Category: Hollywood Politics

Chris Pratt’s Faith Love Story

It was in the late 2000s when actor Chris Pratt secured Hollywood fame for his portrayal of Andy Dwyer in the NBC sitcom “Parks and Recreation.”

Although his role in the sitcom was meant to be temporary, producers liked him so much they asked him to become a series regular.

After dropping out of college, working as a waiter, and living homeless in Hawaii, Pratt had clearly come a very long way. He was now a genuine TV star.

His career would continue to rocket as he obtained supporting roles in a number of significant films, including “Moneyball,” “Zero Dark Thirty,” and “Her.”

He hit true A-list status through major roles in two blockbuster film franchises: Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” series and the “Jurassic World” trilogy.

“The Magnificent Seven,” “Passengers,” and “The Tomorrow War” would usher in other stellar roles. And his voicing of characters in “The Lego Movie” franchise, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” and “The Garfield Movie” would further expand his audience horizons.

As an actor, Pratt possesses a unique capacity to simultaneously handle drama, action, and humor. This combination is serving to continually propel his career.

The proof is in the celluloid. Movies in which he has had a starring role have grossed over $13 billion worldwide.

With all the success he has achieved, he is nevertheless motivated by something much greater – a deep and abiding faith.

Like nearly everyone else on earth, Pratt has wrestled with doubt and particularly throughout his early years found himself falling into old habits.

“I’d make promises, but I didn’t keep them,” he said in an interview.

However, his life changed in 2012 when his baby son Jack was born premature and was forced to spend his first month in a neonatal intensive care unit.

“We were scared for a long time,” Pratt said.

“He [Jack] had all of these issues going on. I prayed hard to God. I was in a season of transition spiritually at that time, and didn’t quite fully understand. I made a deal with God again: ‘I’m sorry, God, here I am again, asking for your grace again.’ And He really saved my son, and that was the moment [my faith] was cemented,” he said.

Pratt recalls it as a miracle that restored his faith in God.

“My heart softened, and my faith hardened. That was the moment that I was like, ‘Moving forward, I’m going to give my platform to God,’” he said.

Since then he has used his celebrity profile to enhance awareness of the Almighty.

He wants to affirm people who are believers in Christ, but he also hopes to reach out to the people who haven’t yet experienced God’s presence.

“I want to be a light to people who’ve never seen light. I want to be a light to people who have seen light but turned away from it or been afraid of it,” Pratt said.

As a father of four, he wants to raise his children “with an understanding that their dad was unashamed of his faith in Jesus, and with a profound understanding of the power of prayer, and the grace and the love and the joy that can come from a relationship with Jesus.”

He is well aware that many in the entertainment industry don’t share his views. But this doesn’t deter him.

“It’s who I am. I’m not going to hide behind it. A city on a hill cannot be hidden,” he stated.

Pratt understands the dark side of fame and the ways in which celebrities can oftentimes be trapped by it.

He once responded to a question from “The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert about the inherent danger of intense fame.

“If the spotlight that’s shining on you is brighter than the light that comes from within you — it’ll kill you…,” he said.

He knows firsthand that being a Christian in Hollywood is going against the grain.

When faced with criticism, his approach is to pray for his critics.

“If people don’t understand me, I’m going to pray for them, and then I’m going to go back and hang out with my kids and play tag,” he said.

Pratt exhibits the beautiful virtue of self-sacrifice, which is encompassed in a relationship with God. He has counted the cost of standing up for his faith and is totally willing to pay the price.

“I care enough about Jesus to take a stand, even if it cost me. It could cost me everything, but I don’t care. It’s worth it to me because this is what I’m called to do, it’s where my heart is.”

Pratt is now starring in the original happily-ever-after love story.

When you experience the love of God, you want everyone else to feel it too.

Clooney Is Big Mad at Obama

It’s a risky move for a Hollywood star to step into the world of politics.

This is true for those who are new to the spotlight. But it’s especially true for those with a long track record of success.

Enter George Clooney.

Months ago when President Joe Biden gave a shockingly poor debate performance against then-GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, donors began to withhold campaign cash, while party leaders and media pundits simultaneously started to talk about getting Biden to pull out of the race.

A huge amount of video footage had been emerging online, which suggested that Biden was experiencing cognitive difficulties.

One particular video piece featured Clooney at a Left Coast fundraiser. Also in attendance were Biden and former President Barack Obama, who was seen playing the role of caregiver to his former veep, even appearing to have to assist Biden in exiting the stage.

Clooney would soon become the de facto celebrity leader of a group that was seeking to shove Biden out of the spotlight.

