Bad performance or bad politics? A list of the most-hated actors



Even the most promising films can be easily derailed by an awkward actor or a poor casting decision, and Pat Gray of “Pat Gray Unleashed” has an entire list of ten culprits compiled by MSN.

The first actor on the list is Steven Seagal, who Gray comments “ruins a movie just by being in it,” and the second actor is James Corden. Corden is well-known for “The Late Late Show” and his “Carpool Karaoke: The Series,” but he’s lesser known for the films he’s partaken in and apparently ruined.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen him in a movie,” Gray comments, shocked that Corden has been in the movie “Cats,” which he’s “heard is one of the worst movies ever produced.”

Jared Leto is number three on the list, followed by Jada Pinkett Smith, who has been accused of overacting and “making things worse rather than elevating them.”


Funny guy Kevin Hart takes spot number five, but this is the first one Gray takes issue with.

“I don’t know if I agree with that,” Gray says. “I like Kevin Hart. He’s funny.”

Supermodel Cara Delevingne followed Hart at number six, and Amy Schumer followed Delevingne at number seven. The rest of the list is Nick Cannon at number eight, Jennifer Lopez at number nine, and Russell Brand at number ten.

Brand is the second name on the list who Gray disagrees with, noting that he believes it’s “just because they don’t like his politics.”

An actor who didn’t make the list and Gray thinks should have is “the kid who played young Anakin in 'Star Wars.'”

“That poor guy,” Gray says, adding, “He’s gotten never-ending crap for being so bad. I feel bad for him, but yeah, you were terrible. One of the worst performances of all time.”

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Wednesday Western: The top Western social media accounts



Social media has played an interesting role in the revival of Western cinema. I’ve compiled a list of social media accounts dedicated to Westerns.

This article doesn’t include blogs, podcasts, websites, or magazines. I’m currently working on an article for each, so definitely let me know any of these that I need to know about in the comments section, or send me an email.

The following list is by no means comprehensive. And at first glance, it may seem like a random assortment. The accounts vary in audience size, output, and content organization. They employ different media and delivery methods. Some are public; some require you to answer a questionnaire. Each of them is unique.

What unites them is a frontier spirit, a liveliness.

Official John Wayne - Instagram

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of The Duke.

The official John Wayne Instagram page is probably my favorite Western social media account. The X account is also solid. But the Instagram account is far better.

It delivers the perfect number and flow of posts. And the descriptions, titles, and photos are all flawlessly assembled. I’d be shocked if it weren’t run by social media or marketing/PR professionals.

This is the proper handling of the John Wayne legacy. The people in charge of maintaining it make sure that the Duke’s legacy is truly an experience. All of it is interconnected through John Wayne Enterprises: the John Wayne Museum, the John Wayne Cancer Foundation, the John Wayne Grit Series, among others.

You can buy John Wayne cookbooks and a collection of cocktail recipes, coffee, ornamental cups and top-class clothing — all of which will appear in this series in exciting ways.

All of these converge at the Instagram account.

It’s comforting to see a passionate group of people devoted to the upkeep of the Duke’s invaluable legacy.

If all that weren’t good enough, they just launched a collaboration with Broken Bow Country, a friend of the Wednesday Western series, as captured in this profile.

Broken Bow Country: Meet the 17-year-old behind a viral Western clothing brandwww.theblaze.com

In fact, during our interview, we connected on the Duke and our admiration for the official John Wayne account.

Scrolling through this account, it feels like you’re reading a biography of the Duke, told in vignettes and accompanied by pictures, music, and video.

Some of the posts are simply gorgeous. They provide a holistic view of the Duke, a man unlike any other. They offer great commentary on various Wayne films and media appearances. They help you understand who John Wayne was behind the legend, as in this post about his prolific love of chess.

Other times, it’s playful, as with the incredibly creative inclusion of holidays, like this recent celebration of National Sunglasses Day.

The posts hit every emotion as we navigate John Wayne’s love life and comforts and disappointments and truest victories.

And America, you become closer to this great country. Just check out this 4th of July post. And, man, how about this one? Who else deserves to be the biggest movie star of all time?

