I don't just read depressing news all day. (Although it is true that I sometimes allow the Drudge Report to automatically and none-too-soothingly auto-refresh for hours at a time.) I also read about and watch an awful lot of movies. Here are the latest movie bits buzzing through my brain.
First up, the geniuses at IFC made Henry Rollins a film critic. Horrifying.
Just in time to piss off the far right and the anti-drug crusaders, Cheech & Chong are making another movie! By the way, you can see screenshots of Tommy Chong's now defunct online headshop here. Cheech calls Ashcroft (who busted Chong) a "fucking Nazi" but they're happy for the publicity.
San Francisco cops are re-opening the murder case of Meredith Hunter at the infamous Rolling Stones concert at Altamont in 1970. The police are reviewing footage of the killing from the incredible Maysles Bros. doc Gimme Shelter.
The seasoned political experts over at Film Threat have inexplicably chosen Michael Moore to top their annual "Frigid List" of the "coldest people in Hollywood." According to FT, we should blame Michael Moore for the Democrats' big loss last November. And I thought it was the queers' fault.
If Michael Moore's "anti-American" hijinx make your blood boil, get a load of Will Smith, who had the nerve to tell a German reporter that "nothing changed" for him on 9/11. Opined Smith:
"In the '60s, blacks were continuously the victims of terrorist attacks. It was civil terrorism, but terrorism nonetheless. We are used to being attacked. That constant state of vigilance - a sort of defensive state - that hasn't changed at all. For me, nothing has changed at all."
Too bad Smith didn't speak up sooner so Trey Parker & Matt Stone could include him in their toothless "satire" on Hollywood liberals.
Jumping on (creating?) the Smith controversy, the right wing watchdog group PABAAH or Patriotic Americans Boycotting Anti-American Hollywood (talk about a mouthful) urges its members to boycott Smith's movies. I have plenty of good reasons to skip Will Smith movies, but none of them has to do with his reasoned opinions about the war on terror.
In addition to petitions attempting to try Michael Moore for treason and demanding the revival of HUAC, PABAAH's wacky site includes a running list of celebrity "traitors" to America. PABAAH urges members to boycott the films of anyone and everyone on the list. The problem is that if the knuckle-draggers over at PABAAH actually boycotted everyone on that list, they'd have to abandon their regular trips to the cineplex for something else. Reading perhaps? Imagine resigning yourself to a life of Ann Coulter books and Toby Keith albums just to avoid seeing commie propaganda like The Spongebob Squarepants Movie (featuring voice work by enemy-of-the-state Alec Baldwin.)
The PABAAH loonies are so ideologically-pure that some want to boycott movies by people who have worked with individuals on the blacklist. Hence the internal debate over including Republican Clint Eastwood on an alternate list of Hollywood heroes. Forum moderator "Will" from Colorado indignantly writes:
"Just for the record:
I have a life size poster of Clint Eastwood that I have had for years. But he does not deserve to be on the "Patriot" list. He produced Penn's (Sean) and Robbin's (Tim) movie.
It seems to me that it was done on purpose to give these losers a job. It is too much of a coincidence. Don't you all think?"
Who passes ideological snuff with PABAAH? Why such luminaries as Bo Derek, Orson Bean, Dave Mustaine, Shannon Doherty and Jim Nabors. (OK, OK cheap shot.) In fact, that list also includes James Woods, Joe Pesci, George Lucas and of course Arnie and Mel. Ironically, for all the right wing's crowing about the influence of Hollywood on the political process, the two most explicit examples of the collision between politics and pop culture are Schwarzenegger and Gibson.
Oh yeah, and John Larroquette of TV's Night Court made PABAAH's "Patriot List" too. This despite the objections of dissident members suspicious of the actor's French surname. (I kid you not.)