Hey Hollywood, Picture This!

While California continues to grapple with a state debt that exceeds most other industrialized and third world countries the obvious answer which eludes Nancy Pelosi and here fellow travelers on the liberal crazy train is once again being proven to bear fruit.

Big movie trucks like those outside the Georgia Aquarium Thursday night are becoming a common sight in Metro Atlanta, as the film industry continues to grow here, thanks to the state's generous tax cuts and diverse locations.

But it brings an additional benefit... jobs. Hundreds of them.

I don't want the idiots in California to change a thing. In fact I hope they raise their tax rates, which will no doubt continue to be a boon to places like Nevada and the bordering states. Oh and don't give any tax cuts to the rich, you know the ones who actually hire people. I am surprised that the left coast elites could overcome their hatred of the red south, full of inbred NASCAR following, bible thumping, gun toting, racist, hillbillies to actually do business in the south but then again it is all about the money after all isn't it. Just like those greedy Wall St types liberals love to demonize. Or insurance companies. Or the oil industry.

Capitalism is good after all. Just wait until they find out we have people down here that can actually write computer code and the good folks of Washington overcome their fear of the sun and start migrating back east.

'You’re an Actor, Act. Don’t Talk About Politics or Religion'

Safe to say Julia Roberts gets it. Unfortunately too many of her Hollywood brethren have never figured that out. It's political season, which means it's time for celebutards to say really stupid things.

As August winds to a close, midterm elections are just around the corner, and the debate on who will bring home the bacon in November is heating up – in Hollywood, that is.

“The Tea Party is going to split the Republican vote,” songstress Sheryl Crow predicted to Fox sister publication The Australian this week. “Which can only be good for the Democrats. That has to be the hope. Either that, or we all move to Canada.”

Is there anything more childish than the ritualistic declaration you're going to pick up and leave the country if you don't get your way?

Crow is on tour to promote her new album, 100 Miles from Memphis. Reviews for the album have been mixed – but Crow has not minced words in giving her own review of the political scene. New song “Say What You Want” takes aim at Sarah Palin: “I saw you ranting on TV today // I heard you tell me to reload // You got a lot of nerve to talk that way // Someone unplug the microphone.”

Crow told The Australian, “It’s risky to do that because you just get slagged off for being preachy. But the morning Sarah Palin came out and said, ‘reload,’ there was no way I wasn’t going to write about that. I did struggle whether to put it on the record or not, because it’s such a hot button.”

Crow, of course, became a national laughingstock over her weird obsession with toilet paper. Being a punchline apparently hasn't curbed her nuttiness.

On the upside, some Hollywood types know better.

One star this week even felt obligated to explain why she doesn’t sound off on hot topics. “I’ve realized something my mother told me 22 years ago,” Julia Roberts said while on tour in Tokyo to promote her new movie "Eat, Pray, Love". “You’re an actor, act. Don’t talk about politics or religion.”

But while the Sean Penns, George Clooneys, and Jon Voights of the world are known as much for their politics as for their art, many Hollywood celebrities still stay out of the political arena – at least publicly.

“Jennifer Aniston has been on every single show this week, but you haven’t heard her talking about Afghanistan. You don’t hear Stallone talking about health care. Give me something of depth, something meaty,” says Grobel. “There’s a glut of celebrities not having opinions and being vapid and dumbing down America with attempts at promoting themselves over and over again. Let them take a note of seriousness once in a while.”

Update: Via Sister Toldjah, apparently Roberts hasn't always practiced what she's now preaching.

'Can He Really Think He's More Important Than the Tens of Thousands of People Trying to Get Home to Their Families?'

Does Obama think he's more important that the little people? Does anyone even need to ask that question? The hero of the working people showed up in LA Monday to grab some cash from Hollywood fatcats and with his usual impeccable timing did so at rush hour.

Despite inconveniencing anyone wanting to drive, the LA Times spins wildly.

With a quick visit to Los Angeles at rush hour, President Obama raised $1 million Monday for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

He also alienated some Angelenos, at least temporarily, as his motorcade mangled evening traffic en route from the Beverly Hilton to the Hancock Park home of producer John Wells, whose credits include "West Wing," "ER" and "Southland."

Onlookers lined Olympic Boulevard, snapping cellphone photos. One person held a small sign declaring, "We need jobs."

Although it was a friendly crowd, the street closures snared not just vehicles but pedestrians — if calls, e-mails and posts to The Times' website were any guide.

So the Times apparently was inundated by e-mails, calls and posts, yet it was a friendly crowd that was stuck in their vehicles?

Sure.

"I was an Obama supporter, but … was stopped by police from crossing Olympic to get home … during my daily dog walk," Amy Christine said on the website. "I've lost all belief in his judgment. Can he really think he's more important than the tens of thousands of people trying to get home to their families?"

