William Morris & Endeaver Merge

Since movie studios have begun demanding that actors reduce their insanely huge and often undeserved upfront salary guarantees by 50% in exchange for back-end profits if the movie is a hit-- and with fewer movies becoming hits--- this was inevitable.

Talent agencies William Morris, Endeavor merge

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two of Hollywood's biggest talent agencies have announced plans to merge in a power play that attempts to shift leverage from movie studios and record labels back to artists, actors, writers and directors.

The 111-year-old William Morris Agency said Monday it will join with upstart Endeavor, a 14-year-old agency cofounded by Ari Emanuel, brother to White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and the inspiration behind the character Ari Gold on HBO's "Entourage."

The combined entity will be called William Morris Endeavor Entertainment and have revenue in the range of $250 million to $300 million a year. Layoffs are expected, perhaps affecting more than 100 people.

More on the merger here.

• Don't be surprised if this merger is written into future eppy's of the blisteringly funny, better than ever "Entourage"
  

Related:

My Life As A "BizBabe"

Be Careful What You Ask For

Nelson Mandela who was imprisoned and undoubtedly tortured on Robben Island, agreed to grant full immunity to the perpetrators of violence who testified at Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Mandela believed that it was more important to get to the truth than to seek vengeance.

This important truth seems to be lost not only on the very spineless President Obama, but also on the left wing liberals, Hollywood elites & Democrats who line up for photo ops with Nelson Mandela.

In what is becoming the hallmark of typical left wing behavior -hypocrisy- they sing Mandela's praises, claiming him as their hero, yet they refuse to follow his example.

It would seem that while President Obama & Speaker Nancy Pelosi (along with their left wing witch-hunting, Bush bashing, Republican hating, liberal lying ilk, from George Soros to MoveOn.Org,) wants the truth........... in reality, they can't HANDLE the truth!

Security Before Politics

In the fall of 2002, while I was chairman of the House intelligence committee, senior members of Congress were briefed on the CIA's "High Value Terrorist Program," including the development of "enhanced interrogation techniques" and what those techniques were. This was not a one-time briefing but an ongoing subject with lots of back and forth between those members and the briefers.

-- The chairs and the ranking minority members of the House and Senate intelligence committees, known as the Gang of Four, were briefed that the CIA was holding and interrogating high-value terrorists.

-- We understood what the CIA was doing.

-- We gave the CIA our bipartisan support.

-- We gave the CIA funding to carry out its activities.

-- On a bipartisan basis, we asked if the CIA needed more support from Congress to carry out its mission against al-Qaeda.

Congress Knew About The Interrogations

It was not necessary to release details of the enhanced interrogation techniques, because members of Congress from both parties have been fully aware of them since the program began in 2002. We believed it was something that had to be done in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks to keep our nation safe. After many long and contentious debates, Congress repeatedly approved and funded this program on a bipartisan basis in both Republican and Democratic Congresses.

Members of Congress calling for an investigation of the enhanced interrogation program should remember that such an investigation can't be a selective review of information, or solely focus on the lawyers who wrote the memos, or the low-level employees who carried out this program.

I have asked Mr. Blair to provide me with a list of the dates, locations and names of all members of Congress who attended briefings on enhanced interrogation techniques.

Since the democrats can't seem to emulate Mandela 's example, then perhaps they should heed this ancient wisdom: Be Careful What You Ask For.

Paging Sean Penn !!!

Fidel no likey President Obama!

The ex-president ( Fidel) had previously expressed admiration for Obama, but this time Castro blasted the new U.S. president for showing signs of "superficiality."

The former Cuban president rejects suggestions that the island should free political prisoners or cut taxes on remittances from the U.S.

Reflections of Fidel: Obama and The Blockade

Journalist Jake: Thank you, Mr. President. You've heard from a lot of Latin America leaders here who want the U.S. to lift the embargo against Cuba. You've said that you think it's an important leverage to not lift it. But in 2004, you did support lifting the embargo. You said, it's failed to provide the source of raising standards of living, it's squeezed the innocent, and it's time for us to acknowledge that this particular policy has failed. I'm wondering, what made you change your mind about the embargo?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, 2004, that seems just eons ago. What was I doing in 2004?

Jake: Running for Senate.

PRESIDENT: …and the fact that you had Raul Castro say he's willing to have his government discuss with ours not just issues of lifting the embargo, but issues of human rights, political prisoners, that's a sign of progress.

According to Sean Penn's buddy, Fidel:

Without any doubt, the president misinterpreted Raúl’s statement.

During the press conference and the final meetings of the Summit, Obama showed signs of smugness.

When he stated, responding to Jake, that today, 2004 seemed like eons ago, that was superficial.

Awaiting reaction from Communism's poster boy, Sean Penn!

Watching The Sun Rise

If we are always arriving and departing, it is also true that we are
eternally anchored. 

One's destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at
things.


Henry Miller

Torture or "Fear Factor"

Bugs in a box, slapping, simulating drowning, placing detainees in close proximity to an animal they find intimidating...this is torture?

Sounds more like episodes of "Fear Factor" where "stunts" meant to challenge the contestants mentally involved ingesting a revolting animal, such as a cockroach, or being covered in tarantulas. It also involved getting close to an animal which many people would find intimidating and one stunt even required contestants to climb through a simulated electrical substation with "electrified wires" replete with simulated sparks and electrical sounds added in post-processing.