Just Westerns - YouTube

Just Westerns is an entrepreneurial feat animated by one man’s love for Westerns. He has mastered the possibilities that YouTube offers.

And that narrator’s voice: That’s Marc Reynard, the Englishman in charge of Just Westerns, the unofficial home of Westerns on YouTube.

This dude is undoubtedly one of us.

He examines the genre from creative and at times surprising angles, like this video about the fate of “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly 2.” You read that right: There was supposed to be a sequel.

His videos are smooth, well produced, well crafted, well written, sharp, fun, lovely, informative.

He also does something that I wish we had more of: He hypes upcoming and anticipated Westerns and compiles year-end lists and legitimizes the artistic merit of video games: “20 Best Western Video Games.” He also covers Wednesday Western favorite "Old Henry" (2021)

We need more of all of this. Best of all, you can feel his passion.

My only complaint is that the channel has only 30 videos. I went through them all at a steady clip.

But even this turns out to be further proof that you’re getting content that is authentically wholesome. Marc addresses it in his YouTube bio: “Please bear with me, I am a solo creator without the resources or manpower that larger channels typically have, so I am unfortunately unable to upload as regularly as I like, especially as I am committed to prioritizing quality over quantity.”

Take your time, brother. Personally, I think it's worth the wait.

r/Westerns - Reddit

Reddit can be a nasty place, especially if your politics are anything to the right of Bernie Sanders. And you can’t avoid the ideological slapfests, either. Leftist goons stir it up in every subreddit, constantly, and they’re almost always combative, even in the subreddits devoted to woodwork or kittens.

The Westerns subreddit is a clear exception. It’s a community. It feels like the town square of a dust-ridden Western town.

Check out this thread about “For a Few Dollars More.”

The mixed-media format of Reddit allows for a variety of sources: pictures, movies, trailers, interviews, text-only, even gifs. It might be the most versatile resource on this list.

It’s a great place for recommendations and commentary. Unlike much of the rest of Reddit, which is disproportionately loaded with young white liberal men, there’s an even spread of people of all ages.

These Redditors routinely swap personal stories about the various movies and actors. Some of their stories are poignant and evocative.

Back to the Old Western - Facebook

Facebook is a great place for Western fans. Instagram is too image-centered to accommodate text, and it doesn’t support links. Meanwhile, the microblogging experience of X is limited in its scope and impatient in its daunting pace — the temperament and vibe of Westerns don’t do well in such a frantic environment.

Facebook circumnavigates all of this, finally able to beat all the much lighter apps. For once, it finds an advantage to its cluttered user interface.

This bulk allows users to upload and share every type of content. No limitations. It’s the only platform capable of this, besides Reddit, but I’m not about to equate the megalith Facebook with the niche subreddit.

Besides, Facebook outperforms Reddit anyway. Its Pages function allows for an immersive blogging experience, run by moderators and admins who are passionate about their content and free to run their operation without much interference, right down to the parameters of the group’s privacy.

Back to the old western | Charles Bronson as Chino in classic western film 'The Valdez Horses' in 1973 | Facebookwww.facebook.com

Back to the Old Western is the perfect example of these principles. It is active, with a constant flow of posts, often aggregated from fan pages — the Duke and Sam Elliot, mostly.

The comments sections are fairly quiet, but most of the time people add substance or passion to the movie or actor being celebrated.

Chatter isn’t as important as it is on Reddit. The admins really know their stuff, offering a healthy range of mainstream Westerns, cult classics, and oddities, like this post celebrating Brigitte Bardot and Claudia Cardinale for their roles in “The Legend of Frenchie King” (1971), a wild little movie that will get its Wednesday Western spotlight in due time.

A Word on Westerns - YouTube

BLAZING SADDLES! The fart scene changed my life, says Burton Gilliam A WORD ON WESTERNSwww.youtube.com

I made a point to place Just Westerns higher up than A Word on Westerns, because Just Westerns is the passion project of an ordinary guy who loves Westerns, while A Word on Westerns is a proper television series. An exceedingly good one, with just as much passion and gusto.

It’s a fantastic channel. A Word on Westerns is sort of like a Western-only version of TMC, which is a thrilling reality. That’s the dream.

