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Courtney Love is still floating on the charm offensive that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez launched at Wednesday's screening of Oliver Stone's new documentary, "South of the Border." The singer, who came dressed to thrill in a short zipper-front skirt, says she noticed the twice-divorced Chavez checking her out during a Q&A afterward. "It was the third wink that sold me," Mrs. Kurt Cobain told us. "He's a sexy dawg. He invited me to visit his country and I'd like to go. I'll rock Caracas!" The ebullient, espresso-sipping Chavez also had smooches and smiles for Susan Sarandon, Danny Glover, Shia LaBeouf...

...Let's just consider this one thing for the time being. Hugo Chavez. Over the past several days I've been reading about his star turn at the Venice Film Festival. Since when did it become so chic to celebrate dictators? WTF is up with that?! Whats up is that Oliver Stone has made a film, a documentary, about Chavez which as IBDeditorials says, "emphasizes that the public has it all wrong about the clowning Chavez being a threat to the West. It's merely an image problem he has, brought on by unjust demonization from George W. Bush." Can we just lock...

Good-humored, illuminating and without cant, Oliver Stone's documentary "South of the Border" is a rebuttal of what he views as the fulminations and lies of right-wing media at home and abroad regarding the socialist democracies of South America. Featuring interviews with seven national leaders who all express great affection for their neighbors to the north if not for historical U.S. foreign policy, the film suggests a clear way forward for a continent that has largely shaken off the grip of imperialism and what Stone calls predatory capitalism as opposed to benign capitalism. Greeted with extended applause at its Venice press...

Reuters reports: ”Director Oliver Stone says the U.S. media and government have demonized Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and other leftist South American leaders, and argues in a new film that they were right to stand up to Washington. Chavez, who landed in Venice for the film’s premiere, has earned a reputation for his outspoken criticism of U.S. policy, and in Stone’s “South of the Border” he is sympathetically portrayed as a hero of the people who refuses to be bullied.[…] Stone said he had been in talks with Iran to make a documentary about President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad but that scheduling...

VENICE (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrived in Venice on Monday to attend the world premiere of Oliver Stone's documentary about him and his strained relations with the United States. "South of the Border" is a sympathetic portrait of the leader, casting him as a champion of the poor who has stood up to Washington. Chavez, surrounded by bodyguards, strolled with Stone on the Lido red carpet and signed autographs like a movie star ahead of the premiere at the Venice film festival. "What's happening in Latin America is like a Renaissance," the Venezuelan leader told reporters.

VENICE (Reuters) - Director Oliver Stone says the U.S. media and government have demonised Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and other leftist South American leaders, and argues in a new film that they were right to stand up to Washington. Chavez, who landed in Venice for the film's premiere, has earned a reputation for his outspoken criticism of U.S. policy, and in Stone's "South of the Border" he is sympathetically portrayed as a hero of the people who refuses to be bullied. Originally an attempt to redress what Stone saw as unfair treatment of Chavez by TV networks and newspapers, the...

Venezuela's Chavez drops in on Venice film festival VENICE, Italy (AFP) – Hugo Chavez stole the show at the Venice film festival Monday as he paid a surprise visit for the screening of veteran US director Oliver Stone's documentary on the Venezuelan president. The leftist leader was expected to walk down the red carpet at around 5:00 pm (1500 GMT) to attend the official screening of "South of the Border", a look at Chavez's role in the bottom-up change sweeping South America. Reports began to circulate last week that Chavez would make an appearance, which appeared increasingly likely when a...

Oliver Stone is making his most ambitious stab at American history yet. The controversial director is creating a 10-part documentary series for Showtime titled "Secret History of America." Narrated by Stone, the series promises to focus on events that "at the time went under-reported, but crucially shaped America's unique and complex history of the last 60 years," according to Showtime.

Dear Oliver, Many years ago, when Bill Maher's comedy show was hosted by Comedy Central and he was funny, his formula for success was truly unique. Every week two sets of political and/or cultural opposites were pitted against each other, and he refereed with humor. It was all designed for a good laugh and succeeded because once upon a time Bill Maher was truly funny. Some producer really thought in extremes when they pitted Oliver Stone and Brent Bozell for one episode. I have to say that you were gracious, charming, engaging, and we enjoyed ourselves -- except for that...

Oliver Stone: Obama No Better Than Bush Filmmaker Oliver Stone, director of big screen conspiracy movies and dark films about presidents John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon and George W. Bush, told HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher Friday that he won’t be taking on Ronald Reagan as a subject for a biopic. “By doing the ‘W’ movie, I kind of put all my efforts behind dumbness,” Stone said, referring to Reagan. "Nixon always said Reagan was a dumb son of a b---- and, you know, I think that he was. He later added, “And you know, I really think George...

