Hollywood

99.7 Percent of Donations from Hollywood Execs Go to Democrats

While Hollywood constantly preaches diversity, some of the entertainment industry’s most powerful and influential executives have given almost exclusively to Democrat candidates and left-wing PACs. According to The Hollywood Reporter, nearly 100 percent of the millions donated from the top executives in Hollywood went to Democrats or PACs working to elect Democrats. THR reports: “Of the more than $4 million in federal donations made by the top Hollywood executives and entertainers, 99.7 percent went to Democrats and Democratic-leaning political action committees or organizations, according to a Hollywood Reporter data review of Federal Election Commission records.” Only three members of this year’s THR 100 list donated to Republicans or Republican committees: Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels donated $5,000 to moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins; WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey gave $2,000 to both Tennessee Republican Senate candidate Marsha Blackburn and the National Republican Congressional Committee; and Viacom CEO Bob Bakish gave $1,500 to Republican Georgia Sen. Johnny Isakson and $1,000 to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The report also notes that Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix, donated over half a million dollars to the Senate Majority PAC, a super PAC that works to get Democrats to win back the Senate. Bill Maher also donated $1 million to the Senate Majority PAC in August. Maher called for a recession in June if it would help get rid of President Trump. “I feel like the bottom has to fall out at some point, and by the way, I’m hoping for it because I think one way you get rid of Trump is a crashing economy. So please, bring on the recession. Sorry if that hurts people but it’s either root for a recession, or you lose your democracy,” he said. It’s also A-list directors like Steven Spielberg and J.J. Abrams and the major Hollywood talent agencies that are lopsidedly donating to Democrats, THR reports. Talent agency management gave consistently and generously to Democrats. After Whitesell ($147,400 in total donations) and Emanuel ($120,400 in donations), CAA Managing Partner Bryan Lourd paced the field ($106,300 in donations), followed by ICM Partners Managing Director Chris Silbermann ($54,700) and CAA Managing Partner Kevin Huvane ($47,300). Directors have been among Hollywood’s most prolific donors, including Steve Spielberg ($549,000) and J.J. Abrams ($347,500). And indeed, many celebrities are getting involved in the midterms like never before. A report from the Washington Post last month indicated that Hollywood has so far given $2.4 million to largely Democratic candidates for the 2018 midterms, more than $1 million than they donated in 2016.

Burt Reynolds Dies at 82

Burt Reynolds, the charismatic star of such films as Deliverance, The Longest Yard and Smokey and the Bandit who set out to have as much fun as possible on and off the screen — and wildly succeeded — has died. He was 82. Reynolds, who received an Oscar nomination when he portrayed porn director Jack Horner in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights (1997) and was the No. 1 box-office attraction for a five-year stretch starting in the late 1970s, died Thursday morning at Jupiter Medical Center in Florida, his manager, Erik Kritzer, told The Hollywood Reporter. Always with a wink, Reynolds shined in many action films (often doing his own stunts) and in such romantic comedies as Starting Over (1979) opposite Jill Clayburgh and Candice Bergen; The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982) with Dolly Parton; Best Friends (1982) with Goldie Hawn; and, quite aptly, The Man Who Loved Women (1983) with Julie Andrews. Though beloved by audiences for his brand of frivolous, good-ol’-boy fare, the playful Reynolds rarely was embraced by the critics. The first time he saw himself in Boogie Nights, he was so unhappy he fired his agent. (He went on to win a Golden Globe but lost out in the Oscar supporting actor race to Robin Williams for Good Will Hunting, a bitter disappointment for him.) “I didn’t open myself to new writers or risky parts because I wasn’t interested in challenging myself as an actor. I was interested in having a good time,” Reynolds recalled in his 2015 memoir, But Enough About Me. “As a result, I missed a lot of opportunities to show I could play serious roles. By the time I finally woke up and tried to get it right, nobody would give me a chance.” Still, Reynolds had nothing to apologize for. He was Hollywood’s top-grossing star every year from 1978 through 1982, equaling the longest stretch the business had seen since the days of Bing Crosby in the 1940s. In 1978, he had four movies playing in theaters at the same time. Reynolds’ career also is marked by the movies he didn’t make. Harrison Ford, Jack Nicholson and Bruce Willis surely were grateful after he turned down the roles of Han Solo, retired astronaut Garrett Breedlove and cop John McClane in Star Wars, Terms of Endearment and Die Hard, respectively. He often said that passing on James L. Brooks’ Endearment was one of his worst career mistakes. (Nicholson won an Oscar for playing Breedlove.)