A few short weeks after the Hollywood fundraiser, Clooney took the highly dramatic step of penning an op-ed column for the New York Times, which urged Biden to step aside.

“It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the…Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate,” Clooney wrote.

The actor slammed Democrats who were seeking to retain Biden as the nominee, admonishing them to “stop telling us that 51 million people didn’t see what we just saw.”

Clooney warned the Democratic Party, “We are not going to win in November with this president. On top of that, we won’t win the House, and we’re going to lose the Senate.”

The star’s prediction turned out to be accurate, even after Biden reluctantly stepped down and Vice President Kamala Harris was “selected” by party leaders as the Democrat presidential nominee.

After the decisive November 5, 2024 victory of President elect Trump, Clooney began to experience the unexpected, i.e., backlash and blame for his high profile role in what a lot of folks viewed as a coup.

Amid the finger pointing after the election loss, Clooney became one of the top scapegoats.

This may have prompted the recent announcement that from now on, he would avoid the political arena entirely.

“George feels that the backlash he is getting for Kamala losing is not at all warranted,” a source told the Daily Mail. “He [Clooney] thinks it is completely unfair to try and make him a scapegoat for her loss.”

In addition, it appears as though Clooney is directing some of his personal wrath at a former friend. Recent reports indicate that the star, who was previously best buds with Obama, is deliberately drifting away.

RadarOnline, via an anonymous source, has reported that Clooney is fuming over the former president having pushed him into becoming a front and center advocate for ending Biden’s campaign.

“George is furious with Obama for disappearing after the election disaster and leaving him holding the bag for pushing the plan with his Hollywood pal,” the source indicated.

“George became Barack’s surrogate in leading the charge for Joe to step away. Barack knew he would look like a traitor if he publicly called for Joe to be cut loose. And now, he’s trying to walk away from it all,” the source stated.

According to the source, Clooney “feels duped and vows he’s not going to be anyone’s political water boy anymore… and feels he stepped up and took a bullet for the team.”

The actor evidently wants Obama to publicly intervene with some crisis management.

The source said, “He [Clooney] thinks Obama should come forward and say that George did the right thing and it isn’t his fault that it didn’t work out.”

Apparently, Clooney is not optimistic that Obama will do any such thing, and the whole matter has left him “feeling like a patsy.”

It’s all totally understandable.

For years Clooney has worked hard to build his brand. Now his Hollywood star has been seriously sullied.

Will the public give the celebrity a pass?

The answer may be found in yet another tired “Ocean’s” sequel.

Public Demand for J.D. Vance’s Backstory Continues to Rise

We’ve heard a lot about polls lately, and although polls certainly have their place, spontaneous sales of print and streaming content oftentimes speak louder.

In the week following the announcement that J.D. Vance would be former president and current GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s pick as running mate in the upcoming 2024 election, book sales of Vance’s memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” rose a humongous 13,000%.

And that’s not all. During the week following the announcement, 197,000 print copies flew off the shelves, and the book became the #1 seller across all genres.

Additionally, when the e-book and audio book sales are taken into consideration, over 650,000 copies of “Hillbilly Elegy” were purchased during that monumental week, bringing the total sales since its release to more than 3 million copies.

Current demand has been so great at retail outlets that to meet the increased need the publisher, HarperCollins, has ordered a new print run consisting of hundreds of thousands of copies.

Back in 2016 the phenomenal success of “Hillbilly Elegy” catapulted Vance into the celebrity realm long before he entered the political arena. Readers of the book loved it and spread the word of its unique story.

Vance’s real life tale is a compelling one.

A fatherless home, a mother who fell prey to drug addiction, a poverty that defies description, a rescue by family members, an ascent to Marine Corps manhood, an undergraduate college advancement, and a Yale Law school trophy.

Truly the embodiment of the American dream.

The book also provides something else: A window into the Appalachian culture, featuring virtues to be treasured as well as vices to overcome. So reminiscent of sociological traits that are seen in various other multi-cultures across our country.

This all lends to the relatability and, of course, the popularity of Vance’s life story.

His backstory has been routinely cited by a wide variety of political experts (including his present political opponents) in an attempt to more fully understand the Trump campaign victory in 2016.

The candid portrait of Appalachia in particular and of rural poverty in general has helped many to appreciate the appeal of the former president to the forgotten members of the working class.

Interestingly, the critics heaped praise on Vance’s book.

The book’s original title is “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis.”

In 2020 Hollywood produced a film adaptation of the book with the shortened title “Hillbilly Elegy.”

