"I'm not even sure that Hillary is a fait accompli [to win the Democratic Party nomination] as this point," Mr. Surnow told a group of reporters and bloggers in a wide-ranging interview during the Young America's Foundation's (YAF) West Coast Leadership Conference. "Are we nuts thinking Hillary Clinton could be president of this country? Honest to God, just stand back and think about it."
Saying that he was "probably going to get behind Rudy" for the White House, Mr. Surnow named comedian Dennis Miller as another entertainer who has "come out" as a conservative in the overwhelmingly liberal Hollywood environment and said that another popular comedian, Adam Sandler, "is going to come out and support Rudy Giuliani."
[...]
The influence of Hollywood and the entertainment industry was a topic of discussion from the beginning of the weekend conference, when Internet newshound Andrew Breitbart gave an impromptu talk on Thursday to a select group of top campus conservative activists.
[...]
There is "an underground society of Hollywood conservatives," said Mr. Breitbart, author of "Hollywood, Interrupted," and founder of the Breitbart.com news site.
This leaves me with a question... where have ya'll been?
The liberals in Hollywood are getting their message out and the conservatives are "underground"?
Get out there folks... let people know that Hollywood has some rational people.
I am tired of hearing about Rosie and her conspiracy theories or about Penn worshiping Hugo Chavez.
Dennis Miller on the other hand hasn't been shy in his opinions and I wish more would stand up and be counted here.
More from Surnow:
"There's nothing left but to do the right thing," Mr. Surnow said of the character portrayed for seven seasons by Keifer Sutherland. "He's come to symbolize this sort of pure killing machine that all of us secretly want to unleash on the bad guys."
The character "really represents just justice," he said, describing Bauer's attitude as, "They're bad, we're good and we're going to get them."
Shows like 24, NCIS, The Unit are all very popular and they have one specific theme.. we are the good guys and terrorists are the bad guys and this is why they are popular.
Recent evidence that America itself is rejecting the notion that Americans are the bad guys, is found in the recent bad news for the newer anti-war movie sentiment in pictures like Valley of Elah and Rendition, both doing badly at the box offices:
It doesn't matter how many Oscar winners are in front of or behind the camera — audiences are proving to be conscientious objectors when it comes to this fall's surge of antiwar and anti-Bush films.
Both "In the Valley of Elah" and, more recently, "Rendition" drew minuscule crowds upon their release, which doesn't bode well for the ongoing stream of films critical of the Iraq war and the Bush administration's wider war on terror.
"Rendition," which features three Oscar winners in key roles, grossed $4.1 million over the weekend in 2,250 screens for a ninth-place finish. A re-release of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" beat it, and it's 14 years old.
"Rendition" follows an Egyptian-American who gets kidnapped by U.S. authorities who think he's a terrorist. Reese Witherspoon plays the man's wife, Meryl Streep dials up her dark side as the official who keeps his disappearance a secret and Alan Arkin is a senior senator with the power to influence the case. Meanwhile, the man is shipped off to an unnamed North African country, where he is tortured for information.
"Elah" boasts Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron and Susan Sarandon, another Oscar-winning triumvirate, under professionally red-hot director Paul Haggis, who won his own Oscar for "Crash." Mr. Haggis' drama focuses on the disappearance of an Iraq war veteran upon his return home.
Beyond the fiction features, the anti-Iraq war documentary "No End in Sight" (box office: $1.4 million) couldn't capture the indie crowd, beating a swift retreat to DVD next Tuesday despite glowing reviews.
Now we have Lions for Lambs, yet another disappointment for the anti-war crowd, taking 4th place, with $6.7 million in box office, behind Bee Movie grossed $26 million, American Gangster $24 million, and Fred Claus $19 million.
As Ace states:
Memo to Hollywood…we don’t hate America as much as you do. Want to make some money? Make a movie where Americans are the good guys and the terrorists are the bad guys. It’s not like there’s a shortage of stories that fit the bill.
NRO:
The Kingdom? A disappointment at $46 million. Rendition? A huge antiwar belly flop for Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep, and the guy from Brokeback Mountain playing in 2,250 theaters that hasn’t yet managed $8 million. Elizabeth: The Golden Age? The Catholic-bashing costume party with Cate Blanchett in high dudgeon and higher drag is a flopola at $14 million. In the Valley of Elah, from scribe du jour Paul Haggis? It’ll be lucky to make $7 million.
I have a request for this "underground society" of conservatives... please come out from under and start countering the anti-American hatred that is being spewed from the liberal faction of Hollywood.
Please.
More from Ace of Spades about that:
Although it's long been rumored and speculated about, Joel Surnow made a bit of news in his speech by stating that Gary Sinise was a conservative, and that he was trying -- along with other conservatives in the right-leaning salons of Hollywood, such as at actress Patricia Healey's house -- to get Hollywood conservatives to be more open and public in expressing their own political opinions, if only to contradict the impression that Hollywood is monolithically liberal.
[...]
But the basic thrust seems to be that while Hollywood conservatives have kept a low profile in the past, they feel compelled by conscience at this point to rebut the notion that Sean Penn and Tim Robbins speak for Hollywood.
Now THATS what I am talking about!!!!!
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