Free Republic

Mickey Kaus at Kausfiles.com says that the gay-cowboy movie Brokeback Mountain has the same marketing strategy as Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11. Both, he says, have been hyped as blue-state movies that are reaching and changing minds in the cities of red America. He calls this the "Heartland Breakout Meme”. ("Meme" refers to a cultural copying unit that hops from brain to brain without much thought or any at all). What Kaus means is that the mainstream media keep reinforcing ideas liberals want to believe, whether they are true or not. But the alleged breakout of Fahrenheit appears to be myth,...

Ex-prostitute says he won't bow out of state House race DALLAS (AP) - A man running for state representative acknowledged that he once worked as a prostitute but said he's turned his life around and doesn't regret his past. Tom Malin, who has also sold Mary Kay cosmetics and now markets electricity, conceded that his illicit past could cost him the nomination in the March 7 Democratic primary. "I've made mistakes in my life, and I've stood before my creator and I've accepted responsibility for my behavior," Malin said in Friday's Dallas Morning News. On his campaign Web page, Malin...

It just is, okay? And everyone who uses it seems to think they're so clever..."I called it "Bareback Mountain" at work the other day, LMAO!" Sheesh.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Gay and political films are dominating this year's Academy Awards race with some experts expecting that Oscar will wind up wearing pink, either for left-leaning politics or sexual preference. As Hollywood starts its annual awards season leading to the March 5 Oscars, key front-runners in main categories are either gay-themed or political films, with Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain," a drama of love between cowboys, leading the pack in the all-important best picture race. "It could be the gay Oscars this year because gay-themed movies could win almost all the major awards," said Tom O'Neill, show business...

"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" expanded its daily box office take again from Tuesday to Wednesday, despite the wide releases of two fims, one of which was very family-oriented. Three more movies will enter wide release of Friday, but they are expected to neither rival Narnia's box-office receipts, or draw movie-goers from the same market as Narnia. The result is that Narnia seems to be inevitably this year's Christmas box-office champion. (As an aside, if you haven't seen this movie, see it; it is simply fantastic. It's actually unfortunate that it has drawn comparison...

A gross of $11,000 per screen is quite good. If you're an autumn Wide Release, opening on 3500 screens across the country. When a movie opens on only 69 of the nation's largest theaters in a few dozen of the largest cities, with almost all of your target audience within range of those theaters, it's pretty bad. Brokeback Mountain played in fourteen times more theaters this Friday than last Friday, and made less than four times as much money, only $760,000. It looks like the movie will make considerably less than its $15 million budget before the Academy Awards come...

OS ANGELES (Reuters) - It has wowed film festivals, won rave reviews and sparked Oscar buzz, but when "Brokeback Mountain," a.k.a. the gay cowboy movie, begins playing to general audiences on Friday, it faces its toughest challenge yet -- wooing mainstream America. [snip] ...Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger, risk alienating fans and sending their stars plummeting if, after watching the pair have sex on screen, audiences cannot see them any other way than gay. Winning over middle America is important for the roughly $12.5 million movie because its backer, art house specialist Focus Features, wants a big box office and...