Wall Street's all the rage again -- literally. And Oliver Stone and Michael Douglas have decided they have more to say about it. Stone has just closed a deal with Fox to direct the follow-up to "Wall Street," now tentatively called "Wall Street 2," with Douglas starring. This would provide an unusual amount of continuity since Stone directed and co-wrote, with Stanley Weiser, the original 1987 exploration of the inner workings of the finance sector and its complicated relationship with greed. The plot line for the new "Wall Street" iteration has not been divulged, but it will pick up with...

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — U.S. filmmaker Oliver Stone kicked a soccer ball and chewed coca leaves with Bolivia's leftist president Tuesday during an interview for a planned documentary. Stone's meeting with President Evo Morales is likely fodder for the director's documentary on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a close ally of Morales. Bolivian government photos showed Morales and Stone chewing coca and kicking a ball around the lawn of the presidential residence in La Paz. Coca leaves are revered in Bolivia as a mild, traditional stimulant, but are better known abroad as the main ingredient in cocaine.

Oliver Stone will continue his infamous tradition of films about real-world political figures with a new documentary about Hugo Chavez, the flashpoint Venezuela president whose influence the United States has publicly tried to subdue in recent years. The news comes after Stone blithely weathered the fallout from his breezy Bush biopic W. and a wave of publicity after the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, turned down his request to make a documentary about him. (Ahmadinejad acknowledged Stone’s rebel status in his profession but said he was still part of “the Great Satan,” to which Stone famously said he hoped that the...

Oliver Stone To Make Film About President He Does Like Posted by Dirty Harry on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 What attracts the Hollywood elite to tin pot, Leftist dictators is beyond me, I mean other than the fact that they themselves would love to be tin pot, Leftist dictators: Oliver Stone is following up his George W. Bush biopic W. with a documentary about Venezuela’s controversial President Hugo Chavez, says Variety. Stone has been working on the untitled film for six months and is hoping to have it ready for next year. “It’s about Chavez and the South American revolution,”...

It looks like Oliver Stone enjoys being in the company of presidents. The helmer is following up his Bush biopic "W." with a documentary about Venezuela's controversial President Hugo Chavez. Stone has been working on the untitled doc for six months and is hoping to have it ready for next year. "It's about Chavez and the South American revolution," Stone told Daily Variety in a reference to the wave of leftist pols elected to office in Latin America in recent years. Stone was with Chavez in February during the dramatic rescue of hostages that Chavez helped to broker from the...

The Kirk Cameron starred, Christian-centered, liberally mocked film 'Fireproof' has far exceeded expectations at the Box Office. With a budget of about $500,000, and little advertisement to speak of, the little-movie-with-a-message-that-could has rounded up an impressive $28.4 Million after 7 weeks in theatres, and moved up to 13th place overall. Between weekends 6 and 7 it had the smallest drop (8.7%) of all top-20 movies, meaning the feel good movie could end up with $32-35 Million by the time it completes it's run. Comparatively, after 4 weeks Anti-Bush film 'W' continues to drop like a rock and has found just...

If recent trends continue Hollywood may be looking for a government handout. A surge of liberal style patriotism has gripped the movers and shakers in Hollywood, they have produced movie after movie critical of the war in Iraq. Every one a box office dud. The red ink flowing faster than the blood of Al Qaeda in Iraq as our brave troops hunt them down in every corner of the country. Hollywood reporters seem perplexed -- why isn't the public interested in Iraq war movies? Could it be the clear majority of Americans who consider themselves conservative -- According to this...

This is the story of hope and reality. First the hope from Bloomberg News 10 days ago with the very hopeful title of Oliver Stones' W May End Political Films' Drought: ``W.'' distributor Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. is betting the movie can break a box-office drought for political films. None of the five released in the weeks ahead of the Nov. 4 election has brought in more than half of the $55.3 million in sales generated by Walt Disney Co.'s ``Beverly Hills Chihuahua,'' the current box-office champ, since Oct. 3. ``A lot of eyes are on `W.,''' said Gitesh Pandya,...

This is the story of hope and reality. First the hope from Bloomberg News 10 days ago with the very hopeful title of Oliver Stones' W May End Political Films' Drought: ``W.'' distributor Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. is betting the movie can break a box-office drought for political films. None of the five released in the weeks ahead of the Nov. 4 election has brought in more than half of the $55.3 million in sales generated by Walt Disney Co.'s ``Beverly Hills Chihuahua,'' the current box-office champ, since Oct. 3. ``A lot of eyes are on `W.,''' said Gitesh Pandya,...

There's been tremdous interest by the public in the box office fate of Oliver Stone's W. for its second weekend in release. Well, it ran out of steam. QED International/Lionsgate's Bush biopic sank 58% to No. 8 with $1.5 million Friday from 2,050 dates for what will probably be a $5.2M weekend. The $30M negative cost film should end up with $23M domestic box office gross by the end of its North American run. That means, with a $25M P&A investment and Lionsgate's distribution fees, the film won't recoup.

There's been tremdous interest by the public in the box office fate of Oliver Stone's W. for its second weekend in release. Well, it ran out of steam. QED International/Lionsgate's Bush biopic sank 58% to No. 8 with $1.5 million Friday from 2,050 dates for what will probably be a $5.2M weekend. The $30M negative cost film should end up with $23M domestic box office gross by the end of its North American run. That means, with a $25M P&A investment and Lionsgate's distribution fees, the film won't recoup.

Little Rock - KATV Daybreak anchorwoman Anne Pressly, has died at the age of 26, as a result of injuries sustained earlier this week. The staff of Channel 7 cannot express our grief at the loss of Anne, our dear friend and co-worker.

CNN) -- CNN affiliate KATV in Little Rock, Arkansas, said Saturday evening that its morning anchorwoman, Anne Pressly, died. She was 26 years old. Anne Pressly, 26, was a popular morning news anchor at KATV in Little Rock, Arkansas. Pressly was found beaten early Monday at her home. She was hospitalized and sedated. Pressly's parents released a statement, saying they were "with her in her last moments." They also asked for "the privacy we need at this very difficult time," KATV reported. Police said Pressly was apparently not targeted but was attacked during the course of a burglary. Her purse...

There's been tremdous interest by the public in the box office fate of Oliver Stone's W. for its second weekend in release. Well, it ran out of steam. QED International/Lionsgate's Bush biopic sank 58% to No. 8 with $1.5 million Friday from 2,050 dates for what will probably be a $5.2M weekend. The $30M negative cost film should end up with $23M domestic box office gross by the end of its North American run. That means, with a $25M P&A investment and Lionsgate's distribution fees, the film won't recoup.

Entertainment Weekly's Joshua Rich reported on the weekend's box office returns for the latest releases on October 19 to let us all in on Hollywood's successes and failures, because, you know, Hollywood is important and all. We find that the Chihuahua movie is still going like gangbusters ($70 million in three weeks) and the horrid movie "Max Payne" led the weekend's receipts with $18 million. Oliver Stone's slamfest "W," though, earned a disappointing fourth place on its debut weekend. So, what was EW's excuse for this disappointing finish? According to Rich, "W" is failing at the box office because of...

Trailer for "O" a movie by Oliver Stone.

Movie-goers elected a "W," but it was Mark Wahlberg, not George W. Bush. Wahlberg's action flick "Max Payne" debuted with $18 million to outdo Oliver Stone's film biography of George W. Bush, according to studio estimates Sunday. Stone's "W." actually ran fourth, opening with $10.6 million to finish behind the family comedy "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" (No. 2 with $11.2 million) and the chick flick "The Secret Life of Bees" (No. 3 with $11.1 million). "For me, an Oliver Stone film about George Bush doesn't necessarily scream big box office," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. "A...

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Movie-goers elected a "W," but it was Mark Wahlberg, not George W. Bush. Wahlberg's action flick "Max Payne" debuted with $18 million to outdo Oliver Stone's film biography of George W. Bush, according to studio estimates Sunday. Stone's "W." actually ran fourth, opening with $10.6 million to finish behind the family comedy "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" (No. 2 with $11.2 million) and the chick flick "The Secret Life of Bees" (No. 3 with $11.1 million).

Max Payne, the videogame adaptation starring Mark Wahlberg, shot up an easy win at the box office, even as two of the weekend's other new releases — The Secret Life of Bees and W. — performed nicely, finishing in line with their respective estimates. The No. 1 action flick grossed $18 million from Friday through Sunday. Although not quite on par with the debut totals of some other game-based movies, like the most recent Resident Evil films, which blew away more than $23 mil in their premieres, Max Payne's premiere number is a marked improvement on the first-weekend sums of...

DHP Review: W. Posted by Dirty Harry on Friday, October 17th, 2008 If the crowd in my theatre is any measure, as I predicted you can expect “W.” to have a good opening weekend. The place was pretty packed. Scattered laughs. Dead silence when it was over, but everyone had already paid their money, right? “W.” is dreadful. An awful film filled with caricatures, an oppressive, schizophrenic score, claustrophobic feel (due to a low budget), laughably bad dialogue, and an overall sense that it was horribly, horribly rushed. Sloppy and mean-spirited does not a good movie make. Sure, it looks...

“W.” is a “fair and balanced” movie, says its creator, Oliver Stone. “I think in this present political state, the real George W. Bush might not approve of this movie,” Stone told the Chicago Sun-Times. “But this movie tries to understand George W. Bush: the good, the bad, and the ugly.” Stone definitely puts the emphasis on the “ugly” in the film, which opened in theaters Friday. He basically acts as cinematic shrink and psychoanalyzes the parent-child relationship between elder George H.W. Bush and junior George W. Stone presents the son as a twisted foul-mouthed drunk with a daddy complex...

Oliver Stone has proclaimed that his new feature film "W." aims to be an "empathetic" psychological portrait of President Bush. The president's younger brother has a different impression. At the heart of "W.," opening nationally in theaters Friday, is a psychological portrait of George W. Bush as living perpetually in the shadow of his father, former President George H.W. Bush, and driven to invade Iraq at least in part by a desire to prove he is as tough as the elder statesman. "The Oedipal rivalry is high-grade, unadulterated hooey," former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told The Washington Times.

W. Is an Insult to 62 Million Voters Half Hee-Haw and half Dr. Strangelove, Oliver Stone’s would-be comedy W., opening tomorrow, is not quite what I expected. It’s worse. Stone, who has been wearing out his vocal cords informing interviewers of his vast empathy for his onetime Yale classmate (the two never met on campus), plays the invasion of Iraq against “Yellow Rose of Texas,” devotes nearly half the movie to scene after scene showing Bush stumbling around with a beer bottle or a tumbler of Jack Daniels, and imagines that, behind the scenes, the tightly controlled Yankee-hardened Bush clan...

By Jill Serjeant LOS ANGELES (Reuters Life!) - Director Oliver Stone has never shied from controversy in his 30 years making movies, tackling issues ranging from the Vietnam War in movies like "Platoon" to violence and society in "Natural Born Killers". A three-time Oscar winner, Stone's latest subject is President George W. Bush. His movie "W." opens in the United States on Friday, less than three weeks before Americans elect their next president on November 4. Oliver Stone, 62, talked to Reuters about what drove him to make "W." and to release it at this time. Q: Why is it...

Oliver Stone Stone still cannot fathom how Bush won four huge elections, thrice bested the man universally acknowledged to be the country’s best debater in 2000 and inspired millions in (to cite a few examples) his speech atop the rubble at the World Trade Center, his Convention address in 2004 and in his second inaugural in 2005. Astonishing but true: Stone simply skips over all of these signature moments because they don’t fit Stone’s one joke about a bumbler who drifted to the top and destroyed the world. To put it another way: the film does not show the courageous...

Stone said he extended invites to the Republican presidential and vice presidential nominees yesterday morning - but they opted for a fund-raiser instead. That was just fine with the Bush-bashing director, who seems to despise Palin even more. "I don't think Sarah would understand the picture," Stone said on the red carpet outside the famed W. 54th St. theater. "It has a lot of complicated dialogue," he zinged. "George Bush is an intellectual compared to her."

President George W. Bush is choking on a pretzel in the White House and falls from a sofa. Saddam Hussein is there with him. Later Bush flies on a magic carpet over Baghdad as he bombs the city. Eventually Saddam returns to the White House to scream insults at him. These were actual sequences that were originally in Oliver Stone's 'W.' movie which is opening this Friday. However, since they were finally cut from the movie, Stone is now patting himself on his back for his forbearance. Even funnier than that dopey fantasy scene that Stone cut is his self-evaluation...

Washington (ANI): American filmmaker Oliver Stone thinks that President George W. Bush behaves like a 'bully' during press conferences. The director, whose biopic of the American leader 'W' is scheduled for release in November, says that the president's behaviour during question-answer sessions with reports seems to show that he is quite 'impatient'. He also says that the leader reveals his intimidating nature by giving certain journalists nicknames. "Ever notice how impatient Bush is at press conferences with questions, like, "What right do you have to ask me a question?". I would say he's a bully. It's classic bully syndrome. The...

From The Sunday Times August 10, 2008 Oliver Stone's George Bush biopic Oliver Stone's Bush biopic plays it for laughs, but it's every bit as controversial as JFK and Nixon Christopher Goodwin You have to admit it’s a great question: “How did George W Bush go from alcoholic bum to the most powerful figure in the world?” That’s what the American film-maker Oliver Stone says he wants to explain in his forthcoming movie biopic, entitled, simply enough, W. Not surprisingly, Texas-sized dust storms have already blown up in Hollywood and Washington over the film, which is being rushed through production...

It would seem that for some in the American ultra-liberal far left wing, otherwise defined as fanatics, it is not enough that Senator Obama stands a solid chance at winning the American Presidency. It is not enough that the major news media are fawning over Senator Obama – treating his recent trip overseas as if he were a sitting President, and refusing his opponent the opportunities they give him (ie. New York Times editorial). Even the fact that a movie highlighting the very liberal Democratic Presidential candidate is in post-production is not enough (and the film will be out just...

The first trailer for Oliver Stone's upcoming movie, a controversial take on the life of George W. Bush, has been released. By News Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJh7Md5KuWc&fmt=18

I have a PDF of the script for this despicable movie. I've been told it's the actual, final script. I haven't even read it yet, just glanced through it and I wanted to throw up. If anyone's interested, freepmail me an email address and I'll send it to you. We could really plaster this over the internet and ruin everything for him, couldn't we....hmmm....Anyone have any other ideas???? By the way, did you all know this money is being financed by a Shanghai based group? So...to recap...a hit piece on a sitting President to be released before said President will...

It had been widely believed that the film would be a "controversial movie about George W. Bush's rise to power."

Bush Biographers Mixed On Script For Oliver Stone's 'W' By Stephen Galloway and Matthew Belloni April 7, 2008 President George W. Bush is a foul-mouthed, reformed drunk obsessed with baseball, Saddam Hussein and a conflicted relationship with his dad. Or at least that's how he's portrayed in the script for Oliver Stone's upcoming feature "W." But how accurate is that depiction? As the film preps for its April 21 start date, The Hollywood Reporter sent a copy of the screenplay to four Bush biographers for their comments. The draft is dated Oct. 17, 2007, and has recently been circulated to...

"The Bush administration is coming together -- and adding a key ally for good measure. Oliver Stone has found the actress to play Condoleezza Rice in his upcoming "W," with Thandie Newton in final negotiations to star as the National Security Advisor-turned-Secretary of State. Meanwhile, Ioan Gruffudd is in final talks to play former British prime minister Tony Blair. Rice and Blair are the first non-Bush roles to be cast; Josh Brolin, James Cromwell, Elizabeth Banks and Ellen Burstyn had previously been cast as George W., George Sr., Laura and Barbara Bush, respectively...."

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) -- Hundreds of camels have died in Saudi Arabia this week from a mystery ailment. Cars stop on a Riyadh highway to make way for a caravan of camels. The animals are big business in Saudi Arabia. The Agriculture Ministry has said 232 camels died in the space of four days in the Dawasir Valley, 250 miles south of Riyadh. King Abdullah has promised compensation for owners, who say the real number of deaths is far higher. Agriculture ministry officials have denied an infectious disease caused the deaths and blamed them on animal feed supplied by...

Script asks: 'How did an alcoholic bum become most powerful leader in world?' How different the world might look now if the US president and his advisers had settled on the phrase Axis of Unbearably Odious, or Axis of Hatred. But they rejected that and instead plumped for Axis of Evil, and the rest is history. So begins the script to Oliver Stone's new movie, W, on the life of George W Bush, which begins filming this month and will be produced at speed. Stone, a director with a keen eye for publicity, is thought to want to get the...

Daddy Issues, War Lust in Oliver Stone's 'W' Controversial Filmmaker's Early Script Depicts President Bush's Hard-Partying Youth and Feuds With His Father By MARCUS BARAM April 1, 2008 — It's a classic American story: In the prime of his life, a man who parties too much and lives in the shadow of his esteemed father turns his life around. He gives up alcohol, embraces religion and finds a new purpose. But will his desire to impress his dad and purge his personal demons put the world in danger? Coming soon to a movie theater near you: controversial director Oliver Stone's...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Brandishing "the sword of Islam," a Palestinian boy stabs President Bush to death in revenge for American and Israeli actions in a new puppet show for children aired by Hamas-owned television in the Gaza Strip. The show, part of a series called "Exceptionals," first aired Sunday. In the episode, Bush, a hand-held puppet dressed in a green uniform and wearing boxing gloves, is shown talking to a Palestinian child The child, with tears in his voice, accuses Bush of killing his father in Iraq, his mother in Lebanon and his brothers and sisters in Gaza...