Category Archives: Hollywood

A Mighty Ego

Celebrity, Film, Hollywood, Islam, Terrorism

Back when she had just lost her husband, Mariane Pearl declared superciliously that “revenge would be easy, but it is far more valuable … to address this problem of terrorism with enough honesty to question our own responsibility as nations and as individuals for the rise of terrorism.” She called on “our governments to work hand in hand,” and for “love, compassion, friendship and citizenship” to transcend the so-called “clash of civilizations.”

Yawn. The woman is a walking cliché. As is Angelina Jolie, who plays Mariane in “A Mighty Heart,” for which the media are conducting a blitzkrieg of publicity. Time and again, Jolie has appeared to tediously intone about this effort, puncturing every sentence with whispers about forgiveness and reconciliation.

The Muslim age-old Jew hatred played a large part in Daniel Pearl’s beheading. He was accused of being a spy and agent of the Mossad and made to recite a humiliating confession to that effect, before his head was lopped off. The jihadis released a video of his butchering titled, “The Slaughter of the Spy-Journalist, the Jew Daniel Pearl.”

So obviously aimed at consolidating Jolie and Mariane Pearl’s sainthood, the film shifts the focus away from such salient aspects. It concentrated instead on the heroism of journalists. Mariane calls herself a journalist. Like most, she is eager to celebrate herself (or, alternately, the Islamic hajj).

Such is Mariane’s ego that a colleague of Pearl has already lamented that the Daniel Pearl she knew was nowhere to be found in the film. A rather dashing man, Daniel is played by some unknown, Dan Futterman, whom Salon.com’s, no-doubt, feminist reviewer described approvingly as “grave and elfin.” That’s not good, believe me. Basically, the hero dwarfs alongside Mariane Pearl/Jolie.

In any event, to watch Angelina with an afro and an accent play a pregnant saint is not my idea of fun. Ever since she began to believe she was on earth to die for everyone else’s sins toward the poor “brown babies” of the world (in the words of the inimitable Ingrid Bergman, in “Murder On The Orient Express”), Jolie has lost whatever meager acting abilities she had. All I can see is an annoying, emoting activist.

Paris’ Plight

Criminal Injustice, Hollywood, Individual Rights, Law

What’s being done to Paris Hilton is plain wrong.

Let me preface the above with this: She’s an ill-bred slut; a skunk with expensive clothes. She’s a stupid, rude, uneducated, and unkind woman (consider how she and her sidekick mocked those sweet quilting ladies on their reality show, and how they generally show contempt for the “yokels” with whom they slum it on the show).

Every time I’ve heard Paris speak, my impressions have been confirmed; she’s repulsive. As for her so-called allure, in “Sluts Galore,” I identified her as part of the “porn aesthetic,” sporting “sly, weasel-like looks.” I also thoroughly resent that her name mars one of my favorite fragrances, “Paris” by Yves Saint Laurent. (The allure of Paris the city, nothing can alter, except rioting Muslims.)

However, Hilton she was given unprecedented sentence for a low-level misdemeanor.

Here’s what Thomas Mesereau, a defense attorney for whom I have a great deal of respect, said. I praised his defense of Michael Jackson. (The article about that defense almost no one wanted to publish, including a large libertarian site.) Mesereau has said this about the legal plight of Paris—including the sentence, and the subsequent usurpation by the Judge of the sheriff’s authority:

“…you have a judge who is not following the law and who is willing to undermine our sheriff’s department. This judge absolutely has violated every procedure that applies to a situation like this. All her attorneys can do at this point is file an appeal, try and get her out on bail, as a misdemeanor permits one to do, and take it from there…

But I think the whole situation is a disgrace, because this judge undermined our sheriff and actually treated Paris Hilton far worse than anyone else would have been treated in this situation…

This judge knows darn well, because he’s in the criminal justice system, that people convicted of crimes like this, low-level misdemeanors, only spend a few days in jail, because they need to stop overcrowding, and they have to keep violent felons or people accused of violent felonies in jail.

I have had people go in the morning and leave that afternoon. Nobody gets 45 days like this. Nobody is told, you must spend all 45 days. He did it for the cameras. …And I think it’s highly improper…

I think equality should be the major message in our justice system, that, no matter who you are, you’re treated equally with everybody else.

