Sunday, October 6, 2024
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Elon Musk Restores Pure Hate to Twitter: Alex Jones Welcomed Back by Crazies, Will it Affect Tesla Stock Price?

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Elon Musk has restored hate and evil to Twitter X.

Alex Jones, of InfoWars infamy, has had his account reinstated. He comes with all his old Tweets prior to September 2018, as well.

He’s been immediately welcomed back by every nut job on the platform, starting with Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Loomer.

And so it begins.

Jones owes the families of the Sandy Hook, CT mass shooting $1 billion after a jury found that he’d defamed them and the victims, almost all children. He’s a deeply sick man who should not be allowed on any forum. Musk simply doesn’t care what Jones has done — or will do.

As the news spreads today it will be interesting to see what affect there is on Musk’s Tesla stock price. Will the markets care? Will the site lose users or gain them?

Either way, Musk has now done the most reprehensible thing he could think of. Bringing Jones back is Musk’s way of throwing down the gauntlet to the same advertisers he told go f*ck off last week.

Steven Spielberg Says Shoah Foundation Documenting October 7th Stories, Thought He would Never See “such unspeakable barbarity against Jews in my lifetime”

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For 30 years, the Shoah Foundation has been documenting stories of the Holocaust. This is more important then ever since new poll shows young people either don’t believe the Nazis killed 6 million Jews, or that this was somehow a myth. (Thanks to Mel Gibson for this lunacy.)

Today Oscar winning director Steven Spielberg — who started the Shoah Foundation after making “Schindler’s List” — revealed they are now documenting stories of the survivors of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

“Rob Williams and the team at the USC Shoah Foundation are leading an effort that will ensure that the voices of survivors will act as a powerful tool to counter the dangerous rise of antisemitism and hate,” said Spielberg in a statement on the group’s web site.

Spielberg said the brutality of the October 7 Hamas attacks, along with the surge in antisemitism in their aftermath, has re-opened historic wounds.

“I never imagined I would see such unspeakable barbarity against Jews in my lifetime,” Spielberg said.

The Shoah Foundation is continuing to interview and archive for the history of the Holocaust in addition to the work they will now undertake.

“Holocaust survivors are the most courageous and brave among us, and their accounts are a lasting testament to the resilience of the human spirit,” said Spielberg. “Both initiatives — recording interviews with survivors of the October 7 attacks and the ongoing collection of Holocaust testimony — seek to fulfill our promise to survivors: that their stories would be recorded and shared in the effort to preserve history and to work toward a world without antisemitism or hate of any kind. We must remain united and steadfast in these efforts.”

Who Knew? A Young Eddie Murphy and Talk Show Great Dick Cavett Were Pals 40 Years Ago (Watch Video from Jimmy Kimmel)

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Last night’s Jimmy Kimmel was a rerun, I guess. But this interview with Eddie Murphy was so good, it could win an award.

Murphy hates doing press and interviews. He’s rarely candid about his life. But this story about his friendship with Dick Cavett, and a bet Richard Pryor made with him, is spectacular.

Elon Musk Adds Another Nail to Twitter’s Coffin, Says “OK” to Restoring Conspiracy Theorist Alex Jones

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Elon Musk certainly wants to warn off whatever advertisers are left at Twitter.

On the platform he signaled “OK” when a crackpot right wing account published a poll saying conspiracy theorist Alex Jones should be allowed back on Twitter.

Musk wrote “OK.”

A new low, certainly. This may do the trick. Jones, whose “InfoWars” is still out there somewhere, currently owes the parents and families of Sandy Hook Elementary $965 million after a jury in a now famous defamation found he’d lied repeatedly to his listeners that the 2012 Connecticut school shooting was a fake.

“All made up. Hilarious,” Jones said when the jury read the outcome in October 2022. “So this is what a show trial looks like. I mean, this is the left completely out of control.”

The shooting rampage took the lives of 20 children and 6 adults. Immediately Jones began saying that the shooting never took place, and that the deaths were lied or staged. The Sandy Hook families sued him for defamation. InfoWars was removed from almost everywhere, and Jones became a pariah to everyone but his uneducated followers.

Since the $965 million decision, Jones has filed for bankruptcy and continues to evade having to pay the Sandy Hook group.

