Politicians have long appropriated pop culture to lend their campaigns relevancy and catchy hooks, so it wasn’t unprecedented when Republican nominee Mitt Romney began using the popular Friday Night Lights catchphrase “Clear eyes, full heart, can’t lose” in his bid for the Presidency. That doesn’t mean filmmaker Peter Berg has to be happy about it. In an open letter to Romney, Berg — who directed 2004’s Friday Night Lights , adapted from H.G. Bissinger’s book about a small Texas town obsessed with football, and created its subsequent spin-off television series — slammed the former Governor of Massachusetts for using the now-famous FNL line. “Your politics and campaign are clearly not aligned with the themes we portrayed in our series,” wrote Berg, who described the citation as plagiarism. Via EW : Governor Romney: I created the TV show “Friday Night Lights” and came up with the phrase “Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose.” I was not thrilled when I saw that you have plagiarized this expression to support your campaign by using it on posters, your facebook page and as part of your stump speeches. Your politics and campaign are clearly not aligned with the themes we portrayed in our series. The only relevant comparison that I see between your campaign and “Friday Night Lights” is in the character of Buddy Garrity — who turned his back on American car manufacturers selling imported cars from Japan. Your use of the expression falsely and inappropriately associates “Friday Night Lights” with the Romney/Ryan campaign. Mitt, we all wish you and your family all the best. We are grateful for your support of our beloved show, but we are not in any way affiliated with you or your campaign. Please come up with your own campaign slogan. Sincerely, Peter Berg. To be fair, President Obama ‘s campaign also used the slogan, albeit less overtly and on Tumblr . I guess that was at least football-related, and therefore more closely aligned with the themes Berg & Co. portrayed in their series. [E W ] Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Guess we already knew he didn’t have love for the kids after he dissed Big Bird, but Mitt def doesn’t have a good excuse for this one! Robney chose to skip the “Kids Pick the President” special that Nickelodeon hosts each election year and the shows executive producer said the decision Mitt made “disses” children…SMH. This would have been a prime opportunity for Mittens to save face after the out of pocket comments he made about PBS during last weeks debate, but the Governor “simply didn’t have time. He couldn’t fit it in his schedule”. According to Businessweek… “Kids Pick the President: The Candidates,” with videotaped questions for the candidates from youngsters nationwide, debuts Oct. 15 on the children’s channel. Afterward, an online poll asks kids to make their pick. His decision is disappointing because “answering kids’ questions directly shows respect for the several million kids who will vote in Nickelodeon’s ‘Kids Pick the President’ campaign,” she said. “That’s several million kids who actually want to get involved in the democratic process,” Ellerbee said. “They don’t deserve to be dissed. But former Gov. Romney also blew off Letterman and Big Bird, so I guess we’re in good company.” The Romney campaign did not immediately respond to email and phone requests for comment…For the special, Obama fielded questions regarding gun control, jobs, illegal immigration, same-sex marriage and bullying. He also was asked about his most embarrassing moment, Nickelodeon said. Obama gets props from us (again); we’re sure POTUS has an even busier schedule than Romney and he still did the right thing and made time for the kids. Do you think Mittens should of made the effort? Images via WENN
The Governator is back. Okay, he’s been back for a little while (for insight on his latest role, The Expendables 2 review at Movie Fanatic offers an in-depth analysis), but The Last Stand marks Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first lead role since be became Governor of California in 2003. Does he still have it?
Founder and CEO Of Amazon.com Gives $2.5M Donation For Same-Sex Marriage While it’s safe to say most Americans have received a gift from Amazon.com at some point, Washington United for Marriage got a whopper. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie Bezos, made a $2.5 million donation to the advocacy coalition, which supports same-sex marriage in the state of Washington. The donation, which campaign manager Zach Silk called “extraordinary” in a statement, roughly doubles WUM’s budget. State lawmakers approved, and Governor Christine Gregoire signed, a same-sex marriage bill in February. Referendum 74 was brought by an opposing group, Preserve Marriage Washington, to put the issue to voters in November. It is campaigning for “no” votes on the referendum. The Bezos’ donation is believed to be the largest from an individual in support of same-sex marriage, according to WUM. In total, it said it had raised more than $5 million in support of its campaign urging voters to check “yes” on the referendum in November and legalize same-sex marriage. If the referendum is passed, Washington will be the seventh state to legalize same-sex marriage, although the only one to do so via the ballot box. Source
The Walking Dead Season 3 trailer was released this weekend at Comic-Con 2012, and gives fans glimpses of new characters, locations and battles to come. With Michonne (Danai Gurira) and The Governor (David Morrisey) and the prison all front and center, the AMC sensation is coming back with a vengeance. After Rick proclaims “this prison is ours,” you know the showdown between the survivors and a prison full of zombies is going to be nothing short of epic. This four-minute taste of The Walking Dead Season 3 is worth every second. Check it out below, and remember people, three words: Fear the Living .
