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Greg Gutfeld on the communist and the actor who plays him.

Hollywood films rarely even attempt the sweep and heartbreak of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a bewitching, at times overpowering movie that seems likely to win about 50 Oscars. There aren’t actually that many Oscars to hand out, but I wouldn’t put it past the Academy to invent some new categories. Based on but greatly expanded from an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story, the film by Fight Club director David Fincher proves that this gifted director can deploy all of his visual gifts to create a richly satisfying, emotionally engaging, and more than a bit schmaltzy old-time romance with...

Opening on Christmas Day, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is the result of an unexpected cinematic collaboration between scriptwriter Eric Roth, who penned Forrest Gump, and director David Fincher, whose credits include Se7en, Fight Club, and Zodiac. Very loosely based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald story, and starring Brad Pitt as Button, the film is about a life lived in reverse. Born with the physical features of a man in his eighties, Button grows backward into middle age, youth, and infancy. Fincher and Roth turn Button’s peculiar life, at the center of which is his star-crossed love for Daisy...

While Al “Globull Fraud” Gore continues to make the following public statement: "Washington needs a breath of fresh air. Al Franken is a great man, a great activist, and will be a great leader in the U.S. Senate" … it is important to remember the real Al Franken. The fact is Franken has been an unsuccessful hack his entire life. His only “accomplishment” in life was video taping sex with Arianna “The Greek Leona Helmsley” Huffington. Now Franken, and the Democrats-Soros Shadow Party, wants America to believe that “the new Al” is fit to be a U.S. Senator of...

LOS ANGELES, (AP) -- Ellen DeGeneres has made a public service announcement urging California voters to oppose a ballot initiative that would ban same-sex marriage. DeGeneres married actress Portia de Rossi on Aug. 16, two months after the California Supreme Court ruling that legalized gay marriage took effect. In recent days, the popular talk show host has been criticized in the gay press for not giving money to the campaign to defeat Proposition 8 or otherwise lending her star presence to the cause.

Scrapped Golden Globe ceremony hits Hollywood hard --- REUTERS By Jill SerjeantTue Jan 8, 10:06 PM ET LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hollywood scrambled on Tuesday to assess the fallout from the decision to scrap the glittering Golden Globe movie and TV awards ceremony and hold only a news conference that few stars are likely to attend. Caterers, limousine drivers, stylists, hotels and dozens of magazines and TV shows found themselves out of work when this Sunday's star-studded Golden Globes gala dinner and red carpet walk-up fell victim to the nine-week-old screenwriters strike. "There are a lot of people being...

anuary 2, 2008 -- FRIDAY is judgment day for Nickelodeon when "Zoey 101" and its knocked-up teen star, Jamie Lynn Spears, return to the air. But even with Britney Spears' 16-year-old sister pregnant with her on-again, off-again boyfriend's baby - the network has no plans to yank "Zoey" from its schedule, nor are officials there expecting trouble....

"It could be the worst movie I've ever seen" ... "[T]he out and out worst, most disgusting, most hateful, most incompetent, most revolting, most loathsome, most reprehensible cinematic work I have ever encountered." ... "It portrays the members of our Marine Corps in the most disgusting way imaginable." ... "This film is an atrocity. It is zero stars." ... "I honestly was close to vomiting when I saw the film." ... "It is a slander on the United States of America." ... "Everyone associated with this film ought to be ashamed." ... "Will it inspire future terrorists? Of course it...

At a time when disproportionate numbers of Muslim immigrants are raping their host societies’ women and girls, “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” decides it would be timely to re-broadcast an episode in which a Serb — having raped Muslim women in Bosnia — is now raping American women. This is the sort of thing I’ve described in the past as Hollywood’s/TV Land’s wishful thinking, which they try to turn into reality, at least on-screen: Unable to deal with reality as it is, they create an alternate reality in the movies and on TV. This is the whole point of retreating...

