--- Begin Message --- Title: The Left Coast Report
A Political Look at Hollywood
By James Hirsen
November 4, 2003A NewsMax Report
Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. Barbra Streisand Defends CBS's Reagan Rip
2. Courting Michael Moore
3. Melissa Gilbert's Geography Quandary
4. 'The Human Stain' - This Generation's Race Film?
5. Madonna Bags on Bennifer and McCartney
6. Rockers Grouse About Iraq
7. The Pitts' Roadmap to Peace
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1. Barbra Streisand Defends CBS's Reagan Rip
Here comes Babs to the leftist rescue.
Recently, in one of her infinitely dubious Web "truth alerts," the Democrat diva rushed to defend CBS's miniseries "The Reagans."
On her site, Streisand proceeds to set Drudge and other sources straight. She writes that she was on the set of CBS to watch her hubby for "a total of only 4 hours of one day," as opposed to the "weeks on the set" that were reported by what Streisand calls "the Republican spin machine."
Streisand also writes that she has never read the script, never seen the film and is "not responsible for what is depicted in it."
But in the next breath, she declares that "the Republicans, who deify President Reagan, cannot stand that some of the more unpleasant truths about his character and presidency might be depicted in the movie, along with his positive actions."
The princess of leftist pap goes on to describe the made-for-TV flick that she supposedly has never seen as "a balanced portrait of a complicated man." Guess now she's a psychic, too.
In the world according to Babs, the reason that millions of Americans adore Ronald Reagan is because no one else with GOP credentials is available.
She sneers that Reagan is "glorified by conservatives because what other Republican leader of recent history are they going to point towards? Richard Nixon? George H.W. Bush? Newt Gingrich? Are these men worthy of exalt?"
Looking at events through Funny Girl goggles, the Republicans accomplished nothing noteworthy, but Bubba is a leader for the ages.
Streisand dons her economist hat and explains why Reagan really wasn't all that proficient when he doubled revenues, cut taxes and ended the Cold War.
On the other hand, Clinton, the dude who brought us Travelgate, Filegate, Chinagate and Pardongate, the guy who failed to respond to terrorism and turned down Osama bin Laden, the chief who was impeached, held in contempt by a federal judge and kicked out of the Supreme Court bar, was a whopping success of a prez.
Streisand blogs that "conservatives love to boast of the 16 million jobs Reagan's economic policies generated."
She blogs further that Clinton was more successful than Reagan because Reagan "created record budget deficits, increased inequality and tripled the national debt. Judged on their own terms, Reagan proponents would have to admit that Bill Clinton, who generated 23 million new jobs in the same amount of time in office and also turned a major deficit into the largest surplus ever, was a more successful president."
Streisand urges the public to tune in to CBS's ill-timed fib fest, and she brushes aside the criticisms of the miniseries. She explains that this is just "the Right Wing" who will "spread vicious lies and attacks and scream and yell until they get their way."
The Left Coast Report would love to ask those who've been on Streisand movie sets if they have any misty watercolor memories of people who "scream and yell until they get their way."
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2. Courting Michael Moore
Last March, the Motion Picture Academy gave Michael Moore an award for what it thought was a documentary. Now the faux working-class hero is going to have to fess up about his "documentary" in a court of law.
James Nichols, the brother of Terry Nichols of the Oklahoma City bombing case, has filed a lawsuit against Moore. He says Moore committed defamation of character, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Nichols alleges that Moore tricked him into appearing in "Bowling for Columbine" by misrepresenting the purpose of the interview. He claims that Moore defamed him by erroneously connecting him to the Oklahoma City bombing. The lawsuit seeks $10 million to $20 million for each of nine counts.
Nichols is not alone in his charges. Others also have accused Moore of misrepresenting segments of the film as factual when the scenes were allegedly partially staged.
Well, it looks as if Moore has enough dough these days to play litigation games. At least he's living a lifestyle that says he does.
He has been spotted flying around California in a private jet and riding in one of those pariah SUVs. The anti-Second Amendment crusader also has had the luxury of bodyguard protection. Word has it that AOL Time Warner et al. provided the funding for the high-priced frills.
Moore told the Los Angeles Times that it was OK to indulge in the Enron-like excess because he "would never pay for this."
The Left Coast Report can't wait to see the mega-hypocrite on the witness stand. Maybe he'll take a cue from Bubba, wag his finger and snarl, "I did not defame, invade or inflict ... not a single time."
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3. Melissa Gilbert's Geography Quandary
The lure of a more business-friendly atmosphere in Canada and Mexico is apparently just too great for Tinseltowners.
The movie industry has been fleeing the U.S., and the cinematic skedaddle has cost Hollywood thousands of jobs.
The Screen Actors Guild was particularly upset to find out that the USA Network's movie "Rudy," which dealt with former Mayor Rudy Giuliani's leadership during 9/11, was filmed in Montreal instead of New York.
You'd expect SAG president Melissa Gilbert to take a strong stance against filming in foreign locations, especially if the flicks have U.S. themes.
So when it was revealed that Gilbert's recent CBS movie, "Hollywood Wives: The New Generation," was filmed not in Tinseltown but in Calgary, Alberta, plenty of perfectly plucked eyebrows shot up to the ceiling.
The Left Coast Report hopes that Gilbert is able to find her way back to the Little House in a hurry.
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4. 'The Human Stain' - This Generation's Race Film?
In the new film "The Human Stain," Anthony Hopkins plays Coleman Silk, a highly respected college professor whose career is snuffed out with the choke collar of political correctness.
The movie is an adaptation of Philip Roth's best seller. Gary Sinise of "Forrest Gump" fame plays Silk's confidant, and Nicole Kidman co-stars as Silk's love interest.
