Tag: hollywood

Barbra Streisand: Worries Over President Trump May Have ‘Subconsciously’ Influenced Song Selections on New Album

Legendary singer, actress and Hollywood liberal Barbra Streisand said her worries about President Donald Trump may have ‘subconsciously’ influenced her selection of songs for her new album, a series of duets with fellow music legends and stars including Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney titled, “The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume 2”. Streisand also said she is “horrified” watching TV about the world and Trump.

Streisand’s made her comment in an interview with the AP promoting the album (excerpt):

Sure, duet success is nothing new to Streisand, who has topped the charts with Neil Diamond on “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers,” and Donna Summer on “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough),” and a string of albums including “Duets,” “Partners” and “Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway.”

But “The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume 2” is different. Streisand said her worries about the world and President Donald Trump’s second administration may have subconsciously contributed to her selection of some of the album’s more serious tracks — like Sting’s “Fragile” and her reworking of “Love Will Survive” from last year’s “The Tattooist of Auschwitz” series into a duet with Seal.

“I’d like to be happier,” Streisand said. “But every time I turn on the television — and I’m a glutton for punishment, obviously — I’m fascinated and horrified at the same time, you know?”

At a recent dinner with U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., Streisand said he described the current state of Washington as “created chaos, corruption and cruelty.”

Streisand added, “I thought, ‘That kind of sums him (Trump) up.’”

Streisand attacked Trump in her 2023 memoir, My Name Is Barbra, reported the Hill (excerpt):

Streisand also ripped Trump, saying the 45th president “lies as easily as he breathes.”

“I can’t stand being lied to, and I don’t think the country should be lied to either,” Streisand wrote, before quipping of Trump, “And I just couldn’t comprehend how he could tell all these lies with absolutely no guilt (clearly he’s not Jewish.)”

Streisand expressed shock at Trump’s 2016 White House win, saying of the New York real estate developer, “You wouldn’t go to a doctor who has no qualifications or experience in treating your disease. Why on earth would people want to entrust our country to a narcissist whose lack of experience, recklessness, and blatant disregard for the truth made him completely unfit to be president?”

“What worried me was that the younger generation would emulate this man, who showed no kindness or empathy for other human beings,” she said.

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Actor From ‘The Office’ Pushes Back on MSNBC Host When She Blames Trump and Musk for Loss of Trust in Media

Rainn Wilson, the actor best known for appearing in the comedy series ‘The Office’ recently spoke with MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle and pushed back on her when she tried to blame President Trump and Elon Musk for the loss of trust in media.

Wilson is probably not a Trump supporter himself, but he does make an excellent point about the media and their selective concerns about government.

Ruhle talks about her belief that it’s the media’s job to hold the powerful to account, and Wilson reminds her that the media did not think that way at all when Biden was in office. He is exactly right.

FOX News has details:

“President Trump won and tons of people were shocked or angry or frustrated and they’re tuning out, and at the same time, you have the Elon Musk media machine, because they want you to leave traditional media, they want you to go to X, which is a bastion of misinformation,” Ruhle said during an appearance on Wilson’s “Soul Boom” podcast released on April 17.

“What we need to do is just cover what’s happening in America, right? We have to cover Democrats trying to figure out what their lane is and how they’re going to get back on their feet, and we have to simply cover what this White House is doing.”

However, Wilson suggested there was a lack of interest among left-leaning media to aggressively cover problems during the Biden administration.

“This is where I would push back, when I see this kind of insight and passion being directed at the current administration and the lack of this kind of insight and passion being directed at the previous administration, where again, I’m not talking about you, I’m talking about left-leaning news media organizations were kind of like, ‘La la la la, everything’s fine,’” Wilson told Ruhle in a clip flagged by The Daily Caller.

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REPORT: George Clooney Exploded on MSNBC Producer After Being Exposed as Useful Idiot for Getting Biden Out of 2024 Race

Actor George Clooney was reportedly furious with MSNBC last year after Morning Joe connected the dots between Obama and his op-ed calling for Joe Biden to get out of the 2024 race.

Clooney’s op-ed kicked off a revolt by major Democrat donors who decided to withhold donations to the party unless Biden stepped aside, so in the end, Clooney’s strategy worked as intended.

What was he so angry about? Being exposed as a useful idiot, maybe?

FOX News reports:

George Clooney exploded on MSNBC producer after Mika Brzezinski linked Obama to dramatic Biden op-ed: report

Actor George Clooney reportedly lost his temper on an MSNBC producer working on “Morning Joe” after host Mika Brzezinski suggested that former President Barack Obama may have influenced Clooney to write his New York Times op-ed on former President Joe Biden…

The explosive confrontation between an unnamed MSNBC producer and Clooney was revealed by Biden biographer Chris Whipple in his forthcoming book, “Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History.”

