Tag Archives: politician

John Edwards Film To Be Directed By Aaron Sorkin

Saga of disgraced politician is an ‘extraordinary story,’ ‘West Wing’ creator says. By Mawuse Ziegbe John Edwards Photo: Jonathan Torgovnik/ Getty Images The saga of disgraced North Carolina politician John Edwards is on its way to the big screen. According to The Hollywood Reporter, screenwriter and “The West Wing” creator Aaron Sorkin has acquired the rights to the tell-all “The Politician: An Insider’s Account of John Edwards’s Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal That Brought Him Down.” The tome was penned by Edwards aide Andrew Young, who divulged damaging details about the pol’s extramarital affair. Edwards was vilified in the press for carrying on an affair with campaign videographer Rielle Hunter. The politician was apparently cheating with Hunter while his wife, Elizabeth, battled cancer. The former senator, who sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, also fathered a daughter with Hunter. Edwards initially denied he was the child’s father until a paternity test revealed otherwise. “This is a first-hand account of an extraordinary story filled with motivations, decisions and consequences that would have lit Shakespeare up,” said Sorkin, who will make his directorial debut with the movie. “There’s much more to Andrew’s book than what has been reported, and I’m grateful that he’s trusting me with it.” Sorkin has worked extensively in film and television. In addition to helming the hit political show “The West Wing,” he also created the shows “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” and “Sports Night.” He has written screenplays for “Charlie Wilson’s War,” “A Few Good Men” and, most recently, “The Social Network,” based on the rise of the social-media juggernaut Facebook. For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com .

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John Edwards Film To Be Directed By Aaron Sorkin

USA Today Spins Liberal Lincoln Chafee as a ‘Centrist’ and a ‘Moderate’

According to USA Today’s Susan Page, Lincoln Chafee, a Republican who left the party and voted for Barack Obama in 2008, is simply a “moderate.” A cover story for Tuesday’s edition of the paper features the misleading sub-headline: ” Centrists Fuel Big Crop of Contenders This Year. ” Nowhere in the 1800 word piece does Page describe Chafee as a liberal. Instead, Chafee, now running for governor of Rhode Island as an independent, is part of a “rebellion in the middle.” Page sympathetically described the politician’s exit from the Republican Party after losing his 2006 reelection bid: “Chafee felt rejected by the GOP, which no longer seemed willing to include moderate Republicans like himself.” Of course, Chafee’s lifetime American Conservative Union score was a meager 34. (To repeat, this was when he was a Republican.) Such a number put him to the left of Democrats such as Ben Nelson and only slightly less liberal than Robert Byrd. Yet, Page touted Chafee not as a liberal, but as a truth teller: He may be testing voters’ appetite for honesty: In his announcement speech, he suggested addressing the state’s daunting budget gap by levying a 1% sales tax on food, clothing, over-the-counter drugs and other items now exempt from the state’s 7% sales tax. In a six-way debate on WPRI-TV in June — among two Democratic candidates, two Republicans and two independents — Chafee’s tax proposal was the first question raised by moderator Tim White and the prime target of attack. “He wants to raise taxes and I want to cut spending,” Democrat Frank Caprio, the state treasurer and Chafee’s leading competitor, said after the debate when asked about his strategy. “That’s the difference between us.” Consider the facts here: The Democratic candidate is attacking Chafee for lobbying to raise taxes. Shouldn’t that be enough for Page to describe Chafee as a liberal? Later, Page returned to the concept of raising taxes as simple honesty: Chafee acknowledges that suggesting the tax hike is a calculated risk. He’s counting on voters to reward a straightforward discussion of the options ahead. If they don’t, he says, the fault will be his own failure to communicate and convince them. The USA journalist also touted other party switchers as examples of moderation: “There are more signs of centrists stirring as national politics remain sharply polarized, a factor some candidates cite for leaving or being pushed from their old allegiances.”

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USA Today Spins Liberal Lincoln Chafee as a ‘Centrist’ and a ‘Moderate’

