The Left Coast Report: A Political Look at Hollywood
Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. Patricia Heaton Denied Work Due to Politics
2. Gene Simmons of KISS Hits Obama's Israel Naiveté
3. Peter Fonda Denounces Obama as 'Traitor' for BP
4. Stephen Colbert Contrives a SuperPAC Stunt
5. Schwarzenegger Evades the Media With Affair
1. Patricia Heaton Denied Work Due to Politics
Over the years Patricia Heaton has been outspoken in support of life-affirming causes.
The Emmy-winning actress, best known for the contemporary classic sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond" and current TV smash "The Middle," also serves as honorary chair of a unique pro-life advocacy group, Feminists for Life. It is unfortunately not the kind of community involvement that is particularly beneficial to a Hollywood career.
Heaton told Popeater.com that she becomes frustrated when she is lumped with other conservatives and ends up losing employment opportunities.
"We know for a fact there are some people who have said they wouldn't want to work with us because of our politics," Heaton said.
Ultimately it is her faith that guides her, even though she sometimes gets flack for her conservative beliefs.
"My feeling is all these things come from God and as long as I know I'm staying in line with Him, I don't have to worry if there is backlash," she said. "God will open any doors he wants to open and if he closes doors that's fine too."
2. Gene Simmons of KISS Hits Obama's Israel Naiveté
President Barack Obama's recent Middle East policy speech, during which he endorsed a return to Israel's pre-1967 borders, is drawing condemnation from some interesting sources.
U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, a 2012 GOP presidential candidate and occasional critic of Israeli policy, said the president's speech proves that the Obama administration "does not understand a proper foreign policy for America."
KISS founding member Gene Simmons, who was born in Israel, echoed Paul's assessment during an interview on CNBC. Obama, the rocker said, "has no idea of what the world is like."
"If you have never been to the moon, you can't issue policy about the moon. For the president to be sitting in Washington, D.C., and saying, 'Go back to your '67 borders in Israel' — how about you live there and try to defend an indefensible border nine miles wide?" Simmons said.
"On one side, you've got hundreds of millions of people who hate your guts. On the other side you've got the Mediterranean. Unless you control those Golan Heights, it is an indefensible position. It is a nice idea, [but] when you grow up, you find out that life isn't the way you imagined it," Simmons said, adding that "President Obama means well — I think he's actually a good guy, he has no idea of what the world is like because he doesn't have to live there."
Simmons' feelings about the U.N. are even less charitable. He labeled the globalist group "the most pathetic body on the face of the earth."
3. Peter Fonda Denounces Obama as 'Traitor' for BP
Jane Fonda's brother Peter is peeved at President Obama, as he made clear at a Cannes Film Festival press event.
The star of the landmark 1960s flick "Easy Rider" went to Cannes to attend the premiere of "The Big Fix," the only feature documentary in the festival's official selection. Fonda co-produced the film, which focuses on the BP oil spill and aftermath.
The movie lays a left jab on Obama by asserting that his leadership is not an improvement over President George W. Bush. It presents the Obama administration as not only ineffectual but also untrustworthy and crooked.
The actor, a committed environmentalist, appears in the documentary attempting to enter Louisiana beaches to assess the impact of the spill. However, he is blocked by BP clean-up personnel.
Fonda described the contents of a message that he sent to the White House: "I sent an email to President Obama saying, 'You are a [expletive] traitor,' using those words ... 'You're a traitor, you allowed foreign boots on our soil telling our military — in this case the Coast Guard — what they can and could not do, and telling us, the citizens of the United States, what we could or could not do.'"
4. Stephen Colbert Contrives a SuperPAC Stunt
Stephen Colbert is using the Federal Election Commission to promote his new political action committee, the Colbert SuperPAC.
The Comedy Central host's attorney filed documents with the FEC, which state in snarky Colbert style that the "Colbert SuperPAC will also pay usual and normal administrative expenses, including but not limited to luxury hotel stays, private jet travel, and PAC mementos from Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus."
The legal question that the FEC must actually wrestle with is whether the SuperPAC can be promoted on "The Colbert Report" without it being deemed an in-kind contribution from Comedy Central parent Viacom.
Colbert apparently wants to be treated as part of the press, which would qualify him for an exemption from the in-kind rules.
The comic has offered his participation to the FEC to testify on the matter. You can bet that if a Q&A does indeed happen, Colbert will be making the request to bring along a camera crew so he can transform the FEC proceeding into a show segment.
If the FEC gives Colbert the green light, his ads will likely go about condemning with faint praise, and with tongue firmly in cheek he will proceed to "promote" conservative candidates.
5. Schwarzenegger Evades the Media With Affair
Amid all of the mainstream media coverage of Arnold Schwarzenegger, one question has repeatedly popped up: How did the Hollywood superstar and California governor manage to keep an illicit affair (and child from that affair) secret from his journalist wife and the news and entertainment media?
The media outlet that has broken most of the stories involving high-profile philandering is none other than the mother of all tabloids, the National Enquirer. The scandals of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, former U.S. Sen. John Edwards, and golf legend Tiger Woods were first reported in detail by the Enquirer.
In fact, back in 2001 the publication featured a series of pieces that dealt with an alleged extramarital affair by Arnold, accompanied by a prediction that his marriage to Maria Shriver would end.
Subsequently, the tabloid's Governator coverage inexplicably seemed to fade away. This may have had something to do with a business transaction that involved the Enquirer's parent company, American Media, Inc.
In 2003, around the time Arnold was considering his first gubernatorial run, American Media acquired the muscle-building magazine enterprise Weider Publications. Arnold was a key player in the transaction, and eventually became the executive editor of "Muscle & Fitness" and "Flex," two of the most prominent magazines over which American Media gained control when it purchased Weider Publications.
Erstwhile American Media reporter Mark Ebner, who co-wrote the book "Hollywood, Interrupted" with Andrew Breitbart, told The Huffington Post that there was a newsroom policy that stipulated, "You don't touch Schwarzenegger."
© 2023 Newsmax. All rights reserved.