The world’s tiniest violin …
… is wailing for Barry Manilow, who refuses to go on The View to be interviewed if Elisabeth Hasselbeck. The whiny butt of a million jokes has just coined a new one:
“I had made a request that I be interviewed by (co-hosts) Joy (Behar), Barbara (Walters) or Whoopi (Goldberg), but not Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Unfortunately, the show was not willing to accommodate this simple request so I bowed out,” he said in a statement on his Web site (http://www.manilow.com).
In an earlier statement to the news Web site TMZ.com, which broke the news, Manilow said Hasselbeck was “dangerous” and “offensive.”
Of course, it’s typical of the loony left to label as “dangerous” anyone who disagrees with them. But forget politics: here’s the question I want someone to as Barry: “Does listening to your own sappy saccharine pablum ever make you want to wretch?”
Viva la difference
Why can a floozy entertainer stand before the cameras and mock Jesus at the Emmy awards, whereas people everywhere walk on eggshells about Muhammad, and the Swedish government grovels across oceans to find someone to apologize to when a random journalist makes a borderline reference?
Here’s what the “entertainer” had to say upon accepting the reward:
In accepting the Emmy for her show “My Life on the D-List,” Griffin said that “a lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus.”
She went on to hold up her Emmy, make an off-color remark about Christ and proclaim, “This award is my god now!”
Of course, she’s factually out of line. I would be astounded — as in shocked — if anyone in recent memory had thanked Jesus for an Emmy. Just not that kinda subculture, ya know? Oh, for the record, we are told that E! edited her comments before airing. But I suspect that just means taking out the foulest allusion that didn’t make it into print. The gist of the slur would be unobjectionable. The Hollywood slobbering over sensitivity and diversity doesn’t encompass Christianity.
But what is the response to this affront? Some theater group in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee takes up a collection and buys a full page ad in USA Today. Asking for what? Nothing in particular. Basically just expressing disappointment, it seems:
Russ Hollingsworth, general manager of The Miracle Theater, said members of the theater’s cast were tired of celebrities joking attitudes toward Jesus. The theater is sponsoring a petition on its Web site, http://www.miracletheater.com.
“When word reached our cast that a Hollywood celebrity had stood before TV cameras and said such vulgar things about Christ, they were incensed,” he said. “It’s just not OK anymore to mock Christians and Jesus with impunity.”
Well, guys, you’re wrong. It is still OK. And it’s OK because they know full well that you aren’t going to riot and smash windows and burn flags and kill people over it. That’s the difference between you and the Islamists. Viva la difference.
Pavarotti’s daughters say they are bitter about media claims of family feuding
[Other family members, I’m told, were angry over the bitterness expressed by the daughters about the medias claims about their feuding. We’ll keep you posted as this story develops, which, I fear, it might.]
Oh, that explains it
The NFL commissioner is in a tiff because the New England Patriots were recording the Jets’ defensive signals with a video camera and also, apparently, tapping into the wireless communications as well.
[A spokesman explained that the Patriots were entitled to do this under an obscure section of the Patriot Act, but only if it were really necessary to ensure that they win the Super Bowl for the fourth time in seven years. Civil libertarians and Jets fans objected vigorously to this interpretation of the law.]
She wants to make out with you
Charlize Theron has opinions. Big ones. Like, the war in Iraq sucks. Betcha didn’t see that one coming:
“The decision-making process for going into Iraq was very hastily done, and I think the facts weren’t there, and I just don’t think you go to war for those reasons,” Theron, 32, told Associated Press Television in an interview. “I think the thing that upset me most was the manipulation that our government did towards our people, manipulating them to believe that if they weren’t for the war, they weren’t patriotic.”
It must be very frustrating for such a brilliant and deep thinking woman to always be viewed in such a, well, superficial light. Consider this exchange, where she asserts that Cuba and the U.S. are comparable in terms of freedom:
SANCHEZ: Do you think the lack of freedoms in Cuba are parallel to the lack of freedoms in the United States?
THERON: Well, I would — I would compare those two, yes, definitely.
SANCHEZ: Yes? …. It sounds like — it sounds like you don’t have a very high opinion of the United States if you think that the freedoms…
THERON: Oh, my God. No, you’re so wrong. I absolutely love it. Why do you think I live in the United States?
THERON: I want to make out with you right now.
Here’s the video:
Aging artists or shameless shills?
Mick Jagger has been looking revolting and dissipated for decades. Who would have thought “plaintively pathetic” would be added to that list?
“Some people should retire at 30,” Mick Jagger, 64, was quoted as telling Kirsten Szastrau of the newspaper Allgemeine Zeitung Mainz when she asked him bluntly when he was going to quit.
“I know that there’s a lot of talk about that (retirement). But those are rules bureaucrats make. If you’re an artist, poet or musician, other things matter. We have the feeling we’re still a very good band, and we love what we’re doing. Besides that, I’m a terrible plumber. There’s nothing else I could do.”
German music critics ain’t buying it. And I’m inclined to agree:
“The fondness for travel by the senior citizens has nothing to do with art,” wrote Jochen Temsch, a critic at Munich’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.
Are these guys for real?
