'Mosquito Bowl' director hasn't given up on heroes



Director Peter Berg can’t shake the memory of Gene Hackman dangling from a steam valve wheel in 1972’s “The Poseidon Adventure.” Hackman’s character, a man of faith on a doomed cruise ship, sacrificed himself so that the remaining passengers could live.

That image, that heroism, never left the future filmmaker.

'I’m drawn to the emotion that is generated when human beings are in dire situations.'

“It stuck with me,” Berg tells Blaze Media. “Since ‘The Poseidon Adventure,’ I’ve been trying to make human stories surround by action.”

Something bigger

Berg’s film canon backs that up. He’s responsible for a crush of heroic tales, including “Lone Survivor” (2013), “Deepwater Horizon” (2016), “Patriots Day” (2016), and now “The Mosquito Bowl.”

The Netflix original, premiering in theaters today before its Nov. 25 streaming debut, follows four college football stars as they trade pigskins for rifles post-Pearl Harbor. The quartet (Ray Nicholson, Bill Skarsgård, Tom Francis, and Nicholas Galitzine) bond and bicker between battles, but they get a chance to flex their football skills in the titular bowl.

Berg previously directed 2004’s “Friday Night Lights,” also drawn from a book by author Buzz Bissinger (Berg’s cousin). The director leapt at the chance to helm the scribe’s fact-based tale.

“I could sense that, like with ‘Friday Night Lights,’ he was tapping into bigger themes than football or war,” Berg says. “I knew he was throwing a fastball with this book. His dad was a Marine in Okinawa. My dad was a Marine in Korea ... this was the kind of story I wanted to be a part of.”

'Inch by inch'

Berg commits to serious research before any film projects. For “The Mosquito Bowl,” he visited Okinawa and toured the battlefield that plays a key part in the film’s third act.

He marveled at “the slopes and the mountains that had to be fought over and the caves that had to be entered,” he says, as well as the furious nature of the battles. “I wasn’t aware of how incredibly violent it was, inch by inch, bullet by bullet, flame thrower by flame thrower, these two militaries just went at it.”

His film is unsparing on that front, assembling some of the most unsettling war images since “Saving Private Ryan.”

To attempt to grasp the scale of death and destruction, he visited the Cornerstone of Peace monument at Peace Memorial Park in Itoman, Okinawa, where more than 200,000 names of those who lost their lives in the battle are etched in stone.

“You can literally feel it as you move through Okinawa. I’m glad I went out there. It seared that into my soul,” he says.

Brotherhood and bravery

The veteran director started his career as an actor (“Chicago Hope,” “A Midnight Clear”) before moving behind the camera without sticking to any one genre. Still, the obvious through line in his work is courage, bravery, and sacrifice, the very DNA of “The Mosquito Bowl.”

“I’m drawn to the emotion that is generated when human beings are in dire situations,” he says. “It’s an opportunity to explore character, strength, perseverance, heroism, cowardly behavior, complicitous behavior ... under the umbrella of action and intensity. I’ve always been drawn to that. I don’ t know why.”

He’s more dialed in about football’s eternal appeal.

“Football’s just the perfect sport. It requires 11 men on the sides to all be operating in perfect unison together. It’s completely unpredictable ... there’s an element of danger, there’s incredible athleticism, and there’s a brotherhood. The brotherhood is incredibly inspiring, and the emotion is real ... it transcends our petty human differences and unites us all,” he says. “Football is the greatest thing that’s ever been invented, and we need more football.”

RELATED: Director finds faith in the wild with Brad Pitt’s ‘Heart of the Beast’

Paramount Pictures/JB Lacroix/Getty Images

Head down

Berg has worked steadily for decades in Hollywood, including the occasional acting gig — don’t miss his inspirational cameo in “The Mosquito Bowl.” Unlike some of his peers, he doesn’t fear the rise of AI in La La Land.

“All you can do is control what you can control,” he says. “I’m not seeing AI coming at me right now as the death of my business. I’m seeing opportunities.”

His approach to an evolving industry hasn’t changed, something he advises to anyone eager to tell big-screen stories.

“You have to keep your head down and work,” he says. “Movies in theaters are doing very, very well right now. The [Paramount-Warner Bros.] merger is not going to change much. There’s still a lot of stuff being made.”

He’s even more optimistic about young filmmakers joining the business. Think 20-something director Curry Barker of “Obsession” fame, a movie that defied all Hollywood wisdom to earn more than $500 million worldwide. He’s delighted to note how rebel storyteller Nathan Fielder broke out via his documentary smash “You Can See Everything,” in theaters now.

“I think we’re just fine,” he says of Hollywood as 2027 nears.