The channel features entire movies, each with a brief but thorough introduction by Rob Word, a double feature as part of the segment Word’s Wayback.

These are mostly 1930s and 1940s Westerns.

YouTube is an oddity on this list, because so many of the major Western channels exclusively post full movies. What a joy it is to find a rare Western on YouTube. But these channels lack the commentary and artistry that characterize the two YouTube channels I’ve included on this list.

A Word on Westerns blends the rustic ease of the Old West with the hypersonic immediacy of our infinite now. You can also access lectures, speeches, and clever projects like this "Gunsmoke" mash-up.

Smartest of all, it makes good use of the Shorts function on YouTube, will brief clips about various topics, from Robert Mitchum to stories of mutilation.

Western Podcast - X

The Western Podcast X page is small but mighty, with some impressive followers and praise from True West magazine.

Have you seen #HorizonAmericanSaga yet? If so, share your thoughts with us! We'll record a full podcast episode about the film in two weeks when Andrew is back from his vacation in Europe. In the meantime, here's Matt's highly positive take on Kevin Costner's latest Western epic. https://t.co/baVzZE4vPK
— @WesternPodcast (@WesternPodcast) June 28, 2024

It’s an offshoot of the marvelous podcast hosted by our friend Western apostle Andrew Patrick Nelson and the excellent Matthew Chernov, a screenwriter and a journalist with bylines in Variety, Entertainment Weekly, IMBd.com. Yahoo News, and about a hundred other outlets. His insight thrives with the joy of curiosity.

Andrew's Instagram account will keep you up to date with his media appearances and projects, with the occasional infusion of Hair Metal.

These boys are the real deal. Andrew just began his new job as chief curator of Western Spirit, Scottsdale's Museum of the West. Before that, he taught film history. As a professor at the University of Utah, Andrew guided his students through the badlands full of robbers and coyotes, only to unmask the villains hiding behind all their props and plywood scenery.

Why Millennials & Zoomers Should Watch Westerns | Andrew Patrick Nelson | Alignwww.youtube.com

Both of them are impressively smart with a tenderness for beauty, but not at the cost of a good story or a complicated hero.

They take their time with content, even tweets, but this adds to the reverence of their decision-making process. If you haven't taken the dive into their work already, do it.They have a gift for revealing the beautiful, intricate paradoxes of Western movies. They speak with screenwriters, historians, authors, journalists, musicians, directors, costume designers, and more.

They tell stories. They examine personal reactions to various films. They navigate themes of universality and timelessness within the motion of transcendence, while also exposing the flimsiness of any given cultural era.

Is Stagecoach the best movie ever made? Interview with Andrew Patrick Nelsonwww.youtube.com

They have a gift for discerning the role of Western movies in relation to our unexplained world, differentiating these fictions from their context and influence. But also, more impressively, they succeed in witnessing the presence of our entire universe in one tiny section of cinema history.

Both of them have helped yours truly at many points along our journey so far. They have guided me through the desert more than once.

Kevin Costner and Modern West - X

Kevin Costner & MW (@modernwest) on X

Kevin Costner & MW (@modernwest) on Xx.com

Kevin Costner is this era’s Clint Eastwood. He fights to keep the Western in public view, devoting himself to projects animated by passion, even if his wallet takes a hit. The victory is worth the risk.

He has ushered in a new era for the genre. His success with "Yellowstone" and its Western universe of shows has accelerated the Western’s resurgence. But it’s more than that. We're also witnessing a flourishing of the Western as an ethos, a style, a mode of thought, an approach to life.

So did you realize that Kevin Costner has a country band? Founded in 2007, Kevin Costner and Modern West deliver rowdy songs written for the culturally forgotten people of America. The band's history is tinged with tragedy.

The Kevin Costner and Modern West account is technically the band’s, but it posts tons of Costner content, all hand-picked and polished by a team of social media professionals.

Best Cowboy Movies Forever - Facebook

Best cowboy movies forever | Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, and Van Heflin in "Shane" (1953) | Facebookwww.facebook.com

There are several variations on the “Western” + “Forever” title, but I’m going with Best Cowboy Movies Forever. I enjoy the way the account profiles various actors, like this post about Lee Van Cleef.