TMZ was in L.A. County Superior Courtroom moments ago, where a pregnant Nicole Richie faced the music for her wrong-way DUI bust in December -- her second DUI conviction in 4 years. A court commissioner sentenced Richie to serve four days in the City or County Jail (her choice!) -- she got credit for a fifth day, for the six hours she served after being busted. Richie was also fined $2,048, was ordered back to school for 21 days to an alcohol education course and on three years probation. Richie must report to serve her time by September 28. The...

Rosie O'Donnell, Bill Maher Back Al Franken for Senate In an April episode of ABC's "The View," Bill Maher and Rosie O'Donnell professed their support for Al Franken's 2008 Minnesota Senate candidacy, with O'Donnell saying she was "maxing out" to the comedian-turned-candidate. O'Donnell kept to her word, contributing $2,300 to his campaign, the maximum donation for the primary, while Maher chipped in $1,000. They were among the more than 50 contributions that Franken, a former "Saturday Night Live" star, received from actors, writers, producers and others in the last reporting period, his campaign finance report shows. The man that Franken...

Angelina Jolie's "Understanding" @ pro-HAMAS Arab Children's Conference Hate-Fest in Jordan, 2004 I went to the screening of "A Mighty Heart"--activists Brad Pitt's and Angelina Jolie's movie on the Al-Qaeda murder of Daniel Pearl--expecting a movie with an agenda. And that is exactly what I got. That, plus a Lifetime Channel weepy-damsel-in-distress movie of the week. Muslims are the heroes--NOT the perpetrators--in this "Can't we all just get along?" kumbaya film ostensibly about terrorism. As one would expect from the Jolie-Pitts, "A Mighty Heart" is mostly NOT about the Al-Qaeda murder of Daniel Pearl, killed in cold blood specifically because...

John Travolta says the solution to global warming is domed cities and other planets.

Crowds are flocking to see the film 300 about the ancient Spartans? last stand at the pass at Thermopylae against an invading Persian army. Yet many critics, in panning 300, have alleged that the film is essentially historically inaccurate. Are they right? Here are some answers. But first two qualifiers. I wrote an introduction to a book about the making of 300 after being shown a rough cut of the movie in October. And, second, remember that 300 does not claim to follow exactly ancient accounts of the battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. Instead, it is an impressionistic take...

Having recently written about the politicization of various awards, I decided to sit in on Sunday night's Academy Awards just to verify that my criticism was justified. All I can say to those who wrote to me vociferously denying the politicization of awards such as the OscarsTM is that one would have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to recoil from the orgy of liberal self-congratulation on display. As predicted, former Vice-President Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth won the award for Best Documentary. All political messages aside, the documentary itself (which I forced myself to sit through for the...

LOS ANGELES - "An Inconvenient Truth," the documentary that turned former vice president Al Gore's power-point presentation on global warming into an engaging and entertaining film, won the Oscar Sunday night. The best-documentary win was a triumph for Gore, who has kept a sense of humor about his loss in the 2000 election that was decided in George W. Bush's favor by a U.S. Supreme Court decision. "I am Al Gore. I used to be the next president of the United States of America," Gore says in the film, repeating a line he has used often. Sunday, Gore used the...

LOS ANGELES -- Most Golden State drivers go out of their way to avoid the California Highway Patrol, but Erik Estrada can't seem to stay away. Estrada, who experiences the reality of law enforcement in his new unscripted CBS series "Armed & Famous," told reporters on Thursday that he's looking forward to the upcoming feature film version of his seminal series "CHiPs." "I tell you what -- I think that Wilmer Valderrama's gonna do a fine job," Estrada says. "I think he'll do a fine job as Ponch. And the script, I've read the script and I'm not in the...

And the Oscar for Most Dishonest Performance By a Spoiled Expatriate American Actress Trying to Dig Herself Out of a Public Relations Hole goes to . . . Gwyneth Paltrow. Over the weekend, the international press sent out word that Paltrow had trashed her native country during a press event in Spain. "I love the English lifestyle, it's not as capitalistic as America. People don't talk about work and money, they talk about interesting things at dinner," the Shallow Gal was quoted as telling NS, the weekend magazine supplement of daily Portuguese newspaper Diario de Noticias. "I like living here...