Woke went broke, but that doesn’t mean it failed



From Target’s 2023 Pride Month merchandise, to Bud Light’s disastrous collaboration with Dylan Mulvaney, to Cracker Barrel’s 2025 logo modernization, “go woke, go broke” has repeatedly been proven true.

But does that mean the progressive propaganda failed?

According to BlazeTV host Auron MacIntyre, it’s not that simple.

“Even though much of the woke content was very cringe and often failed financially, what if it had a bigger impact on us socially?” he asks.

On a recent episode of “The Auron MacIntyre Show,” Auron and his guest, social scientist and online political commentator Aydin Paladin, discussed this query.

Auron explains that many conservatives dismissed the woke movement on the premise that “the marketplace wins.”

“People will vote with their dollars; they’ll vote with their attention, and companies will be forced to respond to financial incentives. And so, even if there’s some kooky message getting cooked up by the progressive left in Hollywood, ultimately, once that fails, they’ll have to come back to good old-fashioned, slightly less subversive media narratives,” he says, explaining the thinking of people who assumed that wokeness had a short shelf life.

While wokeness did largely fail in a financial sense, it succeeded in other ways, Paladin says.

In her recent video “The Disturbing Psychology of Hollywood’s Moral Collapse,” she argued that Hollywood and related entertainment spent over a decade pushing progressive messaging and produced many commercial failures, and that audiences rejected a lot of the most overtly “woke” films and games — yet many of the underlying ideas still became normalized in the broader culture through narrative persuasion.

“When you talk about funding from big companies like Disney, from companies like Black Rock that back up these media entertainment companies, well, at the end of the day, it didn’t really matter whether or not it succeeded financially,” she tells Auron. “Little nuggets of information could have ended up in people’s minds permanently anyway. It’s way harder to forget something that you’ve already learned.”

“People want the world explained to them. They can’t experience everything around them,” Auron says.

When it comes to topics like sexuality, race, and even history, “whoever gets to set the frame of the discussion ... gets to define it going forward,” he explains.

Hollywood, he and Paladin argue, filled that role of being the first to introduce certain topics. Its decade-long push of progressive messaging in entertainment succeeded in making certain ideas feel like ordinary background assumptions, even when the individual films and shows flopped commercially.

Paladin gives the example of the late-90s/early-2000s sitcom “Will and Grace.”

“There’s been significant research that’s been done on people’s attitudes towards homosexuals and lesbians and their exposure to ‘Will and Grace’ because that was kind of the first big show where there was gay representation on TV where it wasn’t supposed to be inherently negative,” she says.

“If that’s your first exposure [to homosexuality] and it’s a positive exposure, well, then you’re going to be more likely to maintain that positive attitude towards [homosexuals], and the same thing happens with information.”

To hear the full conversation, watch the episode above.

Want more from Auron MacIntyre?

To enjoy more of this YouTuber and recovering journalist's commentary on culture and politics, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

FALLING STARS: Hollywood woke-erati on the outs as Skydance soars



She’s no Dolly.

Now, it must be tough to live in the shadow of a beloved icon like Dolly Parton. Still, kid sister Stella Parton is working hard to stand out — in all the wrong ways.

The New York Times wasn’t happy about David’s handiwork. You can’t do satire that impacts ... us!

She’s always been more partisan than the country music legend. Fine. That’s a choice. A less responsible choice? Wishing death on an entrepreneur because you don’t like his politics.

The younger Parton just wished death on Elon Musk and hoped he would be eaten by worms sooner than later. Oh, and she says Musk will rig the midterm elections.

We always did wonder who inspired her big sister's breakout hit ...

Taika break

Remember when director Taika Waititi was a thing?

The New Zealand cutup gave us “The Hunt for the Wilderpeople” and the amazing “Jojo Rabbit.” Even his “Thor: Ragnarok” made us smile. Then, it all went downhill for the wacky auteur.

The less said about “Thor: Love and Thunder,” the better. His fact-based soccer comedy “Next Goal Wins” flopped with critics and audiences. His attempt to modernize the classic ‘80s fantasy “Time Bandits” crashed after one woke season.

Little people couldn’t apply, and it showed.

Now, his latest project is getting skewered before its release. “Klara and the Sun” stars “It” actress Jenna Ortega of “Wednesday” fame. The film sports a blistering 27% “rotten” score at Rotten Tomatoes.

The film’s modest release pattern just got cut in half. The rascally Critical Drinker devoted a “Crash and Burn” episode to the fading auteur last year. Looks like he might have material for a whole new installment ...

Let's get small

Is Sacha Baron Cohen auditioning for an “Incredible Shrinking Man” reboot?

2006's “Borat" gave the British funnyman "great success" — one he's been trying to recapture ever since. Sure, he’s aligned with Quentin Tarantino for the director’s upcoming play, but Cohen’s Midas touch disappeared a while ago.