It also includes Westerns from every different era. This is important. It’s good to hop around in this way. I’m partial to the 1939-1960 era of the genre, so I can plant myself in that time exclusively if I’m not careful.

The page rarely ventures into the current scene. But this isn’t a problem. It’s important to offer due reverence to the originators.

Old West - Actors, Films, and Legends - Facebook

www.facebook.com

Old West zooms in so that we get a portrait view of an incredible variety of Western actors, films, and legends, like this post devoted to Myron Halle or this homage to Elsa Martinelli. I value any source that prioritizes the lesser-known figures in the genre. Because, as we all know, the Western genre is overflowing with stories, entire generations of actors, producers, directors, screenwriters — you name it — whose fascinating tales deserve to be recounted.

As much as I love the giants of the genre, I derive incredible joy from learning about these forgotten figures.

Passion for Western Movies - Instagram

Passion for Western Movies makes great use of Instagram’s Reels format.

The account does a lot of this kind of multi-movie post, offering a list of movies connected by timeframe or theme.

Passion for Western Movies lives up to its name, able to glide around the history of the Western genre, seemingly without partiality. It also features lesser-known movies, like this post about "The Hunting Party," which features Gene Hackman.

Broken Bow Country - Instagram

I’m a bit biased on this one, because I think Colton is an absolute legend, but Broken Bow Country is perfect for this list.

The Western experience you get is fairly rough around the edges, in a distinctly modern way. But modernity never wins against Broken Bow Country.

It’s unique for many reasons but primarily because, in addition to its Western ethos, it is a clothing retailer and printmaker. No other creator on our list offers this level of art and style.

Then you’ve got the lore, the storytelling that comes with his posts, the war hymns of country-Western rebels and the toll their rebellion often took on their lives.

The past month has been wild for Colton. Early in July, he landed a collaboration with John Wayne Enterprises. The T-shirts are fantastic. In fact, I’m wearing one of them in the cover photo for Wednesday Western.

Then, a gunman on a sloped roof tried to murder former President Donald Trump, who was days away from officially accepting his party’s nomination.

In the panicky hours that followed, many people succumbed to their emotions, others to their resolve. I won’t pretend to have remained cool.

But Colton did. Following the Trump assassination attempt, he designed a T-shirt honoring one of the most American moments in human history, as Trump rose with his fist in the air. And he donated all of the money to a charity for Corey Comperatore, the man who died shielding his family from one of the gunman’s bullets.

This was a controversial move. He even faced the nasty comments about how the shooter shouldn’t have missed or that the deaths of the victims were “completely deserved.”

He lost a few thousand followers, but he describes it as “inconsequential when you think about the people that it's helping to support.”

In a press release, he said, “This has nothing to do with politics, I was incredibly moved by what happened and I wanted to use my platform to do something that extended beyond the controversy and the arguing.”

Lancer TV Blog - Facebook

Last and certainly not least, Lancer TV Blog on Facebook. It is run by a friend of mine, an avid supporter of Wednesday Western.

Unlike every other entry included on this list, Lancer TV Blog focuses entirely on one show, a show that hardly anyone knows. This reversal in focus is good for a movie lover’s mental sharpness.

I’m working on a deep dive into "Lancer," so I won’t say too much.

Beyond the merits of the show and its cast, "Lancer" is an underdog story still in the middle stages, badgered by uncertainty. Because the show hasn’t had a reboot, despite success throughout its two (long) seasons on CBS. So it’s not an issue of merit; the show deserves a second wind. It would very likely expand its audience.

But none of that matters for the art trapped in the murk of a waiting area, a zone of uncertainty. And the gifted athlete eventually starts to wobble. Filmstock degrades. All technology collapses. Call it the inevitable disintegration of a lively body, in this case a body of art.

Even the most perfect masterpieces eventually crumble. But what if that happens to be your masterpiece? What if it’s your tiny heaven, all tangled up in red tape? Life has enough of this disintegration as it is. Our entertainment needs to be clean, enjoyable, and easily accessible. Or so claims the majority.