The movie was released in select cinemas before its streaming release on Netflix. It was the most-watched film on the site the first day of its release, before finishing third in its debut weekend.

Glenn Close portrays Vance’s “Mamaw” (which in 2021 earned her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination), Amy Adams plays Vance’s mother, and Gabriel Basso portrays the teen version of J.D.

Despite having the Oscar-winning director Ron Howard and a stellar cast, many in the film critic community slammed the movie. The aggregated critics on the Rotten Tomatoes website gave the film an unduly low 25% rating.

However, much like the book, after the announcement that Vance had been selected to be the GOP vice presidential nominee, the movie almost immediately trended on Netflix, and viewership grew by more than 1,180%.

The interest in Vance’s backstory caused the film version of “Hillbilly Elegy” to debut in the eighth position on the Netflix Global Top 10 Movies chart the week of the announcement of the veep nominee. The movie had a whopping 4.8 million views.

The organic success of the book as well as the movie is reflective of how people from all across the social, economic, and cultural strata can relate to a story that features the triumph of the human spirit.

“Hillbilly Elegy” may just end up translating into votes that echo throughout the mountains and valleys of the American landscape.

Robert De Niro’s Disastrous Political Junket

Former President Donald Trump and supporters have been holding a series of informal daily press conferences outside a New York City courtroom where trial proceedings involving the 45th president have been taking place.

Recently, the presumptive GOP nominee hosted a campaign rally in of all places the deep blue Bronx. The rally reportedly drew a huge crowd that was estimated to be about 25,000 people.

In the wake of the above occurrences, Democrats went nuts and evidently decided it was time to take some serious counter-offensive action.

In what looked and smelled a lot like a Hollywood junket, the Biden campaign recently held a surprise press conference of its own outside the now-famous Manhattan courtroom.

It featured none other than actor Robert De Niro, along with two former Capitol police officers.

The big problem for the Dems, though, is that the event turned out to be a huge flop at the political box office.

The Biden campaign trotted out an extremely crabby De Niro, who sported a non-glitzy Covid mask and read from a script that appeared to be scribbled on note cards.

In Biden-like fashion, the actor went from a stammer to a ramble to a rant, his lines falling flat and his performance likewise.

Also reminiscent of 46 was the fondness De Niro displayed for hyper-hyperbole. He stated that the U.S. government would “perish from the earth” if 45 were re-elected.

He also speculated that once allowed to assume office 45 would “never” leave. Instead he would make himself “dictator for life,” and “freedoms” and “elections” would be gone.

Ratcheting things up, De Niro insisted that the former president “wants to destroy not only the city [New York], but the country, and eventually he can destroy the world.”

At one point in the actor’s C-lister soliloquy, a car alarm went off, causing him to lose his rhetorical footing. Then, as he droned on, protesters could be heard heckling him.

One individual hit him where it hurts the most, in his acting chops, suggesting that he hadn’t made a decent flick in the last two decades.

Still, his Hollywood nightmare wasn’t over yet. At the conclusion of the seemingly staged press conference, while on the way back to his car De Niro unwisely engaged in an exchange of insults with some of the protestors.

That’s when he seemed to lose all control. One of the protestors referred to him as “washed up,” which is one of the worst insults a star can endure.

Personally, I am stunned that an actor of De Niro’s stature would have risked squandering away his fame capital in such a blatant manner.

Where in the world were his handlers?

AWOL, I guess, because it seems that he is making a series of career-busting blunders.

He recently provided his voice to the Biden campaign for a political ad and boasted about joining the efforts of the 2024 Democratic presidential campaign.

Sadly, the once widely-esteemed actor looked bad and sounded worse. He also managed to offend tens of millions of Americans during the supposed Hollywood-style presser, calling Trump supporters “clowns” and “gangsters.”

No doubt it was a bad career move for De Niro.

But it may turn out to be an even worse one for the current occupant of the White House.

When Hollywood Made the Big Left Turn

The Hollywood tale begins in the 1920s.

It was a time when most major studio heads were decidedly on the conservative side of the political aisle.

So how did the entertainment industry veer into the leftist stratosphere?

Well, the process seemed to begin after some Hollywood-related scandals caused quite a bit of public embarrassment, which prompted the studios to become more proactive in terms of controlling the inner workings of the movie business.

Rather than having to bow to government regulators, the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America hired a former U.S. postmaster general by the name of Will Hays to help develop guardrails for movie production.

In 1933, Hays pushed the film industry to adopt what would come to be known as the Hays Code, which established rules that set boundaries pertaining to onscreen depictions of sex and crime.

