Mark Steyn: Phoney Baloney - (What George Clooney and the rest of the Oscar crowd have served up)

National Review ^ | Feebruary 27, 2005 | Mark Steyn

[blueknight]

As alswys Steyn nails it. Reading him is like enjoying a glass of fine wine.

[hoyaloya]

Check out this from an article on Clooney in the Guardian today:

""Oh yeah," [Clooney] says, "they put me on the cover of a magazine with a banner across my chest that said 'traitor'. . . .

His response to the traitor incident was to put together a montage of prominent people on the anti-war side, including the pope, Jimmy Carter, Nelson Mandela and Pat Buchanan (a hard-right commentator in the US) and drape the word "traitors" across them, too. "Then I made 800 fliers anonymously and sent them to everyone in the media. And I waited. And Dan Rather [CBS news anchor] called me and said, have you seen this flier that's going around? And I said, 'My quote would be, the Pope and I can take it, but don't pick on Pat Buchanan.'" [Clooney] grins."

He admits to anonymously doing something which without question was used as evidence of Republican scare tactics. That's a story if you ask me.

[Jaxter]

"If Hollywood announced Al Jolson would be playing Martin Luther King Jr., I’m sure Denzel Washington & Co. would have something to say about it."

Depends on whether Al Jolson was a Democrat or not. I didn't see Denzel & Co. getting upset when the role of 'First Black President' or 'Second Black President Wannabe' were played by white men.

[Obadiah]

And this exactly how shallow and transparent the Hollywood crowd is. Yet, they yearn for everyone to take them seriously, and not the mere clowns and jesters they are.

[genghis]

Mark Steyn is a teasure
along with ann coulter, thomas sowell and victor david hansen.
And the left has molly ivans.
Close call.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Can an artist even be brave strictly through their art?

Sure they can. Steyn made this point himself in referring to Theo Van Gogh, though I'd argue that any film-maker willing to tackle the subject of Islam in the wake of Van Gogh's death is braver than Van Gogh himself was. It'd certainly take an act of bravery for Salman Rushdie to write "Satanic Verses II".

[metesky]

Now you've done it...
;O)

[Lando Lincoln]

Greetings Pokey78......I have not been around as much as in the past, but it is my pleasure to ping you to a complete, unexcerpted Steyn article!!

Lando

[stop_fascism]

How about Solzhenitsyn, De Sade, of Jean Genet?

[Lando Lincoln]

Darn it.....now I notice that someone has beat me to the punch. "sniff"

Lando

[Eagles Talon IV]

Follywood along with its left wing infestation, has rendered itself totally irrelevant.

It is nothing more then a mass of people standing in a huge circle, gratifying themselves. Using their left hand of course.

[stop_fascism]

I'm not sure Van Gogh or Rushdie knew what they were getting themselves into.

[dead]

Hollywood’s “bravery” is an almost pathological retreat: It’s against segregated drinking fountains in Alabama and blacklisting writers on 1950s variety shows. It’s in danger of becoming an oldies station with only three records.

That was a cutting and insightful read. “Bravery” is cheap in liberalland.

[untenured]

How about that? I don’t know about you but I was getting so sick of the sycophantic Joe McCarthy biopics churned out year in year out — Nathan Lane in McCarthy! The Musical was the final straw — that thank God someone finally had the “bravery” to exercise his “right to dissent.” I only hope George Clooney isn’t found dead in the street at the hands of some crazed nonagenarian HUAC member.

Wow, ridicule really is an extremely powerful weapon.

[dead]

I'm not sure Van Gogh or Rushdie knew what they were getting themselves into.

Van Gogh certainly did. His movie was about what bloodthirsty psychos militant islamics are. They sure proved him wrong, huh?

[bubman]

The end of Hollywood is nigh. Reduced to it's most regressed banality:

Gay Porn.

Hollywood is dead. long live hollywood!

[bubman]

Hence control of the levers of power: The Presidency, the senate, the congress, the governorships...

[lawnguy]

I'm so curious to see the Oscar numbers. I understand Fox is counter programming with Bad Boys II, a Will Smith movie.

I think this may be the year the Oscars take a huge hit.(I'm not sure that would be my choice for a counter program though)

[stop_fascism]

I thought the flick was about the way Muslims treat women. I'm sure he knew the film was going to upset some people, but did he know he was putting his life in jeodardy?

[ozzymandus]

Great piece. Too bad Clooney and the rest of the Hollywood limo-revolutionaries aren't smart enough to find, let alone understand, this column.