Oprah Winfrey’s new cable network OWN is already in trouble. Does the talk titan really think bringing  on board a woman too obnoxious and full of hateful crazytalk for the “The View” is going to help.

Meet the woman who moves into Oprah’s studio this fall:

—–

You have to love freedom of speech, if for no other reason than how it allows us to see who these people really are.

Heckvua choice there, Oprah!

OWN is foolish to gamble millions on a woman who is obviously too full of herself and her own insane ideas — fire can’t melt steel – to sustain any kind of following on daytime talk again. Rosie shorted out sometime during this 1999 Tom Selleck interview and has only gotten worse in the decade since. She’s toxic to anyone not living within 4 square miles of downtown Manhattan and Los Angeles.  Unfortunately, the people who make most of our pop culture decisions never leave that bubble and are unable to grasp that Rosie is a slow motion train wreck already in progress and a long way from stopping.

(more…)

Wow. An intelligent, compelling, quiet drama about a an extended, fairly conservative family that prays together is beating all the high concept, edgy, post-modern, sexy, ironically detached hipster stuff both here at home and overseas:

It might not be the sexiest of this year’s new U.S. shows, but Blood Bloods has proved the most commercial at home and internationally combined. The Tom Selleck cop show has topped a chart of how this season’s freshman shows have performed. Blue Bloods has sold around the world, and not just to tiny channels but to big ones like Sky Atlantic in the UK, Australia’s Network Ten and Discovery Latin America. Armando Nunez, president CBS Studios International, has told TV trade Television Business International, “It’s perhaps not as sexy to talk about, but it has proven a success both on the network and in terms of global distribution.” TBI is due to publish its survey of U.S. network pick-ups Monday. Indeed, CBS’ strategy of showing procedurals might hug the shore creatively, but it has paid off globally. Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, another CBS procedural, is in second place. Says Nunez, “The road is littered with pilots and broken series and high concepts that didn’t work. We are in broadcasting.”

(more…)

Given the astoundingly sudden collapse of several new television shows this season—most notably Jon Voight’s “Lone Star,” which unfortunately vanished quicker than you could chug a beer of the same name — “Blue Bloods” appears to be a keeper. And well it should be. 

This police drama features a talented ensemble cast of Tom Selleck as Francis Reagan, the current New York City Police Commissioner; Donnie Wahlberg as his son, detective Daniel Reagan, Bridget Moynahan as his daughter, Erin Reagan-Boyle, Will Estes as rookie officer Jamie Reagan, and Len Cariou as the great-grandfather and former police commissioner Henry Reagan. Also providing solid and convincing roles are Jennifer Esposito (“Jackie Curatola,” Danny Reagan’s partner); Amy Carlson (“Linda,” Danny’s wife), Sami Gayle (“Nicky,” Erin’s daughter), and Nicholas Turturro (Sgt. Anthony Renzulli,” Jamie’s training officer). 

Wahlberg is believable and refreshing in any role he’s in, whether it’s Lieutenant Lipton in “Band of Brothers” or Duddits in “Dreamcatcher.” Selleck, though he tends to reprise his “Jesse Stone” character (without the alcoholism), is nevertheless always a joy to watch—probably even more so for the ladies. Esposito is at home as a cop, and Cariou looks like he could still wield a police baton. 

What makes “Blue Bloods” work is a well-worn interchange of a weekly action plot combined with an almost Waltonesque family life, usually including a family dinner at least once per episode and sometimes more often. At these dinners, the true moral and messages of “Blue Bloods” emerges, and it ain’t typical Hollywood liberalism. A common dinner discussion frequently turns into a debate between the (somewhat) bleeding heart Erin and the street-tough Danny, with Henry playing the role of out-of-style, head-knockin’, old-fashioned cop and Selleck moderating.

Adding to family tensions, Dylan Moore (“Sydney Davenport,” Jamie’s fiancee) got engaged to an up-and-coming big-shot attorney when Jamie felt the call of the family profession and abandoned the well-heeled life of a corporate lawyer to dodge bullets and chase drug-dealers. More often than not, the conclusion is that police are hampered by overly-protective measures for defendants; that the mayor and other politicians care only about good news instead of real results, and that there was something to be said for the “good old days” of law enforcement.  (more…)

The first thing the viewer will notice about the new CBS series Blue Bloods (Fridays, 10 EDT) is its impressive cast: Tom Selleck, Donnie Wahlberg, Bridget Moynahan, and Len Cariou lead a very talented group of performers. But what makes the show really worth watching is its sophisticated attitude toward the police: in theory they are admirable, and to a great degree in practice as well, but the exceptions are often disastrous.

—–

The opening scenes of the pilot episode establish a strongly positive view of the police, conveying a sense that the great majority go into the job with some amount of idealism, even if the system is prone to corruption. We meet the Reagan family, a multigenerational clan of New York City police officers, currently led by Police Chief Frank Reagan (Selleck). His son, Detective Danny Reagan (Wahlberg), is called away from a graduation ceremony for new police officers, where his Harvard-educated brother is one of the new-minted coppers.

All of this sets up the ideal against which the show then compares the reality of policing a major American city. The case to which Danny Reagan is called concerns a daylight kidnapping of a young girl off a New York City street. Reagan and partner Demarcus King (Flex Alexander) follow up on a meager allotment of clues, pressed hard by a pair of urgent deadlines: the awareness that the odds of recovering a kidnap victim unharmed raise exponentially with each passing hour, and, perhaps equally important in their minds, pressure from the mayor and other political figures to avert the inevitable public relations nightmare a killing would create. (more…)

1. After “truth, justice, and all that stuff…” and knowing that the upcoming Captain America won’t be so American, hearing that Superman, Son of Jor-El, is now in the smart, capable hands of The Mighty Christopher Nolan means that there is hope that the next screen incarnation of The Man of Steel will not be a brooding stalker on some sort of journey of self-discovery to find his inner meterosexual and emotional life.

Nolan will oversee the film’s production and is currently looking at a short-list of potential directors:

Making the list are “Unstoppable” helmer Tony Scott, “Let Me In” director Matt Reeves, “Battle: Los Angeles” helmer Jonathan Liebesman (who tapped for “Clash of the Titans 2″), Duncan Jones of “Source Code” and “Sucker Punch” guy Zack Snyder.

Expect news of a decision to come sooner rather than later because Warner Bros. and Legendary need to get the picture made by 2012 because of a rights ruling that went against the studio and favored heirs of Superman creator Jerry Siegel and takes effect in 2013.

Though we will never enter into the business of second-guessing Mr. Nolan, we are lighting candles for Zack Snyder.

—–

2. ‘Twas political correctness that killed “Sex.” (more…)

1. Four time Oscar-nominee and WWII veteran (The Mighty) Mickey Rooney celebrates his 90th birthday today.

—–

2. Lame Celebrity Tweet of the Day: Seth MacFarlane:

I wonder if anyone called him “Andrew Breitfart” in high school.

MacFarlane, radio host actress Amy Holmes, and Breitbart will meet this Friday night at the roundtable on HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher.”

—–

3. Fugitive child rapist attracts A-list cast

—–

4. “International human rights and climate change advocate” Bianca Jagger wants Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell to stop an execution. I’d listen to her. She is a international human rights and climate change advocate. (more…)

Back during its highly successful run, I loved the show “Friends.”  If I had the opportunity, I would have moved heaven, earth or (God forbid) my gaming night to meet the cast (except for Ross).  Today, I wouldn’t reschedule the sort of dentist appointment that involves sharp implements, hemorrhaging, and crying to be in the same room as the cast from “Jersey Shore.”  The reason for this is simple; the folks from Friends were stars.  The cast of Jersey Shore is rampaging herd of schmucks.  So why are we seeing more of the “Snooki” types on television and fewer Jennifer Anistons?  The answer is simple.  It’s all about money. 

Back in the good old days of television, there were really only three networks that provided most of the news and entertainment.  This meant that “Magnum P.I.” Tom Selleck only had to drive his Ferrari over James Naughton of “Trauma Center” and “Gimme a Break’s” Nell Carter to win his time slot.  Granted even the powerful car may have had problems getting over the, well, um…ample form of Ms. Carter, but Mr. Selleck managed to do it and charm his way to a ratings number of 22.4.  The success of the show, which had a lot to do with Tom’s massive appeal to the television audience, justified his $50,000 per episode price tag.  In today’s money that translates into over $100,000 per episode.  It is no longer 1983 though, and the times have dramatically changed. 

If Magnum P.I. were being produced today, it would not be competing against two other networks, but rather there would be over a dozen legitimate contenders for just about any time slot.  A diversified audience means that each show gets less than they did a couple of decades ago.  This is important when you consider that a ratings number is not just an ego booster that tells a producer they are winning a time slot.  A ratings number is a legitimate commodity that is converted to cash when advertising time is sold.  The bigger the number, the more money it is worth.  Ratings numbers are smaller today, but this connection between ratings and money seem lost on high profile stars.  Many still insist on premium salaries.   (more…)

A 1995 Los Angeles Times Magazine cover proclaimed him “The Coolest Actor in the World,” and yet most Americans to this day have never heard of him. For fans of Hong Kong films, though, he is Asia’s answer to Steve McQueen — if the latter had made over seventy movies in ten years, most of them decent and some of them great.

