Free Republic

As we know, one way activists like to energize a serious campaign is to make them fun. That’s the approach taken by a group of young UK campaigners who want to shine a light on the lack of on-screen diversity. In what one local communications director described as the PR stunt of the day, a group of young black Londoners, going under the banner Legally Black, have reimagined the posters of famous movies and TV shows such as Titanic, Harry Potter and Doctor Who by replacing white actors with black leads. “If you are surprised it means you don’t see...

Jennifer Lawrence’s big-budget Red Sparrow is underperforming big time at the box office. Already-modest predictions called for a $20 million opening. As of now, it looks like $17 million, which is a disaster for a product that, with promotion and advertising, cost in the neighborhood of $120 million. This is also another disaster for Lawrence, whose star has declined swiftly since she revealed herself to be an anti-Christian bigot and a divisive, mean-spirited, left-wing jerk. Her last big film, mother!, opened on 2400 screens to just $7.5 million. Prior to that, even with Chris Pratt on the poster, Passengers couldn’t...

Conservatives are outraged after NBC’s “Will & Grace” made a tasteless jokes about Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham having “sexual tension” on Thursday night. Eric McCormack’s character, Will, and Megan Mullaly’s Karen were looking at a computer screen to spy on Karen’s household staff when Will noticed a “smoldering look” between two male employees. “I think they're in love. That's sexual tension. It's the same look Lindsey Graham gives John McCain,” Will said.

Alec Baldwin, whose dying mediocre career was saved by his terrible impersonation of me on SNL, now says playing me was agony. Alec, it was agony for those who were forced to watch. Bring back Darrell Hammond, funnier and a far greater talent!

The Oscars are just three days away and I’m beginning to sink into a mind-crushing stupor of dread at what lies ahead of us. Hollywood’s awards season has deteriorated into an endless round of virtue-signalling, hypocritical bullsh*t as the planet’s most infamously ill-behaved town pretends to be outraged by its own immorality. We’ve had the black dresses, the white ribbons, the furious red carpet rages and the weepy podium speeches. None of it has been about movies; all of it has been about actors competing with each other for the coveted title of Best Victim. Now they’re excitedly preparing for...

Hong Kong blockbuster film is hitting theaters just in time for the height of movie season: Operation Red Sea, described by the state-run Global Times as “a patriotic movie about Chinese marines carrying out a daring rescue mission.” The movie is a fictionalized account of a mission to rescue Chinese citizens and foreign nationals from Yemen in 2015 as that country was engulfed in civil war. The real-life incident was the first time China’s military has helped foreigners evacuate during an international crisis. Several countries requested Chinese assistance in Yemen, including Germany, Canada, and the United Kingdom. What is interesting...

Last week, actress and star of NBC’s The Black List Megan Boone tweeted that her character on the popular crime drama would “never carry an assault rifle again.” The tweet — which was in response to the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that saw Nikolas Cruz kill 17 people with a legally purchased AR-15 rifle — posed a glaring question. Will other pro-gun control Hollywood actors and directors who’ve used firearms in films for years pledge to lay down their guns in future films? It’s a question that could be asked of the likes of...

Full Title: History of tattooing is rewritten after world's earliest figurative inkings are found on 5,000-year-old Egyptian mummies in the British Museum The world's earliest figurative tattoos have been discovered on 5,000-year-old Egyptian mummies at the British Museum, rewriting the history of inking. The tattoos are of a wild bull and a Barbary sheep on the upper-arm of a male mummy, and S-shaped motifs on the upper-arm and shoulder of a female. The find dates tattoos containing imagery rather than geometric patterns to 1,000 years earlier than previously thought. Researchers say the discovery 'transforms' our understanding of how people lived...

Rosie O’Donnell’s ongoing feud with the president has entered a new era — anti-Trump merchandising. The comedian and entertainer who President Trump once called a “loser” has parlayed her admitted “rage” over his administration into e-commerce activism. Ms. O’Donnell recently used the website Etsy to sell 5x7 prints of Mr. Trump labeled “rapist” and “liar,” among other insults. “til trump is out I will keep making these I started doodling on my I phone many images of trump and his regime my sadness rage disappointment,” she wrote to fans in a message without punctuation. “all money collected with be matched...

Jeff Franklin is out as showrunner of Netflix’s “Fuller House” and Warner Bros. TV has declined to renew its overall deal with the TV veteran. According to multiple sources, the studio’s decision comes after it has received complaints about Franklin’s behavior in the writers’ room and on the set of the series, which is a sequel to the family-friendly “TGIF” sitcom “Full House” that was a staple of ABC’s schedule in the 1980s and ’90s. “We are not renewing Jeff Franklin’s production deal and he will no longer be working on ‘Fuller House,'” Warner Bros. TV said in a statement....