This weekend, his new comedy “Ali G: Who Iz I?” debuts in a few hundred theaters. That wasn’t the original release plan, but the film’s footprint keeps on shrinking.

The film will only be in select theaters one weekend too, even if the film performs well. That’s unlikely.

So what happened? Cohen went woke, raged against free speech, and turned his signature characters into anti-Trump vehicles. Cohen was already exhibiting signs of TDS in “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” the depressing sequel to one of Hollywood’s most outrageous comedies.

Not "very nice!"

'Curb' your socialism

Talk about a thin skin.

The New York Times reported on Larry David’s new Air Mail satirical column. David’s target? The Democratic Socialists of America. David is a loud and proud liberal, but even he understands the mania lurking not too far beneath the DSA surface.

And he called it out, including the group’s uneasiness with Jewish people. That’s being delicate. David isn’t. The column finds the DSA renaming them the Bagel People and shipping them out of Israel.

The New York Times wasn’t happy about David’s handiwork. You can’t do satire that impacts ... us! So it created a “blowback”-style description suggesting the column drew a large, negative response. Except it had no tangible proof of that, so the Old Gray Lady found a few angry social media users posting about the column and gave them all the gravitas of a retired war general.

The newspaper even sought a few of them out to extrapolate on their rage with modest results, at best.

The Times desperately wanted to attack David for mocking its beloved DSA. And it bent Journalism 101 to do it. To be fair, that’s pretty on brand for the newspaper in 2026 ...

RELATED: MEAN GIRLS: 'View' crew preaches girl power ... unless you're Republican

Lou Rocco/Tom Williams/Getty Images

Merger meltdown

And you thought the left and the media (but we repeat ourselves) loathed Elon Musk already. Now, the tech trillionaire is investing in Skydance to the tune of $1 billion. And that number might grow in the coming weeks.

Skydance has become a Hollywood behemoth with remarkable speed. David Ellison’s original Skydance Media merged with Paramount Global last year, creating Paramount Skydance. This month, that company swallowed Warner Bros. Discovery and renamed the whole operation Skydance. The result puts Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., CBS, CNN, HBO, and two major streaming services under one roof.

And the Ellisons aren’t exactly your standard Antifa-adjacent Hollywood studio clan. Which raises an intriguing possibility: One of the biggest entertainment companies in America may actually make room for the half of the country Hollywood Inc. has spent years ignoring.

Or at the very least, it could finally drive Mark Ruffalo completely around the bend.

50 Cent exposes Hollywood's dirty little secret about 'diversity'



Hollywood’s commitment to diversity is hollow, according to rapper and television producer Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson.

The “Power” producer says the industry’s investment in black programming fails to match its rhetoric.

'They're not screaming for diversity. Are you crazy?'

OG Hollywood

“They’re not screaming for diversity. Are you crazy?” Jackson told Andrew Schulz on his podcast “Flagrant.”

“They don’t care to see you n*****s on the TV, bro,” he laughed.

Jackson appears alongside Schulz in the new “Street Fighter” adaptation, which opened October 16. Their conversation turned to the difficulty of building a television business and the kinds of projects Hollywood is willing to finance.

Jackson argued that “white Hollywood,” which he called “the original Hollywood,” remains the industry’s most commercially successful model.

Movies starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, he said, attracted audiences across racial and national lines because they were well made and properly financed. Viewers could see themselves in the characters regardless of their own backgrounds.

Jackson pointed to Tony Montana, the Cuban refugee played by Pacino in “Scarface,” as a character whose ambition resonated with audiences far beyond his own nationality.

But Jackson also sees a business opportunity in the industry’s funding priorities: He faces fewer well-financed competitors making programming for his audience.

“If you make diversity, I’m up against not so many fabulously financed projects,” he explained.

RELATED: SENIOR MOMENT: Veteran 'SNL' player breaks ranks to scold Shane Gillis for jokes

American stream

Jackson executive produces the “Power” franchise, which grew out of the Starz crime drama that aired from 2014 to 2020.

He said the rise of streaming services has helped create an opening for his work, with competing platforms needing shows that bring in subscribers.

“So when I come in, I’m able to to create s**t that is beyond ‘up to standard’ because of the landscape of the business. I’m coming at a time that you got streamers and apps and all of these different things.”

RELATED: Dana Carvey has just one word for Shane Gillis' controversial 'SNL' routine

Johnny Nunez/WireImage

Where is the love?

Jackson also questioned why the “Power” franchise’s popularity with black and Latino audiences had failed to translate into Emmy recognition.

“They don’t care about diversity. Trust me,” he said. “I’ve been No. 1 in African-American and Latino households for, and this s**t is crazy, like for 13 years.”

While none of the dramas he produced have won Emmys, Jackson took home a trophy for his 2022 performance in the Super Bowl halftime show.