Well, thank God for the passionate workers of cultural excavation. They dig and fight. They protect, sustain, and preserve. Without them, life would be less beautiful. Without them, our society would be weaker and tamer and less able to see a way out.

"Lancer" episodes run an hour. This extended run time fundamentally changes the character and depth of a TV show. It’s amazing what an episode can accomplish in one hour that it simply can’t in 30 minutes.

What you’ll find, as you scroll through the posts on the Lancer Facebook page, is purity. This fandom rewards people with a tiny kingdom, a crafted world they can always turn to. That experience should rile up every single person.

There’s a fidelity to their affection that is heartwarming. The Lancer TV Blog connects you to this incredibly pure relation. It’s just there, like sand across the winds of time.

'Sopranos' star Drea de Matteo says Hollywood will 'take me out into the woods and shoot me for not endorsing Biden'



Actress Drea de Matteo said there are many silent supporters of Donald Trump in Hollywood while also expressing disappointment in fellow Italians like Robert De Niro for their political activism.

In an interview with Fox News' Jesse Watters, the 52-year-old was asked about the presence of Trump voters in the liberal stronghold.

"Is there a quiet Trump voter out there in Hollywood?" Watters asked.

"I think there is a lot of them. I think there are a lot of — that was a hard intro to watch. I'm sorry," de Matteo said, responding to footage of a recent Joe Biden fundraiser.

De Matteo then condemned fellow Italians like actor Robert De Niro and former health official Dr. Anthony Fauci.

"It's the Italians, man. We're talking about Fauci, we're talking about De Niro. I am mortified right now by my people. I don't understand what we're doing here," she added.

'There are very few people that are willing to speak out.'

"There are a lot of quiet Trump supporters, there are a lot of [Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] supporters," she continued, per Mediaite. "I wonder how much these actors got paid to endorse Biden at this point. I am curious. I wonder if De Niro got paid a location fee because he traveled to the courtroom to do that."

De Matteo was referring to a recent appearance by De Niro outside the courthouse in New York City where Trump's case was tried, where he spoke poorly of the former president and had confrontations with Trump supporters.

Host Watters then asked the actress whether she was privy to any information about how celebrities get work-around deals in order to endorse political candidates, such as lining up movie roles or securing book deals.

"I don't really maneuver inside that industry. I never have," she claimed. She added that the cast of "The Sopranos" were considered outcasts in the television industry.

"Even though we were critically acclaimed, we still were outcasts. So I'm still an outcast; here I am. They're going to take me out into the woods and shoot me for not endorsing Biden," she added.

The actress was likely referring to her exit from the hit show, in which her character was shot in the woods after mob members found out she was working for the FBI.

"I do know that people are tired of it, and there are very few people that are willing to speak out," she said in a previous interview, according to Variety. "They probably will vote Republican, and that's people who would never normally, but people are afraid. This doesn't feel like a democracy any more.”

De Matteo was previously spotlighted in recent news stories after she opened an account on OnlyFans — a website typically viewed as a subscription service for pornography or other explicit material — because her house was going into foreclosure.

"Why did I join OnlyFans? When we launched, we had ... I'd say, a couple hundred bucks left in the bank, I'm not kidding," Complex reported the actress said. "My house was going into foreclosure. Did I do it out of desperation? F** yes, I did."

The Italian has also stated that she was forced to "switch careers and figure new things out" because her industry thinks she's "a savage” because she does not believe in COVID vaccine mandates.

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'Reacher’ star gets DESTROYED after attacking police!



If you’re a fan of the hit Amazon Prime series “Reacher,” you’re in for a bit of a disappointment.

Alan Ritchson, who plays Jack Reacher, has been using social media to attack every conservative group he can get his hands on, including Christian groups — despite claiming to be a Christian himself.

Lauren Chen, who is a fan of the show, isn’t pleased.

“Ritchson’s behavior on social media kind of gives me pause,” Chen says. “People are allowed to have whatever political opinions they want, that doesn’t mean that I’m gonna’ boycott their shows or their products, because I’m just not that type of person.”

“The thing with Ritchson, though, is that he takes his political and social beliefs a step further and he doesn’t seem happy to just state what he believes in. He is very vocal about who and what he is actively against,” she continues.

