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BOP Daily NewsDecember 13, 2005The spirit of BOP News lives on in
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| Famed British absurdist playwright Harold Pinter used the occasion of his being awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature to condemn the actions of George W Bush and Tony Blair in their conduct of the war in Iraq. Pinter’s speech, which called for the pair to be arraigned in the International Criminal Court of Justice for their “vast tapestry of lies”, is part of a pre-recorded lecture produced for Pinter’s acceptance of the prize. The lecture was screened recently in England, as the 75-year-old author will be unable to attend the ceremony due to being admitted to a hospital suffering from an undisclosed illness. The lecture, titled Art, Truth and Politics, finds Pinter discussing the importance of truth in art, and focuses on the hasn’t-been-news-in-two-centuries fact that little of same can be found in politics. Pinter also pontificates on the very, very old fact that the intel used to justify the Iraqi invasion, namely the now-infamous non-existent WMDs, was basically made from whole cloth. After the premiere showing, critics hailed the lecture as being breathtakingly insightful and shining a light on the intricacies of international politics in the 21st century in a fresh and profound manner. Audiences, on the other hand, felt the lecture was overly-long, obtuse to the point of being unintelligible, and generally drab and awful, just like the majority of Pinter’s output. Which just goes to show that if critics can’t understand a blasted thing that’s happening on-screen, they automatically assume it must be Very Deep and Very important. |
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Never let it be said that Republicans don’t know when to desert a sinking ship, much like certain other of the Earth’s inhabitants that come to mind. Seems the California Republican party is unhappy with the current resident in the California state house, a certain Arnold “The Terminator” Schwarzenegger, primarily because his approval rating has gone into freefall in recent months, not to mention that he just appointed - horror of horrors! - a Democrat as his chief of staff, the fact that the guy may well be the best man for the job notwithstanding. As a result of all this and so much more, The Governator is rapidly losing favor with The Powers That Be of the State GOP. Now how does one combat the disappointing showing of a fading Hollywood celebrity playing in politics? Why by bringing in another fading Hollywood celebrity to play in politics, of course! And who does Mike Spence, president of the California Republican party, see in the role of party savior? None other than Mel “Lethal Weapon” Gibson. Never mind that Gibson has never given the slightest indication that he’d be at all interested in going into politics; facts can’t be allowed to get in the way of a good campaign, after all. According to a Web site Spence recently put up, Gibson is the man for the job because he has demonstrated he is “both fiscally and socially conservative”, has spoken out against stem cell research and, in perhaps the oddest justification of a candidate’s viability we’ve ever seen, “the success of The Passion of the Christ shows [Gibson] has the ability to reach out to people”. OK then. We would hope that the California electorate has learned its lesson and won’t believe a celebrity is gubernatorial material simply because he’s a celebrity soon again, but we are also sadly afraid that hope is in vain. Still, if, like with Schwarzenegger, it keeps Gibson away from making bombastic movies, we could get behind the campaign. |
| Brokeback Mountain, whose marketing campaign so far seems to consist primarily of including the words “controversial” and “gay cowboy movie” in every story about the film, has astounded pundits by breaking the 2005 box office record for highest per-screen average. The film, which saw an extremely limited release this past week - it only played in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles in a total of five theatres combined - took in an estimated $544,549, giving it an average of $109,000 per screen. The Ang Lee film, which is being touted as Oscar material and has already picked up a few awards from critics’ societies, opens across the country this Friday, albeit still in limited release. Who knew gay cowboys comprised such a large segment of the moviegoing population? |
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"The Almighty says this must be a fashionable fight. It's drawn the finest people."
Previous edition's quote: War of the Worlds (1953)
Box Office Prophets offers quality, reliable news about the entertainment industry. BOP is also entertaining. To that end, please be advised that some content in this column is intended to be humorous and should not be considered factual.
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Sunday, April 28, 2024
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