Ramin Setoodeh

WaPo: 'Bruno' Exposes America's Fear of Sex

Bruno

For Hank Stuever of the Washington Post, Sacha Baron Cohen's latest movie, "Bruno," is a reflection of America's "giant case of sex phobia."

Cohen's movie tells the tale of Bruno, a gay Austrian fashionista who embarks on a quest for fame (to become "the most famous Austrian since Hitler"). Its depictions of gay sex and a gay man flamboyantly flaunting his sexuality caused worry among gay activists about an increase of homophobia, despite a statement from Universal Pictures that the film aimed to "shed light on the absurdity of many kinds of intolerance and ignorance, including homophobia."   

Stuever offered Post readers an inside look on July 9 at what it felt like to be a gay man watching "Bruno" and concluded that the movie didn't teach anything "other than sex is basically a total gross out."

He outlined his argument:

Newsweek Frets about Christian Influence on ‘Idol’ Voting

According to Newsweek's Ramin Setoodeh, "American Idol's" Adam Lambert could "be heading home" due to those homophobic Christians that watch every week.

Lambert, Setoodeh wrote in a May 12 blog post, "has been called the best ‘Idol' singer in the history of the show, thanks to his Celine Dion-like pipes. But he's also one of the most controversial, thanks to his Marilyn Manson-like wardrobe and his (not-so) ambiguous sexuality."

Despite the fact that Randy, Simon and Paula all like Lambert, and he's garnered enough votes to compete in the semi-finals of "Idol," Setoodeh warned of a "possible roadblock" to a Lambert victory:

Newsweek Film Critic Turns Chick Flick Into an Out-With-Bush Metaphor

Newsweek is so enamored with Out With Bush, In With Obama that it even bleeds into its movie reviews. See Ramin Setoodeh’s latest web dispatch on the newest romantic comedy: "'He's Just Not That Into You' was dating advice born in the Bush era. But now that we have a new president, isn't it time we adopted a new strategy for love?"

Setoodeh’s not seriously suggesting that President Bush offered dating advice in his public pronouncements at the White House. He’s stretching from Bush’s immediate post-9/11 theory of geopolitics:

The appeal of the franchise is its cold-blooded simplicity: if a guy doesn't seem interested in you immediately when you meet him—if he doesn't call you, pursue you, sleep with you or slobber like a dog at your heels—then he's not worth your time. This was romantic advice for the Bush generation: a guy, like a foreign country, is either with you or against you. But we're in a new age, "the new era of responsibility," according to Obama, of hardship and hard work. Isn't it time we dumped "He's Just Not That Into You" like a lame date?

Paragraphs later, he offered the Obama contrast: