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Really...Does this guy EVER work? http://goo.gl/lLHFx

The "Lincoln" director and Obama supporter, one of The Hollywood Reporter's 2012 Rule Breakers, says the New Jersey governor "put party politics aside for the greater good" and also cites Nelson Mandela and Bill Clinton among his heroes. [SNIP] [SNIP] THR: Daniel, is there a British historical character who interests you in the way America is fascinated by Lincoln? Day-Lewis: The quality of fascination is incomparable, really. But I was very interested in Richard Hillary, a pilot who died in World War II. I don’t know if you’ve read Sebastian Faulks’ wonderful book The Fatal Englishman. He takes three lives...

Every schoolchild with enough smarts and curiosity to get beyond the latest video game of "Call of Duty" ought to go see "Lincoln," the movie, and check out the references and his own attention span. It requires patience, but it shows through dramatic action how a self-taught rustic from the deep backwoods had the emotional and intellectual discipline to overcome poverty and grow up to be a president to rank among the greatest. This is not about the American Dream or a Horatio Alger story. (Does anybody remember him?) Nor is it mythmaking. It's made of sterner stuff than that....

DreamWorks Studios announced today that they are in the final stages of salary negotiations with Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank for their new Looney Tunes Bugs Bunny movie. Frank is slated to play Elmer Fudd in the five hundred million dollar, two part, six hour movie epic. The Congressman expressed interest in the role when he heard that Bugs Bunny was going to be played by an actor who has expressed conservative political views in the past. We talked with Congressman Frank over brunch in the West Village where he was visiting a friend. “It was wight before our summer wecess,”...

Stephen Spielberg has remade "Jurrasic Park" for TV. It starts in September. It is described as a tree-hugger version of a time-travel story (Earth's atmosphere becomes so polluted that people have to flee back in time 85 million years.) An updated Robinson family (per "Lost in Space") is described as the main characters. The trailers look like outtakes from "Jurrasic Park." My question: does this thing have a chance at "something over $4M" per episode?

The influence of Spielberg, who has blessed this project with his producer's credit, is all over every frame of this delightful movie. Super 8 isn’t quite up to the level of Steven Spielberg’s finest early-80s work — but it’s surprisingly close, a sci-fi movie with heart that is thrillingly directed by Spielberg worshipper J.J. Abrams. Is Abrams playing God? As Steve Martin put it, when his mad-scientist character was accused of this in The Man with Two Brains, “Somebody has to!” In a Hollywood that’s becoming increasingly reliant on special effects at the expense of story — of wowing you...

J.J. Abrams, which is becoming this generations Steven Spielberg, has taken inspiration from Spielberg in a movie that is more family entertainment than Science Fiction. This has the feel of a late 70s – early 80s flick from Spielberg, and I could very comfortably have believed that he made this in the interim between Jaws and E.T.. The movie had me virtually giggling inside, making me remember what it was like to see those movies as a young child. It brings us back to an era that I guess is now long forgotten, of blissful summers and imaginations gone wild....

President Obama asked for support Thursday from a small Los Angeles audience dotted with Hollywood stars. Speaking in a tiny room of the Italian restaurant Tavern to a an audience of 60 that included Steven Spielberg, Will Ferrell, Tom Hanks and George Clooney, Obama said he understood frustration with his compromises with centrist Democrats and Republicans on healthcare, ending the Bush tax rates for the wealthy and other issues. Over the past two and a half years, Obama said, he was sure there were times "where you're reading the papers or you're watching TV and you're saying, 'Ah, Obama, you...

Video 1 (runs 9:29): Steven Spielberg reflects on his early work in television as a freelance director for such shows as Night Gallery, Marcus Welby, M.D., Columbo, and for his first made for TV movie Duel starring Dennis Weaver. Spielberg's talent was evident from the get-go. Video 2 (runs 9:26):Richard Matheson talks about his inspiration for writing the novelette, Duel, working on the script for the movie, and his thoughts about Spielberg's final product. Even though I was just a kid in the 70's, I sure do miss some of those shows from the era.

Some of Hollywood’s most recognizable names are digging into their deep pockets to help Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold, one of the Senate’s most reliably liberal voices — and a top Republican target this fall. Among Feingold's contributors are filmmakers Steven Spielberg and Harvey Weinstein, actors Michael Douglas and Edie Falco, as well as NBC’s Jeffrey Zucker, music executive David Geffen, and producer Jeffrey Katzenberg and his wife, Marilyn, according to CQMoneyLine.com. Writer and producer Tom Fontana, creator of the television series “Homicide: Life on the Street” and “Oz,” also ponied up for Feingold, as did actress Kathryn Erbe, who has...

November 24, 2009 Glamour and Taste: Obama Tent Feast To Curry Favour With India Giles Whittell in Washington The Obamas' first state dinner is in honour of an abstemious vegetarian There will be music from the composer of the Slumdog Millionaire theme, food from an Ethiopian-born Swedish chef and cedar chips sprinkled on the roofs of the portable lavatories. There may also be the faint patter of drizzle on canvas. The first state dinner of the Obama era, held tonight in a tent village on the South Lawn of the White House, will honour an Indian Prime Minister described by...

Even as he conceded there is still much hard work to do, President Obama was in a boastful mood Wednesday night, telling a star-studded crowd at a fundraising dinner that he "would put these first four months up against any prior administration since FDR." The president, speaking to a dinner that included Hollywood A-listers like Kiefer Sutherland, Marisa Tomei, Jamie Foxx, Ron Howard and Steven Spielberg, lauded the legislation he has signed since taking office but added that he is "not satisfied." "I'm confident in the future, but I'm not yet content," Obama said. The celebrity dinner, which cost couples...

Obama hits Hollywood on fundraising trip U.S. president to tap movie, music executives at Beverly Hills hotel LOS ANGELES - President Barack Obama looked not for votes in California on Wednesday but for millions of dollars to aid Democratic campaigns, including at a fundraiser hosted by such Hollywood names as Steven Spielberg. Like Bill Clinton and other top Democrats before him, Obama visits the Golden State now and then to tap wealthy, liberal-leaning activists, especially in Silicon Valley and Hollywood. Wednesday night's two-tiered event at the Beverly Hilton Hotel offered tickets ranging from $1,000 to $15,200. The lower prices bought...

There were two Hollywood-related moments that gladdened the heart over this past weekend. The first, obviously, was the glorious sight of the Oscar telecast end credits, the second was Kim Master’s “Slate” story reporting that Steven Spielberg’s long gestating passion project - an Abe Lincoln biopic, is all but dead. Steven Spielberg not making a film was good news. How things have changed in thirty years.

NEW YORK - Leonardo DiCaprio is bringing out the big guns to get out the vote. Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts, Harrison Ford, Will Smith, Steven Spielberg and Justin Timberlake are among the celebrities starring in a new public service announcement produced by the actor, who also appears in the spot. The video shows the stars struggling to grasp the concept of using reverse psychology to get young people into voting booths... Finally, Ford says, “You know what? I can’t do it. It’s not true, I don’t believe it — 537 people decided the 2000 election, and you want me to...

Influential filmmaker and philanthropist Steven Spielberg today announced that he is officially endorsing Hillary Clinton for President. Spielberg said that he has chosen to endorse Clinton because of her experience and strength. “I’ve taken the time to familiarize myself with the impressive field of Democratic candidates and am convinced that Hillary Clinton is the most qualified candidate to lead us from her first day in the White House,” Spielberg said. “Hillary is a strong leader and is respected the world over. As president, she will bring America back together, rebuild our prestige abroad and ensure our protection here at home.”...

Ultimate 'Indy' Flick: Fanboys Remake Raiders of the Lost Ark http://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/news/2007/05/diy_raiders http://tinyurl.com/2h488l Its a great article about three boys who remade "Raiders" starting in 1982 when they were twelve. It took them seven years to finish. If you read the article, I think you'll agree what they did was remarkable.

Excerpt - Academy Award-winning director and producer Steven Spielberg has turned over to federal authorities Russian Schoolroom, a 1967 oil on canvas by Norman Rockwell that was filched from a Clayton art gallery in 1973, according to the FBI. No charges have been filed in the case, and federal officials say they have no evidence that Spielberg knew the painting had been stolen when he purchased it in 1989. "It appears that he is an innocent buyer," says St. Louis-based FBI agent Frank Brostrom, a member of the agency's Art Crime Team, who initiated the investigation. Spielberg is an avid...

Jan. 24, 2007 — - Is Hollywood abandoning Hillary? On Wednesday morning, hundreds of Hollywood's movers and shakers received an invitation that they may find hard to refuse. They've been invited to come meet Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic Party's new superstar. He already has the buzz, but can he bring home the prize? Movie moguls Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg want their Hollywood peers to join them at a Feb. 20 fundraiser the three are throwing for Obama. For $2,300 a person and $4600 a couple, they can meet the candidate at a reception at the Beverly...

As I do everyday, I checked the headlines of BWTF.com to find the most recent news conscerning one of my favorite childhood franchises - Transformers. I was elated to find a link to the new website going up for the live-action movie coming up in 2007. As dramatic music played on the web page, the flash animation had the Earth zoom into view and behind it a large robotic eye staring back at me. Excitedly, I awaited one of the typical Transformers tag lines (expecting either, “More than meets the eye,” or “Robots in disguise”). Then the slogan for what...

Avner Kaufmann, the reluctant warrior and protagonist of Steven Spielberg's movie "Munich," is honorable, strong, a family man--that is, a typical Israeli. That is why "Munich," although intensely criticized by pro-Israel commentators, ultimately does Israel and the civilized world at least one service: At a time when anti-Semitism is all-too-often repackaged and sold in politically correct form as "anti-Zionism," "Munich" offers mass audiences a compelling portrait of an Israeli struggling courageously to confront evil. Despite its lapses, "Munich" still has value for illuminating Israel's position--and that of all civilized people confronting terrorism...

They made the most moving, provocative films of the year. In our annual roundtable, five directors (one of whom sidelines as an actor) talk about passion, fear, politics, Oscar ads and crying at the movies.

Disagree with me – that’s what I want Goaded by critics of his new film Munich, Steven Spielberg tells Christopher Goodwin he is not guilty of sympathising with terrorists The eternal wunderkind of American cinema is tired. “I made two films, War of the Worlds and Munich, in the same calendar year,” says Steven Spielberg wearily, “and I’m not 30 years old any more, so I’m looking to rest for a little while.” Spielberg, 59, is also tired of sitting back and taking the furious barrage of attacks from critics of Munich, the most controversial film he has made in...

Steven Spielberg said that he made Munich to promote a dialogue about the nature of terrorism and the efficacy of counterterrorism. His screenwriter, Tony Kushner, said that he did not feel compelled to portray Israel's retaliation against the Munich killers accurately because "an audience has the resources to check" what is real and what is fiction. Well, here's a reality check. • Did Israel's anti-terrorism efforts following Munich create a "cycle of violence"? The film portrays a squad of Mossad agents, led by a fictional character named Avner Kauffman, tracking down and killing the Black September terrorists who perpetrated the...

DSC — Munich: The Real Assassins Munich: The Real Assassins 1972 Munich Olympics: before the eyes of millions of television viewers, 11 Israeli athletes are murdered by Black September, a radical group within the PLO. This is the true story behind the extraordinary mission of revenge planned by Israel in response. JAN 22 2006 @ 10:00 PM

Steven Spielberg hit back at critics of his latest film "Munich" about the targeted killing of Palestinians behind the massacre of Israelis during the 1972 Olympics, in an interview to be published Monday ahead of the picture's German and Israeli release. Spielberg, 59, told German news weekly Der Spiegel that "Munich" aims to reclaim the debate about the moral costs of the struggle against terror from "extremists" and engage moderate forces in the West and the Middle East. "Should you leave the debate to the great over-simplifiers? The extreme Jews and extreme Palestinians who consider any kind of negotiated settlement...

Spielberg's Munich and me January 3rd, 2006 I had deep misgivings about seeing Spielberg’s Munich. The tragedy was too close to my heart. I was supposed to be with the 1972 Israeli Olympiads as a member of the Israeli women’s basketball team. At the last minute, the International Olympic Committee decided against including a women’s basketball event. (It did not become a regular event until the 1976 Olympics.) I didn’t go to Munich, but I spent years training with the athletes who did go. We developed a close camaraderie, as people do at training camps where tensions and hopes are...

Israel: Spielberg "Munich" Dangerous; Rationalizes TerrorismThere is no excuse for terrorism, no rationalization for the murder of innocent civilians.By Joel Leyden Israel News Agency Jerusalem----December 28......Steven Spielberg has made a very big mistake. And rather than admitting it: "you know it was an error, I overreached, I am going to pull it - my movie on the Munich Massacre," Spielberg hires a spin doctor from Israel. But Steven, no amount of PR spin will pull you out of this mess. You cannot ask Israel to hesitate for one tenth of one second on our war against terrorism. Many in Israel...

In the fall-out of Steven Shlemielberg's fictional, moral-equivalence-of-victims-with-terrorists film, "Munich," there are two items of note: * Mohammed Daoud, one of the Islamic terrorist planners of the Munich massacre of innocent Israeli Olympic athletes, told Reuters that, We did not target Israeli civilians. Some of them (the athletes) had taken part in wars and killed many Palestinians. Whether a pianist or an athlete, any Israeli is a soldier. But, in fact, at least one of the eleven athletes murdered never served as an Israeli soldier. He was American citizen David Berger of Cleveland, Ohio. Too bad the ignorant Reuters reporter,...

As the Monitor noted back in July, “alarm bells went off like crazy when Steven Spielberg hired Tony Kushner last year to rewrite the script of a movie about Israel’s clandestine — and lethal — response to the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.” The Monitor found cause for concern because Kushner is a radical leftist whose views on the Middle East are hardly distinguishable from the hateful screeds found on the most rabidly anti-Israel websites.

As Steven Spielberg ponders the pointlessness of tit-for-tat retaliation between Israelis and Palestinians, audiences will weigh "Munich" and find it wanting -- wanting involving characters and economical storytelling, for starters. The director's long-gestating meditative thriller on the aftermath of the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games takes its own sweet time making obvious points about the Jewish nation compromising its own values, and in the process forgets to be a pulse-quickening suspenser. Beautifully made pic will spur newsy media coverage and possible consternation on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide, but members of the general public...

It remains to be seen, literally, if Steven Spielberg has switched sides, from kosher ("Schindler's List"), to treyf. His movie, "Munich," will be opening in a few days and early word has it that he has indeed gone "Hollywood." This means that he's joined the trend to the Left, and that's the way to go if you want to do lunch in that town again. If advance screenings prove accurate (the movie is set to open December 23), Spielberg has used the Olympic Massacre of 1972 to send a message that brings to mind the words of MGM tycoon Louis...

Even today, sources on inventions list six by Franklin that are still in active use today. One of those sits in my back hall, cheerfully and economically heating the back of my home – the Franklin stove. Another sits on the bridge of my nose as I write this – a pair of bifocals. But this is about Franklin’s greatest invention, one that the lists never mention because it is mere words, not a physical object. Franklin made seven trips to Europe, as a diplomat and scholar. He was welcomed into all the learned societies that existed in Europe then....

There will be no press junket, no premiere and, most importantly, no Oscar marketing campaign beyond trailers and posters for Steven Spielberg’s movie Munich, I have learned. This dicey decision to have no traditional publicity for the film before and after it opens December 23 is the director’s alone. He will not even be giving press or broadcast interviews. “The official strategy is for the movie to speak for itself,” an insider told me this week. “All they’re going to do is just show the movie to people. You have to be Steven Spielberg to get away with that.” But...

NOTE: This is a vastly expanded and updated version of a prior review from this group, which includes a host of quotes from those behind the film. It came via the group’s e-mail list, where the site itself appears to be down for the moment. WAR OF THE WORLDS: Steven Spielberg and H.G. Wells on Occupations, Empires, and "Current Relevance" Updated Final, SPOILERS New Republican Archive. Movie Reviews. July 11, 2005. (Contact: newrepublicanarchive@juno.com). War of the Worlds is not only a tense portrayal of the terror and horror of war, particularly for those on the losing side of a modern...

A New York Times article, today, confirms everything I've written (here and here) and worse regarding Steven Spielberg's upcoming "Vengeance" movie. It is now a certainty that Mr. "Schindler's List" will expend the capital he earned on that film to now HUMANIZE(!) Palestinian terrorists who murdered the Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich in 1972. It's bad enough that Spielberg ran the script by Arafat-fan Bill Clinton--Arafat ordered the Olympic athlete massacre--and other assorted Clintonistas who drooled over Arafat, like Mike McCurry and Dennis Ross. Worse is the revelation that playwright Tony Kushner (a self-avowed socialist and gay activist) is praised...

"War of the Worlds" Spielberg-esque Message: Don't Fight Terror By Debbie Schlussel I'm violating Steven Spielberg's review policy for "War of the Worlds" and telling you what I think ahead of tomorrow's scheduled release date. I saw the movie at a press screening, last night, and was disturbed by the message: Don't fight terror, and everything will work out. (Security was literally tighter than that for going to the White House to meet the President. No purses allowed. Three wandings by security.) It's bad enough that Steven Spielberg is adding "balance" and factual inaccuracy to the story of the Israeli...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Steven Spielberg, famed for Hollywood blockbusters, is keeping mum about his latest project, a dramatization of tit-for-tat killings that followed the 1972 massacre of Israeli Olympic athletes by Palestinian guerrillas. Such is the secrecy that even the Israeli spymasters who commanded the reprisals after the Munich Games have been left out in the cold.

According to acclaimed director Steven Spielberg John Kerry lost the last election because of Hollywood ... or rather, because there was not enough of Hollywood in the race. The Hollywood mogul apparently believes that if there had been more effort on the part of tinsel town A-listers to get Kerry into the White House, the Massachusetts senator might not be wearing around a hangdog expression reminiscent of a blue-tick hound. http://www3.contactmusic.com/news/index5.htm In other words, if only there had been more of this http://www.nydailynews.com/front/v-pfriendly/story/212784p-183225c.html, and of course this http://www.politicalmusings.net/archives/2004/08/03/ then we would all be enjoying the blessings of Massachusetts's brand of...

Exclusive: Kabbalist Blesses Jones to Uncover Holy Lost Ark 23:39 May 18, '05 / 9 Iyar 5765 An unnamed Kabbalist has granted blessing to famed archeologist Dr. Vendyl Jones, to uncover the Holy Ark of the Covenant. Jones plans to excavate the Lost Ark by the Tisha B’Av Fast this summer.

While running for Senate against Bill Weld in 1996, a lot of the same issues that dog Kerry now were part of the political landscape. To placate some concerns, John Kerry allowed reporter Charles Sennott of the Boston Globe to watch five hours of his homemade video that was taken while he was on the Meekong Delta in Vietnam. The article, which is entited: "The making of the candidates: JOHN FORBES KERRY" was published on page A31 of the Globe on 10/6/1996. In it, Kerry admitted that he had used a video camera while in combat and had reenacted many...

DUVALL,SI -- SPIELBERG NO! By Don Feder . There aren’t many people in Hollywood with the guts to take on a heavyweight like Steven Spielberg. That makes Robert Duvall part of an elite – showbiz types with courage and a conscience. In a recent interview with Charlie Rose, the man who played Lt. Col. Kilgore in “Apocalypse Now” gave the director of “Saving Pvt. Ryan” a little verbal napalm in the morning. Commenting on Spielberg’s 2002 trip to Cuba, Duvall innocently remarked: “Now I want to ask him (Spielberg) – and I know he’s going to get pissed off –...

