The blockbuster “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” is doing something Hollywood hasn’t done in years — tick off members of Russia's Communist Party.
Over the past few decades, Hollywood flicks have managed to upset conservatives and mainstreamers, heartland Catholics and Southern Baptists, red, blue and purple staters and, of course, middle-aged white guys.
This time it’s Russian commies who are ticked off at the No. 1 worldwide box-office leader.
Holdover Soviets are so peeved they’re calling for a nationwide boycott of the latest Indy installment.
The USSR “did not send terrorists to the States,” Communist Party members posted on a Web site.
Rather, the Soviets launched Sputnik, “which evoked the admiration of the whole world,” the Web site boasted.
The claim is that the “Indiana Jones” sequel distorts history and undermines communist ideology. Maybe the Academy will add a new movie category and award an Oscar for Best Commie Clobbering.
Actor Eats Dog
Commies aren’t the only ones who’ve been feeling hot under the collar lately. Animal rights activists have been hopping mad as well.
For Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, the classic catchy headline “Man Bites Dog” can now be replaced with “Man Swallows Dog.”
Radha Mitchell, Rhys-Meyers’ co-star in the movie “The Children of Huang Shi,” inadvertently blew the whistle on her fellow actor.
The two were over in China doing the movie shoot.
Speaking to reporters about the challenge of ordering lunch in the Far East country, Mitchell admitted that “Jonathan did the dog's meat.”
“We were in some restaurant and there was dog meat on the menu and there was someone next to us just sitting there with their Chihuahua in a handbag. I was thinking, ‘That could've been dessert,’” Mitchell said.
Once word reached the offices of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the group pounced on the story.
A PETA spokesperson used the actor’s choice of cuisine to draw attention to the treatment of chickens and cows in its ongoing battle to get folks to stop eating stews, wearing leather shoes and visiting zoos.
James Hirsen is a media analyst, Trinity Law School professor, and teacher of mass media law at Biola University.
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