Posted: Wed., Oct. 4, 2006, 4:52pm PT Lucas: Let's get small Helmer sees shrinking pic biz By DAVID S. COHEN George Lucas has a message for studios that are cutting their slates and shifting toward big-budget tentpoles and franchises: You've got it all wrong. The creator of "Star Wars," which stamped the template for the franchise-tentpole film, says many small films and Web distribution are the future. And in case anyone doubts he means it, Lucasfilm is getting out of the movie business. "We don't want to make movies. We're about to get into television. As far as Lucasfilm is...

Los Angeles - Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber always had a moral message in their long-running "Veggie-Tales" video series. But now that the vegetable stars have hit network television, they can't speak as freely as they once did, and that's got the Parents Television Council steamed. The conservative media-watchdog group issued a statement Sept. 20 blasting NBC, which airs "VeggieTales," for editing out some references to God from the children's animated show. "What struck me and continues to strike me is the inanity of ripping the heart and soul out of a successful product and not thinking that...

TORONTO (Reuters) - Some of the biggest names in Hollywood had their egos bruised at this year's Toronto International Film Festival. Critics and film buffs at the festival, which ended on Saturday, took special aim at Steven Zaillian's "All the King's Men," starring Sean Penn, Jude Law and Kate Winslet. Several major reviewers declared their disappointment in the most controversial film at the festival, "Death of a President," a fictional documentary about the assassination of President George W. Bush

Actor questions why war crimes suspects still at large September 20, 2006 12:27 PM SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina-Richard Gere said Wednesday he hopes a film he is making in Bosnia about a pair of journalists hunting a war crimes suspect will raise questions about why those wanted for the Balkans' worst wartime atrocities remain at large. The film, "Spring Break in Bosnia," is being shot in Bosnia and Croatia. Gere and Terrence Howard play reporters searching for a fictional war criminal who bears a close resemblance to one of the Balkans' last top suspects, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic. Karadzic and...

Richmondites of a certain era will remember the old Richmond Square theatre, which was located where the parking lot next to Sears currently is. It had two screens, one more for the kids (PG fare) and one for the adults (lots of movies starring Bo Derek). It was one of the busiest places in Richmond on the weekend and I remember seeing Hero at Large, Gray Lady Down, The Devil and Max Devlin and the Black Hole. Occasionally, there would be a good movie as well. But you had to show up early to get a good seat. Nowadays when...

Singer George Michael denied he has been forced to call off his "wedding" to his long-term partner after being caught cruising for sex with strangers. The former Wham! star insisted that his partner Kenny Goss had no problem with him being with other men.

<p>MEGA-RICH pop superstar George Michael this week sank to new levels of depravity—trawling for illegal gay sex thrills in a London park.</p> <p>News of the World investigators caught the singer red-handed and red-faced as he emerged from the bushes after cavorting with a pot-bellied, 58-year-old, jobless van driver.</p>

Actress/singer Jada Pinkett Smith is horrified by increasing gun crime in the United States, declaring the country must look to third world countries to rediscover its values. The Wicked Wisdom frontwoman and her actor/rapper husband Will Smith have travelled to Africa on several occasions for charity work and have been humbled by citizens' appreciation of the basic things in life - like education. The Smiths will fund and appear at Charles 'Charlie Mack' Alston's annual Party 4 Peace in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania this weekend, which aims to raise awareness of street crime. Pinkett Smith says: "It's pretty bad everywhere. I think...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=396762&in_page_id=1773 War of the Worlds star Dakota, 12, has signed up to appear in Hounddog. The screenplay calls for Fanning's character to be raped in one explicit scene and to appear naked or clad only in "underpants" in several other horrifying moments. A source close to the film said: "The two taboos in Hollywood are child abuse and the killing of animals. "In this movie, both things happen." Fanning's mother, Joy, and her Hollywood agent, Cindy Osbrink, see the movie, written and directed by Deborah Kampmeier, as a possible Oscar vehicle for the pint-size star.