Very sorry to hear of Burt’s passing..  For more, click on the text above.  Think I’ll watch Smokey and the Bandit tonight..  Thanks for the many laughs, Burt.  R.I.P.

Neil Armstrong Movie Starring Canadian Ryan Gosling Doesn’t Feature American Flag

A new movie starring Canadian actor Ryan Gosling tells of the story of Neil Armstrong landing on the moon–but omits the American flag. The Telegraph reports that the flag is not shown in the new movie First Man, with star Ryan Gosling saying that the American moon landing “transcended countries and borders,” and that instead of being an American achievement, it was a “human achievement.” The Canadian actor also acknowledged his own “cognitive bias” due to his nationality. First Man is slated for an October 12, 2018 release date. It’s unclear exactly why the movie would omit the iconic image of Buzz Aldrin standing on the moon with the American flag planted in the surface, even if the producers do consider it a “human achievement” and not solely an American one. Although, it is solely an American one, as the United States is, to this day, the only nation that sent a man to the moon. Gosling hasn’t been as outspoken about his political beliefs as many of his celebrity peers have been in the past, but he has shown flashes of his political sympathies. He once tweeted out a video of socialist Bernie Sanders hugging a Muslim student after the student asked about Islamophobia in America.

Soo..  We now know that Ryan Gosling is another liberal HollyWEIRD actor.  What a shocker, lol.  Let’s be clear..  This is typical HollyWEIRD hating America.  The iconic moment when Neil planted the American flag on the moon was of great historic significance.  At the time, we (i.e. America) was in a “Space Race” with the then Soviet Union.  The planting of the flag was a moment of victory for us.  Yes, it was a “human” achievement.  BUT, it was a uniquely AMERICAN achievement and victory.  Sorry if that offends the tender, bed-wetting sensibilities of the liberals who don’t want to offend some.  Those who are offended by that historical moment need to get over it.  Remember Sputnik?  Well, if the Soviets had beaten us to the moon. and had planted the Soviet flag on the moon, I’m sure socialist-loving HollyWEIRD would have happily included that in the film.  The great Buzz Aldrin has already weighed in on some of Ryan’s ridiculous statements..and he’s clearly not happy with this brazen history revisionism.  Can’t blame him.  I don’t plan on wasting my money supporting this bs.  Hope you don’t either.

Opinion: De Niro’s crude attack on Trump proves liberals are beside themselves that he keeps winning