‘Real World: Boston’ Alum Sean Duffy Running For Congress

Duffy, who is a district attorney in Wisconsin, is backed by former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. By Josh Wigler Sean Duffy Photo: MTV News Former “Real World: Boston” castmember Sean Duffy is looking to move from reality-television star to congressman. Duffy, a conservative district attorney, is considered a strong contender to win the Republican primary in Wisconsin’s Seventh Congressional District, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. The position is currently held by outgoing democrat David Obey. Duffy was thought of as a long shot to win, since Obey has maintained the position since his election in 1969, but the incumbent congressman announced his decision not to seek re-election in early May. Duffy’s campaign website includes the politician’s stance on key issues like the economy, health care, education, national defense and agriculture. He has received endorsements from notable GOP figures including onetime vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin and former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty. When Obey was still a candidate for Congress, Palin likened Duffy’s campaign as an example of the “many daring Davids [taking] on entrenched Goliaths” across the United States political landscape. “We’ve had 2,100 online contributions over the course of our campaign, which means we’ve had great support not just here in Wisconsin, but great national support,” Duffy said in a video message posted to his website June 21. The Times reports that Duffy has raised $600,000 during his campaign. Duffy has served as Ashland County’s district attorney since 2002. Outside of politics, he is best known as a veteran of MTV’s “The Real World: Boston.” His wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy, is also a “Real World” alumnus; she appeared during the show’s San Francisco-set third season, and the two met during “Road Rules: All Stars” in 1998. Would you vote for a “Real World” castmember for Congress? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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‘Real World: Boston’ Alum Sean Duffy Running For Congress

Al Gore Won’t Be Charged in Alleged Sexual Assault; Mistress Describes V.P.’s Nasty Moves Anyway

An Oregon massage therapist’s claim of “unwanted sexual contact” by former Vice President Al Gore has been dismissed by authorities, citing lack of evidence. The Multnomah County District Attorney’s office said it would not pursue the Al Gore sexual assault claim, but not before the police report was leaked online. The woman originally claimed Gore “moaned, groaned and moved” like a “crazed sex poodle” and delivered a “come hither” stare … you may vomit on cue. The alleged victim told detectives Gore attempted a “big tongue kiss,” “caressed” her “back and buttocks and breasts” and “shoved” her hand … you know. Gore, who recently split from wife Tipper after 40 years of marriage, fed her chocolate and attempted to coerce her to the bedroom to listen to a Pink song. The National Enquirer broke the story of the woman’s alleged Al Gore sex attack, which she reported four years ago and police revisited last year. He was not charged. But police, for reasons unknown, investigated the case further in 2009. According to the masseuse, it began as Gore booked a massage, saying “Call me Al.” On her arrival at Portland’s up-market Hotel Lucia, Al stretched out his arms to wrap her into an embrace before purposefully dimming the lights, she said. “It was apparent from the beginning he had been drinking,” she claimed. “The hug went on a bit too long and I was a bit taken aback by it. If it weren’t Al Gore I would have seriously questioned the situation right there.” In police documents, which identify “Mr. Stone aka Gore, Al” as the person of interest, the woman claims Gore said he wanted his inner thigh worked on. “I was taught that a massage of the adductors could cause an involuntary erection,” she said, later, for some reason, adding, “I even voted for him in the last election, although in truth I was more accurately voting against Bush.” She said, “When I began doing the requested abdominal area he became vocal with muffled moans, etc. He began demanding that I go lower and massaging on the abdominal area. I was shocked. He further insisted and acted angry.” Describing herself as a Licensed Massage Therapist, the woman said she “went into much deeper shock as it appeared he was demanding sexual favors.” The woman recounted a harrowning story of Gore progressing from moaning loudly during a massage, to launching a crazed attack, before breaking it off. He lured her into the bedroom where he threw himself on top of her, it was also alleged: “He was moaning, groaning, moving in a very suggestive way.” When the session was over, the woman said she left the room to wash her hands. But Gore came over and “caressed my back, and buttocks and breasts.” She said, “I squirmed to try to get out of his grasp telling him to stop.” She told the former V.P. that he was a “crazy sex poodle,” to which he giggled. “He then forced an open mouth kiss on me. I pushed back and said, ‘Stop it. You’re being way too frisky.’ I was distressed and shocked and terrified.” She managed to throw Gore off her body, she claimed, until he grabbed her hand and then started singing along to Pink’s song “Dear Mr. President.” She then asked him, “Just how long where you whacked out after the election? “He replied ‘six-and-a-half years so far,’ just giggling his head off.” As Gore, who has also been accused of having an affair with Laurie David , kept trying to have sex with her, the woman says she responded as such: “I told him he would just have to take matters into his own hands.” Not to be denied, the ex-Veep “pleaded, grabbed me… tongue kissed me… rubbed himself against my crotch saying, ‘You know you want to do it.’” She claimed she managed to break away from Gore and leave the hotel, and at home “took a long, long warm shower and brushed my teeth for a long time to get out the Grand Marnier and Al Gore’s tongue and germs out of my mouth.” In a moment Bill Clinton could probably sympathize with, the woman said she also noticed stains on the front of her pants, at which point “I wondered if it was soap or bodily fluids from Gore pushing up against me repeatedly,” she said. Those pants were saved in a bank safe deposit box, along with a chocolate bar with his fingerprints as evidence, she says. But her story is full of holes. She also described why she didn’t run out the room, claiming she was scared that if she did she would be shot or tased by the politician’s security detail. However, when Detective Cheryl Daul, of Portland Police, questioned the masseuse, she later admitted she saw no security in or near the hotel suite. The woman told investigators she did not want to make money from this, but the National Enquirer says she is trying to sell the story for $1 million. The interview transcript revealed police appeared to trip her up when asking about payment, after she claimed Gore reached for a pocket to pay her. When the police persisted in this line of questioning, the woman realized that in the version of the story she had just told, Gore was in a bathrobe. The case was not pursued “because detectives concluded there was insufficient evidence to support the allegation. Gore has not yet commented.