Musk’s comment is going to have a severe blowback. But on what? He’s already decimated Twitter? Will his Tesla car sales be affected? You’d think after this that Tesla owners would be embarrassed to be seen driving them. Is this the breaking point, or will it go lower? Musk is already in a deep set back after approving an anti-semitic Tweet that resulted in dozens of major advertisers leaving Twitter.

Musk’s response to unhappy advertisers: “Go f*ck yourselves.”

“The Morning Show” Star Mark Duplass Comforts Filmmakers Who Weren’t Chosen for Sundance 2024

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The Sundance Film Festival announced its movies for the January powwow in Park City, Utah.

Now “The Morning Show” actor Mark Duplass has posted a comforting note to filmmakers whose works were not selected.

“We’ve been rejected so many times, and it always hurts,” Duplass says and cites three movies he’s made including “Biosphere,” which played at the Cannes Film Festival this year. He says of movies that didn’t make it, “If you think it’s great, keep pushing.”

Duplass can be seen in the Apple TV hit, “The Morning Show,” and in dozens of indie films, Next he’ll appear in “Hurricanna” about Anna Nicole Smith. He might be playing Anna’s friend, Howard Stern.

In the meantime, this is a nice thing to do.

Ryan O’Neal Got a Rare New York Times Obit from Famed Hollywood Reporter Aljean Harmetz

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Ryan O’Neal has died, and it’s sad, of course. But there is a bright side.

O’Neal got a New York Times obit written by legendary Times Hollywood reporter Aljean Harmetz.

Aljean covered Tinseltown for the Times from the mid-70s through 1990. Her byline was constant and her scoops were spot on. This was before the internet and rumors flying around all day on Twitter. If you wanted to know the breaking news in Hollywood, it was all from Harmetz.

The brilliant reporter turns 93 this December 30th. Before she left the Times it seems like she stockpiled some obits for the morgue, or library of celebrities. The last one that appeared was two years ago, was for Jane Withers, aka Josephine the Plumber in Comet cleanser commercials.

Harmetz’s obits appear once a year or two. Who knows when they will run out? Her previous obits were for Sean Connery, Doris Day, Tab Hunter, Dina Merrill, Mickey Rooney, and Shirley Temple Black. Some of her older ones included Paul Newman, Shelley Winters, and Lena Horne. In other words, only Big Stars.

So congrats to Ryan. No Oscars but the top movie writer maybe in the history of the Times. Not bad!

ABC Burns Down “Station 19” in 7th Season, Is “Grey’s Anatomy” Next in Line for Wrapping Up with 20 Seasons?

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ABC is closing “Station 19” this spring after 7 seasons.

The “Grey’s Anatomy” spin off about a firehouse in Seattle will close its doors during May Sweeps after moving from 8pm to 10pm on Thursdays. Clearly, the time change, announced earlier, was a sign that ABC wasn’t interested in continuing anymore with the Shonda Rhimes show since the creator moved on to Netflix.

Now the big question is, What happens to “Grey’s?” This is its 20th season, and star Ellen Pompeo will not be around much. Showrunner Krista Vernoff has already left, too. “Grey’s” has pretty much done its job, and without a star central character, the end may be near, too.

Ironically, “Station 19″‘s ratings are better than “Grey’s.” The former show averaged 3.86 million viewers a week vs. the latter’s 3.5 million. Neither number is spectacular. You want to get 5 mil and up to stay on the air. A real hit is in the 6 to 7 million range, although those days may be over for good.

“Grey’s” might get one final full season after this, but the whole show is in the ER at this point and will soon be transferred to hospice. Two decades is a rare thing for TV. But remember the days when Shonda Rhimes ruled Thursdays on ABC with “Greys,” “Scandal,” and “How to Get Away with Murder.” It was a great run!

Ryan O’Neal Dead at 82, Jumped from “Peyton Place” to Fame with “Love Story,” Long Relationship with Farrah Fawcett

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Ryan O’Neal is dead at age 82.

He burst onto the scene with TV’s “Peyton Place” opposite Mia Farrow in the mid 60s. In 1970, he and Ali McGraw became the It couple in the nuge hit, “Love Story.”

Over the years, O’Neal was in the tabloids as much as he was on the screen. His movies included “Paper Moon,””The Main Event,” “Chances Are,” and others.