Courtesy of actor Robert De Niro, we finally have an admission that the Trump-hater agenda has moved from stupid “resisting” to mindless rage. Gone is any pretense that President Trump’s opponents are genuinely concerned about policy or about the condition of the country. On Sunday night at the Tony Awards for Broadway productions, De Niro was brought on stage to introduce singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen. But the moment De Niro got to the microphone he attacked President Trump, using a vulgar invective favored by juvenile bullies. “I’m gonna say one thing: f— Trump,” De Niro said. At that point the 75-year-old star of the upcoming “War with Grandpa” pumped his fists into the air. “It’s no longer down with Trump, it’s f— Trump!” Said on the eve of the Singapore summit, who knew that President Trump working for world peace would so infuriate De Niro? De Niro’s outburst illustrates why the blind and irrational hatred of the president that has infected some on the left is called “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” The crowd cheered De Niro’s obscene comment, with what appeared to be half of the audience giving the insult a standing ovation. In some television close-ups of sections of the crowd, you could see that not everyone was joining in on the fun. One shot, for example, showed a woman with her hand over her mouth looking horrified. Others sat gobsmacked, not applauding and certainly not standing. The clip itself has gone viral on social media. It received massive news coverage. But there was little discussion of why some people in the theatre were appalled and did not applaud. It’s because they want their industry to survive. They want to keep working and keep making money. Consider why awards shows are televised. They’re marketing extravaganzas. The Tonys are broadcast not because everyone in the country is on the edge of their seats wondering who will win Best Play. It’s because the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League are marketing the “excellence of Broadway” to the people they hope will leave their Middle American homes, travel to New York and see a Broadway play or musical. When De Niro declared the effort to “dump” Trump was over, and now the mission was simply to f— him, it was an admission that the only thing that matters now is to harm the president and his agenda. It was also a direct insult to everyone who voted for President Trump – the very people those invested in Broadway want to buy tickets. Salena Zito, a national political reporter and co-author, with Brad Todd, of “The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics,” tweeted this after the De Niro debacle: “Dear Broadway, There are lots of families who voted for Trump who save to take their kids or wives to see stage productions either traveling to NYC or when the productions come to their hometown – they are your bread & butter. I don’t think you understand that you’re losing them.” The moment Donald Trump became the president-elect, Democrats and Never Trumpers had a window open briefly when they could try to define the president. If you were intent on convincing people something about someone that was untrue, you would have to do it before people found out the truth. That initial opportunistic braying of the left centered on claims that President Trump is an idiot, would destroy the economy, and would start World War III. Then we found out not that none of those things are true. Now with everything we know, when someone goes off unhinged like De Niro, the rage is inexplicable and evokes suspicion. An actor tells us it’s time to f— Trump because the economy is blossoming? Because unemployment is at historic lows? Because wages are increasing? Because ISIS is smashed? Because the leader of North Korea signed an agreement Tuesday after meeting with President Trump pledging to work toward the “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula?” One can imagine the conversation in family rooms, other than in Malibu and Manhattan, as the Broadway crowd stood to applaud the tirade. Could some people actually want bad things to happen to Americans simply because they hate President Trump? We have the answer, courtesy of another creation of the entertainment industry, Bill Maher, host of HBO’s “Real Time.” Last Friday, Maher told his audience he was hoping for another recession, because “one way you get rid of Trump is a crashing economy. So please, bring on the recession. Sorry if that hurts people but it’s either root for a recession or you lose your democracy. … I feel like the bottom has to fall out at some point.” Maher is “sorry if that hurts people.” Coming from a man who some reports indicate makes at least $10 million a year, we know a recession certainly wouldn’t hurt him. A simple exchange on Twitter highlights how easily facts expose Trump hatred for the rank absurdity it is. A person tweeting as FunTrendsUSA was appalled that actress and author Alana Stewart found De Niro’s epithet to be disrespectful of the president. FunTrendsUSA snapped back that President Trump “deserves to be cursed, disrespected & impeached. Look at what he’s doing to this country!” Stewart responded by saying: “Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but it’s offensive to many of us to hear that kind of language on live tv. And I’m not sure what he’s doing so terrible since unemployment is lowest in 50 years & black and Hispanic unemployment lowest in history.” Logic, reason, and facts will best mindless rage every time. They also guarantee another Trump victory in 2020.

That spot-on assessment of out-of-touch, extreme liberal HollyWEIRD was written by radio talk show host, and NY Times best-selling author, Tammy Bruce.  If you liked that, check out another of her column’s immediately below.   Excellent!!    🙂

A Marvel Heist and the Booming Business (and Seedy Underworld) of Movie Collectibles

