ABC’s ‘V’ Slams Obama and Pelosi

An amazing thing happened at a recent debut of a much-touted ABC pilot.

A not-so-subtle message was sent to a large viewing audience.

The targets of the TV communiqué were Democrats in power. If you can believe it, the Obama administration, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and the Democrats in Congress were smacked by Hollywood on a major television broadcast.

Rather than use the tired old clichés of villainous conservatives, Christians, gun owners or Republicans, the new show “V” went after the current D.C. free-enterprise-destroying agenda, and did so with an interplanetary vengeance.

Sci-fi tales are known as the repository for parables that describe current circumstances in society. Orwell, Huxley, and H.G. Wells wrote social commentary in the form of narrative fantasy. “1984″ was a warning about totalitarianism, “Brave New World” showed the consequences of science without moral limitations, and “War of the Worlds” displayed the danger of complacency.

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Farrah Fawcett, Angel in Waiting

Farrah Fawcett, Angel in Waiting

By: James Hirsen

It’s not a typical celebrity passing. In American pop culture terms, Farrah Fawcett was an icon. She burst onto the Hollywood scene with her sparkling smile, sweet nature and blonde windblown tresses that set hairstyle trends for a decade. Farrah’s image adorned magazine covers galore, but more importantly her poster was tacked onto teen lockers, shop halls and office walls. All-American places. All-American dream girl. She was cheerleader, prom queen, sorority sweetheart and pageant winner all rolled into one. And she graced her way right on up to full-fledged movie star. Farrah’s career, from “Charley’s Angels” to the reality genre, was a shining example of an actress who lithely coped with a changing media landscape. Amazingly, the role that defined her fame, that of glamorous detective Jill Monroe who took assignments from the mysterious Charley, only lasted a year. The TV show was such a hit Farrah became part of that unusual celebrity club of those stars known by their first names only. If you said Farrah, folks knew exactly who you were talking about. Like Betty Grable in an earlier era, Farrah became the pin-up girl of her generation. The photo of Farrah in a red bathing suit quickly became the biggest selling poster of all time with an unprecedented 12 million copies sold. Farrah proved she was more than just a pretty face when she took a part in an Off-Broadway play called “Extremities,” and she received critical acclaim. She then tackled a difficult subject in “The Burning Bed,” a TV-movie about an abused woman. It earned her an Emmy nomination. She starred in another complex made for TV film, “Nazi Hunter: The Beate Klarsfeld Story.” And she garnered a second Emmy nomination for a miniseries “Small Sacrifices.” More critical praise for her acting came from her portrayal of a wayward wife to Robert Duvall’s character in “The Apostle.” When she appeared as herself in the 2005 reality show, “Chasing Farrah,” the public had a glimpse of the deep love she and Ryan O’Neil shared. The tender relationship supplied a sort of tonic to the public, which offset the disappointing failure of marriages that is so widespread from Hollywood to D.C. Looks like the Angel got her wings.

Cindy Sheehan Endorsed by Penn, Sheen and Barr

Sean Penn, star of “Milk,” a biopic of the life and assassination of San Francisco supervisor and gay rights leader Harvey Milk, escorted congressional candidate Cindy Sheehan to the film’s San Francisco premiere.

Sheehan is running as an independent candidate against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for California’s 8^th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Penn hosted an October fundraiser for Sheehan at his San Francisco home, which raised more than $5,000.

Martin Sheen and Roseanne Barr have also endorsed Sheehan.

Sheen is best known for playing fictional Democratic President Josiah Bartlet in the NBC liberal fantasy TV series, “The West Wing.”

Comedian, blogger and sometimes radio host Barr is best known for her long-running ABC series, “Roseanne.”

Who could have imagined that Penn, Sheen and Barr would be fantasizing about the same thing as a lot of conservatives-getting rid of Madam Speaker.

Disney Actress’ Broadway Puppet Sex

Christy Carlson Romano is best known for her Disney Channel roles as Shia LaBeouf’s older sister on “Even Stevens” and the voice of the animated “Kim Possible.”

Now the 24-year-old is gaining fame for her “Kate Monster” and “Lucy the Slut” parts in “Avenue Q,” a Broadway play that involves puppets in compromising positions.

