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 . '/' . substr('9780385517218',-6,3) . '/' . '9780385517218' . '.jpg'; ?>)
By Gore Vidal
$26.00
 . '/' . substr('9781560256649',-6,3) . '/' . '9781560256649' . '.jpg'; ?>)
By Marc Cooper
$23
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goldenglobes.org
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With top-tier talent unwilling to cross picket lines for the sake of a gala awards ceremony, the folks who put together the Golden Globes (the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, NBC and Dick Clark Productions) scrambled to work around the whole no-actors-showing-up issue but had to settle for a newscast announcing the winners.
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By Ellen Goodman — Pregnancy is way cool on the big screen these days. Moviemakers seem to be reflecting a cultural tide that has shifted key positions on both the left and the right.
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AP photo / Damian Dovarganes
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An end may be in sight for striking television and film writers and their studio bosses if negotiations, now set to resume Nov. 26, are effective. However, WGA West President Patric Verrone cautioned union members to stand their ground in an e-mail titled “Don’t Break Out the Champagne Just Yet.”
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There’s one big built-in advantage that many striking WGA members have over the studio honchos they’re feuding with: real creative talent. This clip, made by “Colbert Report” writers, showcases their flair for parody, reminding producers why they’re indispensable while mercilessly lampooning the executives.
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AP photo / Charles Dharapak, File
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It’s relatively easy to drum up a list of high-flying entertainers who have publicly backed a Democratic politician in recent years (if not weeks)—Oprah, George Clooney, Steven Spielberg, Barbra Streisand and others readily come to mind—but their conservative counterparts are much harder to ID without resorting to a Google search.
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It can be confusing to follow the ongoing WGA strike, what with all the picketing, accusations from both sides, and rampant speculation about whether Ellen DeGeneres is a traitor or just trapped in a rock-versus-hard-place career conundrum. Here, striking staffers from “The Daily Show” helpfully explain their side of the issue.
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newsmax.com
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Though Ellen DeGeneres has taken her show across the picket line and some reality TV has improvised along, Hollywood is increasingly worried about its wordless future. Late night talk shows went to reruns immediately and the scripted shows are nearly tapped out of fresh episodes. The writers, meanwhile, show no sign of ending their strike any time soon.
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jfklibrary.org
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While Hillary’s out on the campaign trail, Bill Clinton may be offering his diplomatic expertise to help bring a resolution to the Writers Guild of America strike, which has halted several productions in Hollywood and New York.
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latimes.com
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Writers began picketing network and studio headquarters on Monday, with the support of several celebrities and, courtesy of Jay Leno, a couple of boxes of doughnuts. There’s no telling how long the strike will last, but parallels to the 1988 walkout that cost Hollywood an estimated half a billion dollars have already been drawn.
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AP photo / Dima Gavrysh
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Ed Rampell —
As a follow-up to his “Hollywood 10” retrospective essay, and in honor of Friday’s 60th-anniversary commemoration of 1947’s “Hollywood Fights Back!” radio program, author Ed Rampell shows how history has (unfortunately) repeated itself of late in America’s entertainment and news media.
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By Eugene Robinson — George Clooney is a big-time movie star. Cate Blanchett is a big-time movie star. But Tyler Perry’s new movie did more box office on its opening weekend than Clooney’s and Blanchett’s new movies combined—which makes Perry a big-time movie star, too, and also a phenomenon.
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By Eugene Robinson — In his first presidential campaign debate, the former senator didn’t fall on his face but his performance was of less than Emmy caliber.
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By Ellen Goodman — When they write the cultural history of childhood in 21st-century America, I hope they leave room for a few unkind words about “Kid Nation.”
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Given the longstanding relationship between Hollywood and Washington, two towns that share an inborn proclivity for drama, the news that several L.A.-based executives are forming a politically minded production company with the help of an experienced Capitol Hill player should come as no surprise.
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AP Photo / Craig Molenhouse
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By Larry Gross — The not-so-secret gay sex life of Merv Griffin has once again raised the specter of the obituary outing, not to mention the power of prejudice to intimidate even the rich and famous.
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Truthdig/Zuade Kaufman
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Note to public utility companies: Do not cross Gore Vidal. What began as a personal nuisance—the shutdown of his newly installed home solar power system by Los Angeles’ water and power provider—has become emblematic of a bigger issue (or two) for the venerable writer, who states his position in no uncertain terms in this interview.
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simpler-solutions.net
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In the latest round of “Divvying Up (Democratic) Hollywood,” presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton emerges triumphant, having landed a very big fish indeed: überdirector Steven Spielberg. A campaign information source for Clinton, HillaryHub.com, confirmed Spielberg’s choice on the website on Wednesday.