The way I see it, Dan Brown should be very happy for Fandango, which allowed millions of theater-goers to see "The Da Vinci Code" before reading the reviews. Normally, movies don't crash, losing 57% of their audience in the second weekend. Especially not when the 2nd weekend is a holiday weekend and the first weekend was not. But normally people who see movies this stupid have already invested in their Jar-Jar Binks Happy Meal Action Figure. Go figure that the Happy Meal featuring a dead, naked museum curator with a pentagram scratched in his back didn't sell to well. (OK,...

The divide between conservative and liberal America was on full display at the Oscars, with both the winners and losers championing social and political topics heralded by the left. Across the United States, in blogs and on call-in radio talk shows, conservatives seethed that their point of view was not represented in the choice films honored with nominations -- let alone among those given awards. "This year's Oscar nominees include stories of homosexual sheep herders, a transvestite and Japanese prostitutes," ... American conservatives are accustomed to frowning at liberal Hollywood, but they were more disaffected than ever by the left-of-center...

LOS ANGELES -- The awards season in Hollywood is by its very nature a self-congratulatory affair. But this year, the filmmakers say their serious, somber movies really do matter -- not just as entertainment or art, but politically, socially. Hollywood thinks the movies are important again. Ang Lee, director of "Brokeback Mountain," speaks of "the power of movies to change the way we're thinking." Steven Spielberg, director of "Munich," has called this year's Oscar-nominated films "courageous" for the risks they took with stories about racism, terrorism, government and corporate crime, and homosexuality. Mark R. Harris, a producer of "Crash," said...

Oscar nominees Joaquin Phoenix, Jake Gyllenhaal and Frances McDormand are among those expected to step out of green vehicles and onto the red carpet at the Academy Awards ceremony Sunday. In all, 25 VIPs are participating in the fourth annual "Red Carpet, Green Cars" event sponsored by Toyota Motor Corp. and the environmental organization Global Green USA. McDormand, Phoenix, Gyllenhaal, Jennifer Aniston and George Clooney are all expected to arrive at the Oscars in Toyota or Lexus hybrids, including the Toyota Prius, Lexus RX crossover and a hybrid version of the Toyota Camry, which goes on sale in May. Event...

Former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) and actor Danny Glover rallied hundreds of people in support of 1.3 million hotel workers, most of who remain below the poverty line, as 18 cities prepare to collectively negotiate contracts with multi-national hotel chains such as the Grand Hyatt and the Hilton. Edwards said that hotel workers, along with people in other industries in the country, often remain beneath the poverty line. "One of the great disgraces of our country is that a vast new impoverished population has developed in our midst," he wrote. "These are the Americans who work extremely hard, yet they...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - In divorce papers, Nick Lachey is seeking spousal support from Jessica Simpson, and he wants his jewelry back. In court papers filed Friday in response to Simpson's Dec. 16 divorce filing, Lachey cited irreconcilable differences for the dissolution of the three-year marriage. Lachey, 32, also asked for "miscellaneous jewelry and other personal effects," part of Simpson's earnings from after the date of separation and other assets. Lachey said he and Simpson separated Dec. 13, although she claims it was Nov. 23. The couple, who starred in their own MTV reality show, "Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica," had...

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Wrapping a week that included receiving three Oscar nominations, George Clooney traveled up the coast to collect the Modern Master Award from the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. "It's a bad week to be me," Clooney joked with AP Television News at the Friday night ceremony. "Yeah, it's been a rough time," he continued, smirking. "But I'll struggle through it. What I'll be doing is a lot of therapy. And I'll be fine." Clooney, 44, said he didn't think twice about accepting the fest's Modern Master honor. "This was the place that we brought Confessions ("Confessions...

It’s been a bad fortnight for biblical Christianity in the world of popular entertainment. To begin with, NBC has launched The Book of Daniel, a situation comedy about a pill-popping Episcopalian priest. Troubles surround him: one son is homosexual and another is sleeping with the bishop’s daughter. His daughter gets arrested for dealing drugs. A sister-in-law has become a lesbian. Through all difficulties, Daniel (the priest) is sustained by conversation with a smarmy character who is supposed to be Jesus. This “Jesus” gushes inclusivism and spouts wisecracks (“you can quote me”). He is a paragon of liberal (or postliberal) nonjudgmentalism....