Films and eventually television content that conformed to the code received a seal of approval upon which the movie-going public could rely, particularly families with children.

A pivotal event occurred in the late 1940s, which resulted in a transformation of the industry itself.

Some of the intellectuals around town, who were purportedly sympathetic to communist ideology, were investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee.

The Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals provided to the committee the names of those who were alleged to be communists as well as those who supported communist organizations.

Notable entertainment figures of the time, including Gary Cooper, Ronald Reagan, Robert Taylor, Sterling Hayden, and Edward G. Robinson named names and/or expressed concern about subversive content of screenplays.

Most of the names that were named were those of screenwriters. A select group of blacklisted individuals became known as the “Hollywood Ten.”

Hollywood is still burdened with an obsession over the blacklist era. Movies that deal with the subject are continuously being produced: “Good Night, and Good Luck,” “The Front,” “Guilty by Suspicion,” “Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg,” “The Majestic,” and two biopics, both titled “Trumbo” based on blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, just to name a few.

At the time of the blacklist and up until the late 1960s, Hollywood was structured along the lines of what came to be called the “studio system.”

This top-down model was controlled by five major movie studios known as the Big Five, and three smaller studios known as the Little Three.

The Big Five was comprised of Paramount, Warner Bros., RKO Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and 20th Century Fox.

The Little Three were United Artists, Universal, and Columbia Pictures.

Interestingly, today’s largest and most powerful company, Disney, was not part of either the Big Five or the Little Three.

The studio system, as well as Hollywood’s Golden Era, took a hit both in power and influence as a result of a landmark Supreme Court decision, United States v. Paramount, an antitrust case.

Originally filed a decade earlier, the landmark case shocked the entertainment industry with language that called for the complete separation of ownership of movie theaters from film production and distribution, effectively terminating the studio system.

This legal decision, along with the continuing backlash against the blacklist, ended up being the catalyst for Hollywood’s extreme leftward tilt.

The studios opened up to independent filmmakers, and by the early 1960s the Hays Code had been replaced by a rating system that had been implemented by the newly formed Motion Picture Association of America, the same rating system that the industry uses to this day.

A new breed of filmmakers began to produce titles with defiant, rebellious, and anti-conventional themes, such as “Easy Rider,” “Midnight Cowboy,” and “Carnal Knowledge.”

By the late 1970s, its metamorphosis was evident. Hollywood continued over the years to become ever more left-wing, which cultivated the soil from which the unimpeded weeds of wokeness grew.

So here we are stuck with the 96th Academy Awards ceremony that recently aired, which, among other things, had imposed a set of DEI rules for a nominee to qualify for the Best Picture Oscar.

Needless to say, the DEI rules are at a minimum a profound obstacle to the creative process and another truly divisive thorn in our culture’s side.

Veteran actor Richard Dreyfuss gave a candid response to the Academy’s DEI standards, after they had been revealed to the public.

“They make me vomit,” Dreyfuss said. “Because this is an art form, it’s also a form of commerce, and it makes money, but it’s an art.”

Is life imitating art or art imitating life?

In a woke world, it’s anybody’s guess.

The Lopsided Humor of Late Night TV

Laughter is apparently built into our DNA, because I recently saw an ultrasound of a pre-born baby in full smile mode.

I don’t know what the little guy thought was so funny, but it’s a pretty sure bet he wasn’t listening to one of TV’s late-night comedy shows. They stopped delivering laughs a long time ago.

It all started when late-night hosts began moving further and further to the political left. Then so many of the jokes went woke. And finally Big Censorship came in with a knockout punch.

It’s no wonder that over the past several years late-night revenues have plummeted. Shows on CBS, NBC, and ABC are down significantly from five years prior, and network executives have even cut back on programming.

The following info may shed some light on what appears to be a major contributing factor in the demise of late-night humor.

While participating in a panel discussion, former host of the “The Daily Show” Trevor Noah stated that he and his team of writers look to the underlying news for their joke inspiration.

“I’ll say, ‘What is the news, what are the facts, what’s the truth?’ and then we will put the jokes on top. It’s the icing on the cake,” Noah said.

The problem is the icing on the cake tastes rotten to a huge segment of viewing audiences.

Some eye-opening research underscores the extreme partisanship that is embedded within late-night television programming.

The Media Research Center (MRC) released some compelling data, which were obtained during the time period between Labor Day and the Monday night that preceded Election Day of 2022.

Results of the study indicated that there had been 47 left-leaning guests who had appeared on late-night shows.

During this same time period, not a single conservative-leaning guest was booked to appear on the late-night shows.