They said if John McCain was elected people would be stopped randomly while walking their dogs...

The Los Angeles Police Department said that it had received several calls from people about the traffic and that the Secret Service had not shared street-closure information with the department.

Immigration rights supporters demonstrated in Hancock Park dressed in costumes from "The Wizard of Oz." Their signs asked, "Obama, where is the reform?"

Despite the anger and frustration in the streets, the atmosphere inside the fundraiser was relaxed.

So wait a minute. There was anger and frustration in the streets, but it was a friendly crowd? Man, I'd hate to see what an unfriendly crowd looked like.

Meanwhile, things were even friendlier with the beautiful people.

The president strode to the microphone in the cool of the setting sun, amid a garden of lemon trees, a manicured lawn and a long aquamarine pool.

"What a spectacular evening," Obama said. "Let's just hang out."

Let's just hang out. That pretty much symbolizes his presidency. He'd rather hang out, be it with athletes, movie stars or on one of his myriad vacations. He wants to play president, but not really do anything.

About 200 people attended, including Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D- San Francisco), J.J. Abrams, Judd Apatow, Taye Diggs and his wife, Tony Award winner Idina Menzel.

The entry fee was $2,500, but co-hosts — including Abrams, Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey and Marilyn Katzenberg, and Barbra Streisand — paid $30,400 a couple. They didn't all attend, however.

Obama told the crowd that he and congressional Democrats, through the economic stimulus measure, had "made the biggest investments in clean energy in our history — building solar panels and wind turbines and advanced batteries."

Oh yeah, clean energy. A lot of good that does while tying up LA traffic during rush hour.

Obama will move on to Washington state to hang out some more today.

Barack Obama is scheduled to arrive in Seattle Tuesday for his first visit as president, part of a three-day, five-state blitz to raise money for Democrats heading into the fall elections.

Poor thing will be exhausted after that five-state blitz. Oh well, he'll have 10 days of golf, ice cream and staged photo-ops on Martha's Vineyard to unwind before getting back to doing what he does best: hang out.

Update: When you've lost the HuffPosters...

It took my wife an hour and half to make the two mile commute home Monday, after the secret service closed some of LA's busiest streets at rush hour to shuttle the president from his Beverly Hills hotel to a fundraiser for Congress hosted by the producer of West Wing.

As the White House tweeted about Potus meeting the Hollywood West Wingers, LA's usually-snarled Westside traffic stood still. Moms and dads couldn't get home. Child care providers raked in the after-hour penalties. The liberals once flooded with hope had nothing but road rage for their inconsiderate president, as they tuned in their car radio to find he was keeping them from their families to raise big bucks for a Congress, which has an approval rating only slightly north of Al Qaeda

But remember, it was a friendly crowd.

Update: Here's a sampling of some really "friendly" comments.

I am outraged that the president has chosen rush hour to travel through LA, and that law enforcement has not adequately routed traffic elsewhere. Obama has single handedly alienated hundreds of thousands of voters leaving them stranded for hours, unable to get in my case a few blocks. I finally left my car illegally parked in a permit only neighborhood just to get home. If I get a ticket, I will most certainly contest it. It's very hard to understand the total lack of respect for the working class here.

...

That's it, I'm done. I even voted for him, but now I'm convinced that I'll vote for anyone but him in the next election. If this is how he handles something as mundane as a visit to Los Angeles, I have zero confidence in his and his team's ability to navigate the complex issues facing the country today. Who's the incompetent who figured it was OK to shut down Santa Monica and Olympic during rush hour? And how about the radio traffic reporters who said that they couldn't tell listeners which streets were closed because of "security." Someone should lose their job over this...in addition to Obama in 2012.

...

A million people can't get home tonight, and for what? So a tiny group of fundraisers can kiss Obama's butt for a few minutes? Tonight Angelenos learn what this President thinks of them. We are all nowhere near as important, trying to get home to our kids from our jobs, as the President's fundraiser.

This isn't the first time it's happened either, but by far the worst. When he was here for Boxer's thing a few months back that was a traffic disaster as well. He really needs to stay the hell out of this city unless he can take his chopper to the event.

My, how friendly.

Scenes From Cuba Michael Moore Doesn't Want You To See

Our local Fox affiliate accompanied the governor and some business and agriculture representatives to Cuba this week, and the reporter has done a bang up job on giving us the story and images of what Cuba is really like. When you have the time go visit the site and read and watch all of his reports. In the meantime here is another video showing you the utopia that is communist Cuba and the epitome of what the Hollywood crowd and liberals in this country wish America could be.

'We Must Have Broken a New Record for Grosses'

Good grief, this is even more pathetic than that endless string of bomb anti-war flicks Hollywood kept churning out during the Bush years.

