Celebrities

On June 15th I had a post on Big Hollywood detailing Gene Simmons’ admission not simply that he voted for Obama, but that he wanted his vote back. It was during an interview on Fox Business’ Varney & Co. that Simmons stated clearly: “[Obama] is unqualified.” (He went to refer to Obama’s foreign policy toward Israel as “lunacy” and to deride Obama’s furtherance of the nanny state mentality via government handouts.)

Now, Simmons has upped the ante by predicting “The next president will be Gov. Rick Perry.” (Mind you, Obama is running for re-election, so this is tantamount to saying Perry is going to beat Obama in 2012.)

Since conservative talk-radio star Laura Ingraham confronted NBC morning co-host Matt Lauer on NBC about the sleazy acts the Peacock Network booked for its summer concert series, Ingraham applied the same scrutiny when she interviewed ABC Good Morning America co-host George Stephanopoulos on the first hour of her radio show Thursday. She asked about their booking the group LMFAO for today. (That's short for "laughing my f-----g a-- off.") George touted they "scrubbed their lyrics" for the ABC show.

The ABC host was more contrite about Nicki Minaj, who had too much of a breast pop out on the August 5 edition of the morning show. Stephanopoulos said GMA has a delay button, but the producers "missed" their opportunity to keep ABC decent. It sort of a made a mockery out of the song Minaj sang. It's called "Where Them Girls At." (One of them girls was breaking out.)

Appearing in an interview on ABC's "Primetime Nightline" last week (Thu., 8/10/11), Hollywood actor Corey Feldman aired a truly brave and shocking claim:

"I can tell you that the No. 1 problem in Hollywood was and is and always will be pedophilia. That's the biggest problem for children in this industry ... It's the big secret."

It was not Feldman's only stomach-turning assertion. He also claimed that the "casting couch," the sick Hollywood legend by which roles are given in exchange for sex, even applies to children.

The NBC Universal-owned cable channel Bravo has earned a pro-gay reputation since the reality show "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy." But on Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles, it will be raising money for the gay censorship group called the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). The event is a "Bravo Top Chef Challenge," after the hit cooking show:

Enjoy the BRAVO Top Chef challenge, delicious tasting stations from incredible Los Angeles high-end restaurants and caterers, entertainment, and an amazing food & wine-themed silent and live auction. Join us and help GLAAD raise funds to amplify the voice of the LGBT community!

Immediately after President Obama took office, his Hollywood benefactors clamored for the creation of a "Secretary of Culture." Tinseltown was disappointed with the administration's crony arts czar choice (Chicago lawyer Kareem Dale), but left-wing artists and entertainers have now been mollified.

Instead of one government-supported arts czar, the White House has designated an entire herd of them.

Born blocks from the NBC soundstage in 1984 to parents in the entertainment industry, Ben Shapiro is a natural choice to write a book about Hollywood. For his new book "Primetime Propaganda," Shapiro has studied decades of television content and interviewed a bevy of powerful Hollywood producers to document the degree to which they have created a political and cultural revolution of permissive leftism.

The project gets off to a harsh start. In his introduction, Shapiro attacks "traditional" TV critics on the cultural right for being "worse than useless," suggesting some unnamed conservatives are insisting TV should not be watched. “When conservatives treat television as the Golden Calf, they leave no choice but to lay low the unbelievers -- and most of us continue to continue occasionally glancing at the offending cow."

There's nothing more intolerable to the Left than "intolerance" (read traditional religious conviction on sex and marriage).

In a June 1 post at Salon.com's War Room blog, Williams cheered  Miley Cyrus's rude response via Twitter last Thursday to a fan who was chagrined at the pop star's glee at folks "hating on Urban Outfitters" for a donation a company executive had made years ago to social conservative Republican Rick Santorum (Pa.), an opponent of same-sex marriage:

Actor Alan Cumming (IMDb page), who was born in Britain and plays the scheming campaign manager “Eli Gold” on CBS’s The Good Wife, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last week: “I wanted to become a U.S. citizen so that I could vote for [Barack] Obama.” Cumming also has a voice role in the upcoming The Smurfs movie.

The Post-Gazette’s Patricia Sheridan explained in the interview published March 7: “Cumming, 46, is a citizen of both Great Britain and the U.S. Once married to a woman -- he's now with a man -- Mr. Cumming has described himself as bisexual and is outspoken about gay rights issues. He will be in Pittsburgh March 16 for the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force benefit at the O'Reilly Theater.”

Well it’s that time of year when all of the rich leftists in Hollywood get out their $40,000 dollar gowns, put on their millions in jewelry, climb into their limos, and head up to the Kodak Theater to pat themselves on the back for being working class heroes. I couldn’t care less about which picture or actor gets a trophy, I just love listening to the political correctness and monumental hubris on display for the world to see.

Frankly, I did not think of Chris Matthews as an episodic apologist until I watched his MSNBC documentary this week, "President of the World: The Bill Clinton Phenomenon." The episodic apologists are a familiar fixture of the Clinton administration, much as the court historians are a fixture of the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Whereas the court historians always could be relied upon to spin history FDR's heroic way, the episodic apologists always end up slobbering all over the Clintons — albeit with a twist.

