The Reviews Are In: Mamet is a ‘Sexist’

Last night, David “I’m No Longer a Brain-Dead Liberal” Mamet’s “Oleanna” opened on Broadway.  The production (a transfer from Los Angeles’ Mark Taper Forum) stars Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles.  As discussed on these pages Friday, this play was originally produced off-Broadway 18 years ago and is now receiving its first, official Broadway production. “Oleanna” and the upcoming “Race” are two opportunities for Mr. Mamet’s work to be evaluated by the heavily-left-leaning theatre critics.

The play received quite positive reviews.  Here are some interesting things I read in the reviews…

In Elysa Gardner’s positive review in USA Today, she refers to the contrasting times in which the play is now produced versus the original production:

When David Mamet’s Oleanna premiered in 1992, it was widely perceived as a response to the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, in which Thomas was accused of sexual harassment by former assistant Anita Hill.  It has been 18 years since that real-life drama played out. But as the very different controversy now surrounding David Letterman reminds us, the debate over what constitutes an abuse of power between a male authority figure and a female subordinate isn’t going away. (more…)

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Tags: anita hill, backstage, ben brantley, bill pullman, broadway
Posted Oct 12th 2009 at 4:34 pm in Featured Story, Politics, Theatre | 24532231 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/sright/2009/10/12/the-reviews-are-in-mamet-is-a-sexist/The+Reviews+Are+In%3A+Mamet+is+a+%27Sexist%272009-10-12+23%3A34%3A05Stage+Right

Michael Moore: Mainstream Media Boosts Dishonesty

Somewhat fresh off the trail from despicable attempts to distort the events and facts surrounding Columbine, 9/11 and the American health care system, filmmaker Michael Moore is back to perpetuate new mis-truths and to face off with a new “villain” – capitalism. In case of shear irony, in his new film entitled, “Capitalism: A Love Story,” Moore sets out to unravel the very system that gives him notoriety, fame and, no doubt, opulence.

Fortunately for Moore, we live in a free society. Despite the fact that his films are comprised of antics and obnoxious absurdities that only small-minded Americans would believe in their totality, he has every right to continue his idiocy. It is the coverage of Moore and his half-witted films that cause one to question the media’s promotional motives.

Mainstream outlets can’t seem to get enough of Moore, as they offer him positive coverage galore and provide him with valuable air time to push his insidious projects. Meanwhile, conservative film projects receive little to no praise – or even attention, for that matter. (more…)

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Tags: American media, capitalism, documentary, media, michael moore
Posted Sep 28th 2009 at 8:55 am in Featured Story, Film, Media Criticism | 231138158 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bhallowell/2009/09/28/michael-moore-mainstream-media-boosts-dishonesty/Michael+Moore%3A+Mainstream+Media+Boosts+Dishonesty2009-09-28+15%3A55%3A11Billy+Hallowell

Former Team Oscar Member Arrested, Freed In Iran

I know I had said my last BH piece would be it. But I came across a tidbit of slightly older news in the June 19th issue of Daily Variety that perhaps finally brings into total focus and stark clarity all I had said in my Big Hollywood op-ed The Stoning Of Team Hollywood, regarding Team Oscar’s ill-advised soiree to Iran this past March. The fascist alligator has finally bitten one of their own.

It is a tale well worth returning to share with you, Dear Readers.

Documentarian James Longley, perhaps best known for his award-winning film Iraq in Fragments, was already filming in Iran in late February when Team Hollywood arrived. According to this March 2nd press release by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences website, Mr. Longley became part of the Team Hollywood crew in Tehran and participated in all activities. (more…)

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Tags: Academy of Motion Picture arts and Sciences, Ahamdinejad, iran, Iraq In Fragments, James Longley
Posted Jun 24th 2009 at 10:03 am in Celebrity News, News, Politics | 1661025 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jtsimpson/2009/06/24/us-filmmaker-james-longley-arrested-in-iran-freed/Former+Team+Oscar+Member+Arrested%2C+Freed+In+Iran2009-06-24+17%3A03%3A44John+T.+Simpson

Turnabout: ‘Transformers 2′ Takes a Shot at President Obama?

To My Obama-Loving Friends:

Please read on, this is fifteen years of experience talking….

You’re excited. Why wouldn’t you be? It’s summertime, it’s Michael Bay, the trailer’s loaded with explosions and hot chicks and mayhem and by gawd you need this – no… you deserve this. You deserve a couple hours in the dark, in the air conditioning, in a place where you’re lifted from the stresses, worries, and hassles of an all-too real world. 

