How Hollywood softened us up for NSA surveillance
Yes, they’ve made some great movies, but they also double-handedly ushered in the age of the blockbuster they now bemoan. They have had a hand in eight of the top 20 highest grossing movies of all time , inflation-adjusted. Lucas might have virtually started a new religion with the Star Wars movies, but he milked them for every merchandising dollar he could for 35 years, then sold the rights to Disney for a staggering $4bn . How does he expect Disney to recoup that money? By making low-budget Star Wars art movies?
For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/17/hollywood-disaster-blockbuster-steven-spielberg-george-lucas
The NSA (unofficial motto: “Nobody Say Anything”) and Hollywood (unofficial motto: “Nobody Knows Anything”) have been feeling each other up at arm’s length for decades, but after 9/11 era the romance became official, and surveillance -based entertainment, from 24 to Alias, from Spooks to Big Brother to Person of Interest, went global. In movies where the NSA appears as itself (or a production designer’s imagining thereof), there is always one rogue NSA agent abusing the vast informational and surveillance capabilities available to him. In Enemy of the State , it is the dependably barmy Jon Voight who goes off the reservation, and in Echelon Conspiracy, it is Martin Sheen. But these lone villains are routinely depicted as abusing a magnificent and fundamentally benign spy apparatus. The thing itself is morally neutral, they seem to argue, it is bad humans who make it behave badly. In Eagle Eye , the Department of Defence surveillance programme ARIIA (autonomous reconnaissance intelligence integration analyst – sexily voiced by Julianne Moore) goes all Skynet on its users, becoming self-aware and determining by ruthless logic that the real bug in the system isn’t digital at all – it is the human political class, and resolving to wipe out the lot of them at the state of the union address.
For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/shortcuts/2013/jun/16/hollywood-softened-us-up-nsa-surveillance
Hollywood moonbats urge Obama to push for no nukes at G8 summit
“He was being really flirty with her,” onlookers Samira Ajour told the Mirror. “He kept touching her shoulder and placing his hands on hers. I don’t think there was anything in it, he’s just a bit of a smoothie.” Last week, Paul’s wife Alexandra, 49, reportedly asked him to leave their family home in Kent after he was romantically linked to his American Baking Competition co-host Marcela, 34. Alexandra has filled for divorce citing adultery as the reason for their marital breakdown.
For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit http://www.hellomagazine.com/celebrities/2013061713073/paul-hollywood-jokes-about-split/
Paul Hollywood makes upbeat public appearance as estranged wife reveals struggle as single mother
“Such fatalism is a deadly adversary,” Matt Damon responds. Whoopi Goldberg, Morgan Freeman and a host of other far-left actors appear in the video, which was produced by Global Zero, a Washington, D.C.-based grassroots organization whose mission is “to eliminate all nuclear weapons by 2030.” “Global Zero will always have a partner in me and my administration,” Obama once declared. After all, if Obama would only take the lead and eliminate our nuclear arsenal, the rest of the world will immediately follow suit out of sheer inspiration.
For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit http://www.bizpacreview.com/2013/06/17/hollywood-moonbats-urge-obama-to-push-for-no-nukes-at-g8-summit-77620
Feministing 