The court historians were always pretty straightforward. They adored FDR from the beginning to the end. The episodic apologists' lives are endlessly more complicated and melodramatic, as the Clintons are more complicated and melodramatic. There seems to be a script prepared for them. The apologists begin with high hopes and admiration for Bill and Bruno. Then Bill and Bruno fail them. The Clintons lie before grand juries or filch White House property while exiting for Chappaqua, or they are caught in Troopergate, in Travelgate, in Filegate or renting the Lincoln Bedroom. Of a sudden, the apologists suffer blighted hopes. First they become indignant. Then they feel used and abused. Some cry in public. Finally, hope springs anew.

AP reporter Ryan Foley's update from Madison on Monday night included details about a rock musician causing the crowd to to roar: "At noon, guitarist Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine took to a stage on the Capitol steps to fire up the crowd. He said he flew in from California to lend his voice to the protest."

While reporters like Adam Nagourney "worry" out loud that the Wisconsin Republicans are going to look too extreme, AP somehow left out Morello's truly appalling and extremist stands, like speaking fondly of Philadelphia cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal and the Maoist Shining Path terrorists in Peru. If that didn't seem pro-violence enough, then there's Morello praying for the drowning of President Bush in 2007, as reported in the Washington Post:

Onstage, when the Nightwatchman [Morello] sang, "I pray that God himself will come and drown the president if the levees break again," the Jammin' Java crowd's attitude was chilling. People were praying.

Unfortunately, being called "Mr. Hannah Montana" in a glossy-magazine headline is far from Billy Ray Cyrus' biggest problem.

As many a headline has proclaimed, the former country music and television star may be suffering from a brutally true-life "Achy Breaky Heart." Cyrus is divorced and somewhat estranged from his famous daughter, Miley, born Destiny Hope.

Talking about his time co-starring as Hannah Montana's dad in his daughter's series by that name, he tells GQ: "You think, 'This is a chance to make family entertainment, bring families together ...' and look what it's turned into."

In a recent interview with Matt Frei for BBC Radio 4's  January 30 "Americana" program, liberal actor Richard Dreyfuss complained that America has been downcast with a "delusionary despair" since the day his hero President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

"I don't think we'll ever grow up until we face the anguish and face the loss of what we felt that day," Dreyfuss lamented.

[Link to MP3 audio follow page break]

Cartoonist Darrin Bell is no conservative. His syndicated comic strip "Candorville," when it does get political, often skews to the left.

But Bell's January 10 strip caught my eye the other day for mocking a dreadfully dopey line uttered by CBS correspondent Priya David-Clemens on the January 3 "CBS Early Show."

"Gandhi likely never had a year like [Lindsay] Lohan's 2010," David-Clemens noted in a report on the actress that began by noting the celebrity's New Year's Day 2011 tweet which quoted Mahatma Gandhi.

Bell's strip depicts Candorville's main character Lemont lying in bed, wishing to skip 2011, asking his friend Susan to wake him up when it's 2012.

Last week my colleague Scott Whitlock noted that the January 3 network morning shows devoted 52 minutes to Lohan coverage and only 20 seconds to a controversial recess appointment by President Obama.

Below you'll find the comic strip and the video in question from the 7:30 a.m. EST hour of the January 3 "Early Show":

Anyone who’s seen Bravo’s "Top Chef" knows Tom Colicchio.  He’s a man who knows how to cook and a man who knows good food.  And, while his taste buds work magnificently, he’s apparently politically tone deaf.  In the wake of Representative Giffords' shooting last weekend he served up a dish that turned the majority of the country’s stomach. He wrote on Twitter:

It seems that every year, American pop culture continues to push the envelope of what is acceptable in society, and 2010 was no different. From Cee-Lo Green’s hit “F**k You” to Enrique Iglesias’ new song set to release next year titled, “I’m F**king You” the “F” word is going mainstream. One has to wonder if the media will ask the question: Is there anything attention-seekers won’t include in a song?

Iglesias is an internationally recognized artist famous for his fairly tame, catchy romantic pop tunes, such as the smashing single “Hero” which topped the UK charts in 2001. But just ten years later, Iglesias has decided to seek more fame with a raunchy new song, set to debut in 2011 called “Tonight (I’m F**king You).” The boundary-pushing lyrics include:

It’s the most wonderful time of the year – especially if you’re expecting a little extra naughtiness from mildly attractive celebrity women. Despite the original spiritual message of Christmas and typically cold weather, female Hollywood goddesses have taken to greeting loved ones with Christmas cards featuring themselves in skimpy outfits and sultry poses.

What would a Christmas card from Paris Hilton be without the hotel heiress donning a low-cut dress and her signature pout? Well, it wouldn’t be a Christmas card from Paris Hilton. Her 2010 card features her in a shimmery low cut, yet high-hemmed halter dress, arms above her head, in a pose fit for GQ with the simple words “Merry Christmas” in the bottom right hand corner. Nothing says “the miracle of Christ’s birth” like that.

In Tuesday's New York Times, Larry David, of "Seinfeld" fame, tried his hand at political commentary. The attempt was pretty funny, if not in the sense it was intended. David should probably stick to his more traditional brand of comedy.

The column was a sarcastic jab at Congressional Republicans' deal with President Obama to extend current income tax rates. David incorrectly, if predictably, called the maintenance of static tax rates a "tax cut," and it only went downhill from there.

Wesley Snipes is in jail.  That’s right, Blade is behind bars.  Passenger 57 is now known as Inmate 224567.

And this friends, is a travesty.

It’s not just a travesty because we’re going to have to wait at least three years for the next poorly conceived direct-to-video action film starring the Shotokan Karate master. It’s a travesty because of the deafening silence surrounding his trial and incarceration.