The “Morning Joe” segment that led to Clooney losing his cool featured Brzezinski suggesting that Obama may have been behind the actor’s NYT op-ed calling for Biden to bow out of the 2024 presidential race.

“This wasn’t George Clooney,” Brzezinski claimed, later adding: “I think that Barack Obama has a lot of influence.”

These claims led to Clooney calling a producer for the show in a rage, according to Whipple’s account.

“How the f— could you let her link me with Barack Obama saying he made me write the op-ed?” Clooney allegedly shouted at the “Morning Joe” producer.

Touchy! Touchy!

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‘Anti-Trump’ Hollywood Stars Request Administration’s Help With AI Copyright Protections, Sending An Open Letter

A number of Hollywood stars who previously slammed President Donald Trump’s administration are now reportedly seeking its assistance in enforcing artificial intelligence (AI) copyright protections — as the entertainment industry fights back against the impact of the new technology.

Actor and director Ben Stiller, musician Paul McCartney, and actor Mark Ruffalo are among the over 400 entertainment figures who signed an open letter to President Trump’s administration this week.

“We firmly believe that America’s global AI leadership must not come at the expense of our essential creative industries,” the letter began, which was addressed to the Trump administration’s Office of Science and Technology Policy.

The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is a department of the United States government, part of the Executive Office of the President. Congress established the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to provide the president and Executive Office of the President (EOP) with advice on the scientific, engineering, and technological aspects of national policy and the work of the executive branch. This includes matters of the economy, national security, homeland security, health, foreign relations, the environment, education, and resource management, according to the White House.

“America’s arts and entertainment industry supports over 2.3M American jobs with over $229Bn in wages annually, while providing the foundation for American democratic influence and soft power abroad. But AI companies are asking to undermine this economic and cultural strength by weakening copyright protections for the films, television series, artworks, writing, music, and voices used to train AI models at the core of multi-billion-dollar corporate valuations,” the group’s letter continued.

For years, companies training AI tech have purportedly collected copyrighted art, books, music, and other creative mediums of entertainment without paying for it. The companies can then create their own works while profiting from the “stolen” material.

“For nearly 250 years, U.S. copyright law has balanced [a] creator’s rights with the needs of the public, creating the world’s most vibrant creative economy,” it added. “We recommend that the American AI Action Plan uphold existing copyright frameworks to maintain the strength of America’s creative and knowledge industries, as well as American cultural influence abroad.”

The letter is in response to submissions placed by Google and OpenAI, requesting the ability to train their own AI models on copyrighted material.

“The federal government can both secure Americans’ freedom to learn from AI and avoid forfeiting our AI lead to the PRC by preserving American AI models’ ability to learn from copyrighted material,” OpenAI’s letter read.

The entertainment industry’s letter continued, countering OpenAI’s point: “There is no reason to weaken or eliminate the copyright protections that have helped America flourish. Not when AI companies can use our copyrighted material by simply doing what the law requires: negotiating appropriate licenses with copyright holders – just as every other industry does.”

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Bill Murray Says Bob Woodward’s Book About John Belushi Was Garbage, Suggests Nixon May Have Been Framed

Actor and comedian Bill Murray appeared on the Joe Rogan podcast this weekend and talked about all kinds of fascinating things, but one moment from the interview is currently going viral on social media.

Bill Murray talks about the book ‘Wired’ by journalist Bob Woodward. The subject of the book is the life and death of Murray’s friend and SNL alum John Belushi. Murray says he read about five pages of the book and then wanted to set it on fire because it was full of inaccuracies.

Bob Woodward is most famous for his reportage on Nixon and the Watergate scandal. After talking about the John Belushi book and how bad it was, Murray says he thought to himself, ‘Oh my God, they framed Nixon.’

He was being funny but also seemed serious at the same time. He was suggesting that journalists are biased and often get things wrong, which is absolutely true.

PJ Media has more details:

“When I read ‘Wired’—the book written by, what’s his name, Woodward—about Belushi, I read like five pages, and I went, ‘Oh my God. They framed Nixon,’” Murray said. The comedian and actor, who was close friends with Belushi, was appalled by what he saw as inaccurate reporting. “If this is what he writes about my friend that I’ve known for half of my adult life—which is completely inaccurate—talking to the people of the outer circle getting the story, what the hell could they have done to Nixon?”

Murray admitted he didn’t read the whole book, but what little he did see was enough to enrage him. “I acknowledge I only read five pages, but the five pages I read made me want to set fire to the whole thing,” he said. “Those five pages, I went, ‘If he did this to Belushi, what he did to Nixon is probably soiled for me, too.’”

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Gene Hackman, Wife BetsyDeaths Called ‘Suspicious’

Gene Hackman‘s death and the deaths of his wife and dog are puzzling authorities, who have labeled his passing “suspicious.”