Once you get past the emotionally wrenching images of Kenyan poverty in this African relief video, you realize that maybe there are subtexts here. On a subtle and deeper level, I am led to question the whole industry of celebrity causes. I mean, are these guys really sincere? Or are they just doing it to enhance their image? And what of Laurie David, Sheryl Crow and the whole global warming celebrity industry. Any different? I don’t want to be cynical, but sometimes you really have to wonder. Take a look, and decide for yourself.
Gwen Stefani in a burqa?
What’s the point? Take a mediocre pop starlet whose schtick is her attraction, send her to Malaysia with their Taliban-lite regime, and a storm of protests convinces her to …
… wear traditional costumes in her Malaysian concert next week after conservative Muslim youths protested at the “indecent dressing and obscenity” of her skin-baring act. An Islamic opposition party demanded that her show next Tuesday should be cancelled.
The platinum blonde star has agreed to cover up in the hope of heading off further protests.
To be fair, I have no idea who Stefani is, but I just assume she’s a mediocre singer. Aren’t they all? But we are all anxious now to see what traditional dress will burst out on stage. Burqas are probably not on the agenda. Traditional Malaya dress?
Who knows, but this is the state of the state she’s performing in:
In a notorious case this year a Malay woman called Lina Joy attempted to have Malaysia’s courts recognise her conversion to Christianity, but failed and was hounded and fled into hiding. Some hardliners have even called for the execution of apostates. [altogether now: “there is NO compulsion in religion. (2:256)]
Every state has a religious department with Saudi-style moral enforcers and nowhere are they more active than in Kota Bharu, a city of mosques along a muddy river that bustles during the day but falls silent at nightfall.
Cate, your greasy hair ain’t helpin things
Cate Blanchet is no longer washing her hair. I don’t even know who she is. Googling her, I realize I saw her in the Lord of the Rings films, and that she has a habit of flying private jets around the world.
“It’s great to see my children [Cate, you have children? You selfish anthropocentric slut!] engaged in these things, like when you put the water on when you put the toothbrush under the tap, you turn it off the minute you take it out and you don’t let the water run.”
The Australian star has also limited her car use and has switched her household power supply to green power.
She must be so brainwashed with the “think globally, act locally” cliché that she actually thinks the little things matter. They don’t. I know it is reassuring to lie to yourself that you can make a difference on the margins. You can’t.
Global warming may be caused by variations in the sun’s energy, and if so, good luck with that. If it is anthropogenic, it can only be addressed through enormous technological breakthroughs in electricity and in car engines. Token gestures toward wind or solar power aint gonna cut it. We’re talking massive changes in economies of scale. And we aren’t even close technologically. Not even close.
Finally, once we make these tech breakthroughs, we need to transmit these technologies to developing countries.
Global warming, if it is man made, cannot be addressed one greasy head at a time.
Sean Penn’s useful idiot tour
Sean Penn adheres to the Obama school of diplomacy: do photo ops with the world’s insane anti-American dictators any time, anywhere. Penn really digs them. He went to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in 2002, and the Mullah’s Iran in 2005. As long as they have a beef with his home country, he’s not going to get technical about their egregious human rights records or suppression of dissent.
Yesterday, he’s out preening with Chavez:
“I came here looking for a great country. I found a great country,” the U.S. actor said. “I’m also here as a journalist and so I owe it to that medium to wait until I’ve digested, fact-checked and finished my journey here” before saying more, Penn said. He thanked Chavez for the visit. Chavez lauded Penn as “a man who is critical of his government and of imperialism.”
No doubt, Chavez. And Penn, I’m sure the “medium” is much obliged that you wait to digest before you give them the end product of your digestive system.
Fox aims fuzzy toy blunderbuss at carbon
Fox’s 24 is going to do some kind of carbon thingamajig that is supposed to stop global warming, or at least put the fear of God into it. The article goes on at length trying to explain how this generator will run 5% biodiesel–and maybe more!–and this electric bill will be diverted to that windfarm or something. Here’s an excerpt, with short incredulous interjections from me:
The extent to which the plan will reduce the show’s imprint on Earth is difficult to calculate [duh], but the measures certainly won’t hurt [duh]; more shows and films aiming to reduce their carbon footprints could have a considerable impact [huh?]. Some productions before “24″ were green — films such as “Syriana” and “An Inconvenient Truth” were carbon-neutral [whah?] …
Three thoughts:
1) If Rupert Murdoch is the devil, why is Fox bending over to be so frickin angelic? What’s the fun of being a demon if you let people do this stuff behind your back?
2) This whole stunt is a hopeless load of transparent guano. Anyone who can pretend to follow the maze of explanations to how any of this matters could probably also explain the carbon neutrality of Al Gore’s pool house.
3) Hollywood is so Hollywood-centric it actually think that what it does in a handful of movies has a discernible impact. If carbon is a problem, the answers lie with China, India and Africa. When you figure that one out, send us a memo, but spare us the gas on your biodiesel movie sets.
I’m OK, you’re OK
All I can say is keep dancing and knock of the twinkies and only good things can happen, eh?