“Avenue Q” is Romano’s first Broadway role since starring four years ago in “Beauty and the Beast.”

“I was like, ‘That’s it. I never want to do that again. I feel so dirty.’ … And I would watch it every night and I’d go, ‘I can’t do that. I can’t do that.’ And then, basically, you just start laughing. … You just get sucked into the world that is ‘Avenue Q,”’ the actress told the Associated Press.

About the requirement that she use puppets to express herself, Romano said, “Once you actually feel yourself integrated with the puppet’s movements, it’s like, ‘Omigod, that’s what that’s about? I can do that again.’ And then you continue to do it and then it’s like you don’t even think about it.”

James Hirsen is a media analyst

Media Mixed on ‘W.’ Box-Office Expectations

Even with a big budget, name director and well-known cast, in its opening weekend Oliver Stone’s “W.” Bush bash only placed fourth at the box-office.

Giving Stone a bit of a dig, the Associated Press ribbed that “movie-goers elected a ‘W,’ but it was Mark Wahlberg, (star of “Max Payne.”) not George W. Bush.” The action movie “Max Payne” opened with $18 million to take the first place spot.

Stone’s flick took in $10.6 million from 2,030 cinemas, resulting in $5,197 a theater, a figure the A.P. called “unremarkable.” With a reported $25 million dollar production budget and another $25 million spent on promotion and advertising, “W.” still has a long way to go to be in the black.

In a previous review of the film, I explained that this was a movie made by Bush-haters for Bush-haters.

Since Stone’s last movie, “World Trade Center,” opened with $18.7 million and “W.” was released during a presidential election, box-office expectations were high.

Evidently, media reports were conflicted.

Variety claimed the $10.6 in revenue for Stone’s movie “performed on the upper end of expectations.”

The USA Today dubbed the same amount as having “met expectations.”

Entertainment Weekly semi-apologetically opined that the Stone flick “did well given all that it had going against it…”

The magazine claimed that the $10.6 million number was “not bad for a movie opening during tough economic times about a man whom many Americans blame for said financial strains.”

James Hirsen, J.D., M.A. in Media Psychology, is a media analyst, teacher of mass media and entertainment law at Biola University and professor at Trinity Law School.

Michael Douglas’ ‘Wall Street’ Advice

Michael Douglas is no biz whiz, but he played one in the movies.

That was apparently enough for reporters to seek his sage stage advice on the financial crisis that’s gripping today’s headlines.

Douglas starred in the 1987 Oliver Stone film, “Wall Street,” a role for which he was awarded an Oscar for Best Actor. Gordon Gekko was the character he portrayed in the flick. Gekko was a corporate takeover artist best known for his catchphrase, “Greed is good.”

While recently engaged in a press conference to promote the idea of a new treaty to ban the testing of nuclear weapons, Douglas was asked, “Are you saying, Gordon, that greed is not good?”

“I’m not saying that,” the actor replied. “And my name is not Gordon. He’s a character I played 20 years ago.”

Douglas was quick to straighten out the issues of his real name and the big-screen time frame, but interestingly, still up in the air is whether or not greed is good.

James Hirsen, J.D., M.A. in Media Psychology, is a media analyst, teacher of mass media and entertainment law at Biola University and professor at Trinity Law School.

Jessica Alba Sports Muzzle to Score Votes

In trying to get out the vote, some Hollywood celebs tend to be overly dramatic.

In the last election, Cameron Diaz claimed that failure to vote would result in the legalization of rape.

P. Diddy, of course, has his running “Vote or Die!” program.

Now Jessica Alba is getting into the election act with an ad that has her wearing a Hannibal Lecter-type mask.

With tears running down her cheeks the actress appears muzzled, accompanied by this message: “Only you can silence yourself. Make them hear you. Register to vote now.”

Why a muzzle?

“If you don’t register and vote and make a difference, and hopefully change the bad things that are happening in our country, you are essentially just binding and muzzling yourself,” Alba explains to People magazine.

The Democrats are always seeking new ways to motivate younger voters who overwhelmingly vote the Dem way.

“I think it is important for young people to be aware of the need we have in this country to get them more active politically,” Alba says.

She adds, “People respond to things that are shocking.”

A staged muzzling—I’m shocked, shocked I tell you!

