Abracadabrah

I create as I speak

Hollywood Finally Gets One Right

But not in the way you think.

From the annals of "It takes a Moonbat to play a Moonbat."

Susan Sarandon is set to play Cindi Sheehan in a new biopic on the anti-war virago, who is famous for such lines as Get the Troops Out of Occupied New Orleans and Bush is a worse terrorist than Osama bin Laden.

I can't imagine it will take much of an effort for Sarandon. Which is why, after all, it is perfect casting. She'll simply have to de-glamorize herself a bit more and then emote. And express outrage at President Bush and the evil right-wing in Amerika. Since all the emotion will be in line with what she already feels, absolutely no acting chops are required.

But how much more appropriate is this bit of casting than hiring left wing Nicholas Cage as the hero of the first movie about 9/11, written and directed by Oliver Stone.

I am curious though about who is funding this. Nary a Hollywood portrayal of a brave soldier has emerged from Hollywood in the last three years. Meanwhile, Cindi Sheehan, All American Heroine, has a reality series filming her and a one woman show in London.

Here is Cindi Sheehan in her own words:

But Cindy Sheehan isn't apologizing for her anger. "How can your rage not increase when every day something comes out that says my son should still be alive, that the reasons for this war are bogus? ... I'm not an extreme wacko -- I'm with the mainstream on this. I don't think it's naive or wacky to be upset that we're still killing people to solve our problems."

In fact, she wishes people to know that she's a nice person. She says that when people meet her, their biggest surprise, other than discovering she stands 6 feet tall, is that she has a great sense of humor.

Not an extreme wacko - and with the mainstream -- uh huh. Why that statement is an indicator all by itself. Moreover, I always find it a tad worrisome when people have to explain to you that they have a great sense of humor!

I imagine, don't you, that this biopic will have all the sophistication and nuance of the Rachel Corrie production in London. Which, as even the NYTimes reviewer puts it, cloaks its [ideological] stand as high moral sentiment" while refusing to admit it is taking a stand except for the "truth."

By the way, in Britain there has actually been some public discussion of late of the fact that the arts are all being written and controlled by people in ideological leftist lockstep.

The arts are stuck in a "lazy" and outdated left wing mindset, says Oscar winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes. The Conservative-supporting actor and writer backed calls by National Theatre director Nicholas Hytner for a "good, mischievous right wing play".

Mr Fellowes, who won an Oscar for Gosford Park, said the arts in Britain were dominated by 1960s attitudes.

He said it was bad for society that these "orthodoxies" had not been challenged.

"It's created a kind of laziness in the arts", Mr Fellowes told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"These opinions are given out as truths and part of that is the demonisation of the right so that now the phrase 'right wing play' conjures up images of jackboots clunking over the cobbles at dawn."

He added: "There are all sorts of interesting areas for the right wing playwright to get into - the subversion of parliament, the intrusion of government into every day life.

"You could write a play about any of these things and technically it would be a right wing play but the phrase 'right wing' has now been kind of cast out into the shadows.

"And really, for the post sixties generation, it was not respectable intellectually not to agree with them. And that, I think is not good for any society. Everything has to be challenged, preferably by the arts."

Imagine that. The possibility of the arts challenging the respectable, socially acceptable, leftist herd mentality from the right - not the far left.

In these days, it seems like a dream to me.

posted by Alcibiades @ 1:58 PM