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AP Photo / Andrew Medichini
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Sen. Hillary Clinton was gearing up on Thursday for a young Hollywood campaign fund-raiser—and not a moment too soon. Time magazine reported from the Cannes Film Festival that “Oceans 13” studs George Clooney and Matt Damon are enthusiastic about Barack Obama’s ‘08 presidential bid.
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Left: wikipedia.org / Right: hellochicago.com
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Two of America’s great cities are going head to head for the opportunity to host the 2016 Olympic Games. With radically different cultures, Chicago hopes its work ethic and business savvy will impress the U.S. Olympic Committee, while L.A. is banking on experience and Hollywood-caliber glitz.
Posted on Apr 12, 2007
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washingtonpost.com
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After Barack Obama’s Oscar-week fundraising blitz last month, the ‘08 race has heated up for Democratic presidential candidates going a-courtin’ in Hollywood. But the backing of celebrities can be a blessing and a curse, as George Clooney notes in Friday’s L.A. Times, hinting that he will help Obama however he can—even if that means “staying completely away from him.”
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Conan O’Brien casts his picks for the Hollywood version of Plame-U.S. Attorneys-Iraq-gate. With news that Warner Bros. plans to make the Valerie Plame Wilson story, this comedy routine feels somewhat prescient, although we seriously doubt Jabba the Hutt would agree to play Karl Rove.
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pitt.edu
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Film director James Cameron is gearing up for another epic release. Once again, Cameron is turning his lens on a historical event, but he’s thinking even bigger than his monolithic “Titanic”: This time, the self-declared “King of the World” is taking on the King of the Jews.
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nytimes.com
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Barack Obama took in $1.3 million Tuesday from an L.A. fundraiser organized by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. Hollywood is a crucial pit stop on the road to the White House for Democratic candidates as they build their war chests, especially with so many contenders in the field.
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theage.com.au
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AlterNet’s Jonathan Jones probes Hollywood’s post-“Passion” fetish for Christian-oriented films and challenges the assumption that religious movies will rake in the cash by pandering to an attention-starved audience.
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ziyue.com
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Oliver Stone, speaking at the Venice Film Festival, criticized Hollywood?s romance of war. ? ‘Pearl Harbor’ and ‘Black Hawk Down’—these movies worshipped the machinery of war and I think America went back to the concept of war too easily.?
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From Newsweek
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A Hollywood studio and a Lebanese production company have produced a $1-million public service ad aimed at discouraging suicide bombings. Their funding came from “an independent, non-governmental group of scholars, non-political people,” according to an exec. (Via Huff Po)
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By Norman Solomon — “We remember that many Americans have lost their limbs or their lives in on-the-job accidents that might have been prevented if overall media coverage had been anywhere near as transfixed with job safety as with, say, marital splits among Hollywood celebrities.”
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Pornography titan Vivid Entertainment will sell adult films through the Internet that can be burned to DVDs and watched on TVs. “Leave it to the porn industry once again to take the lead on this stuff,” says a think-tank analyst.
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By Sheerly Avni — And the award for “Best Proof That Hollywood Is Out of Touch”: No one made a single reference to the troops fighting and dying in Iraq.
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By Sheerly Avni — Paul Provenza, director of the gleefully obscene “The Aristocrats,” explains why Hollywood doesn’t get the joke.
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Truthdig’s Larry Gross, a pioneer in the field of gay studies, argues that for all the hoopla surrounding “Brokeback Mountain” and this year’s spate of gay-themed films, there is little about them that upends Hollywood conventions or challenges popular ideas about homosexuality. “Hollywood and much of the media may be awash in liberal self-congratulation,” Gross writes, “but they—and we—are also soaking in the familiar hypocrisy of homophobia.” Update: Down to the Wire
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From jkrweb.com
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OK, all you expatriates probably already knew this, but Truthdig didn’t: “The Daily Show” runs on CNN International outside the U.S.
Think about that: Millions (perhaps billions) of foreigners get Jon Stewart’s version of America on a relatively straight-news-oriented channel. Depending on how you feel about Stewart’s sensibility, that’s either wonderful or troubling. (This snippet of news comes near the end of a hilarious article about Stewart’s upcoming gig at the Oscars.)
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Illustration by Jennifer Grey
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Sir Ian McKellen says, “It is very, very, very difficult for an American [gay] actor who wants a film career to be open about his sexuality.” | story
This is exactly what Truthdig’s Larry Gross was getting at in “Year of the Queer: Hollywood and Homosexuality.”
Posted on Feb 13, 2006
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By John Crawford “Off to War” shows real soldiers and their families struggling to deal with the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
Watch:  Video Gallery
Posted on Nov 29, 2005
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