Uma Thurman's recent flick, "Motherhood," was dead on arrival at the box office -- raking in an inconceivable $131 at its London opening.

The Oscar-nominated actress slew more people in her "Kill Bill" series of flicks than bothered to show for the debut of the movie at the Apollo West End in Piccadilly Circus -- a mere dozen, according to a report in The Guardian newspaper.

On Sunday, just one soul decided to fork over $13 to see the Katherine Dieckmann-directed film, the paper reported.

Here's what viewers were in store for: "Shot entirely on location in New York's West Village, this bittersweet comedy distills the dilemmas of the maternal state (marriage, work, self, and not necessarily in that order) into the trials and tribulations of one pivotal day."

"Motherhood" producers say the appallingly anemic take stemmed from the dunderheaded move to show the film in just one theater for its debut last Sunday.

According to the report, the producers were hoping that the exclusivity would generate buzz around the movie, with people lining up for blocks to see it.

The move has now set off a war of words between producer Jana Edelbaum and marketing firm Metrodrome.

Stinkier than a dirty diaper at the US box office -- raking in just $60,000 during its opening weekend last October -- Edelbaum's going to need to make up a lot of ground to recoup the film's $5 million production costs.

"You're kidding!" the incredulous filmmaker said when she was told about the film's performance across the pond. "We must have broken a new record for grosses."

Latest Palin Non-Scandal: Grabbing Too Much Swag or Something

It doesn't matter whether any of these gossip reports are true. It's all about a raging case of full-blown Palin Derangement Syndrome.

Sarah Palin and her entourage descended "like locusts" on the Oscar swag suite, scarfing up freebies in a binge that "practically cleaned the place out," celebrity gossips reported Thursday.

The former Alaska Gov's Wednesday pigout included jewels from Pascal Mouawad, watches by Skagen and a fancy new hairdo for her daughter Willow. The new coiffure came courtesy of Erick Orellana, Jennifer Aniston's longtime hairstylist, witnesses said.

The Los Angeles Times reported Palin was supposed to donate all of her gift items back to the Silver Spoon Oscar Suite for auction, as well as $1,700 of her own cash, in support of Red Cross efforts in Haiti and Chile.

But E! Online insisted, "we can assure you she did not give up any of her swag."

The entertainment news outlet quoted an unnamed vendor who said that as many as 20 people from the Palin camp swarmed the event.

"They were like locusts," he said.

News of Palin's grabfest ignited the blogosphere.

Of course it did. They'd rather obsess on her instead of talking about all the corrupt Democrats falling by the wayside in recent days. A Congressman hitting on a male staffer? Who cares! Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee up to his neck in scandal? Who cares! Willow Palin got a free haircut!

Such a horrible woman accepting all that free swag.

The PuffHost is agog over this new scandal. I imagine Arianna herself never took a freebie before.

Update: Thanks to Hot Air and Big Hollywood for the links.

The LA Times story is here and it contradicts the gossip outlets apparently just making up stories.

I'm told the oft-parodied politico donated all of her gift items back to the Silver Spoon for auction, as well as about $1,700 of her own cash, in support of multiple Red Cross efforts, including those in Haiti and Chile.

Speaking of making things up, Media Bistro says Palin "looted" the gift suite.

How kind of them. You suppose if the Obamas helped themselves to a couple of freebies the term "looted" would be used?

Season's Beatings From Hollywood!

While the rest of us were busy with family and friends this Christmas, Hollywood moron and 9/11 Truther clown Charlie Sheen decided it would be a good idea to assault his wife.

Stay classy, Chuckles.

Bad boy Charlie Sheen spent his Christmas in an Aspen, Co., pokey.

Cops arrested the "Two and a Half Men" actor on domestic violence charges at about 8:30 a.m., Aspen Police Department officials said.

He was charged with second-degree assault, menacing and criminal mischief and housed in Pitkin County jail, cops said.

RadarOnline.com reported that Sheen had a scuffle with his wife, Brooke Mueller, who was renting an Aspen home for about three months while Sheen remained in Los Angeles.

Sheen flew to be with his wife on Christmas despite their differences, and they began arguing right away, the site reported. A source told the site that Mueller called police after Sheen pushed her.

Desperate Obama Signs Up Hollywood Pinheads to Promote Socialized Medicine

I can't wait to see what insipid videos these morons come up with.

President Obama is turning to a handful of Hollywood stars to judge a contest that asks grassroots supporters to create a television commercial promoting health care reform.

Musician Will.I.Am, actor John Cho, actress Rosario Dawson, actor Dulé Hill, "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane, actor Brandon Routh, actress Kate Walsh and actress Olivia Wilde will join Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine, DNC Executive Director Jen O'Malley Dillon, Rep. Patrick Murphy of Pennsylvania, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe and volunteers in helping to pick the 30-second commercial that will air nationally, a DNC official tells CNN.

