Free Republic

Who are the REAL kings (and queens) of cool? National Portrait Gallery runs exhibition of the 100 coolest Americans, Elvis, Frank Sinatra and Debbie HarryYears after they first made their mark Steve McQueen, Frank Sinatra, Madonna and Blondie are all still hip enough to have earned a place in the top 100 coolest Americans. The 'American Cool' exhibit is currently on show at the National Portrait Gallery, in Washington, D.C. America, until 7 September. Included in the exhibit are the likes of jazz musicians such as Miles Davis and Billie Holiday, actors such as Johnny Depp, and singers such as...

Noah’s Ark could have floated even with two of every land animal in the world packed inside, scientists have calculated. Although researchers are unsure if all the creatures could have squeezed into the huge vessel, they are confident it would have handled the weight of 70,000 animals without sinking. A group of master’s students from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Leicester University studied the exact dimensions of the Ark, set out in Genesis 6:13-22. According to The Bible, God instructed Noah to build a boat that was 300 cubits long 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high —...

Late night television talk shows have become an important part of the national political conversation, a forum for digesting news and personalities of the day. Although their individual audiences number in the single digit millions, the political quips of the hosts are recycled the following day on morning TV, radio talks shows, and the internet. The crucial low information voting bloc, in whose hands the destiny of the Republic now perilously rests, tends to favor late night shows over hard news sources. So even though it is trivial, the retirement of David Letterman, announced last night on his television show...

Filmmakers Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney, along with journalist Magdalena Segieda, launched their ambitious new project this week, Gosnell: The Movie, in hopes of exposing the country’s biggest serial killer, ‘House of Horrors’ abortionist Kermit Gosnell. It is the largest crowd funded campaign ever attempted – and the response has been just as large. gosnell50After just five days, the project has received over $300,000. By next week, it is on course to become the most funded movie on Indiegogo and then one of the most successful crowd funded movie campaigns in history. For those unfamiliar with the Gosnell case and...

Seen close up on the 3D screen, actor Chris Evans’s ruddy lips, bright complexion, and sparkling eyes look like a Pop Art personification of red, white, and blue patriotism in Marvel Studios’ Captain American: The Winter Soldier. Referred to as “The greatest soldier of all time” by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), his paramilitary boss at S.H.I.E.L.D., Evans’s Steve Rogers, who was scientifically re-engineered into the ever-youthful, muscle-bound World War II veteran of the title, represents a timeless idea of American strength and virtue: “I’m 95, I’m not dead,” he tells flirtatious superhero colleague Natasha (Scarlett Johanssen). Evans’s cartoon...

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is first and foremost a rousing sequel, the kind that makes you giddy that the Marvel movie pipeline is working at full capacity. It's also a film we're unlikely to see screened at the Obama White House thanks to its anti-NSA message. The new film offers some political undercurrents not seen in most superhero epics, from fears of government spying to the need for unvarnished transparency. It's all fused to a Marvel-approved template starring actors who know precisely how to bring two-dimensional characters to the big screen.

Believe it or not, Doris Day is now 90 years old. Looking back on nine decades, all she can do is appreciate all she has. "All I ever wanted in my life was to get married, have kids, keep house and cook, and even though I did all these things, I still ended up in Hollywood," she told Closer magazine. "It was a great trip. I've had an amazing life and wonderful times. And I'm happy!" Day, who lives a quiet life in California, told the magazine that aside from "little aches and pains," she has been "blessed with good...

The original Lord of the Rings trilogy delivered an epic series that took the world by storm creating legions of fans and movie history. With their success and the love fans have for them it comes as no surprise that Peter Jackson decided to travel back to Middle-Earth to take on the prequel book The Hobbit. Instead of making one film, he has opted to spread it out into an all-new trilogy featuring a more expanded edition of the original book. The latest installment The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug continues the new trilogy with word that it may be...

After more than 30 years of hosting late night television, David Letterman announced that he will retire in 2015 during a taping of “The Late Show” on Thursday afternoon, according to CNNMoney

With the release of its new biblical blockbuster Noah, Hollywood has once again proven it knows all too well the secret of the one animal singled out for greatest contempt among all the different species identified as non-kosher. Do you know why the pig has always been the personification of the forbidden food we are most warned against consuming? The rabbis explain it’s because every other animal that is not kosher lacks the two signs, split hooves and chewing its cud, that are both necessary to identify it as permissible. A cow is an example of an animal that fulfills...