Tough-guy actor Robert Duvall is blasting “presumptuous” Steven Spielberg for meeting with Fidel Castro in Cuba over a year ago. “Spielberg went down there recently and said, ‘The best seven hours I ever spent was actually with Fidel Castro,’” Duvall tells Charlie Rose on tonight’s “60 Minutes II,” alluding to Spielberg’s November ’02 sojourn to Havana to screen eight of his movies there. “Now, what I want to ask him – and I know he’s going to get p***ed off – ‘Would you consider building a little annex on the Holocaust museum or at least across the street to honor...

In an unlikely attempt to gain star backing for a slow-burning campaign, the Democratic presidential candidate, General Wesley Clark, is spending late nights talking politics with Madonna and wooing sympathetic supergroups such as The Eagles, with whom he recently shared the stage during a rendition of Hotel California. Gen Clark, who had a cerebral and somewhat austere reputation during his military career, has spent much of the past month seeking out the late-night company of west coast rock stars, screen idols and movie producers. While his rivals preach to the worthy but unglamorous residents of early-voting Iowa and New Hampshire,...

Rob Lowe: "I think you gotta support those amazing men and women who are over there about to execute whatever we do, and I think the best way you can do that is to get behind the most visible embodiment of them, and that's the Commander-in-Chief." Steven Spielberg: "Bush has reliable information on the fact that Saddam Hussein is making weapons of mass destruction and steps being taken against Iraq are valid." Rick Schroeder: "Rick is one of the few well-know actors in Hollywood prepared to acknowledge his active Republican and conservative views." Jean Claude Van Damme: "Some of those...

Moore-less Mel Gibson THE LEFT COAST REPORT A Political Look at Hollywood A conservative chorus rang out throughout the land. “Say it Ain’t So, Mel!” was the right thinker’s reaction when the story broke that Mel Gibson’s Icon Productions was going to be involved with Michael Moore's flimflam foray “Fahrenheit 911.” Moore probably hopes to fill movie screens with a bunch of Bush-bashing baloney just in time for the presidential campaign of 2004. But now, according to Variety, word has it that Gibson’s pulled the plug on Icon’s financial involvement with the pseudo-documentary maker’s latest project. So, where does a...

Spielberg to NewsMax: Cuba Lied About What I Said Hollywood is finally learning what everyone else knew all along: Bloodthirsty Cuban dictator Fidel Castro can't be trusted. Tinseltown's top movie director, Steven Spielberg, wants NewsMax and our readers to know that Castro's regime is exploiting him with a lie. Our columnist Humberto Fontova, zinging Castro's American groupies (shockingly, there are still plenty, even after the dictator's latest atrocities), mentioned a notorious quotation attributed to Spielberg: that meeting Castro was "the eight most important hours of [his] life." Spielberg's people contacted our people to proclaim that the director never made any...

The man in the hat is back - and on DVD for the first time. Looking to tide folks over until the eventual release of the fourth Indiana Jones feature, Paramount Home Entertainment announced Tuesday that it finally plans on releasing the first three Indy films on November 4, 2003 as part of a four-disc DVD set. Dubbed The Adventures of Indiana Jones: The Complete DVD Movie Collection, the set will not only feature all three Indy flicks -1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1984's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade...

Rupert Murdoch's Twentieth Century Fox is facing a furious backlash from film fans who have received unsolicited phone calls to promote the video and DVD of its Tom Cruise movie Minority Report. The film giant this week launched Britain's first voicemail message campaign to persuade film buffs to buy the movie. It marks a significant development in the aggressive world of direct marketing - consumers have had to tolerate junk-mail on their door mat for years, and are now battling with the electronic equivalent, spam emails - but it is believed this is the first time anyone has attempted a...