The contest is being run by Obama's political arm – Organizing for America – which is housed at DNC headquarters in Washington, DC. It is the latest effort by the president's political team to try and enlist the grassroots to help pressure Congress to pass health care reform this year.

Maybe they can enlist child rapist Roman Polanski to direct the commercial.

It can't possible be any dumber than this MoveOn ad.

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

Of course, we prefer this take on it.



Hot Air links. Thanks!

Hollywood Useful Idiots Visit Iran

These boobs never met an enemy of America that they won't embrace. The only surprise here is Spicoli didn't join them.

A top-level team from the Hollywood movie industry traveled to Iran on a non-government mission, for a weekend of cultural and creative exchange meetings, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Friday.

"I can confirm that a group of Academy members ... are currently in Iran" on a "completely private initiative for educational and creative exchange and with no political agenda," AMPAS director of communications Leslie Unger told AFP.

She confirmed Iranian media reports saying the delegation included AMPAS president Sid Ganis, former president Frank Pierson, actress Annette Bening and producer William Horberg.

"The Academy group did receive visas and is currently in Tehran," Unger said.

Iranian media said the AMPAS group would hold a series of meetings Saturday and Sunday in Tehran.

US-Iranian diplomatic relations were severed 30 years ago after Iran's Islamic revolution, and the rift has been further aggravated since Tehran controversially revived its nuclear program.

The Iranians, naturally, welcome the useful idiots with open arms.

Ironically, last Sunday at the Oscars it was a virtual three-hour infomercial for gay marriage. I wonder if these patriots will ask their gracious hosts about the abuse gays suffer under Islam?

In many Islamic countries, homosexuality is considered an executable offense. In Iran, homosexuals are sometimes crucified. The absurdity of Iran’s treatment of homosexuals was on display when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited New York in 2007. He told an audience at Columbia University, “In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like in your country. In Iran, we do not have this phenomenon. I don’t know who has told you we have that.”

A Really Bad Idea: The Hollywood Bailout

If Barack Obama wants to continue down his already rocky path, then he should just go ahead and give a $246 million bailout to his pals in Hollywood. Let's see how well that goes over.

Senate Republicans yesterday stripped a special $246 million tax break for Hollywood producers from President Obama's stimulus package.

"This isn't stimulus. This is a gift," said Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who wrote the amendment to strike out the giveaway for some of the Democrats' most generous political supporters.

"It's not going to stimulate the economy at all," he said. "What it's going to do is line the pockets of very wealthy individuals already not experiencing the downside of the economy."

The 52-45 vote was largely along party lines, with nearly every Republican voting to remove the Hollywood tax break, joined by 13 Democrats and independent Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman.

Under the measure, Hollywood moguls would have been allowed to write off half the production and filming costs of big-budget films and TV shows.

Backed by Walt Disney and the Motion Picture Association of America, the provision amounted to an estimated $246 million tax break over 11 years.

The entertainment industry gave nearly $20 million in campaign contributions to Democrats during the 2008 election cycle, according to OpenSecrets.org.

So a bailout of $246 million over 11 years works out to a tidy $22.36 million annually, a tidy profit on their $20 million investment in Democrats for 2008, and I suspect this does not count individual contributions to Obama.

If the Democrats don't realize the contempt the average American has for the Hollywood elite, by all means go ahead and give them millions of our tax dollars and wait for the reaction.

Which brings to mind Obama's plan to cap the salaries of executives whose companies get government bailout money.

The Obama administration is expected to impose a cap of $500,000 for top executives at companies that receive large amounts of bailout money, according to people familiar with the plan.

Executives would also be prohibited from receiving any bonuses above their base pay, except for normal stock dividends.

President Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner plan to announce the executive compensation plan on Wednesday morning at the White House.

Is there anyone alive who believes Obama would impose a cap on salaries for Hollywood executives who so generously lavished money upon him?

'Art Tends to Get Quite Good When the Regime is Oppressive'

Apparently, the proper use of the English language suffers, however. Surely, you ask, this fellow must be talking about all those noteworthy films lensed under the oppressive Castro regime, or in Venezuela, China, Iran or North Korea, right?

Of course not. The oppressive regime is modern-day America under the evil George W. Bush.

Barack Obama's victory could turn Gus Van Sant into a boring filmmaker. The "Milk" director tells The Times of London that a Democratic administration has traditionally coincided with a less adventurous artistic tenor. "Art tends to get quite good when the regime is oppressive. The films I've made under friendlier leaders, like Clinton, have become less challenging. With Bush in the White House, my films got darker and more extreme," Van Sant says. "[Obama's election] suggests I'll get more conventional."