Telemann's Concerto in D Major for 3 Trumpets – 4th Movement, Pesto. These paintings were done when Turner was between 12 and 20 years old (1787-1795). The self portraits show him at 15 and 16. Evident in this roughly chronological exposition is his academic and architectural training, with early traces of what will eventually become Turner’s style as pre-impressionist Painter of Light.

There are photos of young Hillary Clinton wearing gaudy striped pants in 1969. There are several candid photos of HRC in several poses. In some versions of these photos, a rebel flag, the Stars & Bars, appears on a bookshelf in the background. In other versions, the rebel flag does not appear. Question: Was the rebel flag photoshopped INTO or OUT OF the images? Clue: Look at the shadows in the group of four images on the PBS website. Each space where the rebel flag does not appear has different shadows. Compare this (conservativetreehouse.wordpress): with this (pbs.twimg.com):

Nude statue is latest artwork to be deemed inappropriate by social media giantCases of art censorship on Facebook continue to surface. The latest work deemed “pornographic” is the 30,000 year-old nude statue famously known as the Venus of Willendorf, part of the Naturhistorisches Museum (NHM) collection in Vienna. An image of the work posted on Facebook by Laura Ghianda, a self-described “artivist”, was removed as inappropriate content despite four attempts to appeal the decision. The early Stone Age statue, which depicts a voluptuous woman with prominent labia, was discovered in Austria in 1908 and is famed for its detailed carving...

Saying she should be “deeply ashamed of herself,” the head of the National Hispanic Media Coalition has called on renowned acting coach Lesly Kahn to meet with him to discuss an audio file that surfaced yesterday in which she can be heard telling a non-Hispanic student that she would have a better chance of landing an agent and acting gigs if she pretends to be Latina. Kahn, who has apologized, went so far as to suggest that the young actress change her name to Rosa Ramirez and to get headshots to further advance the deception. On the tape, Kahn told...

Suzie Hardy was a single mother with a preschool-age daughter when she landed a job as Ryan Seacrest’s personal stylist for “E! News” in 2007. The position provided good pay and a schedule that would allow her to pick up her child from school most workdays. But according to a November letter from Hardy’s attorney addressed to cable channel E!, its corporate parent NBCUniveral, and Seacrest, the job became an ordeal as Seacrest subjected Hardy to years of unwanted sexual aggression — grinding his erect penis against her while clad only in his underwear, groping her vagina, and at one...

https://biggeekdad.com/2017/02/woodpecker-at-work/

Kevin Smith says he has suffered and survived a “massive heart attack,” tweeting a photo from his hospital bed just after midnight Pacific time on Monday. The Clerks and Chasing Amy filmmaker was shooting a new standup special, Kevin Smith Live!, at the Alex Theatre in Glendale on Sunday night. Two shows were scheduled, one at 6PM and one at 9PM. Smith wrote on Twitter that he cancelled the second performance and had he not, he “would’ve died tonight… but for now, I’m still above ground!” KevinSmith ✔ @ThatKevinSmith After the first show this evening, I had a massive heart...

Palo Alto Wants to Tear Down a Giant Computer-Egg Sculpture—But the Artist Says It Violates Her RightsAdriana Varella asserts that her work is protected under VARA.The Visual Artists Rights Act, known as VARA, could be set for another key test later this month, if the city of Palo Alto, California moves ahead with plans to remove a public artwork. Digital DNA, a large egg-shaped sculpture made of computer keyboards, has been situated in a downtown plaza since 2005. But after 13 years and numerous costly repairs, the city now says the work is prone to damage and is too expensive...

Roughly chronological, so great for art history buffs. What I found surprising in making this video is that there doesn't seem to be a great change in his art over his career. There are elements of his later style to be found in his earliest work, and I found no studies of the work of later artists, as is more common in academically trained artists. Henri Rousseau is mostly known for his jungle paintings, but the majority of his work is landscape. He's self taught and is often classed in the primitive category, but if you look at his portraiture...

Look around you. The world is full of empty canvases. Everywhere you turn are empty walls where beautiful pieces of art could be, but often these spaces are overlooked in favor of boring blank nothingness. But fortunately for us there are artists out there who are determined to transform our world into the vibrant public art gallery that it deserves to be. Take a look at these before and after pictures of spectacular street art to see what we mean. Compiled by Bored Panda, the gallery below serves to remind us of what our towns and cities could look like...