Dark Knight, global warming, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Reality Show
In Celebrities, Culture, Hollywood, Politics, celebrity, entertainment on August 4, 2008 at 9:25 am
Now that she has co-starred in the mega-blockbuster “The Dark Knight,” is Maggie Gyllenhaal going to Disneyland?
No, she’s celebrating her cinematic success by taking a job as a judge on an online reality show to, of all things, fight global warming.
It’s called “Climate Matters.”
Contestants will be submitting ad-length videos to convince the next occupant of the White House to take action against climate change.
The winner will get a $3,000 Visa gift card, and the Top Ten videos will be broadcast on various eco-oriented Web sites.
A number of filmmakers have agreed to be judges including an Emmy-winning documentary producer, Rory Kennedy.
The “Simon Cowell” role on the panel of judges has yet to be filled, but a certain Nobel Prize winning recipient is rumored to be begging for an audition.
James Hirsen is a media analyst, Trinity Law School professor, and teacher of mass media and entertainment law at Biola University.
Hollywood, McCain, Obama, Politics
In Uncategorized on August 4, 2008 at 1:42 am
It seems that certain Hollywood folks are in a snit.
John McCain’s latest ad portraying Barack Obama as a Paris Hilton/Britney Spears-type celebrity has hit some Tinseltowners smack in the ego.
Norman Lear, the same fellow who tried to make people feel guilty for driving SUVs, insinuated that the ad lessened the stature of the presumptive GOP nominee.
“I didn’t think McCain could look silly,” Lear told the L.A. Times, “but that ad diminishes him and makes him look silly.”
Interestingly, Obama was a seer of sorts when he spoke at the Gridiron dinner in 2004. He said, as quoted in the Chicago Sun Times, “It’s like I was shot out of a cannon. I am so overexposed, I make Paris Hilton look like a recluse.”
In the past, contributions have come McCain’s way from Harrison Ford, Quincy Jones, Berry Gordy, Michael Douglas and Lear.
But predictably, these days Hollywood isn’t liking the “maverick” Republican as much as it used to, since it now has a candidate whose more appealing claim to fame is having the most liberal voting record in the Senate.
Hollywood publicist Howard Bragman called the McCain ad “inauthentic.”
Bragman even coined a new term to express his displeasure, saying, “All this feels very Roveian to me.”
James Hirsen is a media analyst and teacher of mass media and entertainment law at Biola University.
