen of Obama already. Fact is, whenever he’s overseas, he tends to translate American success into past arrogance. Plus, I don’t think he’ll go to Hiroshima and say, “We did it to save lives,” because that undermines his whole point about nuclear weapons being evil. (more…)