The Invisible War by director Kirby Dick and producer Amy Ziering is simply shocking. In this doc, which won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival in January and screened at the recent Provincetown International Film Festival (where it also picked up an audience prize) the filmmaking duo expose a long-brewing scandal in the U.S. military. Sexual assault against both women and men has run rampant throughout the various branches of the military and even up the chain of command. It is, in fact, the chain of command that has, in part, allowed rape and other sexual assault to remain virtually hidden despite its ubiquity. The Invisible War blows the cover off this decades-old (or older) crisis with an emotional and devastating look at the victims of sexual assault and how it can be fixed. Though the film will be released theatrically this weekend, it has already had a major impact. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta screened the film and soon afterward announced some reforms. Though, as Kirby Dick warns in his interview with ML from the recent Provincetown festival, the moves are not enough and the U.S. military still needs to take some cues from its allies in alleviating this scourge. It may be tough to watch, but the film is riveting and the stories of individuals he and Zeiring interview are phenomenal. Dick has screened the film for various groups since Sundance and its subsequent East Coast premiere at Provincetown and, as he explains in his conversation with ML below, audiences have been riveted by what has been uncovered. What led you and your producer Amy Ziering to this topic and ultimately doing a film? Amy and I read an article in by Helen Benedict in Salon and we were astounded by the numbers of people sexually assaulted, and we were equally astounded that nobody had made a feature documentary on this. From a filmmaker point-of-view, that is sort of lucky when that happens. We pretty much decided right then and there that we’d make this film. I remember hearing about the Tailhook scandal in the ’90s when a number of women were assaulted at a U.S. Navy/Marines event in Las Vegas. And despite that, I still thought this was a horrifying yet isolated outrageous incident. I didn’t think it was so pervasive… Yeah, I remember following that situation and the Air Force Academy [situation] and I wondered when I was making this film why I hadn’t done this 15 years ago. It seems so isolated, but then it’s over – but no, it’s systemic. And the military has been very good at conveying that these are isolated. They’ll deny it or then blame the victim or they’ll say it’s been dealt with and it’s in the past. This has been covered up for generations. I would imagine, and I don’t have statistical evidence in this, but I would bet it’s a part of militaries forever and a problem in foreign militaries that have women or even ones that only have men. And that’s one thing we hope that this film will do as it plays around the world, which is to raise the same discussion in those countries as well. Are these people not able to call the police as civilians do or hopefully do? If they’re in the military it’s almost always referred to military authorities. If it happens on base then it automatically is referred to military authorities and if it happens off-base, then yes it is possible to call civilian authorities, but they very often will refer it back to the military. This must’ve been a heart-wrenching experience for both of you filming this doc. My mouth was dropping hearing these stories and I couldn’t help but talk back to the screen. Yeah, it was. Each one of these interviews were equally stunning. Amy did each interview and she did a phenomenal job and she’d be emotionally drained and devastated and be incredibly angry afterward. It was a good combination [for the creation of the film] and I knew we’d get it. The assaults of course were horrifying in and of themselves, but then to see how the institution reacts to these assaults is absolutely incredible. That’s one of the things we hope this film will inspire. Not only the outrage but this sense of responsibility which you’re alluding to that we all have in this country. There’s a sense that there are military families and non-military families and sometimes people without family members in the military think that they’ll simply take care of themselves. We all have responsibility for people in the military. We’re all a part of one society whether we agree with what the military is doing or not. And I’ve seen this happening. One of the things I foresaw was bring together veterans groups and women’s groups. In fact, we’ve set up a coalition to extend the impact of the film together with civil rights groups and sexual assault groups. And what we want to see happen is a push for reform after the film has gone. Did you reach out to any of the people who were accused? We decided not to do that. But what we did try to do is reach out to someone who was convicted. We tried to do that through many defense attorneys. We were interested in getting his perspective. It would be a courageous act for someone to come forward and talk about this, but ultimately we weren’t able to get anyone. Traditionalists may hold all of this up as evidence that women shouldn’t serve in the military or that they shouldn’t serve alongside men in the military and I was curious what your response is to that? Well I think first of all, that’s holding the men in our military with great disrespect. I believe the men in the military are more than capable of taking care of and not assaulting the people who they serve with side by side. And in the second