In September of 2023, Bill Maher said out loud what late-night hosts are really up to.

“What they do is say exactly what a liberal audience wants them to say…,” Maher stated.

Maher also responded to a question about why other talk show hosts are handed Emmy Awards, despite having much smaller audiences than his own.

“Because I tell the truth,” Maher said. “I don’t perform for just one-half of the country and say the things that will make them applaud.”

A study recently conducted by the MRC provides additional evidence of the political bias that exists on the part of late-night television hosts and writers.

The MRC study analyzed the comedic content contained within the programming of the major late-night shows, which included ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” CBS’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” and up until the show stopped airing in April 2023 “The Late Late Show with James Corden.”

An extraordinary 81% of the comedic material contained within the programming was aimed directly at conservative-leaning public figures.

Certain shows contained more one-sided material than others. Kimmel’s show led the pack when it came to partisan bits aimed at right-of-center targets. Programming included slanted humor that 88% of the time lampooned conservatives.

Late-night TV took the same asymmetrical approach with the Supreme Court. Conservative-leaning Justices were on the receiving end of punch lines at a ratio of 64 to 1.

Late night shows used to be an American staple. Now at least half the country has tuned out because folks are tired of being the butt of old worn-out unfunny mediocre jokes.

Try poking at both sides and you just might bring back the funny.

Our babies in waiting are already primed to laugh.

‘Seinfeld’ Episode Seemingly Springs to Life

“How can anyone not like him?” the famed TV Mom utters about her son in an episode of the smash sitcom “Seinfeld.”

The character she is referring to happens to be playing himself. He’s the one and only Jerry Seinfeld, comedian extraordinaire.

Along with his lovably quirky television family, Seinfeld and friends are still hanging out in living rooms around the globe, thanks to the wonderful world of syndication.

In the 1980s, Seinfeld was at the top of his stand-up game. Hugely funny and for the most part family-friendly, the comic was able to maintain the trademark style that garnered him scores of late-night guest spots and other sought-after appearances.

The inevitable happened fairly quickly. Television executives chased after him, trying to make a deal that would give him a show of his own.

As fate would have it, he was friends with comedy writer Larry David. The two collaborated on a sitcom in which Jerry would play the real-life character with whom he’s most familiar, himself.

The show “Seinfeld” ended up becoming one of Hollywood’s highest-rated sitcoms ever.

The Landmark Theatre, located in downtown Syracuse, New York, is a venue where Seinfeld was recently set to take to the stand-up stage.

Protestors gathered outside the entrance in anticipation of his performance.

Before he was able to deliver his first punch line, a protest march began, complete with the usual antagonistic bells and whistles.

Protesters hurled around the “genocide” word and called for the comedy show to be shut down.

The mob’s targeting of Seinfeld reportedly began with an Instagram post from the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Other socialist groups were reportedly involved, including the Syracuse chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the Resilient Indigenous Action Collective, and the Syracuse Collective for Palestinian Liberation.

The Instagram post accused Israel of “genocidal atrocities” and stated that the United States is “directly responsible” for them.

Another post by the organizers accused the “Seinfeld” star of being “one of several celebrities denying the genocide of Palestinians.”

The Hollywood community itself remains divided over the October 7 terrorist attack in Israel. Seinfeld is one of a significant number of celebrities who have spoken out against the attack that occurred on innocent civilians.

His name appears alongside hundreds of other Hollywood celebrities in two open letters that condemn Hamas, show solidarity with Israel, and call for the 240 hostages that were taken by the terrorist organization to be returned.

Days after the Hamas attacks Seinfeld posted an image on his Instagram account, along with the following words: “I Stand With Israel.”

He shared that when he was 16 years old he had the experience of living and working in Israel.

“I have loved our Jewish homeland ever since. My heart is breaking from these attacks and atrocities. But we are also a very strong people in our hearts and minds. We believe in justice, freedom, and equality. We survive and flourish no matter what. I will always stand with Israel and the Jewish people,” he stated.

The story highlights the social media division that has occurred, which is similar to the Hollywood one. Most are pointing out that Seinfeld is an individual who is merely trying to continue in his profession. He has no ties to any government and is not speaking from a political perspective, but rather a human one.

Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., agrees, as he has indicated on social media.

“Jerry Seinfeld is an iconic American COMEDIAN who’s also Jewish,” Rep. Donalds posted on X.

The congressman added that “he’s a COMEDIAN not a diplomat or gov official.”

Invoking another “Seinfeld” episode, was it all just a protest about nothing?

We can only wish.