James Hirsen, J.D., M.A. in Media Psychology, is a media analyst, teacher of mass media and entertainment law at Biola University and professor at Trinity Law School.

Newman’s Own Recipe for Life

Paul Newman (or “PL” as his friends called him) was quintessentially cool and amazingly altruistic.

It wasn’t just the series of grinning rebels he created for our big-screen pleasure that impressed us. It was more the manner in which he embraced life and loved freely.

Newman had those gallant qualities that seem to be in short supply these days—genuineness, kindheartedness and humility.

He served his country in World War II with nobility, initially enlisting in the Navy in the hopes of being a pilot. It was determined, though, that despite the intense blueness of his eyes he was colorblind. He ultimately served in the Pacific theater as a radioman and gunner in torpedo bombers.

A true believer in marriage and family, Newman had one of the most successful marriages in or out of Hollywood. He generally sought a simple life and tended to stay away from the spotlight.

After a 1969 role in “Winning” where he played a race car driver, Newman embarked on a real life racing career. In 1976 he won his first national amateur championship and won two more national championships in the 1980s.

It seems providential that the last movie in which he would participate would be “Cars,” the 2006 animated film where a race car named Doc Hudson would luck out and get the trademark Newman voice.

More than two decades prior to his passing, Newman created the “Hole in the Wall Gang,” a no-cost camp for seriously ill children. Currently, eleven such camps are spread across the globe.

In the 1980s, Newman started a food company, launching the business with his own recipe for salad dressing. As a matter of fact, he dubbed the savory concoction “Newman’s Own.” However, proceeds from the ever-expanding line of products were anything but. Profits to the tune of hundreds of millions went to countless charities; the motto of the company being “Shameless exploitation in pursuit of the Common Good.”

Now we know what kind of salad dressing they’re serving at the heavenly buffet.

James Hirsen, J.D., M.A. in Media Psychology, is a media analyst, teacher of mass media and entertainment law at Biola University and professor at Trinity Law School.

George Putnam, TV Anchor and Real Life Legend

The Mary Tyler Moore Show premiered on CBS in September 1970, and the headlining character turned the world on with her smile for seven years. While this show about fictional television station WJM became one of TV’s classic sitcoms, not many people realize that one of its central characters was based on a couple of real-life news personalities.

The character of local celebrity anchorman Ted Baxter, played by Ted Knight, was in fact a comedic amalgam of two Los Angeles news superstars—George Putnam and Jerry Dunphy.

Putnam was the legendary broadcaster who pioneered political commentary and audience input in newscasts. He covered every presidency since Herbert Hoover’s and was reading the news for NBC as early as 1939.

His L.A. competitor, Dunphy, was also a widely recognized TV news anchor for 40 years. He interviewed four presidents and survived a gunshot wound, two heart attacks, and triple bypass surgery. He passed away at the age of 80. Together, with their looks, style, and affable presence, Putnam and Dunphy provided the inspiration for the Baxter character.

The two anchors had an uncanny resemblance to each other. And, of course, to Ted Baxter. Both became nationally known newsmen, but what’s even more interesting is that they crossed over into pop-culture stardom, appearing in television and feature films. Putnam was in a number of films, one of the first being Fourteen Hours, which launched Grace Kelly’s pre-royal career. Dunphy, meanwhile, appeared in movies like Beverly Hills Cop III and Hard to Kill.

Putnam appeared in a dozen films, the most recent being the 1996 blockbuster Independence Day. I spoke with Putnam about his career and about moving back and forth between the worlds of news and entertainment.

Twelve feature films go a long way toward making the face of a news anchor recognizable. When I asked him how he first entered the film business, he replied, “I was, perhaps, much more Mr. Show Biz than [other journalists]. I was fairly attractive, fairly young, and the Hollywood scene adopted me.”

But he never forgot his broadcasting roots. Putnam would always portray either a journalist or a reporter, and he explained, “I always demanded that I use my own name.” Even when Arnold Schwarzenegger asked him to “use some other name” he said no.

Putnam worked with so many of the greats like Robert Mitchum and Grace Kelly, folks who were considered to be icons in the Golden Age of Hollywood. I asked Putnam, “How would you compare the celebrities in Tinseltown today with the stars of yesterday?” His answer came swiftly. “Couldn’t carry their pencils,” Putnam declared.