But his real fame came when he married “Charlie’s Angels” star Farrah Fawcett. This was after a tempestuous relationship with Anjelica Huston. Her sister wrote in a memoir that they had to call Jack Nicholson to save them from a bad situation.

O’Neal and Fawcett fought like cats and dogs until they were broke up. He had trouble with alcohol and other demons. His daughter, Tatum, from his first marriage, who co-starred with him in “Paper Moon,” won an Oscar for that film. He raised her as if she were an adult, exposing her to sex and drugs and rock and roll.

O’Neal had other tragedies. His son Griffin had a boating accident in 1986 with GianCarlo Coppola, son of director Francis, resulting in Coppola’s death. Alcoholism and substance abuse have been a theme in the O’Neal family since the 60s.

When you look at Ryan O’Neal in a movie like “What’s Up Doc?” you see all the potential recognized by director Peter Bogdanovich. He was an immediate hit and held on for more than a decade. But the drugs, Studio 54, escapades with various women, wrecked him.

O’Neal’s son, Patrick, posted this to Instagram. It’s pugilistic, just like Ryan.

Box Office: Beyonce’s “Renaissance Tour” Movie Flops, Drops 74% After One Week

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Not all tours can be translated into film.

Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” movie keeps chugging along. It’s made over $250 million worldwide.

But Beyonce’s “Renaissance” movie is another story. On its second Thursday, “Renaissance” dropped a whopping 74%. Last week it was $5 million. Last night it was $1.279 million.

The total now is $23 million. Beyonce and Jay Z spend that on lunch.

Where is the audience for “Renaissance”? Maybe they’re waiting for home video,

Ava DuVernay’s Docudrama of Ideas, “Origin,” Gets a Splashy Lincoln Center Premiere, Explains Movie’s Alternative Title

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Editor’s note: Ava DuVernay’s “Origin” opens today. A kind of docudrama, “Origin” is like a PBS miniseries of ideas. -RF

Here’s our report from the premiere:

As the swanky premiere of Ava DuVernay’s new film, “Origin,” at Alice Tully Hall last week, made evident: this director is fearless. Taking “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” a 2020 best-selling book by Isabel Wilkerson, DuVernay created her own genre, taking the lessons of the book, folding them into the narrative of the writer writing the book, and adding elements ripped off the headlines.

The film starts with the actual soundtrack of Trayvon Martin’s murder, significant because this horrible killing put the situation of innocent black men at risk on the proverbial map. But on the geographic map, DuVernay’s reach brings together key far flung places — Germany, India, the United States — to show how caste, not race, is instrumental in understanding how the powerful subjugate others, dehumanizing, creating cultural divisions, separating targeted groups from equal status.

Lately, research into the Nazi agenda illustrates how antisemitism of the 1930’s was informed by the study of how Americans constructed slavery. Filming in Berlin, DuVernay’s fictional Isabel, in a fine performance by Aunjanue-Ellis Taylor visits the famed Jewish Museum archive. The film transitions to a story about a Nazi party member who refused to signal “heil” because he was in love with a Jewish woman. Having stripped Jews from citizenship, confiscated their property, murdered them, the concentration camp system seems a logical consequence of this ideology—if you claim supremacy–no matter how baseless, heartless, inhumane, and self-serving.

The caste system in India works on a similar level of dehumanization. Focused on the Dalits (Untouchables), the film depicts men neck deep in sewage—an image you cannot unsee.

The story of artist Al Bright makes for a riveting mini-movie, when as a 9-year old he was not permitted into a swimming pool with his teammates. That he was led around the pool on a rubber float, repeatedly told not to touch the water, is hilarious in its pointlessness, if it were not a sad reminder of the basic stupidity of segregation.

A party hosted by Darren Walker, head of the Ford Foundation followed at the penthouse with David Remnick, Charles Blow, the exonerated Central Park Five, Brigitte LaCombe, Linda Jablonsky, RosaLee Goldberg, Myles Frost who plays Trayvon Martin, and Finn Whitrock, the movie’s German lover, attending. Stan Walker, from an indigenous tribe in New Zealand, wrote the movie’s final song, and sang it for the audience. Slimmed, impeccably coifed, and gorgeous in a sequined gown, DuVernay greeted guests. When asked how she got the title, “Origin,” she was quick to respond: “If I called it Caste, no one would come.” Smart, just like this important film.