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Charlie Chaplin was one of the pioneering film making greats in Hollywood but could no longer live in America in the time of Joe McCarthy. The scale of things in America as opposed tp Chaplin's country of birth, England, may have helped him to get the star power that enabled him to do things like establish United Artists and thereby be independent. Not possible now? (Some bid stars can become producers but only as part of a team of producers not as sole producer/director.) To some people in America Chaplin was a communist. When forced to leave America he went...

Would stuffy British culture have made Charlie Chaplin's film career impossible if he had stayed there? Is American freedom the key to Chaplin’s greatness?

A chaplain who once ministered to Navy SEALs could be thrown out of the military after he was accused of failing “to show tolerance and respect” in private counseling sessions in regards to issues pertaining to faith, marriage and sexuality, specifically homosexuality and pre-marital sex, according to documents obtained exclusively by Fox News.

MI5 investigated whether Charlie Chaplin was actually a Frenchman called Israel Thornstein, previously secret files on the Hollywood film star have revealed. Intelligence officers could find no trace of the actor's birth in Britain despite Chaplin always claiming he was born in London in 1889. The mystery surrounding his origins emerged when the US authorities asked MI5 to look into the comic actor's background after he left America in 1952 under a cloud of suspicion over his communist links.

We give Google grief on occasion around here, but the Chaplin mini-movie on the splash page of the site today is very well done, IMHO. A little Friday fun, anyway!

"Vintage film shows woman holding what? Filmmaker says he's 'stumped' by image he calls 1928 cell phone Shades of the flux capacitor. Millions of people have watched a video by a Belfast filmmaker who thinks he has discovered a "time traveler" walking and talking on a cell phone in behind-the-scenes footage of the 1928 opening of a Charlie Chaplin film. "I was kind of stumped by what I saw," George Clarke says in his YouTube video, "I kept winding it back … and I couldn't explain this. Nobody can give me an explanation as to what it is." The video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Y6a4T2tJaSU[Edit:...

HOLLYWOOD -- 33 years after his death, a 1928 film clip from a Charlie Chaplin movie premier that appears to show a woman talking on a cell phone is sparking debate and controversy. .... more at link

The secret fantasy of most every dictator. Although I believe there are some who really only dream of accomplishing what happens at the very end of this clip! Enjoy!

Lost Charlie Chaplin film bought on eBay for $5 A lost Charlie Chaplin film has been discovered in a can of nitrate film bought on eBay for £3.20 ($5). Morale Park from Henham, Essex, purchased the tin simply because he liked the look of it. He was amazed to discover its fragile contents: a previously unknown seven-minute film Chaplin film called Zepped. His interest was piqued, he said, when he could not find any mention of it on the internet. The film features footage of Zeppelin airships flying over England during the First World War, and out-takes from three pictures...

Charlie Chaplin Attacked By Hindu Extremists It seems those pesky, intolerant, religious extremists in India are at again. Last month they made a big fuss about Valentine's Day which has no religious meaning for me nor most of the rest of the Western World; that is, unless one defines getting laid as a religious experience:-) But of course, like many of our commercial holidays, Valentine’s Day is associated with early Christian martyrs and this seems to be one of the catalysts for the protests, threats and harassments being carried out by these fanatics. They’ve also attacked women in bars for...

Sydney Chaplin, the oldest surviving son of film legend Charlie Chaplin and a Tony-award winning actor in his own right, has died at the age of 82, the Los Angeles Times reported on Friday. Chaplin, who starred opposite Barbra Streisand in "Funny Girl" on Broadway, died on Tuesday at his home in the California desert community of Rancho Mirage, due to complications from a stroke, the Times reported. The second son of Charlie Chaplin and his second wife, Lita Grey, Sydney Chaplin was born in Beverly Hills in 1926 and recalled in interviews that he didn't know his father very...

BAGHDAD, Sept. 8, 2008 – The most frequent question soldiers ask Chaplain (Maj.) Ibraheem Raheem is the meaning behind the crescent moon patch on his Army combat uniform. Army Chaplain (Maj.) Ibraheem Raheem delivers a sermon for Muslim soldiers during a service Aug. 29, 2008, at Camp Victory, Iraq. Raheem is one of only six Muslim chaplains in the Army, and is the only one currently deployed in Iraq. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. David Turner, Multinational Division Center  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Sometimes, he said, he jokingly explains that he’s an astronaut; other times, he says...

FORT HOOD – The soldiers for whom Capt. Rodney Thomas cared as a chaplain had a good reason for lovingly referring to him as "Holy Roller," his assistant said Tuesday. Not only was he a model for what Christians are supposed to be, he was relied upon for tactical information as well, said Spc. Heath Alexander. Thomas insisted on being with soldiers, which required him to travel throughout Iraq in convoys. He was assigned to the 180th Transportation Battalion, 13th Sustainment Command and had just returned Aug. 15 from a yearlong deployment to Kuwait. He collapsed and died after a...

Many fathers whisper a prayer when their children are born. Marshall Kubota's prayer for his twin sons was this: "Don't ever let my boys go to war. Ever." The Larkfield physician, who is an internationally recognized authority on AIDS, recalled his silent admonition from 19 years ago while bracing for a son's imminent departure for Iraq. One of his twins, Evan Kubota, enlisted with the Army National Guard after graduating from Montgomery High School in 2002 and a few months ago informed his superiors that he wanted to be sent to Iraq. His job as a chaplain assistant requires him...

Guantanamo chaplain charged with porn offences A Muslim chaplain who served at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay has been charged with adultery and storing pornography on a government computer. Army Captain Yousef Yee, who served at the prison camp for terror suspects, was released from pre-trial confinement after being served with the additional charges, said Raul Duany, a spokesman for US Southern Command in Miami. Adultery is a crime under the uniform code of military justice. He was arrested earlier this year in Florida and confined to the military brig in Charleston, South Carolina. Military officials brought the...

Accused Murderer Scott Woodring Is Dead By Sheri Diorio Posted: 7/13/2003 Michigan State Police say Scott Woodring is dead. Woodring is accused in the shooting death of Michigan State Trooper Kevin Marshall. Police say Woodring was found early Sunday morning in a car at Maple Island Road and 60th Street in Dayton Township on the Newaygo County line. Police say Woodring got out of the car when police approached and pointed an assault rifle at police. That's when police shot and killed Woodring. The standoff between police and Woodring began last Sunday. That's when police tried to serve Woodring a...

<p>NEAR NASIRIYA, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. Marines Friday recovered the bodies of seven fallen comrades who died in intense fighting around Nasiriya in southern Iraqi Sunday, officials said.</p> <p>The city has been the scene of the fiercest fighting the Marine Corps has been involved in since Vietnam, senior Marines told CNN, and still is not under coalition control five days after coalition forces first engaged Iraqi paramilitaries.</p>