And dammit, you paid good money for this escape, this drug, this promise of both. Hell, crack is cheaper … and lasts longer (from what I hear).  (more…)

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Tags: bush, michael bay, Obama, Transformers 2, Variety
Posted Jun 24th 2009 at 8:21 am in Entertainment, Politics | 1679508 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2009/06/24/turnabout-transformers-2-takes-a-shot-at-president-obama/Turnabout%3A+%27Transformers+2%27+Takes+a+Shot+at+President+Obama%3F2009-06-24+15%3A21%3A28John+Nolte

This Just In: Broadway Not Dead

Back in January you couldn’t watch any entertainment “news” show or read any Arts & Culture section of a newspaper without seeing something about the death of Broadway.  There were so many shows closing all at once that the imminent death of our industry was whined about not just from spineless actors, but from producers as well.  It was so pervasive that Saturday Night Live utilized Neil Patrick Harris’ musical theatre ability to present a skit starring the characters of popular Broadway shows having a meeting at Sardi’s to try to save the industry.

Somewhere, out in the wilderness, on the pages of Big Hollywood, there was a lone voice of reason.  A pragmatic and practical man laying out the facts for you, the ever-interested and conservative reader.  That man, one Stage Right, was shrewd enough to label the producers as “panty-waste industry folk” and explained that their propensity to panic and pull the emergency brake is partly attributed to their liberal tendencies.

(more…)

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Tags: Arts & Culture section, broadway, health insurance, neil patrick harris, Philip J. Smith
Posted Jun 21st 2009 at 6:52 am in Entertainment, Featured Story | 164190One Commenthttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/sright/2009/06/21/this-just-in-broadway-not-dead/This+Just+In%3A+Broadway+Not+Dead2009-06-21+13%3A52%3A00Stage+Right

On the Record, Off the QT and Not Very Hush-Hush

Dear Big Hollywood readers, it gives me great satisfaction to report to you that BH has been out on point not only on compelling film industry issues, which will never be covered in promo rags like Variety and the Hollywood Reporter (but then again, AMPAS and the studios aren’t buying us off), but on many controversial issues being played out in America and the greater world at large as well.

I know this to be true. Being a news junkie myself, I have found time after time as I was reading about a supposedly breaking subject, like ABC’s recent coverage of the targeted LGBT murders in Iraq, that it had already been on display for all to see in Big Hollywood posts for months.

Not to toot my own horn, but…well, okay, I’m tooting my own horn. And those of Andy Breitbart and John Nolte, who have given I, and so many other wonderful and insightful Hollywood right-wing fringe types, a magnificent bullhorn we otherwise would not have. We appear to be doing the dirty jobs our media just refuses to do. It’s a labor Hercules would completely sympathize with. (more…)

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Tags: abc, Academy of Motion Picture arts and Sciences, Adrianne Curry, Ali al-Sistani, AMPAS
Posted Jun 3rd 2009 at 5:20 pm in Entertainment, Politics | 1476823 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jtsimpson/2009/06/03/on-the-record-off-the-qt-and-not-very-hush-hush/On+the+Record%2C+Off+the+QT+and+Not+Very+Hush-Hush2009-06-04+00%3A20%3A57John+T.+Simpson

Variety’s Former Chief Weighs In On Obama’s First 100 Days: Boffo!

Recently dethroned Variety editor-in-chief Peter Bart, whose relevance as a Hollywood insider has been plummeting faster than Variety’s circulation numbers, last week published an article in his new capacity as “bitter old has-been who wont leave gracefully” “vice president and editorial director” extolling the glory of Obama’s first 100 days in office.  The gushing praise bestowed upon the president betrayed an article which may well have been partially typed with only one hand on the keyboard.

Bart characterized Obama’s first 100 days as “downright boffo,” immediately triggering in my head the question:  Which is more played-out and entirely unnecessary in Hollywood these days, the word “boffo” or Peter Bart?  

For those unfamiliar with Bart’s intellectual fortitude, let him paint the picture for you in his own words.  In June of last year, when the threat of a SAG strike loomed over Hollywood, he characterized the situation in his own particular, industry shill je ne sais quoi: (more…)

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Tags: 100 Days, Barack Obama, Bo the dog, boffo, michelle obama
Posted Apr 29th 2009 at 12:53 pm in Entertainment, Media Criticism | 120026No Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/rhunter/2009/04/29/varietys-former-chief-weighs-in-on-obama%e2%80%99s-first-100-days-boffo/Variety%27s+Former+Chief+Weighs+In+On+Obama%E2%80%99s+First+100+Days%3A+Boffo%212009-04-29+19%3A53%3A43Riley+Hunter