With the market for memorabilia breaking records, collectors and auction houses must contend with thieves, fakers and skeptical police who wonder, “Who in their right mind would pay that much for that?” The hero’s shield from Captain America. Robert Downey Jr.’s mask from Iron Man. A set of X-23 claws from Logan. They’re among the more than $1 million in memorabilia stolen in late February from a Southern California public storage unit in suburban Rancho Cucamonga, allegedly by a pair of thieves now being prosecuted by the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office. The cache, much of which has yet to be recovered, comprised part of Marvel collector Max Anderson’s Stan Lee Museum, a pop-up exhibition he’s operated for seven years on the Comic-Con circuit. Around the time of the Rancho Cucamonga heist, an Iron Man suit reportedly valued at $325,000 was plundered from another storage unit, this one 60 miles away in the San Fernando Valley neighborhood of Pacoima. LAPD detectives are still attempting to solve that case. It’s unclear whether there’s a link. The crimes — along with recent six-figure inside-job robberies targeting the rare collections of Steve Sansweet, the former longtime head of Lucasfilm fan relations, and Joe Quesada, Marvel Entertainment’s ex-chief creative officer — highlight what insiders and experts already know. The untamed, boomtown realm of entertainment artifacts, especially the geekiest ones derived from studio productions and actors’ personal estates, has become a potent business (with some auction house experts estimating it has ballooned from $20 million to $40 million in annual sales a decade ago to $200 million to $400 million today). “I have hedge funds looking to diversify into this market,” says Darren Julien, CEO of Julien’s Auctions. The interest is arriving as Hollywood collectibles are on the verge of a major wave of canonization in the future permanent displays of L.A.’s forthcoming Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. This follows decades of condescension or outright dismissal. (The previous high-visibility marker for memorabilia reverence in the public sphere was the 1990s, when patrons of Planet Hollywood franchises convened under typically zeitgeist-driven chazerai on the order of Tom Arnold’s getup from The Stupids.) James Comisar, a collectibles consultant recognized for his authentication expertise, describes how, in an increasingly “seismic” market, collectors “with unlimited spending potential are trying to club each other to death” for a limited number of the most “iconic pieces — the pieces that you recognize from across the room, the ones that don’t need a descriptive plaque, the instantly recognizable ones where you creep up to the display case, your voice drops, and you go, ‘Holy shit!’ ” As a result, the hunt is always on for the next cache, and auction houses are constantly working relationships in the hope of securing the deaccession of a production’s original materials or a star’s personal property, the latter governed by the so-called Four D’s of estate sales: death, divorce, debt and downsizing. “That’s what I do all day,” says Joe Maddalena, owner of Profiles in History, who has handled a series of sales of Debbie Reynolds’ belongings before and after her 2016 death, grossing more than $25 million. Sansweet jokes, “I’ve been approached by several auction houses: ‘Any time you’re ready to sell!’ ” Reynolds was the industry’s own most famous collector of Hollywood memorabilia, accumulating items ranging from Dorothy’s Wizard of Oz ruby slippers and Marilyn Monroe’s white “subway grate” dress from The Seven Year Itch to a Charlie Chaplin bowler hat. (Now that title arguably belongs to Guillermo del Toro, who maintains Bleak House, a private suburban L.A. residence in the western San Fernando Valley, for his substantial holdings of horror props and other objects.) Reynolds began amassing her trove at what’s agreed to be the dawn of memorabilia collecting: When MGM, under financial pressure, unloaded its physical assets in a first-of-its-kind 1970 auction, resulting in an unprecedented flood of tens of thousands of relics. “I saw people coming in from New Orleans, taking back trucks’ worth of costumes for Mardi Gras,” recalls noted costume archivist and conservator Glenn Brown, who helped stage the event. (He also modeled key pieces onstage, including Clark Gable’s suede outfit from 1951’s Across the Wide Missouri.) “Now I’ll see items associated with the biggest names — Judy Garland, Joan Crawford — selling for 100 times what people paid for them, and others are making copies that are either faked or misidentified in [auction] catalogs, like a Rembrandt.” Adding to any authenticator’s challenge is pop culture collectibles’ unique paradox: These commodities are frequently ersatz objects in the first place, they weren’t usually built to last, their value is in most cases purely symbolic, and their wealthy buyers are, almost by definition, hopeless romantics when it comes to the glory of being deceived by screen illusions. “If [these individuals] were buying a company, they’d go up and down over it a million times and not take anyone’s word for it — they’d do due diligence,” posits Veep executive producer David Mandel, a major collector of Star Wars and comics paraphernalia. “But yet people buy stuff all the time and merrily go, ‘I don’t care.’ ” It’s also a category in which larceny and fraud can flourish because some of the structural safeguards found in analogous markets like the fine art world and sports memorabilia scene have yet to materialize. In addition, law enforcement has generally taken thievery in those other sectors more seriously than cases in the entertainment collectibles realm.