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Al Gore Won’t Be Charged in Alleged Sexual Assault; Mistress Describes V.P.’s Nasty Moves Anyway

Rielle Hunter Wants to Get Paid

The incomparable Rielle Hunter, John Edwards’ mistress, mother of his love child and possible sex tape partner, thinks she should be cashing in on this more. The Rielle Deal is requesting all the profits from The Politician , the shocking tell-all memoir from Edwards’ former aide and co-conspirator, Andrew Young. Hunter believes she is entitled to all money generated by The Politician and any movie made from its contents, which largely revolve around herself. In it, Andrew Young describes his efforts to help the former presidential candidate conceal his affair with Hunter and his paternity of their daughter. Court documents allege that Rielle Hunter pictures and other personal property Young used in the book were private property and used illegally. SEDUCTION : Rielle Hunter breaks marriages. Now she wants to break the bank . Hunter and Young spoke privately in a Charlotte courtroom last month. A grand jury is still investigating Edwards’ use of campaign funds to silence her. Young has testified that he helped Edwards cover up the affair and the fact that he knocked up Rielle, even claiming that he , not John, fathered the kid. Rielle is also suing for every copy of the alleged John Edwards sex tape , made when she was pregnant with their child. You’re welcome for that imagery. Hunter also wants photos from Young’s laptop and a computer file. On a side note, today’s her baby daddy’s birthday . Woo hoo!

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Rielle Hunter Wants to Get Paid

Tabloid Offers Obvious Weight Loss Advice, Totally Sucks

We gotta talk, Life & Style . We understand that you’re celebrity gossip tabloid trying to make money, and that naive individuals blindly heed the words of talentless celebrities for reasons that make us ashamed to be a human being. Therefore, you’re gonna plaster their bikini bodies on your cover each week and make it seem like such geniuses as Kim Kardashian and Kendra Wilkinson can actually offer useful advice. But can you at least publish new material?!? The latest issue of this embarrassing publication simple recycles old photos for its lead story and then quotes Kim, Kendra and others from interviews these stars gave months ago. For example, Kendra offers these words of wisdom to anyone trying to get in shape: “I’m phasing [junk food] out, little by little… and “hiking, biking, just going outside and having fun.” How about you, Kristin Cavallari ? What’s your secret? “I don’t eat processed food, for the most part. I try to eat all natural. I work out three to four times a week at the gym and do lots of sit-ups.” So… wait. People can lose weight if they eat healthy and exercise?!? This is novel information. What else can you tell us, Life & Style ? Only you can stop this madness, people. Stop purchasing these ridiculous tabloids, especially when we’ll reprint their covers for free on THG. While the magazine above isn’t the only offender – did you hear that Jennifer Aniston lost 7 pounds in 7 days ?!? – it’s clearly the most unoriginal. See anything familiar on the cover of its previous two issues, prior to the one above?

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Tabloid Offers Obvious Weight Loss Advice, Totally Sucks

Rielle Hunter on Oprah: I’m Not a Home Wrecker!

Rielle Hunter, mistress to that disgrace John Edwards and mother to his two-year-old love child, gives her first TV interview today on the Oprah Winfrey Show. The weird videographer recounts how the former presidential candidate’s cancer-stricken wife, Elizabeth, slowly learned the full extent of his affair with Rielle. Slowly being the operative word. Rielle Hunter recalls how it was Elizabeth who encouraged John to come clean about his infidelity in 2008 … even though she didn’t know “the whole truth.” In the first interview John gave confirming his affair with Rielle, he denied fathering her child. Edwards finally admitted it earlier this year. What a sleaze. Perhaps the most disturbing thing about Rielle Hunter? Besides the fact that she’s still around at all? She somehow denies breaking up the politician’s marriage. “She doesn’t think she’s a home wrecker,” Winfrey told the AP regarding Hunter. “She does not think she played a key role in breaking up the Edwards marriage.” Hunter told GQ in March (after taking off her pants , then dubiously claiming she was repulsed by the photos): “Infidelity doesn’t happen in healthy marriages.” “The break in marriage happens before infidelity. That break happened, you know, two-and-a-half decades before I got there. The home was wrecked already.” Whatever helps you sleep at night, loser. John and Elizabeth recently separated after 33 years of marriage. They had four children together. Follow the jump for the first clip of Rielle on Oprah … Rielle Hunter on Oprah

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Rielle Hunter on Oprah: I’m Not a Home Wrecker!