“What is the difference?” I probed. “Oh! Stardom was stardom,” he explained. “They weren’t washing and putting their laundry out in the back line. They lived as stars. It was, of course, the studios. The studios made and built and maintained stars. They told you who to be seen with, who to eat with, who to dine with, which car to drive. They ran your life.”

As part of the process of controlling their stars, the studios muzzled actors. When I asked if it were true that celebrities back then weren’t as politically outspoken as they are today, Putnam agreed. “It was unheard of for a star,” he said. “Can you imagine a Clark Gable taking a stand on politics?”

As a journalist, Putnam was in a very special category of one. No other broadcaster had the length, breadth, and depth of experience that he did. He remembered reading the news for NBC in New York in 1939 for media pioneer and then-president of NBC David Sarnoff. Over the years he worked as a newsman, reporter, and commentator for most of the major broadcasting organizations in the United States, including NBC, ABC, Mutual, Dumont, and Metromedia. He even had the chance to personally meet Presidents Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.

For those who want to follow in the George’s footsteps, he revealed the secrets to becoming a great newsman. “Insatiable curiosity. Objectivity, of course. Perseverance. And then, most of all, integrity.”

George told me about the values that carried him through the ups and downs of his career walk. “Work ethic,” he said, repeating it for emphasis. “Learning as a little kid. I worked for a dollar a day on the farms of Minnesota with my own grandfather. I was four or five-years-old.” More than eighty-five years later, the man was still working.

I asked him, “Will you ever retire?” He replied philosophically, “I could, but what’s the alternative? I’d say from what and to what?”

Not only did George not stop working, in all those years he never even took a vacation. Why not? The answer was contained in the Putnam attitude. When I asked him, of all the work experiences he’d had, which was the most satisfying, he responded, “Tomorrow.”

I spoke with George two days before he passed away. Still had the voice, the sparkle, the strength of spirit.

Walk beside the still waters, my friend, to a million tomorrows.

(Partially excerpted from the book, Hollywood Nation, and an interview conducted with George Putnam by James Hirsen)

James Hirsen has a Master’s Degree in Media Psychology and is a media analyst, Trinity Law School professor, and teacher of mass media and entertainment law at Biola University.

Daytime TV’s Un-Fairness Doctrine

Democrats have been pushing the Fairness Doctrine, which is a not-so-veiled effort to kill talk radio.

Enter Oprah, the daytime TV talk show diva. Her Web site is filled with e-love for Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama. She herself welcomed the Illinois senator and his wife Michelle to the comfy stage sofa.

But now Oprah has issued a written statement that she will not allow Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin anywhere near her Chicago soundstage. She says she has “made the decision not to use my show as a platform for any of the candidates.”

So much for consistency in Fairness Doctrine ideology.

Interestingly, though, the people have a way of implementing their own Fairness Doctrine, or when they’re unable they at least know how to give media elites some grief.

One Republican woman’s group in Florida has announced a boycott of Oprah’s show and her magazine.

Oprah’s Web site, too, has been flooded with complaints over the Palin rebuff. Female fans are up in arms and are letting Oprah know that if her daytime show features influential women, it is outrageous to refuse to have on the first female Republican vice presidential candidate in history.

Meanwhile one of the hosts of ABC’s “The View” has defamed Alaska’s governor via a Web blog.

Whoopi Goldberg said on the show that it was legitimate to question how Palin would raise her children and govern. And co-host Joy Behar told a vulgar joke while showing a video of Palin’s daughter, Bristol, and Bristol’s fiancé.

Goldberg posted a piece on her wow-o-wow Web site titled “Sarah Palin Is a Very Dangerous Woman” in which she accused Palin of wanting “to secede from the United States.”

Whoopi then linked Palin’s speech to a German Nazi rally, writing, “This girl is dangerous to me. This is a very dangerous woman… I just found the whole thing sad and very musty and very much like a Bund rally, but maybe that was just me.”

Judging by the gazillions of Sarah supporters, it appears so, Whoopi.

James Hirsen is a media analyst, Trinity Law School professor, and teacher of mass media and entertainment law at Biola University.