A Bush Slap at Hollywood Draws Expected Responses

[Khephra]

By BRUCE WEBER and SHARON WAXMAN

Published: September 4, 2004


President Bush made only one reference to Hollywood in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention on Thursday night, and it was almost in passing, but he hit the moviemaking community where it lives. In a shrewdly calculated trope that knitted together two of Senator John Kerry's recent public remarks, the president distanced himself and his core constituency from both his Democratic opponent and one of the more prominent Democratic strongholds.

"If you say the heart and soul of America is found in Hollywood, I'm afraid you are not the candidate of conservative values," Mr. Bush said, echoing comments he has often made in recent weeks.


snip...........

"They attack anybody they think has heart and soul," said Robert Greenwald, a Democrat who directed the documentary "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism,'' and who characterized the president's speech as "character assassination" and "group assassination."

"It's a continuing part of the culture wars," Mr. Greenwald said. "They talk about gay marriage, partial-birth abortion, saluting the flag, but they don't talk about the fact that we're spending $200 billion on a war we shouldn't be in, where thousands of Americans and Iraqis are being killed, or that 47 million American don't have health care. Those are the significant issues. It's a lot easier to talk about Hollywood values than issues of substance."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/04/politics/campaign/04holly.html

[madrchsod]

1. what about arnie?

[EnfantTerrible]

3. Or Silver?

Or Dennis Miller for that matter... even BRITTANY SPEARS

Just look at their list of showbusiness mediocrities! Their choice of popular entertainers is a living emobodiment of their contribution to the culture of America.

[Cobalt Violet]

7. Or Jason Priestly, or Shannon Dorety

[Kadie]

20. or Stephen Baldwin

don't know if I spelled his name right.

[Gildor Inglorion]

8. Who's Silver?

Not the Lone Ranger's horse, I assume. The culturally uninformed want to know, please. :smoke:

[EnfantTerrible]

10. Ron Silver who was rabidly foaming during his speech at RNC

He's an actor... or was... who's last role I believe was playing a purveyor of pornography on some FOX series... ahhhh the ironies


:smoke:

[calimary]

15. Ron Silver voiced some concern a few days ago that there might

be a backlash from Hollywood for his pimping at the republi-CON convention. Who knows whether there will be or not? I do know ONE thing - I will never buy anything he's selling, or appearing in. Nor will I ever watch a TV show he's in.

Oh yes, and let's not forget Angie Harmon and her football player husband Jason somebody (not a football fan, so I'm afraid I don't know one of those guys from another). They spoke at the convention, too. And then there's Arnold...

[JLucas4092]

17. Jason Sehorn

He had one good year and was considered decent looking so he became a media darling.

He's a mediocre football player AT BEST.

[oustemnow]

25. It broke my heart whenI found out Harmon is a Repug

I'll never masturbate to her image again. I swear it on a stack of Bibles...with the hand I'm not masturbating with.

[Judi Lynn]

28. He'll probably claim this imaginary "backlash" will be retroactive

whch would explain why he's never had any decent, meaningful roles!

[murielm99]

22. I liked Gildor's answer better.

Let's keep referring to him that way -- You know that guy, Silver? The repuke with the same name as the Lone Ranger's Horse?

You know the one. He was foaming at the mouth during his speech at the RNC?

I am going to continue referring to him as the guy named after the Lone Ranger's horse.

[DODI]

5. What about Ronald Raygun?????

[the Kelly Gang]

21. yeh ..GirlyMan Arnie the Groper

[hadrons]

2. funny thing about these "culture wars" morans ...

is that they support policies that benefit those "hollyeewoods types" ... does Joe SixPack think Whoopi isn't getting a huge tax break that he isn't, does Jane Fundie not see Rupert Murdock buying DirectTV and pumping paid-per-view porno $$$ in his pocket?

[wtmusic]

4. good pt

as I heard aptly described on another board the other day, Junior is playing his base "like a plastic banjo"

[ant]

6. If *I* were Hollywood

I think I'd get a little pissed at being told I'm not really as American as other people.

And then, I might tap into all the money and creativity of my industry to put together and air some kickass ads expressing that. At the very least, I would see if all those people who show up in the pre-movie commercials about piracy would be willing to appear in a similar ad saying it's not right for a president to pit citizens against each other like that. (The key is to not include movie stars but all the other people who work in hollywood.)

Anyway, it really is just disgraceful and disgusting that people so easily accept The Heartland as "real" America.

[EnfantTerrible]

24. I accept it as real Amerika

[sandraj]

9. "It's a lot easier to talk about Hollywood values

than issues of substance"

Exactly. All a person has to do is scrape the surface a little to see that Bush's campaign lacks substance. It's been said plenty of times before, but he has no record to run on. So, he continues to push the terror agenda or manufacture soundbytes like this to distract from the real issues.