Van Sant and the rest of his ilk will be tripping over themselves to film Obama-friendly films that will tank at theaters just like all the anti-war films have bombed so horrifically the past several years.

What Recession? Hollywood Elite, Soros Make Massive Contributions to Bankroll Inaugural

As the economy sinks deeper into recession, wealthy Democrats, oblivious to the plight of the working man, plow full speed ahead by lavishing vast sums upon Barack Obama and what promises to be the biggest ego-fest in American history.

Some of President-elect Barack Obama's most glamorous Hollywood supporters kicked in major money to bankroll his inauguration next month, it was revealed yesterday.

Sharon Stone donated $50,000 to the historic celebration, which will feature several black-tie balls and could draw as many as 5 million people.

Also donating $50,000 were actress Halle Berry and actor Jamie Foxx.

Not to be outdone, the majority owner of the Democratic Party is kicking in a cool $250,000.

Billionaire George Soros kicked in $50,000, and other Soros family members gave a combined $200,000.

That ought to buy a lot of caviar.

But remember, this is the party of working families.

Sure.

If Hollywood Goes On Strike, Will Anyone Care?

When the writers went on strike, did you really miss any shows? Sure, it would have been nice to have 24 on last year, but outside of that, I didn't miss anything.

Well, now the Screen Actors Guild is threatening to strike. I say go ahead, enjoy oblivion.

The Screen Actors Guild said Saturday it will ask its members to authorize a strike after its first contract talks in four months with Hollywood studios failed despite the help of a federal mediator.

The guild said it adjourned talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers shortly before 1 a.m. after two marathon sessions with federal mediator Juan Carlos Gonzalez.

SAG, representing more than 120,000 actors in movies, television and other media, said in a statement that it will launch a "full-scale education campaign in support of a strike authorization."

"We have already made difficult decisions and sacrifices in an attempt to reach agreement," the statement said. "Now it's time for SAG members to stand united and empower the national negotiating committee to bargain with the strength of a possible work stoppage behind them."

More Hollywood Imbeciles Threaten To Flee If Messiah Loses

This morning we brought you the disturbing news that British citizen Seal would be departing if The Chosen One manages to blow the election. Now comes word another batch of the usual suspects are gassing up their private luxury jets and are ready to depart for parts unknown should they not get their way.

Funny thing is, they're all probably secretly sheltering their fortunes off shore in the knowledge that Obama will be milking them dry.

A HIDEOUS new affliction is creeping through the ranks of America's creative community.

The further Barack Obama edges ahead of John McCain in the million and one polls that are coming out the more pernicious the nagging fear becomes.

What if he loses?

Barely a left-wing pundit, barely an Oscar-nominated softie can sleep a wink these days for fear of the race riots and international humiliation that will ensue should "The One" be defeated on Tuesday.

They think he's going to win, of course, but their hearts still bear the scars of 2000 and 2004.

Yet they're all still here, making their lousy movies and uttering their bilge despite the rampant fears that the evil Bush was going to impart the chill wind of censorship.

But for others, the dread is nameless and paralysing. Erica Jong, author of the 1970s feminist bible Fear of Flying, has developed a new complex in recent weeks - the fear of an Obama flogging.

"If Obama loses it will spark the second American Civil War. Blood will run in the streets, believe me," she told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera last week. "My back is also suffering from spasms, so much so that I had to see an acupuncturist and get prescriptions for Valium.

"Yesterday, Jane Fonda sent me an email to tell me that she cried all night and can't cure her ailing back for all the stress that has reduced her to a bundle of nerves."

Geez, what a bunch of basketcases. Are they so damn immature they can't handle John McCain? Good grief, people, get a grip.

Crack teams of chiropractors are at the ready, and Nissen huts full of qualified shrinks and aromatherapists line Rodeo Drive to soothe the tortured brigades of the psychologically wounded should "The One" be robbed of victory.

Then, of course, there's the perpetually angry Susan Sarandon issuing threats to leave, as if there's a phalanx of fans somehow trying to block her departure.

Actress Susan Sarandon has already issued a veiled threat to the public.

"It's a critical time, but I have faith in the American people," she told Britain's Telegraph newspaper with a touch of implied menace in June this year. "If they prove me wrong, I'll be checking out a move to Italy. Maybe Canada, I don't know. We're at an abyss …"

Sarandon's words qualify her for membership of a small but committed group of Potential Canadians (PCs) in American artistic and creative circles.

Barbra Streisand vowed to emigrate to Canada in 2000 if George Bush were ever elected President, an undertaking she refreshed four years later at the prospect of his re-election.

And yet these blithering idiots are still here, issuing meaningless threats, but at least keeping chiropractors and psychiatrists with booming business.