The artistic pinnacle of his work in Hong Kong are his collaborations with John Woo filmed between 1986 and 1992. Those of us who equate the modern action movie to elder tales of heroic bloodshed such as The Iliad and the Norse sagas find these films to be sources of endless delight, and much of the credit for this feeling must go to Chow. In John Woo: The Films, author Kenneth E. Hall makes a trenchant point when he writes that, “Not much is usually said, in connection with Woo, about Chow’s contributions to character studies, but his efforts in A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, and Hard Boiled have created at least three memorable and distinct characters who are yet all of a piece, men of an essential integrity and heroism who rediscover or reaffirm their humanity in struggles with evil.”

This thematic tableau is red meat to conservative film lovers, the same stuff I was talking about when I wrote a piece on Taken here at Big Hollywood last year. But even to give Chow Yun-fat credit for all of this is selling him short — unlike many more muscle-bound action heroes, those Woo classics by no means delineate the limits of his talent or appeal.  Bey Logan, the HK film fanatic who authored the entertaining volume Hong Kong Action Cinema, insists that, in the wake of his collaborations with Woo, Chow became not just Hong Kong’s greatest action star but its greatest acting star. “Chow was the first Hong Kong thespian,” he notes, “to attain boffo box-office with vehicles as disparate as the tragi-comic Autumn’s Tale, the action-packed A Better Tomorrow and the slapstick Eighth Happiness. Chinese audiences just adore Chow Yun-fat in any of his many guises.”

As do many Americans. (more…)

I must have missed the groundswell of support and the public clamor for the return of Rosie O’Donnell to the daytime airwaves.  It seemed that her time in the cultural spotlight had passed following her notorious 2008 variety show failure (It was hailed by one merciful critic as “dead on arrival”) and her exile to a daily Sirius XM radio show that caters to creepy shut-ins and those unlucky listeners who can’t figure out how to tune-in to Howard Stern.  But like some sort of loudmouthed, frumpy, left-wing vampire who just won’t stay in the ground, she is threatening to rise again with a terrifying plan to replace Oprah once the Queen of Daytime TV retires in 2011.  Someone in Hollywood, please – break out the garlic.

Of course, I’m hardly Rosie’s daily television show target demographic.  I work for a living instead of sitting at home staring slack-jawed at the succession of Sham-Wow commercials and ads for shyster lawyers promising big payouts for the imaginary injuries of their deadbeat clients that fill the time between inane segments of mindless yak.  And while the social parasite demographic seems to grow larger after every freebie, hand-out and pay-off the Administration and its Congressional flunkies issue in favor of their employment-averse constituents, Rosie O’Donnell still seems like a bad economic bet.

This is no longer the same country as it was back in 1999 when Rosie was honchoing her first daytime gabfest and hassling Tom Selleck over his support for the Second Amendment of the Constitution.  It’s not even the same country as it was in May 2007, when the former “Queen of Nice’s” anti-conservative bile culminated in her slandering American fighting men and women as terrorists on The View: (more…)

You’ve heard it said before: “The book is better than the movie.” But the movies helped me write my new book, The First Assassin.

The First Assassin is a historical thriller set primarily in Washington, D.C., at the start of the Civil War. Bestselling author Vince Flynn blurbs it on the front cover: “An excellent book–it’s like The Day of the Jackal set in 1861 Washington.”

The Day of the Jackal is a twofer: Both the book (by Frederick Forsyth) and the movie (the 1973 version) are excellent. But the book is still better. It’s super excellent.

Anyway, I started working on The First Assassin in 1996–more than 13 years ago. Yeah, that’s a long time. It was the project I kept setting aside when something more pressing came along, such as the birth of a child or a writing deadline that came with a guaranteed paycheck. (more…)

This week’s Washington Times column:

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. | After spending two weeks on something akin to a fact-finding mission in depressed New York and depleted Washington, D.C., I found no answers to our nation’s mounting ills. I discovered that there is much to be angry about and unlimited reasons for deep concern. But on the evening after my return, the stars aligned on the outskirts of Los Angeles at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, and for a brief moment I felt safe again in America.

On Saturday, my wife and I were privileged to attend the second annual “Celebration of Freedom Gala.” We joined more than 1,000 others who, like us, were electrified to honor 43 of the 98 living Medal of Honor recipients. We also gave our thanks to former first lady Nancy Reagan, war hero and actor Charles Durning, and Gen. David H. Petraeus. (more…)