As far as what individual scripts Big Hollywood will be releasing next, that information will have to remain a pleasant a surprise after your first click of whatever morning they are released. We are currently holding a dozen or so SPS reviews on deck. That I can promise. And I do want to thank Mark Tapson, Joe Lindsey, Tim Slagle and Kurt Schlichter for the enormous time, talent and effort each of them put into successfully helping to launch this series. 

Some of you have commented that there are no real sucker punches when you’re dealing with a film starring Sean Penn or directed by Oliver Stone, and wondered why we would waste the SPS reviews on “Fair Game” and “Wall Street 2.”

Three word answer:  

The Entertainment Media.

They are the Palace Guards who look out for Hollywood’s ideological and corporate interests. Their job is to pump up Hollywood’s product, run interference for whatever criticism arises, and if possible, turn the story of an upcoming film or television show into a part of the “national political debate.” These water-carriers whose existence depends on currying and retaining favor with the same people they’re supposed to scrutinize and cover, will label these projects everything from fair-minded and thoughtful to non-partisan — all in the hopes of suckering the unsuspecting into one more propaganda-fest and/or ginning up a little Academy interest. (more…)

Back in February, my Big Hollywood colleague and super-funny-dude Tim Slagle wrote a series of posts on the Broadway musical “Avenue Q”.  The show was going through a mini-crisis/publicity stunt because one of the big punch lines to the song “For Now” was no longer valid:

A song called “For Now” has the puppets reassure each other that most things in life are temporary, like hair and sex. Until recently, one of those temporary things was “George Bush.” Knowing that Obama was to be shortly inaugurated, the producers and writers were perplexed for a replacement. I know it should be obvious to everyone else, but Broadway producers don’t think like you and I. So they threw a contest to decide a better verse.

Two weeks later, Slagle followed up with the big announcement of the new lyric: (more…)

April 29, 2009. 100 days. In case you were in a sensory deprivation tank, you probably know full well that Wednesday was the 100th day of the Obama Administration, and most of the news shows used it as an excuse to give Him the same exact grade they would have given Him for His first day in office.

That grade is completely unchanged by all the goofs and blunders made by this handsome community organizer, who was rushed into an office that was clearly over His head. Their grade was unbesmirched by the other grades given to Him by Wall Street, the President of France,  the North Korean missile launchers, or by four Somali pirates. (The same pirates who were allowed to humiliate the US Navy for three days before the Commander in Chief gave the order to shoot.)

What a great day to do another Late Night Review, and an opportunity to grade the Nation’s Premiere Satirists on their 100 days. In the time since the last review, we saw not only the aforementioned tense situations; but also an Air Force One flyover that created a panic, one heck of a carbon footprint, and a third of a million dollar addition to the deficit, all for the sake of a pretty photograph.

Certainly there must be something worth making fun of by now. We saw Obama calling for an end to privacy, giving a gag gift the Queen, and a bow to the Saudi King. We learned that He works out three hours a day (no wonder He needs a teleprompter to stay current), and thinks Austrian is a language. He again proved that Harvard isn’t so good at teaching American History, claiming He was only three months old during the Bay of Pigs. No news there, He didn’t think He was in government when the deficit occurred either. (more…)

My friend Jane’s church has two services every week. The Sunday service is called the Seeker Service. It’s light, and the focus is on music and the positive aspects of religion. Sometimes they even have an entertaining play as part of the service. The Wednesday service is when the fundamentalist gospel happens; the hardcore stuff that might chase away new converts still questioning their faith. The concept has been hugely successful and these churches boast millions of members nationwide.

I look at Big Hollywood as a Seeker site. We are here to attract people questioning their politics, and welcome them into the philosophy we call Conservatism. We want to be a political home for those strays: people who are uncomfortable with all the flags and Greek columns that the Left has recently embraced. We want to support the new stars of Hollywood, those who have suddenly found themselves in a tax bracket they never thought they could reach, and are suddenly questioning the injustice of a progressive tax code. We want to comfort those who have grown tired of being called a racist for simply questioning the wisdom of putting a community organizer into the most powerful office on earth. (more…)

Ben Shapiro and Tim Slagle have engaged in a little back and forth in recent days about rap and whether or not it’s crap. I read the original piece. The response. The response to the response. The myriad of comments. I’m diving into the fray, dancing delightfully through the crossfire of warring factions of the same army. But as you may know, I’m not one to play peacemaker.

Ben Shapiro is a brilliant kid. I say kid, not in the pejorative, not to denigrate him for his age. But he’s 8 years younger than I and he’s achieved stuff that, when we parents look at our children for the first time, hope for them. Smart, good-looking, already a family man and a lawyer, a published author and commentator, Ben is staring down a world in the shape of an oyster. Good on him. (more…)

At the risk of entering an infinite regress here, I feel it necessary to respond to Tim Slagle’s response to my “Rap is Crap” post.

Let me start by stating that I don’t hate all rap.  This is quality:

–

But seriously, as much as I admire Tim, rap is total garbage.  I’m a member of the younger generation – I just turned 25 – and I still think it sucks.

That’s an artistic critique.  That’s my personal opinion.  But what’s unchallengeable is that the rap culture, which is granted enormous deference by the higher-ups of both political parties, does tremendous harm to this country.   (more…)