The film doesn't fully explore Roth's journey into the dark P.C. cosmos. It moves too quickly past the subplot, where the esteemed academic is forced off the campus for his innocent use of a conversational word.
Silk is accused of being a racist and refuses to claim his assigned sin. Unfortunately, the P.C. issue in the movie is overshadowed by the hackneyed, decades-old plotline of a light-skinned black person passing for white.
Beyond the question of whether the film is good or bad, though, lies one of the critical issues of our times. The New York Daily News' Lloyd Grove points out that Miramax's co-chairman Harvey Weinstein, a liberal white Democrat who supports racial set-asides, and Ward Connerly, a multiracial Republican who advocates an end to racial preferences, have found common ground. The two concur on the significance of this piece of cinema.
Weinstein even arranged to have a private screening of the film for Connerly. "I welcome Ward's opinion, and I agree with what he's getting at - that we've got to be colorblind in this society," Weinstein said.
After viewing the movie, Connerly was so moved by the role of the young Coleman Silk, played by Wentworth Miller, he telephoned the actor.
"Ward called me up, and we basically had a discussion about whether we would ever be a society in which we didn't have to check the boxes," Miller told the Daily News. Miller is of a background that includes African-American, Jamaican, Russian, Syrian and Lebanese.
Connerly summed up his feelings about the film in this way: "I think that every generation has its race movie - from 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner' to 'To Kill a Mockingbird' - and I believe that 'The Human Stain' is the race movie for this generation."
The Left Coast Report looks to the day when generations need no more race movies.
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5. Madonna Bags on Bennifer and McCartney
Madonna sure has a lot on her plate these days.
She's been busy coaching Britney Spears and polishing up her Barney act. And she's been busy heckling Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez and Paul McCartney's daughter.
Madonna blames Ben and Jen for fanning the press flames that surrounded the cancellation of their nuptials. The veteran publicity hound told Access Hollywood: "Well, to a certain extent, they courted the media attention. At the end of the day I feel like that's their job, and then there needs to be a part of the relationship that you keep private."
Meanwhile, Stella McCartney is in a tizzy because Madonna is breaking a promise to give up hunting. It's been said that the grandmama of video pop is as good as her word, but her word is apparently not all that golden.
McCartney is an animal "rights" activist. The clothing designer supposedly had convinced Madonna that the shooting parties she and husband Guy Ritchie have been holding on their estate conflict with the Kabbalah religion that Madonna purportedly subscribes to. McCartney claims Madonna said she'd give up bagging birds with a shotgun.
The Left Coast Report says Madonna ought to know about "courting the media." She's been leading them around by the radar ears for years.
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6. Rockers Grouse About Iraq
Like their buddies in the movie biz, rock stars are increasingly belting the Bush administration.
In the news recently were jabbers Bruce Springsteen and Elton John. Both publicly denounced Bush's foreign policy.
Now it looks as if Sting, Santana and John Mellencamp have joined the dis-Dubya club.
While in Hong Kong promoting his latest album, Sting let the world know about his displeasure with the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. "I wasn't in favor of going into Iraq," the singer said at a news conference.
The ex-Police man did qualify his statement a bit, though. He said: "It's too late to blame anybody. It's too late to complain." He then urged that folks focus on reconstructing the country for the sake of the Iraqi people.
And guitarist Carlos Santana recently asked a crowd at a Hong Kong concert for 30 seconds of silence. The lip zip was staged as a condemnation of President Bush's foreign policy, according to the South China Morning Post.
"We are the other side of America," Santana proclaimed. "We do not go along with George Bush. We are here to accentuate peace and compassion on the planet. God bless humanity."
Meanwhile, Mellencamp is asking why Bush can't simply be removed from office.
"The governor of California was removed from office based on finance troubles. And yet George W. Bush has lied to us, failed to keep our own borders secure, entered a war under false pretense, endangered lives, and created financial chaos. How is it that he hasn't been recalled?" writes Mellencamp, who apparently doesn't have the brains to distinguish the U.S. Constitution from California's state Constitution. "Perhaps this time we could even have a real election."
The Left Coast Report vaguely remembers the day when you could hear rock without having to listen to crock.
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7. The Pitts' Roadmap to Peace
Kofi Annan, Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, Colin Powell and Henry Kissinger couldn't do it.
The most intractable issue of our times is to try to bring peace to the Middle East.
So, what do we do? Well, we could call Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston, Danny DeVito, Ed Norton and Jason Alexander and ask them to go where no star has ever gone before.
Someone apparently did just that. The star-dubbed-diplomats will reportedly travel to the Middle East on behalf of One Voice, an organization that seeks an accord between the "silent majority" of Israelis and Palestinians.
Norton hasn't commented on the idea yet, but Alexander has let loose with a doozy of a statement. He said: "People of vision, reaching out to each other across a seemingly endless divide, hoping a hand will take their own - it is the simplest, noblest and most likely gesture to end decades of needless violence. One Voice becomes one goal, one mind, one vision of peace and promise. It cannot but succeed."
The Pitts have their own perspective. "The past few years of conflict mean that yet another generation of Israelis and Palestinians will grow up in hatred. We cannot allow that to happen," reads a statement from Jennifer and Brad.
Did they say "the past few years of conflict"? Guess the Pitts are on Tinseltown time.
It's unclear how the celebs intend to bring a new peaceful era to the region. Maybe just the sight of Aniston in a burqa will get leaders to engage in a group hug.
Daniel Lubetzsky, president of PeaceWorks Foundation, launched the One Voice celebrity peace initiative.
He didn't exactly shed light on the program's purpose when he said that the press reports on the subject were "not totally accurate, but they're not far from the truth."
The Left Coast Report can't wait to see what Al Jazeera does with this story.
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