Contestants were willing to undergo these "tortuous acts" for the almighty dollar and Americans by the millions were willing to watch them do so, week after week for six years.

Yet today Americans claim to be horrified by these same practices when used on captured enemy combatants i.e. TERRORISTS to extract information in order to save American lives.

Let me be clear -to use Obama's favorite expression- it was okay for American citizens to undergo these "stunts" for the almighty dollar, and for Americans to view these stunts weekly for six years - but its NOT okay for these same "stunts" to be used on terrorists to extract information that CAN, WILL & HAS saved the lives of Americans and prevented another attack on our soil?

Wasn't NBC's slogan during that time "Must See TV" ?

I guess for millions of hypocrites, particularly, Human Rights Activists, Progressives, the Hollywood elite, the NY Times editorial staff, left wing loons, and a long list of Democrat voters, torture is only torture when its NOT entertainment.

Can we indite NBC, the host Joe Rogan, and the sponsors of "Fear Factor" for allowing these same acts now deemed " torture" to be inflicted on hundreds of willing participants for 6 years?

Can we indite the human right activists and MILLIONS OF AMERICANS who tuned in weekly in record numbers to watch the same "torturous acts" being played out on "Fear Factor" for 6 years?

Just asking.

"Perfect Valor"

“Perfect valor is to behave, without witnesses, as one would act were all the world watching." Francois de La Rochefoucauld

On May 16 2009, Citizens United Productions will premiere "Perfect Valor"" at the GI Film Festival in Washington, DC.

Peabody Award Winning Producer, David C.Taylor and noted contemporary author and Military historian, Richard S. Lowry (Marines in the Garden of Eden) have worked tirelessly with the talented production staff to create a compelling tribute to all the men and women who served in Iraq.

Written by David C. Taylor, narrated by Fred Dalton Thompson, "Perfect Valor" focuses on six Marines, weaving their stories together into an emotional tribute to all the men and women who have served in Iraq.

Taylor included the stories of the families and their stoic wait at home, reminding us that this story is about family: the warrior family - the Marine family - the American family. All have paid a heavy price fighting a ruthless and determined enemy.

Walk with Marines through the streets of Fallujah as they fight to return order to the most violent city in the world.

"Perfect Valor" will remind you that we are the good guys.

http://www.perfectvalor.com/

Related

Op-For: Perfect Valor To Premiere at 2009 GI Film Festival

McTiernan's New Film " LIE HARD"

Talk about serious Bush Derangement Syndrome.
I wonder if he'll title this crockumentary "Lie Hard"

LOS ANGELES — John McTiernan, facing an expected new indictment for his role in the Anthony Pellicano Hollywood wiretapping case, is striking back — with a movie.

In an extraordinary and somewhat startling challenge to officials who have threatened him with jail time for lying to an FBI agent, Mr. McTiernan, perhaps best known as the director of “Die Hard” and “The Hunt for Red October,” has completed a documentary that accuses the Bush administration of having pursued the Pellicano case as part of a far-ranging conspiracy under the direction of Karl Rove to prosecute Democrats.

(Continue)


File this one under HOLLYWHACKED, HOLLYWIERD

Ramblings of a Madman From The Fool On The Hill

On the day after North Korea test fires a nuclear missile, Pres Obama while holding court in Europe, responds to this action from a rogue Stalinist nation, by suggesting that the US & all it allies banish their nuclear weapons, with the understanding that this "will then give us a greater moral authority to say to Iran, don't develop a nuclear weapon; to say to North Korea, don't proliferate nuclear weapons,"

President Obama is naive, foolish, idealistic, & irresponsible at the least, dangerous at the worst. He is also a man who clearly does NOT stand by the very words he uttered a day earlier:

"Rules must be binding. Violations must be punished. Words must mean something."

Unless of course, you're President Barack Hussein Obama, of the United States of America.

The next time a celebrity is stalked or threatened in any way or their home is broken into,
I would suggest they follow's Obama's nuclear illusion thinking and banish all their private security including bodyguards, and the electric gates, alarms, cameras that protect their property.

Let's see how that works for them.

About as well as it will work for the US and its allies, should they banish their nuclear arsenal. To believe for one second that the rogue countries will follow suit is the definition of insanity.

Have we learned NOTHING from what happened in the UK? After appeasing Muslims for years, allowing them to use their mosques as jihad recruiting dens as long as they wouldn't attack UK citizens, after the whacked out Mayor of London converted to Islam, a series of suicide bombings took place, killing hundreds of innocent civilians.

Appeasement, compromise, and moral authority mean NOTHING to our enemies. Never has, never will.

As for the persuasive power of "moral authority," we should have learned long ago that the concept has no meaning in Pyongyang or Tehran, much less in the rocky hideouts of al Qaeda.

The truth is that Mr. Obama's nuclear vision has reality exactly backward. To the extent that the U.S. has maintained a large and credible nuclear arsenal, it has prevented war, defeated the Soviet Union, shored up our alliances and created an umbrella that persuaded other nations that they don't need a bomb to defend themselves.

More from the Wall Street Journal editorial " The Nuclear Illusionist"

Mr. Obama is a brilliant talker, and his words thrilled a Europe that wants to believe he can conjure peace and a nuclear-free world. But note well how little the Europeans answered the President's call for more troops in Afghanistan, much less any help in stopping a nuclear Iran. Mr. Obama is offering pleasant illusions, while mullahs and other rogues plot explosive reality.

Please Read "The Nuclear Illusionist"