The actor Alec Baldwin and Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder made similar threats in 2000, as did Robert Redford in 2004, but none has since enriched the Canadian cultural scene.

In fact, Canadian immigration records show that arrivals from the United States actually slowed in the six months after George Bush's re-election in 2004.

Yeah, there were probably Canadians emigrating here, seeking to enjoy the freedoms these addle-brained hypocrites fail to take advantage of.

'When One’s Logic and Intellectual Calculating Powers are Replaced With Dopey Feel-Good, Fantasy-Driven Denial, the Democratic Party Serves Them Well'

A classic quote, indeed, from none other than Ted Nugent, and there's more to it. But hey, how long can I possibly make a headline? As you might have guessed, he doesn't like Hollywood pinheads and is rather fond of Sarah Palin. He delivers a nice slap at simpleton Matt Damon and his idiotic statements last week.

Anyone who has watched Ted Nugent appear on talk shows over the years knows he can deliver a punch when he deems it necessary. In an email exchange The Vote had with Nugent this morning, the rock star starts off diplomatic.

“To be concerned is prudent, but his references are without merit,” Nugent wrote. “Her record in politics proves she is a tough woman of intellect, logic, common sense, integrity and defying courage. Theoretically, Matt’s concerns would better be aimed at and earned by Barack Obama.”

Nugent had high praise for the Republican vice presidential nominee, who - like Nugent - is an avid hunter.

“I like her a lot,” he said. “I have examined her record and she is my kind of elected official. She may very well be the best Republican in America today.”
...
Nugent, an outspoken conservative, is a minority in the entertainment community. When asked why the celebrity crowd seems to better connect with the Democratic party, Nugent becomes the Nugent you know on TV — unfiltered.

“With all due respect, many in the entertainment industry are deep into mind-altering substance abuse, and when one’s logic and intellectual calculating powers are replaced with dopey feel-good, fantasy-driven denial, the democratic party serves them well,” Nugent blasted.

Ouch.

Speaking of Hollywood celebutards, John McCain delivered his own slap at Obama and Barbra Streisand today.

"He says he's siding with the people just before he flew off for a fundraiser in Hollywood with Barbra Streisand," McCain said of his rival. "Let me tell you my friends, there's no place I'd rather be than right here with the working men and women of Ohio."

McCain used the line as his close at an airport hangar rally, drawing loud applause.

'People Are Really Scared That McCain Is Gaining'

Fear is a great motivator, especially among the pampered Hollywood elite, who are being hit up twice tomorrow night by moneybags Obama.

So afraid they're willing to pony up $28,500 just to bask in the glow of a lightweight street activist.

Hey, who am I to tell these morons how to spend their money?

Celebrities have taken a serious drubbing from Republicans this political season. But this week they will prove again that they’re good at raising gobs of money for Democrats.

Barack Obama has planned appearances at back-to-back Beverly Hills fundraisers Tuesday evening, with the events on track to raise more than $9 million combined, possibly breaking the single-day fundraising record.

Fundraising “records” are difficult to verify, given the nature of campaign bookkeeping, in which bills are recorded by date paid, not the date expenses were incurred. Much of the money raised at Tuesday’s twin events — a dinner reception at a historic estate, followed by a concert starring headliner Barbra Streisand — will go directly to the Democratic National Committee, while other dollars will be funneled into Obama’s own campaign coffers.

The first event will cost $28,500 per person for dinner at the Greystone Estate. Upwards of 250 high rollers — including some of the biggest executives in film, television and music — will munch gourmet chow and get to hang out with the candidate, enjoying a little face time and posing for personal pictures. A few spaces are left but the event is expected to sell out by Monday afternoon, possibly bringing in more than $8 million before expenses are subtracted.

For a second, soldout event Tuesday evening, the Obama caravan will travel just 2½ miles to the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, where a reception and concert will spotlight Streisand and several other performers. In addition to those attending the earlier dinner, who also get into the concert, about 500 others are set to attend just the musical affair, at $2,500 per ticket, meaning the show should rake in an additional $1.25 million.

I only wish Obama would do a nightly fundraiser out there. It'll ensure his defeat.

Fear is also a great motivator. With the rapid rise of rival Sen. John McCain in the national polls over the past week and the hubbub surrounding his vice presidential pick, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a renewed sense of urgency has gripped Democrats. Those in the entertainment business seem especially aware that a new leading lady mysteriously dropped into the final act of a thriller can dramatically alter the previously predictable storyline.

“People are really scared that McCain is gaining,” said a Hollywood politico involved with Tuesday’s fundraiser. “In my 20 years here, I have never seen folks write checks like this.”

He's not gaining, moron. He's winning, in case you haven't noticed.

Ace links. Thanks!