At Sundance Film Festival... Many celebrities keep their kids out of the public eye to avoid the paparazzi and kidnappers. Not Rosie O'Donnell. O'Donnell said it was Madonna — her co-star in "A League of Their Own" — who explained to her why she appeared with her daughter Lourdes in public. Rosie, wife Kelli Carpenter O'Donnell and their two sons and two daughters will be on hand Tuesday for the world premiere of the documentary "All Aboard! Rosie's Family Cruise" at the Sundance Film Festival. Kelli, whom Rosie married in San Francisco in 2004, and Parker, 10; Chelsea, 8; Blake,...

“PAIN is temporary, film is forever.” That hopeful thought, which found its way into the original script of Peter Jackson's recent re-make of “King Kong”, might be seized upon by today's beleaguered entertainment industry. Media companies are suffering intense pain—and it is starting to seem worryingly permanent. In America shares of “old” media firms such as News Corporation, Comcast and other giants of television, film, radio and print, have fallen 25% behind the S&P 500 in the past two years, despite some heroic financial results. {Big Snip} Helpfully on cue, piracy now seems less of a threat. The music industry...

Gayety at the Golden Globes James Hirsen, NewsMax.com Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2006 In contrast with the Academy Awards, where approximately 6,000 voters pick the winners, about 80 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association determine the outcome of the Golden Globes. The Globes are thought to be fairly reliable predictors of the Oscars. We'll have to wait until March 5 to see if the pattern holds true. The 63rd Annual Golden Globe Awards show proved to be a politically charged affair. The first award set the tone for the evening. It went to George Clooney for Best Supporting Actor in...

END OF THE SPEAR By Cal ThomasJanuary 18,2006 Tribune Media Services Fifty years ago this month, five young missionaries were killed by an Ecuadorian tribe known to the world as the Auca Indians. Auca means savage. The tribe called itself, then and now, the Waodani. The real story isn't only the death of those five young men. It is also the incredible reconciliation that took place not long after, as relatives of the dead men returned to offer love and peace to the very people who had murdered their loved ones. That incident and that reconciliation have been told in...

The list of top movie money-makers for 2005 exposes enduring misunderstandings about American entertainment. Among the fifteen most popular films, only one — number five, "Weddings Crashers" — was rated "R," and none of them was even vaguely controversial. The biggest blockbusters — "Star Wars," "Harry Potter," "Narnia," —hardly explored edgy approaches to sex or politics. Meanwhile, the radically different list of top Oscar contenders is dominated by adults-only, controversial fare, with "Brokeback Mountain," "Munich," "Syriana," "Good Night and Good Luck," "Capote," and "Transamerica" leading the way. The movie establishment honors precisely those releases that fail to connect with mainstream...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The actors of gay romance "Brokeback Mountain" earned four nominations for Screen Actors Guild awards on Thursday, more than any other film, further cementing the film's position as a front-runner for Oscars. The movie that has drawn wide critical acclaim was nominated for best cast in a film, the Screen Actors Guild's top honor, alongside race relations film "Crash," political movie "Good Night, and Good Luck," "Capote," about the author Truman Capote, and in a surprise, the drama "Hustle & Flow." The Screen Actors Guild represents film and television actors, and because actors make up a...

rating: 3 out of 4 Director: Eli Roth Cast: Jay Hernandez, Derek Richardson, Eythor Gudjonsson, Barbara Nedeljakova Screenplay: Eli Roth MPAA Classification: R (gore enough to make you gag on that morning's breakfast) I can't attest to honestly enjoying Hostel. In fact, I often had to resist the reflexive temptation to leave. The film is simply disgusting. I worried that my fellow audience members would be drenched in a fresh, steaming coat of my own vomit, to be absolutely truthful. Someone asked Writer/Director Eli Roth after the screening how he managed to convince the MPAA into an R-rating. Roth laughed...