In a recent interview, Ritchson brought his commentary to new heights while discussing his Christian faith. He explained that it’s hard to discuss Christian faith in Hollywood without being labeled as “one of those hateful Christians” or a “bigot.”

“Christians today have become the most vitriolic tribe,” Ritchson continued, adding, “Trump is a rapist and a con man and yet, the entire Christian church seems to treat him like he’s their poster child and it’s unreal.”

But that’s not all.

When Elon Musk took over Twitter, now known as X, Ritchson disapproved of Elon as a “free speech absolutist” so much that he not only deleted his account but posted a long video to social media encouraging others to do the same. He used an analogy that made no sense to make his point, which leaves Chen with one suggestion for the actor.

“I believe in free speech, but, like, I also believe you should probably act in your own interest and not let everybody know you’re a complete idiot,” she offers.


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Billy Dee Williams defends blackface in exchange with Bill Maher: 'If you're an actor, you should do anything you want to do.'



Billy Dee Williams said that he believes actors should be able to do what they want to do, including blackface. The comments were made on Bill Maher's show, "Club Random with Bill Maher."

Williams called attention to Laurence Olivier's performance in "Othello," where he wore blackface. "When he did 'Othello,' I fell out laughing. He stuck his a** out and walked around because black people are supposed to have big a**es."

Following the comments, Maher replied: "Today, they would never let you do that."

"Why?" Williams responded. "You should do it. If you're an actor, you should do anything you want to do."

"That's a great point of view, but the theater would be bombed," Maher replied back.

— (@)

Williams mentioned that he refused to "go through life feeling like, 'I'm a victim.' I refuse to go through life saying to the world, 'I'm pissed off.' I'm not gonna be pissed off 24 hours a day."

A recent example that the two brought up in the exchange was Bradley Cooper's prosthetic nose in last year's Oscar-nominated "Maestro." Cooper portrayed the famous conductor Leonard Bernstein, and he appears to have sported a fake nose that some denounced as anti-Semitic.

Non-Jewish people portraying Jewish people in performances has been characterized as "Jewface" by some.

Cooper responded to the claims when the film was released.

“I thought, ‘Maybe we don’t need to do it,'” Cooper said, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “But it’s all about balance, and, you know, my lips are nothing like Lenny’s, and my chin. And so we had that, and it just didn’t look right [without the prosthetic].”

Despite some of the outrage, the Anti-Defamation League came to the film's defense, saying: “Throughout history, Jews were often portrayed in antisemitic films and propaganda as evil caricatures with large, hooked noses. This film, which is a biopic on the legendary conductor Leonard Bernstein, is not that.”

Bernstein's three children — Jamie, Alexander, and Nina Bernstein — also came to Cooper's defense of the performance, per Variety.

“Bradley Cooper included the three of us along every step of his amazing journey as he made his film about our father. We were touched to the core to witness the depth of his commitment, his loving embrace of our father’s music, and the sheer open-hearted joy he brought to his exploration.”

“It breaks our hearts to see any misrepresentations or misunderstandings of his efforts," the three continued. "It happens to be true that Leonard Bernstein had a nice, big nose. Bradley chose to use makeup to amplify his resemblance, and we’re perfectly fine with that. We’re also certain that our dad would have been fine with it as well."

"Any strident complaints around this issue strike us above all as disingenuous attempts to bring a successful person down a notch — a practice we observed all too often perpetrated on our own father. At all times during the making of this film, we could feel the profound respect and yes, the love that Bradley brought to his portrait of Leonard Bernstein and his wife, our mother Felicia. We feel so fortunate to have had this experience with Bradley, and we can’t wait for the world to see his creation.”

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Actors' union director expresses fear that strike is preventing LGBT propagandists from advancing their 'worldview-changing' agenda



Every day that the actors' and writers' unions remain on strike marks another day that LGBT activists in Hollywood are not producing "worldview-changing" propaganda for popular consumption, according to the national director of the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

This may come as good news to those Americans growing tired of the coordinated effort by various gatekeepers and cultural engineers in media to shoehorn unprecedented amounts of LGBT content into film and television for non-artistic reasons. However, for SAG-AFTRA director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the delays are unconscionable.