For more, click on the text above.

Oscars hit all-time low in early ratings amid liberal political posturing

The Academy Awards registered Sunday what may be an all-time television ratings low for a politically charged broadcast that featured a slate of nominated movies few viewers had ever seen. Initial Nielsen figures gave the 90th annual Academy Awards an 18.9 percent live same-day household rating, which would be the lowest in Oscars history, below the 20.9 percent rating for the 2008 telecast, according to Deadline Hollywood. The early ratings report for this year’s telecast on ABC also represents a drop of 16 percent from the 2017 awards show, which registered a 22.5 percent household rating. As expected, the four-hour awards show included political jabs at President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, as well as cheers for immigrants and young illegal immigrants known as Dreamers. “To all the dreamers out there, we stand with you,” said actor Kumail Nanjiani, an awards presenter. Some stars wore orange pins from Everytown for Gun Safety “to bring awareness to gun violence prevention,” while others wore black-and-white #TimesUp pins, referring to the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment. Host Jimmy Kimmel called the golden Oscar statue “the most beloved and respected man in Hollywood.” “And there’s a very good reason why: Just look at him. Keeps his hands where you can see them, never says a rude word, and most importantly, no penis at all,” Mr. Kimmel quipped. “He is a literal statue of limitations.” The night’s big winner, “The Shape of Water,” wasn’t a blockbuster, but it did bring in a respectable $57 million at the box office for the best gross by a Best Picture recipient in five years. Still, only two of the nine Best Picture nominees — “Dunkirk” and “Get Out” — grossed over $100 million, and the combined box-office take of the films was the lowest in six years, according to Variety. “As it stands, this is the lowest-grossing crop of best picture contenders since 2011, a fact that should be sending shivers up the spine of ABC executives as they brace for the March 4 telecast,” said Variety’s Brett Lang in a Feb. 20 post.

Nothing really news-worthy..  Just a confirmation that the Oscars, was yet again, just a bunch of nauseating, politically correct, entitlement-minded, extreme liberal, HollyWEIRD elitists sitting around and patting themselves on the back…while going though the usual Trump, and Republican bashing..  And, Jimmy Kimmel was his usual weasley, obnoxious self..    They all just don’t get that most of regular America doesn’t care what they think…and that’s why viewer numbers are at all-time low.

Seal Accuses Oprah Winfrey of Enabling Harvey Weinstein: You Are ‘Part of the Problem’

Grammy-winning singer Seal blasted Oprah Winfrey in a searing post to his Instagram account Thursday, accusing the billionaire media mogul and potential 2020 presidential candidate of being “part of the problem” in Hollywood’s culture of sexual harassment and abuse. The 54-year-old “Kiss from a Rose” singer called out Winfrey for her relationship with disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein, who has been accused of harassing and abusing dozens of women over a decades-long career in Hollywood. Winfrey made two films with Weinstein’s involvement, including 2013’s Lee Daniels’s The Butler and 2007’s The Great Debaters, and can be seen in online photos embracing the fallen mogul. “Oh I forgot, that’s right… you’d heard the rumors but you had no idea he was actually serially assaulting young starry-eyed actresses who in turn had no idea what they were getting into,” Seal wrote on his Instagram account. “My bad.” The singer included a meme of Winfrey and Weinstein that accused her of being “part of the problem for decades,” and captioned the post with the hashtag, “#SanctimoniousHollywood.” Winfrey fueled speculation that she would make a run for the presidency in 2020 after delivering a fiery acceptance speech Sunday at the Golden Globes, during which she spoke about the #MeToo movement to end sexual abuse and said a “new day is on the horizon.”

How great is this?!?  Kudos to Seal for calling out Oprah on her brazen hypocrisy.  Excellent!!