September 15, 2005 by s.z.

It Would Be Like Mad Max Lecturing You About Religion, or Magnum P.I. Urging You to Support the National Review And speaking of Hollywood stars who insist on voicing their opinions even though Laura Ingraham told them to shut up some time ago, Jason Apuzzo, the " Co-Director of The Liberty Film Festival and editor of the conservative film blog LIBERTAS," has a Townhall column on that very subject.  Lights, cameras, action! Why Hollywood Loves Katrina  Hollywood loves a good disaster. Whether it's the 1906 San Francisco earthquake in Clark Gable's "San Francisco," or the plague of locusts from Paul Muni's "The Good Earth," or the many catastrophes depicted in 1970's movies like "The Towering Inferno" or "Earthquake," Hollywood has never been able to resist a good spectacle of mass destruction. In recent years Hollywood has treated audiences to asteroid impacts ("Armageddon," "Deep Impact"), volcanoes ("Volcano," "Dante's Peak"), tornadoes ("Twister"), massive waves ("The Perfect Storm," "The Core") - and, of course, the old standby of alien invasion ("War of the Worlds," "Independence Day"). Wolfgang Peterson is now even directing a remake of "The Poseidon Adventure" for Fox, and Steven Spielberg will soon helm a remake of "When Worlds Collide" for Paramount. As the list above indicates, Hollywood's usual attitude toward mass human suffering is exploitative, rather than compassionate. Yes, it was pretty callous of Hollywood to exploit the tragic victims of alien invasions and colliding worlds the way it did. This trend will only be magnified in 2006 when a series of studio films about the 9-11 attacks finally hit the big screen. And this, really, is why Hollywood's recent bellyaching over President Bush's hurricane relief effort rings so false. Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie, Pierce Brosnan, Sean Penn, Matt Damon and (of course) Michael Moore have recently seen fit to attack President Bush's competence and compassion in aiding hurricane Katrina's victims. Penn's histrionics even included stalking the streets of New Orleans with a shotgun - ostensibly to 'impose order' where the government couldn't.  This kind of behavior might be more tolerable if Hollywood didn't rely on mass carnage and mayhem each summer to pay its own bills. Who can tally the people shot, drowned, crushed or incinerated in films starring Brosnan or Jolie, for example? See, if you are an actor who has appeared in a movie where characters died violently, then you have no moral right to criticize George Bush for incompetence because, um, you've probably killed more people than he has, you big hypocrite.  Mr. "License to Kill," I'm talking to you! P.S.   Speaking of Magnum, P.I., last year the NRO's John J. Miller started a column about Selleck's latest project with the following: You have every reason to be suspicious of what National Review says about Tom Selleck. After all, the guy has been a subscriber since the age of 17. He's even appeared in television commercials for us. We don't just like the guy; we feel indebted to him. And how they really owe them, because he's not only appearing at a $1000 per person fundraiser for the publication, but he also agreed to hang out with the moribund William F. Buckley and the Korner Kids: Time's running out for you to join WFB, Rich Lowry, Jonah Goldberg, Jay Nordlinger, Kate O’Beirne, Ramesh Ponnuru, Rob Long, Roman Genn, Kathryn Jean Lopez, and Tom Selleck for a private cocktail party and dinner in Los Angeles. Details. 4:02:43 AM

The Word O'Crap Cognitive Dissonance Award Today's award goes to NewsMax, for this spam they sent to plug a new book written by one of its columnists, and to try to get me to buy a copy of it from them. (Emphasis added.) O'Reilly, Hirsen Debate: Are We a 'Hollywood Nation'? Cable news' most highly rated talker, Bill O'Reilly, faced off with James Hirsen, NewsMax.com pundit and author of the just released book "Hollywood Nation: Left Coast Lies, Old Media Spin, and the New Media Revolution." The topic: Hirsen's book and his claim that Hollywood has waaaaaay too much influence on American news and policy. Hirsen told O'Reilly during their Tuesday night "Factor" chat that Hollywood celebrities have an impact on American politics with inflamatory language that "drowns out legitimate discourse." [...] Now more than ever, Hirsen shows, Hollywood elites are blurring the lines between entertainment and news to force their views onto the rest of the country. With their politically charged films, distorted documentaries and skewed docudramas, they're trying to set the agenda with little regard for the truth. [...] Even worse, many so-called journalists are doing the same thing, dangerously mixing information and entertainment in an attempt to ratchet up ratings and inject their own views into the news, reveals Hirsen, who writes the NewsMax column "The Left Coast Report." He hammers home the dwindling distinctions between entertainment and news by citing "Today" show co-anchor Katie Couric's week-long stint filling in for Jay Leno on the "Tonight Show." Writes Hirsen: "So who's to tell what's real news and what's pure entertainment anymore?" Hirsen is saying kind of stuff on "The O'Reilly Factor"???   And nobody was worried about the rocks he was throwing breaking Bill's elaborate glass house? 2:08:22 AM

Somebody Get Back to Him Before the Leader of the Free World Pees His Pants  Poor George -- he's in a Security Council meeting at the UN, and he thinks he may need to go potty.  Is this possible?  Hey, Condi will know!  So, he writes a note to Condi, who presumably contacts John Bolton, who throws staplers at the Secretary General until he says that George may take a bathroom break.  And that's why presidenting is such hard work. 1:26:09 AM