Crabtree-Ireland, a past co-president of the LGBTQ Bar Association of Los Angeles, spoke at a recent press conference announcing the LGBT activist outfit GLAAD's annual Studio Responsibility Index — an index that monitors how much non-straight content is being manufactured for film and television, always encouraging more.

The union executive noted that LGBT propaganda efforts might be set back in 2024 and beyond owing to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers' alleged unwillingness to capitulate to strikers' demands.

"The studios' and streamers' insistence on keeping the industry shut down not only harms the economies of communities that rely on motion picture production, but it's also detrimental to the pipeline of future projects that feature LGBTQ+ representation," said Crabtree-Ireland. "Though some gains have been made in recent years, storytelling that reflects the full, true spectrum of the human experience is currently under attack."

According to GLAAD's latest index, 28.5% of the 350 films released by 10 major distributors — including A24, Amazon Studios, AppleTV+, Paramount Global, and the Walt Disney Company — contained a non-straight character, "the highest number and percentage recorded in the 11 years GLAAD has conducted this study."

Forty percent of the 292 non-straight characters across the 100 "LGBTQ-inclusive" films were nonwhites; 119 were women, and 10 were individuals who rejected their biological sex.

When judging studios on the basis of how much LGBT content they peddled in 2022, NBCUniversal and Disney both scored "good" ratings, Disney having made sure 41% of its output was "LGBTQ-inclusive."

These numbers may be hard to hit if the studios prove unable to generate any content this year.

Crabtree-Ireland suggested that AMPTP companies "are complicit in this regressive push if they continue preventing artists from getting back to work and making their worldview-changing stories."

"Everyone deserves to grow up seeing their identity authentically represented in film and media," continued Crabtree-Ireland. "The companies must come back to the negotiating table, make a fair deal, get writers and performers back to work, and help all of us use the profound power of the medium — along with empowering LGBTQ+ representation — to build a better, more welcoming future for generations to come."

SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher, the "anti-capitalist" multimillionaire who decades ago starred in the CBS sitcom, "The Nanny," similarly suggested that a failure to satisfy the actors' and writers' demands amounted to a setback to "inclusive representation."

"Right now, there's a very tiny but loud segment of our population that's hard at work spreading hate and fear while attempting to squash all storytelling that showcases the full, beautiful reality of the human experience," added the Democratic 65-year-old. "The longer the AMPTP companies keep the entertainment industry shut down by refusing to come back to the bargaining table, the more risk there is for disrupting the progress that's been made in terms of inclusive representation."

At the press conference, GLAAD president Sarah Kate Ellis joined her comrades in underscoring what is at stake for propagandists as it pertains to the strike: "LGBTQ stories told through film have a powerful and inextricable link to culture change. With more people than ever now empowered to live authentically and openly, the cost of lost progress in LGBTQ representation on screen means erasure."

Bounding Into Comics reported that Michele Mulroney, the vice president of the similarly striking Writers Guild of America, claimed, "The stalling of the AMPTP companies for the last 136 Days, and their refusal to engage in a basic negotiating process that gives writers a fair deal, threatens to impede the progress made by LGBTQ+ writers and deny our culture of powerful, authentic LGBTQ+ stories."

CNBC indicated that Hollywood studios and the WGA may be nearing an agreement to bring the strike to an end, with negotiations restarting Thursday.

If a deal is not reached, CNBC suggested that the WGA strike, which has already gone on for over 140 days, may continue through the end of the year. That would mean that production on properties at Netflix, Disney, and Paramount, may be delayed well into 2024.

Besides preventing recycled comic book properties from being produced and the LGBT agenda from being furthered to GLAAD's satisfaction, this strike is having a significant impact on production companies' bottom lines.

Warner Bros. Discovery, among the media giants impacted, noted in a recent securities filing that it expects the company's earnings before interest and taxes to suffer a $300-$500 million hit owing to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.

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Here’s The Best List Ranking Every Tom Cruise Movie Ever Made

In order to provide Federalist readers with an accurate accounting of Tom Cruise's movie career, here's a list ranking every film he's ever made.