According to a search warrant, obtained by TMZ, a Santa Fe detective who sought a search warrant wrote in his affidavit, he believes “the death of the two deceased individuals to be suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation because the reporting party found the front door of the residence unsecured and opened, deputies observed a healthy dog running loose on the property, another healthy dog near the deceased female, a deceased dog laying 10-15 feet from the deceased female in a closet of the bathroom, the heater being moved, the pill bottle being opened and pills scattered next to the female, the male decedent being located in a separate room of the residence, and no obvious signs of a gas leak.”

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Failed Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris Signs with Hollywood Talent Agency

The Creative Artists Agency (CAA) announced on Tuesday that it will represent Harris “in all areas, focusing on speaking engagements and publishing.”

The CAA also represents Michelle Obama, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden.

“CAA will work closely with Harris on her post-White House initiatives, creating strategic opportunities that expand her platform in support of the issues she has championed throughout her decades-long career in public service,” the talent agency said in a statement.

Harris was previously represented by the Los Angeles-based agency while serving as a California senator.

The agency is very liberal and frequently pushes for DEI hiring.

“It is also our goal to lead the way in diversity, advocating with marketplace buyers for talent from historically underrepresented groups – and for the cultural and commercial value of inclusion. CAA continues to increase the diversity of our talent roster and our employees, and always will,” the CAA’s website states.

There have been rumblings that Harris may run for California governor.

A recent Emerson College Polling/Inside California Politics/The Hill poll found that if she entered the race, she would be the frontrunner.

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Unearthed Trump Era Video From 2018 Shows Homeland Actress Claire Danes Telling Stephen Colbert the Intelligence Community Allied With Journalists

A video clip resurfaced Tuesday of Homeland actress Claire Danes telling CBS Late Show host Stephen Colbert in February 2018 that the “intelligence community was…allying itself with journalists” during its battles with the Trump administration. Homeland ran on Showtime, starting during the Obama administration in 2011 and ending in 2020 during Trump’s first term.

Danes told Colbert that each year during the show’s run the cast, writers and producers would spend a week in Washington, D.C. for a “spy camp” with “real spooks”, meeting at a Georgetown club with people from the intelligence community, the State Department and the media.

Danes said the relationship between the Trump administration and the intelligence community soured at the start of 2017 (“there wasn’t great faith in the very beginning”) and that the spooks started allying with journalists. (Note: The alliance started earlier with the 2016 Russia hoax Steele Dossier and the early January 2017 intel-fed Washington Post hit that helped to take out Trump’s first national security advisor, Gen. Michael Flynn.)

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Celebrity Piggy Bank Scandal: How Taxpayer-Funded Pandemic Relief Programs Became a Cash Grab for Hollywood Musicians

In a jaw-dropping exposé, new details reveal how the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG)—a taxpayer-funded pandemic relief program established to save businesses and independent arts organizations—allegedly turned into a financial free-for-all for Hollywood celebrities.

Signed into law by then-President Donald Trump in 2020 and championed by figures like Senator Chuck Schumer, the program aimed to support struggling venues during the pandemic.

But according to a Business Insider report, it has now become synonymous with wasteful spending by high-profile stars.

Lil Wayne, whose real name is Dwayne Carter Jr., received an $8.9 million grant. Instead of directing these funds toward sustaining his music operations, he reportedly spent over $1.3 million on private jet flights and more than $460,000 on designer clothing from brands like Gucci and Balenciaga.

Additionally, he billed taxpayers nearly $88,000 for a New Year’s Eve concert in Coachella, California, which he ultimately canceled, and $14,900 for “mystery women” hotel stays.

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Man Found Dead in Hollywood Hills Home Reportedly Will Rothschild

Authorities Thursday were investigating a residential fire in the Hollywood Hills that left a man dead, with neighbors telling reporters that the victim was eccentric millionaire Will Rothschild of the famous banking family.

Fire crews responded to 8551 Lookout Mountain Avenue, east of Crescent Drive , at 4:33 p.m. Wednesday after they received a call reporting a fire at the two-story hillside residence. They were able to prevent the flames from spreading to nearby vegetation or other structures, according to Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey.

During a search of the home after the fire was extinguished, firefighters found the body of a man, Humphrey said.

It took 45 firefighters 33 minutes to extinguish the flames.

Coroner’s officials had not identified the victim as of Thursday morning, but neighbors told ABC7 that he was Rothschild, who was described as a bit reclusive and eccentric.

The house was also said to be a potential fire hazard, with possible hoarding conditions.

“Given the fire damage, it’s kind of hard to determine how much of that was prior to the fire and how much of it is the building itself that has been demolished by the fire,” Battalion Chief Adam Knabe of the LAFD told the station.

The Mayor’s Crisis Response Team was summoned to provide emotional support and assistance to the decedent’s family and neighbors, fire authorities said.

The cause of the fire was under an active and joint investigation by the fire department and the Los Angeles Police Department.

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