Stephen K. Bannon, the reviled Trump appointee, had a long history in Hollywood before joining Breitbart News and then the Trump campaign.
Long before he was known as anti-Semite or white nationalist, Bannon lurked around in Tinseltown. His name is listed on two movies, back to back, as Executive Producer.
The first one was Sean Penn’s “The Indian Runner,” from 1991. Penn directed the film that starred David Morse. It’s hard to believe Bannon and Penn had much to say to each other. Penn is avowed liberal, and half-Jewish. He’s also a man of principle.
Bannon was also involved with Julie Taymor’s 1999 film “Titus,” starring Jessica Lange and Anthony Hopkins, adapted from Shakespeare. Bannon’s partners on that film included Paul Allen and his sister Jody Patton. Again, hard to imagine those conversations.
In both films, Bannon was partnered as executive producer with attorney Mark Bisgeier, who has worked in Washington for the Obama administration and in Los Angeles. In 2015, records show he donated $2,700 to the Hillary Clinton campaign.
Bannon worked for a time at Castle Rock, Rob Reiner’s production company. Reiner couldn’t be farther from Bannon on any subject. There’s some non specific talk about Bannon getting a piece of “Seinfeld,” which was produced by Castle Rock.
In 1996, Bannon was accused by his wife of attacking her. The case was dropped when she didn’t show up in court. She also claimed that Bannon said he didn’t want his kids going to school with Jewish kids.
It’s hard to imagine how any of these people worked with Bannon, or how Trump plans on working with now. Like him or not, that simply is not Donald Trump’s temperament.