Obama tells GOP to ‘Go for it’ on healthcare repeal

President Obama dared congressional Republicans today to campaign for repeal of the new health care law. “My attitude is, go for it!,” Obama told a cheering crowd in Iowa City, Iowa. “If they want to have that fight, we can have it!” The president also said he doesn't believe voters “are going to put the insurance industry back in the driver's seat. We've already been there — we're not going back!” House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, in a column written for Iowa's largest newspaper, wrote that the new law should be repealed and replaced because it gives government too much control over health care. The Republican lawmaker criticized higher taxes and more controls over doctors and Americans who are now required to buy health insurance. “Through repeal, we can do away with these job-killing mandates and replace them with affordable solutions to lower costs and cover Americans with pre-existing conditions,” Boehner wrote in the Des Moines Register. Obama delivered his speech in Iowa City, the same city where he outlined an initial health care proposal as a candidate back in 2007. Today's effort begins a months-long campaign to tour what Obama calls the many benefits of the 10-year, $938 billion plan he signed into law on Tuesday, “after a year of debate and a century of trying.” As the crowd began chanting “yes, we can,” Obama replied, “yes, we did.” He also told them, “this is your victory.” More @ link added by: Future_America

That’s Gay: Politicians

Wanna be in politics but are afraid you may have some gayness? Just use The “Straight” Politician's Guide to Managing Your Gay Crisis! That's Gay is a recurring segment on the weekly television show infoMania. In each episode of That's Gay, Bryan Safi explores gay issues and stereotypes as they are portrayed by the clueless media. For more Bryan visit http://current.com/groups/thats-gay/ and Current TV. infoMania is a half-hour satirical news show that airs on Current TV. The show puts a comedic spin on the 24-hour chaos and information overload brought about by the constant bombardment of the media. Hosted by Conor Knighton and co-starring Brett Erlich, Sarah Haskins, Ben Hoffman, Bryan Safi and Sergio Cilli, the show airs on Thursdays at 10 pm Eastern and Pacific Times and can be found online at http://current.com/infomania/ or on Current TV. And make sure to check out our facebook profile for special features at http://infomaniafacebook.com . added by: bryan_safi

The Most Knife-Twisting Boss Betrayal Books [Bosses]

Eliot Spitzer ‘s once-trusted confidante Lloyd Constantine wrote a book, out next week , about Spitzer’s downfall—and Spitzer’s none too happy. But it’s practically a hallowed tradition to write a tell-all about your famous boss. Constantine (left) was Spitzer’s senior adviser; the two had been friends since 1982. Spitzer told the Times that Constantine’s book, Journal of a Plague Year (borrowed from Daniel Defoe’s novel about the Great Plague of London), is “a self-serving and largely inaccurate interpretation of events mixed with unfounded speculation. That such a close adviser and confidant of my family and member of my administration would choose to write such a book is a fundamental breach of trust.” Andrew Young , pictured here testifying against his former boss, was John Edwards ‘s longtime adviser and confidante. When Edwards got Rielle Hunter pregnant, it was Young who bizarrely agreed to claim paternity. His book, The Politician , details all the sordid details of Edwards’s life that we really didn’t need to know. Of course, Young himself is incredibly creepy . The late producer Julia Phillips ‘ 1991 book You’ll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again was both the handiwork of a bitter former drug addict and a bombshell for a town used to people kissing its ass. Steven Spielberg was one of the many people Phillips had in her sights (she and her husband had produced Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind ). Although Lauren Weisberger always claimed that Miranda Priestley, the scary boss in The Devil Wears Prada , was a composite, everyone knew that Priestley was based on Anna Wintour , who was Weisberger’s first boss after she graduated from Cornell. Likewise, author Bridie Clark always denied that Judith Regan was the inspiration for the boss in her roman a clef Because She Can (and indeed, Clark never worked directly for Regan), but there were striking similarities between Regan and “Vivan Grant,” who Clark describes in her book as “the most hot headed, ruthless woman in publishing.” Then of course there’s John Dean, White House Counsel in Richard Nixon’s administration, who wrote Blind Ambition: The White House Years after the whole Watergate thing went down. Dean had testified against Nixon at the Watergate trial, but had no proof for his allegations against Nixon until the secret Watergate tapes came to light.

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The Most Knife-Twisting Boss Betrayal Books [Bosses]