The prima ballerina of the Danza Voluminosa troupe weighs 130 kilograms [286 pounds], and as she thumps gracefully across the floor, she gives new meaning to the words stage presence. Her body is a riotous celebration of weight - of ample belly and breasts, of thick legs and arms, of the crushing reality of gravity.
“I always liked to dance,” said the dancer, Mailin Daza, who weighs the equivalent of about 286 pounds. “I wanted to dance in the classical ballet, but my mother told me fat girls could not dance. I always dreamed of being a ballerina. With this group I feel I am a ballerina.”
Nevada a hotspot? Turn out the lights
The latest round of faux news stories built around activist press releases centers in Nevada’s temperatures being well above it’s 30 year average.
[But if you did the same sample in 1973, you’d find temperatures well below the 30 year average. Hence, the panic about global cooling at that time. And since the average has been on a steep upward curve since 1974, each successive point is well above the 30 year average. It’s axiomatic.]
All of this begs the question of whether human activity is causing the temperature increase, or whether it tracks increases in solar activity.
Nevadans are starting to understand that global warming is affecting us right now, and that our elected officials need to start making some tough choices to protect our quality of life,” said Kyle Davis, the Policy Director for the Nevada Conservation League and a member of the Governor’s Climate Change Task Force.
For the first time, though, I’m seeing some advantages here. If Nevada can be persuaded to fight global warming by turning off the lights on that ghastly strip of casinos in Las Vegas, the world may not be any cooler, but it will be a whole lot less kitschy. And I could live with that.
Hogwarts hogwash
It was inevitable. A course at the University of Edinburgh in Harry Potter studies:
After reading six of the principal tracts it is difficult not to feel sorry for Ms Rowling. One writer calls her a Eurosceptic; another takes her to task for satirising the middle-class Dursleys.
Most tedious of all is the feminist debate. According to Ms Rowling’s detractors, the girls at Hogwarts giggle too much, the school is sexist because it is too keen on sport and the main female characters are spinsters, self-sacrificial or “trapped in highly traditional relationships” (married).
Most tedious of all is the feminist debate. But I repeat myself.
Where is Anthony Hopkins when you need him?
Tom Cruise started to shoot his controversial film about the 1944 plot to kill Hitler today — but the producers have yet to find a character to play the Nazi leader.The bizarre problem — a case of playing Hamlet without the Prince — is only the latest twist in the $80 million (£39 million) attempt to tell the story of one of Germany’s few war heroes.
Anthony Hopkins repeatedly plays the psychopathic mass murderer in the Hannibal/Silence of the Lambs film, where he takes sadistic glee in torturing and killing people one on one. That is a great acting challenge, proof of his range and versatility.
[For the record, I have never understood the allure of acting in or watching the mass murderer film genre. I’m just sayin ….]
An ocean, or a mirage?
Here’s Romney’s latest campaign ad, which takes on porn–a far more serious issue than most anyone is acknowledging.
Porn’s ubiquity and ready available to young impressionable minds, combined with its intense addictive character are creating a massive sociological experiment. Serious minds have serious concerns as to how it will turn out.
Whether Romney is serious about it, or whether there is anything he can do about it another matter. He might start by pressuring his pals at Marriott to stop hiding behind the stockholder interest shield and address their porn distribution empire. Saying that a hotel cannot stop selling porn is like saying that any company must pursue any profitable opportunity at all times. That is ridiculous. By that logic, Marriott should be in the casino business, and buddies with Harry Reid in Las Vegas. They’re not in the Casino business, and no one is putting a gun at their head to be in the porn business.
Powerline has a few good comments and links on the Romney ad. It’s nice to be able to watch and critique ads like this at leisure.
On belching forth a wingless, blind slug
Steven Webber, a struggling actor who after years of bit roles finally landed a major part in the The Producers, also struggles with writing. Like a kid learning the violin, I’ll applaud him for trying but ask him to do it in the next room. At HuffPost, Webber ruminates on why Saint Al Gore might not run:
Could he know that any run at the office would surely turn out to be a hollow chrysalis which, after gestation, would not incubate a butterfly but more likely belch forth a wingless, blind slug; that an educated, experienced, wise adult can lead more effectively and make more of a difference by being an activist/celebrity and riding a wave of pop-culture popularity, rather than relying upon the rusted and jury-rigged contraption quaintly referred to as the electoral process.
There’s a jury-rigged contraption up there alright, but it ain’t the electoral process.
With every so-so celebrity lefty and his dog wandering around Arianna’s dance floor, she might consider getting a bouncer.
Eric
Already!
Michael Phillips in the Chicago Tribune reviews the new Harry Potter film, where he has high praise for the future of the lead actor:
Thanks to Daniel Radcliffe, who turns 18 later this month and seems ready for a hardy career once all seven Potter books have been filmed–already he has appeared nude in the West End revival of “Equus”–our hero’s “Look Back in Anger” phase carries genuine feeling.
Already, the writer breathlessly intones. Baring your East End in the West End, it would seem, is very close to the summum bonum of a serious acting career.
It’s the little words–the qualifiers, the gratuitous adjectives–that tell you more about a writer and a culture than you wanted to know.
