[Sndbox] [Fwd: LCR: Going After the Gipper]

[Lowell R. Matthews]

--- Begin Message ---

Title: The Left Coast Report

...A Political Look at Hollywood By James Hirsen October 28, 2003 A NewsMax Report Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories): 1. Going After the Gipper 2. David Lynch's Billion-Dollar Peace Plan 3. Millerisms 4. False Labeling in Film 5. Dustin Hoffman's Enemies List Envy 6. Bubba and the Russian Orchestra 7. Danny Glover Lends His Voice to Protest    Advertisement    Support Bush! Check out NewsMax's Bush Collection - CLICK HERE. 1. Going After the Gipper It looks as if CBS is about to depict one of the greatest American presidents as a forgetful, inattentive, callous lout with a domineering, pill-popping spouse, who royally bumbles his way through the Oval Office. In its upcoming miniseries on the Reagans, CBS is apparently planning on leaving out any reference to the infectious optimism of the Gipper, which helped to conquer Jimmy Carter's malaise. And it's probably not going to mention the 1980s boom that ended the gasoline lines and salvaged the economy. Ironically, the man once known as the Great Communicator is in the grips of Alzheimer's disease and can't speak for himself. This cruel fact makes the decision of CBS all the more heinous, if indeed its leftist hatchet job is carried out as currently scripted. One of the scenes has Nancy Reagan urging her man to do more to help AIDS sufferers, but her hard-hearted husband supposedly responds, "They that live in sin shall die in sin." Scriptwriter Elizabeth Egloff admits making up the statement. The truth is that, at a time when the disease was not widely understood, the Reagan administration made the decision that AIDS patients were entitled to protection from discrimination. Here's a bit of background on some of the key players in the made-for-TV Reagan rewrite: Leslie Moonves, chairman of CBS, has spent time with overweight overlord Fidel Castro and schmoozed at Renaissance Weekends with the Clintons. James Brolin, who plays Ronald Reagan, is the hubby of Barbra Streisand, the Democratic Party's virtual ATM. Brolin has already had some practice playing a reprehensible Republican. He's been involved with NBC's "The West Wing." He's also one of the Left Coast libs who signed on the anti-recall dotted line for Gray Davis. Judy Davis, Nancy Reagan's supposed stand-in, is an Australian actress who has stated publicly, "If this film can help create a bit more questioning in the public about the direction America has been going in since the 1970s, I guess then I think it will be doing a service." The Left Coast Report says, despite the CBS racket, we can hear Reagan now, with a fighter's resolve, a commander's confidence and a leading man's charm: "There they go again." 2. David Lynch's Billion-Dollar Peace Plan Film director David Lynch has a plan for world peace, and he wants to raise $1 billion to implement his idea. Lynch says he would use the billion dollars to build "peace palaces" in 3,000 cities throughout the world. He told the press: "There's this beautiful ocean of bliss and consciousness that is able to be reached by any human being by diving within, which is really peaceful and harmonious and can be enlivened by the group process. This group is a peace-creating group. It saturates the atmosphere. This is all about establishing peace. Right now, we gotta get peace back in the world. Peace is a real thing." All the rhetoric doesn't necessarily mean that Lynch has been hanging out with Richard Gere. No, the guy has actually been involved with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Transcendental Meditation for about 30 years. The group's founding guru has had the desire to build places that will allow large groups of people to meditate. Lynch has apparently spread the word about his T.M. ambitions to some big-name celebrities that he's worked with. Actresses Heather Graham, Laura Dern and Laura Harring have all jumped on Lynch's peace train and pledged their support for a peace palace in L.A. Meditators plan to gather twice a day and send positive vibes out into the world. The Left Coast Report takes solace in knowing that when Hollywood libs are busy meditating at least their jaws aren't flapping. 3. Millerisms As reported in the American Enterprise, sultan of smirk Dennis Miller recently let loose with some trademark bits of wit. On Bill and Hill: "Bill and Hillary's marriage couldn't have been any more about convenience than if they'd installed a Slim Jim rack and Slurpee machine at the base of their bed." On Hill's New York residence: "I'm convinced that Bill Clinton put her up there because he knew New York was a community property state, vis-à-vis divorce settlements." On the Dixie Chicks: "When it first happened, I thought, 'I'm never going to buy another one of their albums.' And then I thought, 'You know what, I've never bought one of their albums -- I don't like their music.'" On show biz: "Show business is a freakish break. It's an amazing confluence of events that affords you a life for which you should hit your knees every night and thank God that you've been blessed to be given." On President Bush's religious beliefs: "In this messed-up world, I like seeing my president pray. I don't think a person can get answers out of books anymore. This is an infinitely complex world, and at some point one has to have faith in one's religion. I find it endearing that President Bush prays to God and that he's not an agnostic or an atheist. I'm glad there's someone higher that he has to answer to." The Left Coast Report thinks Miller's just what the comedic political field needs -- a cerebral guy with a charismatic style who makes conservatives smile. 4. False Labeling in Film Hollywood keeps pumping out films that are short on meaning and long on mayhem. "Kill Bill" and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" are just the latest in the Hollywood severed-arms race. The problem is that movies like these amount to what's called in the law an attractive nuisance. Here's an example. Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" combines the look of a video game and the allure of martial arts, sprinkled with Japanese animation. All of the elements draw a youthful audience. Tarantino himself has said, "If you are a 12-year-old girl or boy, you must go and see 'Kill Bill,' and you will have a damn good time. Boys will have a great time, girls will have a dose of girl power. If you are a cool parent out there, go take your kids to the movie." Tarantino has been getting some big-name help on his gory hike from critics in the mainstream press who are raving about the film's stupefying violence. Roger Ebert claims that Tarantino is "so effortlessly and brilliantly in command of his technique that he reminds me of a virtuoso violinist racing through Flight of the Bumble Bee." Jeffrey M. Anderson of the San Francisco Examiner writes that "'Kill Bill' takes a cue from Spaghetti Western master Sergio Leone and turns every little twist and turn into a giant-sized operatic odyssey." Mark Caro of the Chicago Tribune gushes that the flick is "the most gorgeous B-movie ever made." Stephen Hunter of the Washington Post, with whom I recently appeared on "Buchanan and Press," says that Tarantino "delivered with such high panache and brio, it's mesmerizing." Then we have the remake of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." This movie has a young cast, and an adolescent's dream actress in the form of Jessica Biel, to reel in the puberty crowd. And like "Kill Bill," the gory flick has far too many respected authorities throwing superlatives at it. Once again, Hunter praises the mindless violence. "Realize how hard this is on me, to have to tell you what a superb job director Marcus Nispel has done re-creating, yet also revising, 1974's grisly, gristly, protein-centric masterpiece." Hunter apparently thinks that depictions of splattered brain matter and twitching limbs qualify for "masterpiece" category. Terry Lawson of the Detroit Free Press focuses on the teenage male angle, writing that the remake "is nearly as tense and nasty as the original and, to be fair, features far better acting, most notably by Jessica Biel, who is compelling even when she isn't about to burst out of her wet T-shirt." Well, at least Robert K. Elder of the Chicago Tribune gets it right when, while praising the film, he classifies it correctly. He says that "Chainsaw" is "an effectively scary slasher film." The Left Coast Report is amazed at how consistently incoherent liberals are in their pursuit of the relative truth. 5. Dustin Hoffman's Enemies List Envy Just like his flimsy character in "Runaway Jury," Dustin Hoffman can't stand anyone with Second Amendment sensibilities. Hoffman's loathing for the National Rifle Association seems to be especially deep. The actor is upset that the group didn't include him on its "Anti-Gun Individuals and Celebrities" roster. "I was deeply disappointed when I discovered my name was not on this list," Hoffman told Lloyd Grove of the New York Daily News. The actor took time out from his busy schedule to write a letter to Kayne Robinson, president of the NRA, asking if he could be added alongside other Hollywood anti-gun luminaries such as Candice Bergen, Michelle Pfeiffer, Michael Douglas and Britney Spears. The Left Coast Report guesses that gun control freaks will be pleased that the NRA has granted Hoffman's wish and he's now on the list where he belongs. 6. Bubba and the Russian Orchestra A new CD is about to be released. This one is going to feature performances by Sophia Loren, Mikhail Gorbachev and, believe or not, William Jefferson Blythe Clinton. The unusual trio will be narrating along to classical music that will be performed by the Russian National Orchestra (RNO). "I first heard the RNO some years ago and welcomed the opportunity to collaborate artistically with this remarkable orchestra," the legendary Loren said in a statement. All three CD personalities have designated charities they would like to see receive their royalties from the project. Loren wants the dough to go to Magic of Music, an arts therapy program. Gorbachev wants the cash funneled into Green Cross International, the enviro-socialist organization that he controls. Clinton wants the money donated to the International AIDS Trust. The musical pieces that the RNO will perform are Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" and Jean-Pascal Beintus' "Wolf Tracks." The Left Coast Report wonders if, by any chance, the wolf is going to have an Arkansas accent. 7. Danny Glover Lends His Voice to Protest Some anti-war protesters recently failed two times over -- once in San Francisco and once in Washington, D.C. The non-events were organized by International Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (A.N.S.W.E.R.) along with a group that calls itself United for Peace and Justice. Lurking behind the groups were more of the usual Stalinist suspects. Danny Glover joined the San Francisco gripe-in and said, "This war is not about us." The actor and former MCI pitchman also misinformed protesters with this line: "It is against us, against Iraqi people and against our children." At the D.C. commie carnival, many of the signs looked as if they were professionally created and contained the words "International Socialist Organization." Some of the peaceniks even desecrated flags with swastikas and threw eggs at the cops. The Left Coast Report feels the whole thing is enough to make you hurl Mom's apple pie. Lots of Wonderful Products & Gifts for the Holidays! in Honor of One of America's Greatest Presidents Check out the details - Click Here Now. Get your FREE copy of James Hirsen's New York Times best selling book Tales from the Left Coast – Click Here Now. Even better, find out about our FREE offer – Click Here Now!   The Left Coast Report is compiled by James L. Hirsen and the staff of NewsMax. You can read past Left Coast Reports from the archives - Click Here Now. TO ADVERTISE For information on advertising at NewsMax.com please contact Corrine McNurlin at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or 888-766-7542. TO SUBSCRIBE If this News Alert has been forwarded to you and you would like a subscription, please visit http://NewsMax.com/email.shtml Sign up for free e-mail alerts today! For a NewsMax magazine subscription, Click Here. We'd like to thank you for subscribing to www.NewsMax.com e-mail alerts. You are currently subscribed to newsmax as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe, go to: http://www.newsmaxstore.com/unsub/[EMAIL PROTECTED]&[EMAIL PROTECTED] Or Click Here

--- End Message ---

________________________________

Changes to your subscription (unsubs, nomail, digest) can be made by going to 
http://sandboxmail.net/mailman/listinfo/sndbox_sandboxmail.net