Hollywood Heartache: Celebs Stuggle to Make Ends Meet

I'm not sure I can't take all this bad economic news. First, this absurd story tells us we're enduring the "worst economic slump in 80 years," but not only that, it chronicles the arduous plight of Hollywood multi-millionaires facing the hard choices.

It's a wonder the republic will be able to survive.

TV's biggest names are doing what they can to combat the worst economic slump in 80 years.

Huh? The worst since 1928? I figure the author of this piece (and frankly, is anyone at the Post proofing this stuff?) is either a summer intern or too young to recall the recessions of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, economic hard times I recall well growing up. I'm assuming there were some lean years in the 1950s and 1960s perhaps, and we had a wartime economy in the early 1940s, never mind the Depression in the 1930s.

Heck, we haven't even slipped into a recession as it is, never mind it being the worst in 80 years.

"We're not using water bottles at home any more," says Kate Walsh of ABC's "Private Practice." "We're drinking out of the tap."

Oh, the horrors. Welcome to the real world, Kate, where most people drink (gasp!) tap water.

"We are not taking a vacation this year," says Valerie Bertinelli, star of the upcoming Lifetime original movie "True Confessions of A Hollywood Starlet."

Am I to believe Ms. Bertinelli, until recently married to Eddie Van Halen, cannot afford a vacation?

Please.

Then she utters the trendy new term that grates on my nerves like nails screeching on a chalkboard.

"We are doing a stay-cation," she says. "Staying at home. Hanging out by the pool, barbecuing."

People using the word stay-cation should be subject to public floggings, but that's just my opinion.

Actors have taken it especially hard in the wallet this year. The recent four-month Hollywood writers' strike cost the entertainment industry more than $500 million, according to a recent report.

"I think we really need to rethink how we spend our money," says Carnie Wilson, who appears in the upcoming reality series "Outsiders Inn."

"I don't know how to make gas prices drop," she says. "But I can try to control how many things I buy at Target for f-k sake! I go crazy there."

Maybe this is a good thing. It'll teach the Carnie Wilsons of the world how to think and rethink, no doubt a first on both accounts.

She doesn't know how to make gas prices drop? Guess she hasn't heard about the ongoing drilling debate.

"Friends of mine are like, 'Jo, I can't hang out tonight because I can't afford to drive there,' " says teen actress JoJo, who co-stars with Bertinelli in "True Confessions of A Hollywood Starlet."

"It sucks to pay $80 to fill up my gas tank each time. And the amount that I drive . . . it definitely takes a toll on you," she says. "Luckily I am in a situation where I am financially stable, so I am not hurting necessarily from it. But it is frustrating."

OK, so you're not hurting financially?

Then what's the point of this story?

One of the 37 Baldwins crawling around Hollywood has even had to take the drastic step of buying a smaller vehicle.

"Dirty Sexy Money" star Billy Baldwin just traded in his gas-guzzling Mercedes SUV for a Toyota Highlander hybrid.

Not that he had to. Probably just so he can pretend he's helping save the planet. Symbolism, baby!

"I realize that I have a great, high-paying job on a successful show at a time when the show business economy and the national economy and the global economy are all in the toilet," Baldwin acknowledges. "Believe me, I think about that all the time."

Sure you do.

After acknowledging that all these people are doing just fine, the reporter concludes with this:

Luckily, at least one guy seems to be doing okay. "I still have lots of money," says former 'N Sync star Chris Kirkpatrick, a contestant on the CMT reality series "Gone Country." "I am good," he says. "Actually, the president made it easier for rock stars because anybody who was above that tax limit got a break, which isn't really fair, but that's just the way it goes."

And that's just the goes in goes in today's media. Pretend things are worse than they are, interview a bunch of Hollywood airheads as if their opinion matters, and in the end it all means nothing because they're swimming in dough.

Good grief.

Well, Maybe There's a Larger Truth

Never underestimate Hollywood's ability to churn out anti-war flicks that bomb at the box office.

Between Redacted and Lions for Lambs, one might think the message has been clearly delivered: Nobody much cares for this genre of films. Call it war fatigue, Bush fatigue, whatever, people just aren't interested.

Well, that isn't stopping one Nick Broomfield from coming out with a completely fictionalized version of events at Haditha, the alleged massacre where John Murtha declared the Marines guilty long before the facts were in.

The problem with Broomfield's upcoming film is a nagging little fact that the events he portrays are a complete fake.

The flick, opening May 7 at Film Forum, features former enlisted Marines portraying the killers in explicit reenactments of what some call "Bush's My Lai," and is being slammed as a smear job. One group, Defend Our Marines, states on its Web site that British-born Broomfield claimed he'd show the world the "unflinching truth" about Haditha, but instead had actors improvise phony, obscenity-filled dialogue as they shot innocent civilians. One scene in which an Iraqi is gunned down as he flees through a field is said to be completely fictional. Charges against five of eight Marines involved have been dropped so far.