Even a much-hyped giant gorilla, a geisha and a schoolboy magician have not been able to create a happy ending at the US box office, as Hollywood ends its most disappointing year in nearly two decades. Plunging movie ticket sales, after a string of uninspiring remakes and movie sequels coupled with an explosion of the DVD and video game markets, are keeping audiences at home and have sent Hollywood into a deep existential crisis. "This industry is facing significant challenges," said Jack Kyser, chief economist of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp, a business support and research body. Ticket...

BARBIE, that plastic icon of girlhood fantasy play, is routinely tortured by children, research has found. The methods of mutilation are varied and creative, ranging from scalping to decapitation, burning, breaking and even microwaving, according to academics from the University of Bath. The findings were revealed as part of an in-depth look by psychologists and management academics into the role of brands among 7 to 11-year-old schoolchildren. The researchers had not intended to focus on Barbie, but they were taken aback by the rejection, hatred and violence she provoked when they asked the children about their feelings for the doll....

Washington DC, Dec. 16, 2005 (CNA) - "Brokeback Mountain," originally rated L (limited adult audience) by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, has been reclassified as an O (morally offensive) after several pro-family organizations expressed concern for what they saw as an implicit endorsement of the USCCB film critic to the controversial gay western.Brokeback Mountain is the story of two sheep-herding cowboys in Wyoming who begin a homosexual relationship on the range in the 1960s, and continue their affair even after they marry women.The $13-million film garnered seven Golden Globe nominations from foreign film critics.Director Ang Lee’s homosexual Western...

NEW YORK -- It was quite a sight in front of a multimillion-dollar Manhattan townhouse: a bloody-bearded Santa, holding a knife and the severed head of a doll -- blood gushing from its eye socket. The eerie display popped up outside Joel Krupnik and Mildred Castellano's East 18th Street home. The couple and their three children said they are protesting the commercialization of Christmas. Krupnik and Castellano's 16-year-old daughter, Darla, came up with the idea for the bloody Santa. The family is Jewish and non-practicing, but they say they like putting up decorations for their kids. The girl said she...

LOS ANGELES – Jamie Foxx stepped into the spotlight at his latest movie premiere with more than the usual publicity drill in mind. Don’t let it happen, the actor urged – don’t let the state of California execute Stanley Tookie Williams, the convicted murderer and Crips gang co-founder who’s been recast behind bars in the role of peacemaker. Foxx is not alone. An unusually varied collection of Hollywood stars and other famous names is trying to persuade Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that Williams can do more for society alive than dead. Schwarzenegger said Friday that he would consider granting clemency to...

Acclaimed director Woody Allen loves the paternal feelings he has towards his young wife Soon-Yi Previn, and insists the massive age gap between them defuses any conflict in their marriage. The 69-year-old sparked an international scandal when he split up with his long-term partner Mia Farrow in 1992 after falling for her adopted daughter. Allen later married Previn, 35, and the couple have two children. Yet, the Manhattan filmmaker is unabashed when he admits that his relationship with Previn is paternal and he enjoys the power his successful life gives him in their relationship. He says, "(Our marriage) has a...

Edward Norton says his latest role as an arrogant British doctor out to change the world is a little like today's America. "In fact, the United States today keeps on making the same sort of mistakes," Norton was quoted as saying by the Chinese-language newspaper Shanghai Morning Post. "We force those methods we think are useful on a few countries, hoping to make a few changes. The good thing is that, in the movie, I realize my mistakes in the end," the 36-year-old actor said in the interview, published Friday.

Smacking Down The Hollywood Stars by MJ Yesterday, I put together a list of quotes from the Hollywood stars about the war. Someone named MJ then sent me an email that read as follows, "I read your celeb quotes on your page there. I live in Hollywood and work in the Industry, so I have to deal with these people daily. I had a few things to say about these inane ramblings, especially since I usually have to keep my conservative little mouth shut for fear of being blacklisted here in liberal land because I dare to disagree with the...