I Don’t Want To Boycott ‘The Chosen,’ But The Cast And Crew Are Forcing Me To Walk Away

According to several 'Chosen' actors, tolerance is apparently a one-way street.

'Saving Private Ryan' star Tom Sizemore in critical condition after suffering a brain aneurysm



Actor Tom Sizemore is in critical condition in an intensive care unit after suffering from a brain aneurysm, according to reports.

Sizemore's Hollywood representative Charles Lago told Fox News, "He is in the hospital. His family is aware of the situation and are hoping for the best. It is too early to know about [a] recovery situation as he is in critical condition and under observation."

Lago told TMZ that the "Saving Private Ryan" star was at his Los Angeles home where he suffered a brain aneurysm and collapsed into unconsciousness around 2 a.m. on Saturday. Someone reportedly found Sizemore unconscious, called 911, and the 61-year-old actor was rushed to a local hospital.

Sizemore started his acting career in 1989 and has 263 acting credits to his name. Sizemore has starred in Hollywood blockbusters such as "Saving Private Ryan," "Black Hawk Down," "Natural Born Killers," "Heat," "True Romance," "Wyatt Earp," "Born on the Fourth of July," and "Point Break." Sizemore had been acting up until recently, and has numerous projects due to be released this year.

Sizemore has battled drug addiction since he was 15 years old, and has been in and out of rehab. Sizemore appeared on the reality television series "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew." The Detroit native has been arrested for possession of meth and "various illegal narcotics." The actor has repeatedly failed drug tests while on probation. He also had several run-ins with the law, including domestic violence.

This is a developing story and will be updated if there are new details.

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Scarlett Johansson claims Hollywood 'groomed' her into becoming objectified 'bombshell' actress



Scarlett Johansson claimed that Hollywood groomed her into becoming an objectified "bombshell" actress early in her career. The 38-year-old actress said she had to change course during her career to avoid being typecast.

Johansson appeared on the "Table for Two" podcast on Tuesday. She said her 2003 movies "Lost in Translation" and "Girl with a Pearl Earring" were a change from her childhood acting career to her adult progression.

“It sort of was my transition into my adult career,” Johansson said.

Johansson – who had been acting since age 9 – revealed that it was "a really hard time doing 'Lost in Translation.'" The movie was directed by Sofia Coppola and starred Bill Murray and Giovanni Ribisi.

"I kind of became like an ingénue, sort of, and I just think that's part of — young girls like that are really objectified, and that's just a fact," Johansson asserted. "I did 'Lost in Translation' and 'Girl with the Pearl Earring' and by that point, I was 18, 19, and I was coming into my own womanhood and learning my own desirability and sexuality."

The "Black Widow" actress added, "I think it was because of that trajectory I had been sort of launched towards — I really got stuck."

Of her early adult acting roles, Johansson explained, "I was kind of being groomed, in a way, to be this what you call a bombshell-type of actor."

"I was playing the ‘other woman’ and the object of desire," she continued. "And, you know, I suddenly found myself cornered in this place, like I couldn't get out of it."

Johansson credited Bryan Lourd – her agent and co-chairman at the powerful Hollywood talent agency Creative Artists Agency – for helping her not to get stereotyped into one specific kind of role.

The actress said of Lourd, "It would be easy to sit across from someone in that situation and go, 'This is working, why change it?'"

She noted, "But for that kind of bombshell, you know, that burns bright and quick, and then it’s done and you don’t have opportunity beyond that."

Johansson believes that her career started to shift when she starred in "Iron Man 2" and in a Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's play "A View from the Bridge."

She stated, "It really came back to doing work – working at it and trying to carve a place in different projects and work in great ensembles."

In October, Johansson said Hollywood "hypersexualized" her early in her career.

"Because I think everybody thought I was older and I'd been [acting] for a long time, and then I got kind of pigeonholed into this weird hypersexualized thing," she told Dax Shepard on the "Armchair Expert" podcast. "It was like, that's the kind of career you have. These are the roles you've played. And I was like, 'This is it, I guess.'"

Johansson said it is "scary" that "the runway is not long" for actresses who rely solely on their beauty.

You can listen to the entire Scarlett Johansson interview on "Table for Two" below.