[Fla Dem]

11. Or Ronald Reagan, Charlton Heston, Tom Selleck, Merv Griffin,

just what Hollywood is he talking about? I never understood this criticisim against Hollywood.

[AlienGirl]

13. "Hollywood" is RW code for "gays" nt

[oustemnow]

26. I think it's also code for "Jews"

they run the media, dontcha know.

[regnaD kciN]

27. That's been a "true" stereotype for a long time...

Ever since Hollywood began, it was dominated by those from the "wrong" ethnic groups who weren't welcome at the top of "acceptable" businesses of the time. In other words, Italians, Irish, Eastern Europeans...and Jews. In particular, the patterns of Jews holding leadership positions at the studios began in the earliest days (Jesse Lasky, Adolph Zukor) through the "glory years" (Harry Cohn, David Selznik, Irving Thalberg, Jack Warner, Daryl Zanuck, Barney Balaban, Lew Wasserman), down to the present day (Harvey and Bob Weinstein, Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg, etc.).

Needless, this situation is ideal for fundies and right-wingers of the nativist kind -- they're already quite busy denouncing the "immorality" and "permissiveness" allegedly "forced" on us by the media, and it only adds to their case if they can imply that these people "undermining our values" are, you know, those people. Not like us. Not real Americans, if you know what I mean. Nudge nudge.

:eyes:

(Somehow, though, even though he owns a major studio and media empire, one known for making it big in television using a series of raunchy, blatant, suggestive programming, Rupert Murdoch never seems to get mentioned among that group...)

;-)

[Bullshot]

12. Republicans' hypocrisy on Democrats' ties to Hollywood is a joke.

Fred Thompson's speech at the convention immediately preceded Bush's. Schwarznegger's speech drew the biggest raves. And Reagan's name and legacy was fawned over throughout the entire event.

And the librul media just keep playing along with the Republicans in this game. They never raise questions or disputes on this rhetoric.

[saracat]

14. Apparently Whoopi mocking the Resident's name in more of an "injustice"

than the SBVFT lying about Kerry's war record. What an AHole. I think he should have to turn in his SAG card. They are AFLCIO and don't support the smirk.

[Judi Lynn]

29. You would have thought she had taken a weapon and shot him!

My God, they chewed the scenery over that one. You would have thought she was Public Enemy #1.

They are mindless, self-obsessed, pompous @$$hole$. Defects. Undeveloped, regressive, infantile, mom-and-daddy-clinging idiots, incapable of growth and individualization.

[hyphenate]

16. The heart and soul of Hollywood

is Democratic. You will find a lot of the so-called "big names" as being pukes, but if you calculate the overall numbers of pukes vs. Dems in the Entertainment industry, you will find it overwhelmingly Democratic.

While Heston, Willis, Mel, Arnie and their ilk are pukes, people who actually possess consciences, are Democrats. Here is a list of some prominent Democrats:

Steven Spielberg,
Tom Hanks,
Kevin Costner,
Martin Sheen and his clan,
Tom Arnold,
Sean Penn,
Kevin Bacon,
Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon,
Barbra Streisand,
Oprah Winfrey,
Whoopi Goldberg,
Roseanne Barr,
Jeff Bridges,
Mel Brooks,
Bill Cosby,
James Cromwell,
Tia Carrere,
Tom Cruise,
Michael J Fox,
Robert DeNiro,
Harrison Ford,
Cuba Gooding, Jr.,
Robert Redford,
Mary Steenburgen,
John Lithgow,
Paul Newman,
Sidney Poitier,
HEnry Winkler,
Aaron Spelling,
Anthony Edwards,
George Clooney,
Dan Aykroyd,
and far too many more to name.

[JLucas4092]

18. We Win!

We have the Fonz! How can you top him? I mean, you can get in a debate with him, he just looks and says:

"Ehhhhhhhhhh"

And you go, "You're right Mr. Fonzarelli. How dare I challenge you?"

We seriously need ot have a Kerry ad like that.

[Piperay]

19. Jealous...

they're just jealous and you can bet that if Hollywood became repuke tomorrow the repukes would say immediately that "Hollywood is the heart and soul of America". Bwahahahahaha

[bvar22]

23. jealous AND inferior (n/t)

*

[Sugarbleus]

30. LOL..I love all the replies here. I was thinking the same thing...

When Georgie porgie made that remark, maybe they thought no one would notice.. *snort* bwahahahahahah ...

Talk about your major faux pas :+

[auburngrad82]

31. "hollywood" is a euphimism for Jewish

"Massachusetts liberal" is another way of saying Catholic. The right wing is, despite claims of being "inclusive", almost entirely fundamentalist christian and very racist at that.

That's why Hollywood doesn't include Ronald Raygun, Ahnold, Mel Gibson, or Stephen Baldwin.