place, these women make amazing soldiers. The women in our film are the people you would want in the military. They are so good at what they do and so idealistic. They’re model soldiers and that’s one of the tragedies. There was this problem with these gay translators being dismissed from the military and that was also a significant loss to the military. How did you get Leon Panetta to see this? Well, it was part of a long campaign immediately after Sundance. This movie was made to change policy. We got this into the hands of high ranking retired officers. We had dozens of screenings for officers’ wives, non profits, other military organizations and corporate leaders to get the discussion going and not only get the military aware of it, but also to get them to react to it. Eventually, it got to the Defense Secretary who saw the film and two days later held a press conference to announce significant policy changes. We later learned from our executive producer Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom – and all three know each other – that Jennifer saw Leon Panetta at the White House Correspondence dinner and Panetta told her he was really moved by the film and decided to hold the press conference in part because of the film. So the campaign was successful to that degree. But there’s a lot more to do. The changes he announced do not fully take investigation outside the chain of command. It still remains within the chain of command and until that happens, there’s still opportunity for great miscarriages of justice. It should be taken out and there should be no opportunity for a conflict of interest. Take it out like it’s done in every other justice system. There are running sexual themes in many of your films including Twist of Faith and Outrage . Is it fair to say you’re drawn to topics related to sexual taboo – or maybe not “taboo” exactly but you get what I’m saying… Maybe not so much taboo, but yes I think there is. On the one hand sexuality is made for the cinema – any sexuality. But I’m also interested in almost all my films about sexuality and its relationship to trauma. Some more than others, but in some ways trauma is playing some sort of role to sexuality. Certainly as a documentary filmmaker I approach this topic similar to a novelist. The sexuality and the traumatic history of a subject makes for great material to work with. I think it’s something I work with – not always – but do work with [consistently].” Has the audience reaction here in Provincetown and at Sundance been what you have expected? Oh yeah, even more so. I also do these small screenings in various places [between the festivals] and people just wouldn’t get up afterward and I’ve never had that. I saw that they were really affected by this. It’s the experience we had when we were doing these interviews. You’re like, ‘this can’t be true.’ But at the same time you just want to reach out to them. Follow Brian Brooks on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Gov. Andrew Cuomo is in Albany. He’s making an announcement in the Red Room at 11:30 a.m. A CNY tipster says Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney, a Republican who crossed party lines to endorse Cuomo in 2010, has been tapped by the governor to serve on the NYPA Board – an unpaid post that requires… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Capitol confidential Discovery Date : 29/05/2012 23:58 Number of articles : 2
That old saying “over my dead body” may have a different meaning in the 2012 election. According to Newsbusted anchor Jodi Miller nearly two million dead Americans are still registered to vote. With the Democrat’s skill at voter fraud as evidenced by ACORN and those funky absentee ballots that kept turning up in the Minnesota Senate race, who knows if President Obama wins re-election (God-forbid!)… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : YID With LID Discovery Date : 11/05/2012 06:23 Number of articles : 2
North Carolina Democrat Governor Beverly Perdue told reporters today that Tuesday’s marriage amendment makes North Carolina “look like Mississippi.” 61 percent of NC citizens voted in favor of traditional marriage. Via WITN: WRAL reported: Passage of a constitutional amendment defining … Continue reading → Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Gateway Pundit Discovery Date : 12/05/2012 03:43 Number of articles : 2
Meghan McCain is bashing Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren on Twitter for inviting Lindsay Lohan to this weekend’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. Not just for the sake of hating on Lohan, a la Rosie O’Donnell. “Let me get this straight,” Meghan McCain , 27, tweeted. “Greta Van Susteren is bringing Lindsay Lohan to the WHC Dinner but has a moral offense to Louie C.K?” In March, Van Susteren called for a boycott of the Radio/TV Correspondence Dinner over comedian C.K.’s past controversial statements about women. “The headliner of this year’s Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner is “comedian” Louis C.K. Comedian? I don’t think so. Pig? yes,” she wrote. “He uses filthy language about women. Yes, the C word…and yes, even to describe a woman candidate for Vice President of the United States. It isn’t just Governor Palin he denigrates. He denigrates all women and looks to the crowd to laugh.” Apparently Megs isn’t offended … except by Greta. The daughter of U.S. Sen. John McCain may not be crazy about Lindsay attending, but she’s still going. The Republican blogger, columnist and author Tweeted that she’s “headed to DC for the nerd prom.” Just hope they don’t seat her with Greta or LiLo. [Photo: WENN.com]