I thought this sounded good. It starts this Sunday on AMC. Has anyone heard anything about it yet?

Maybe Jimmy Fallon really does want to follow Jay Leno’s tradition of full-political-spectrum comedy. Earlier this week, Fallon ripped Barack Obama for his victory lap on ObamaCare, and last night he invited Sarah Palin to join him in this four-minute mockfest of Obama’s foreign-policy acumen. Palin is a good sport here, joking about the unusual names of her children at one point, but the subtext throughout this is that Palin was smart enough to see through Vladimir Putin — and Obama wasn’t. Watch for a cameo from “Obama” near the end (via Katie Pavlich): CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE...

Nigella Lawson has been banned from the US because of her court confession that she took cocaine. Humiliatingly, the celebrity cook was stopped from boarding a flight from Heathrow to Los Angeles, the Daily Mail can reveal today. Her television career in the U.S. - she is a judge on talent show The Taste - is now in peril. The 54-year-old ‘Domestic Goddess’ was forced to confess under oath during a trial last year that she had snorted cocaine seven times and smoked cannabis in front of her children. Although Scotland Yard did not act over her confession, the U.S....

These are considered to be the Greatest Actresses in film based on talent, versatility, influence, characterization, charisma, and success in the movie business. (The actors are followed by a movie that showcases their talent.) How many of these great movies have you seen?

Part of this year’s Lenten discipline for many religious people has been to see two bad religious movies, “Noah” and “God’s Not Dead.” Both left me longing for the comparative moral simplicity and integrity of “The Wolf of Wall Street.” In “Noah,” the main character is a brooding, misanthropic vegan. One hopes that Russell Crowe, a fine actor, does not end up being typecast a la Charlton Heston. There just aren’t many parts for brooding, misanthropic vegans. The movie itself consists of tedium punctuated by anachronism, sanctimony and animated rock people. It contains just enough spiritual pretention to make you...

In a recent interview, Richard Armitage revealed that he was quite emotional about the completion of the trilogy. The 42-year-old actor spoke with BANG Showbiz about finally wrapping the trilogy and how now that the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogy was completed, he was very moved. "It will be 15 years of Peter Jackson's work, there'll be six movies to watch, but it could be the final time. There's something moving about that," he said.

The Bible has long been a rich source of story ideas for filmmakers, and recently released movies like Son of God and Noah suggest that the biblical epic genre is far from exhausted. There are many reasons why filmmakers continue to make movies based on biblical stories. The Bible’s familiar stories feature larger-than-life characters, plenty of action, and time-tested storylines. However, from the film producer’s perspective, the primary reason why films based on biblical stories continue to be made is that these films are consistently able to make money. Darren Aronofsky’s interpretation of the biblical story of Noah opened last...

* * * (Spoiler alert: I’m not sure if it’s possible to spoil the story of Noah’s ark, but be forewarned…)A great debate is taking place amongst Christians this week. The topic? Whether or not to go see the new Noah movie, starring Russell Crowe. If this sounds like a joke, it’s not. In fact, it may be a realization that pop culture matters.Sides are being chosen. HotAir’s Ed Morrssey calls it “a mess,” while Steven D. Greydanus says it’s “deeply serious.” RedState’s Erick Erickson mocked the film on Twitter (his blog post is a bit more nuanced), while cultural...

(CNN) -- After 208 episodes, countless "legendarys!" and any number of pineapple incidents, slaps and slutty pumpkins, "How I Met Your Mother" comes to an end on Monday night. One thing we're absolutely certain will happen is that Ted Mosby will finally meet the future mother of his children and the nine-year-long story that future Ted has been telling the kids will be over.

To hear Alec Baldwin tell it (in this very magazine), he was "labeled a homophobic bigot" by Anderson Cooper, "the self-appointed Jack Valenti of gay media culture," after his use of terms "toxic little queen" and [Deleted} But on the radio with Howard Stern today, Cooper insisted, "I didn't really speak out against him. I sent maybe two tweets." After stressing that he has "nothing against the guy," the CNN host then carefully, somewhat nervously explained where he was coming from. And yes, he said the word. "When he called the person a ... a ... [Deleted]," Anderson stammered, "and...