Maybe Broomfield ought to put things on hold until all the charges are adjudicated.

But why do that when you can slander the troops? The left gets away with it every day, so why not just continue the assault?

Why, he must do it, as his only cause is, ahem, helping change the world.

'A film can have either a very specific result or a vaguer attitudinal one,' says Nick Broomfield. 'The fact that the result isn't easily quantifiable has no bearing on the film's importance.' Early Broomfield exposés were directed at specific abuses. Battle for Haditha, which was shown on Channel 4 recently, is a fictionalised account of a massacre in which non-actors play the Marines involved and the Iraqi victims and insurgents. 'People say to you, "That's what is happening in Iraq." Marines appreciate it because it shows what they went through. So do Iraqis,' says Broomfield. 'But you can't say, except in the most general terms of altering views about the conflict, that the film has had a tangible effect.'

When you pull back the covers, it all comes back to one factor: Bashing Bush.

But the flight from television to cinema has already happened in the United States, where television has been risk-averse and entertainment-based for many years. Activist Hollywood comes squeaky clean and earnest, with a desire to save the world. 'We all owe George Bush tremendously,' says film-maker Eugene Jarecki. 'Hollywood hasn't changed fundamentally. But you can be taken seriously now - you're more than a lunchbreak item. George Bush has become a get-out-of-jail card for political film-makers.'

Profits and smart business be damned. They have a political axe to grind.

'It's Not Looking Good'

Seems Hollywood has an bottomless budget to produced spectacular box-office bombs.

I'm told #7 Stop-Loss opened to only $1.6 million Friday from just 1,291 plays and should eke out $4+M. Although the drama from MTV Films was the best-reviewed movie opening this weekend, Paramount wasn't expecting much because no Iraq war-themed movie has yet to perform at the box office. "It's not looking good," a studio source told me before the weekend. "No one wants to see Iraq war movies. No matter what we put out there in terms of great cast or trailers, people were completely turned off. It's a function of the marketplace not being ready to address this conflict in a dramatic way because the war itself is something that's unresolved yet. It's a shame because it's a good movie that's just ahead of its time."

I guess nobody got the memo after Lions for Lambs and Redacted were such epic failures.

How the Democrats Won the Cold War

Remarkably, after the epic bombs Redacted and Lions for Lambs, now Hollywood will soon release a film explaining--get this--how the Democrats won the Cold War!

You can't make this stuff up.

TURNS OUT THE DEMOCRATS WON THE COLD WAR. WHO KNEW?

At last, Hollywood has (sort of) made a pro-CIA, pro-war, anti-Soviet movie: "Charlie Wilson's War." It's all about how Democrats defeated the Soviet Empire.

A better title for the movie would be “The Invisible Man," because the man who doesn't appear in it, and is barely mentioned in the background, is Ronald Reagan. Dan Rather, Diane Sawyer and even Rudy Giuliani - back when he was still “Rudolph" - are much more prominently name-checked than Reagan in the movie, which was directed by Sawyer's husband Mike Nichols.

The Dec. 21 release stars Tom Hanks as a 1980s Texas Congressman named Charlie Wilson, a coke-snorting, skirt-chasing, boozing liberal. Who better to write the script than Aaron Sorkin?

Wilson, backed by a Commie-hating right-wing Christian millionaire fundraiser played by Julia Roberts, helped funnel CIA assistance to the Muslim rebels in Afghanistan who originally tried to repel the Soviet invasion using weapons George Custer would have called obsolete. They needed Stinger missiles and eventually got them.

The film is going to flop, unless Christmas finds millions of Americans saying, “Hey, kids, now that everyone's unwrapped their presents, let's go see a movie about fighting in Afghanistan!"

The movie has something for everyone - to dislike. Some liberals will say it isn't tough enough on Republicans (though at the end, it all but blames the U.S. for the rise of the Taliban, a notion I don't have space to get into here), possibly because it is being released by Universal, a division of Defense Department contractors G.E. (Color me skeptical that G.E. sends an Alec-Baldwin-on-“30 Rock"-figure to spy on Tom Hanks movies and polish the dishwashers on the set.)

George Crile, who wrote the book upon which the movie is based, didn't attempt to hide its provenance. Crile was basically a mouthpiece for a tale spun by the two guys who painted themselves as the heroes of the story: “The extensive recollections of Charlie Wilson and Gust Avrakotos [the CIA man played by Philip Seymour Hoffman on screen] form the backbone of the greater part of this narrative," Crile wrote in his source notes.

Read the rest.

This might be a shoo-in for the best comedy of the year.