This is a case of celebrity injustice. He did things with her because of who she is, and how much wealth she has, and because there were paparazzi and cameras around, that he wouldn’t have done with anybody else. And he’s created a difficult situation for our sheriff, who is a dedicated public servant, a very decent man. I know him very well.

And he’s trying to treat everybody equally. He didn’t treat Paris Hilton any differently from anyone else. And the judge tried to make it look like he had…”

Update: As usual, the media and the punditocracy are always wrong. Weeks after the fact, Greta Van Susteren of Faux News discovered (not due to any research she had conducted) that Hilton received more time than a wife batterer would. The Los Angeles Times did the journalist footwork (I can’t locate a link). After presiding over a gaggle of “experts” who hooted and hollered for Hilton’s head, Van Susteren has reversed her position.
About this you can be certain: mainstream media are always wrong. I put it down to cultural dumbing down: egalitarian hiring and the feminization of news.

In the chat I had with Jim Ostrowski of Paleo Radio last week, we agreed about the Hilton case, only I insisted on making the following distinctions (they are not mutually exclusive):
1) Hilton is a Ho—an unkind, classless slut. She’s huge because the market adjudicates popularity, not quality.
2) Hilton received unjust treatment by the legal system. (As a mother, I must say that the cry she let out to hers, “Mother, mother, this is unfair,” was horrible to hear.)

In this case, the injustice was by popular demand. The people—the pitchfork-hoisting, philosophical acolytes of the French Revolution—demanded Paris’s empty head, and got it.

Updated: The Real Huge Hogs in the Baldwin Blowup

Celebrity, Family, Feminism, Film, Hollywood, Law

What are the chances that Alec Baldwin’s daughter is a “rude, thoughtless little pig“?

If most of America’s kids and all Hollywood’s adults and their little hogs fit the description—then I’d say Baldwin was on the money.

What is the likelihood the family courts in this country have denied the actor his legal custodial rights? Given the family court system’s stellar record in railroading an overwhelming majority of petitioning dad, I’d say Baldwin’s case against the courts is as credible as his case against his daughter’s conduct. (I bet you that the incriminating tape of the actor trying to discipline his daughter long-distance was leaked to the media by the alleged little pig.)

As to those flapping like black crows over Baldwin, telling us that words are as bad as bruises, and demanding Baldwin be arrested or slapped with a restraining order (as if his access to the kid is not already severely restricted): How did my father put it? This is the Age of the Idiot.

As to Baldwin himself: He’s intense (that’s good), witty, and extremely well-spoken (as opposed to most of his interviewers). He is also fired up about fathers’ lack of rights, and would make a fine spokesman for this cause.

Our Feminism Archive is here.

Update: Thanks Alex for bringing up Baldwin’s acting. I’m a fan too. He has a presence—and in particualr, he can be terrifying. I love that. I enjoyed his performances in films such as “Malice,” and “The Edge.” But then I like a well-performed thriller with a good story.

The Toilet Taliban and Other ‘Paines’ in the Posterior

Environmentalism & Animal Rights, Hollywood

This week’s column is two-pronged, or shall I say two-ponged (Crow is the gift that keeps giving):

“…Having unleashed “E-Crowli” into the ether, Sheryl should zip those lips over that overbite. The only thing that might lift the malodorous aura that has clung to Crow since she came out of the toilet with these schemes is the knowledge that her well-appointed bathroom sports a bidet. Or, conversely, that she practices “Islamic toilet etiquette.” The latter, at least, involves water! But don’t hold your breath. (Or maybe you should!)”…

“Speaking of a pain in the posterior, or is it a ‘Paine,’ Trotskyite-turned-neoconservative Christopher Hitchens has a new book out: Thomas Paine’s ‘Rights of Man.’ Hitchens has dedicated it, “by permission,” to Jalal Talabani, the President of Iraq, whom he clearly considers the Paine of Mesopotamia. …
Hitchens wants to convince his readers that Paine’s proto-socialism—he advocated welfare financed by taxes—is quintessentially American. I disagree, but understand where this ex-Trotskyite transplant is coming from.
Still, leery as I am of Thomas Paine’s philosophical provenance, it seems egregious, even comical, for Hitchens to have paired Paine with Talabani.”

The complete column is “The Toilet Taliban and Other ‘Paines’ in the Posterior”