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'Digger' is the canary in the climate-change coal mine



Sometimes an issue’s best barometer is external to it. Such is the case for the climate-change agenda and the box-office bombing of Tom Cruise’s current movie, "Digger." Both agenda and movie are losing their audiences.

By now everyone has heard of the dual drubbing Tom Cruise’s "Digger" is receiving. First, it was panned by critics. Now, it is being ignored by audiences. Together, these have garnered the movie negative box-office headlines and put it well on its way to making the list of all-time money-losers.

Although the canary may not be dead in climate change’s coal mine, it is no longer singing.

Both outcomes are surprising. Critics have been very kind in the past to Tom Cruise and his projects. And the public has been kinder still, making him one of Hollywood’s biggest movie stars.

More surprising than either is the fact that one of the world’s biggest stars and one of the world’s most discussed issues would come together in such a pratfall.

Yes, there have been notable examples where the climate-change agenda seemed to show signs of wobbling. Bill Gates released a famous statement last year that said the “doomsday view of climate change” was “wrong.” Gates suggested acceptance and talked about working to address climate change’s impact (“to put human welfare at the center of our climate strategies”) rather than continue seeking to reverse it.

This June, Jamie Dimon issued a warning to Europe, home of climate change’s greatest adherents and policy implementers, that these countries were killing themselves economically. As Dimon noted that Europe’s GDP had fallen from 90% of the U.S.’ to just 70%, the connection was unmistakable.

Not long ago too, the U.N. dropped the severest estimate of climate change’s potential impact from its impact projections.

All were telltale signs of shift, but they were easy to miss or dismiss, especially considering the enormous coverage that the climate change agenda has received and the huge financial resources committed (an estimated $1 trillion in the U.S. alone) to it.

RELATED: Don’t let anyone spoil ‘Digger’ for you

Image courtesy of Warner Brothers

It is safe to say that climate change has been the most consistently uninterrupted major issue for policymakers and the public alike for decades now. Everyone knew which way the wind was blowing, and almost everyone sought to burnish their green bona fides accordingly.

Overlooked, though, was the shift that was occurring beneath the headlines. Since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and especially since the Iranian conflict began, the focus has been on the price of oil, not its usage. Lost in this contemporary focus was any serious mention of getting away from oil. Neither was mention made that, from a climate-change devotee’s perspective, higher oil prices are a good thing.

The focus has all been on the negative impact of higher oil prices, on the need for getting them lower, and on the need for making oil supply routes more secure.

As important as all these underground indicators of the climate-change agenda’s retrenchment are, "Digger" may be an even more important one. The combined failure of one of Hollywood’s biggest studios, one of the world’s biggest stars, and one of the world’s (until recently, at least) biggest issues may be a signal that the public no longer cares so much. It has moved on.

"Digger" and climate change: a related occurrence in an unrelated area. It calls to mind another familiar analogy of the canary in the coal mine. Although the canary may not be dead in climate change’s coal mine, it is no longer singing.

CS Lewis knew how clever people teach themselves to be fools



The new trailer for Greta Gerwig’s “Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew” promises a dazzling sight: a world coming into being. Fans of C.S. Lewis will be watching Aslan and the White Witch. I’ll be watching Uncle Andrew. He may be the book’s most disturbing character because he teaches himself to deny what he knows.

Andrew’s talent for explaining away unwelcome truth raises an uncomfortable question about Gerwig’s adaptation. Will she allow Lewis to tell his Christian story, or will she explain its Christian meaning away?

God speaks through his Word, and Uncle Andrew shows how a person can become so skilled at self-defense that he loses the ability to listen.

As a philosophy professor and Christian pastor, I recognize the temptation. Education can help us discover truth. It can also equip us with elaborate excuses for resisting it. An impressive vocabulary does not guarantee an honest mind.

Lewis introduces Uncle Andrew as a man convinced that intellectual distinction exempts him from ordinary duties. Keeping promises is for lesser people. Andrew knows the secrets of the occult, so he imagines he can send children into dangers he refuses to face himself. He calls his cowardice greatness.

The vice is familiar: Exceptional ability supposedly confers exceptional moral privileges. A radical professor who believes his political vision justifies tearing down inherited institutions uses Andrew’s logic. So does the politician who excuses the dangers of communism or socialism because a glorious future allegedly demands sacrifices now. The superior mind claims authority to break rules it imposes on everyone else.

Then Uncle Andrew meets Aslan.

At first, Andrew hears the Lion’s song as music. It stirs thoughts and feelings he does not want to entertain. He then tells himself that no lion could possibly sing. He must have heard roaring. The longer Aslan sings, the harder Andrew works to believe his own explanation. Eventually he hears only animal noises, even when Aslan speaks.

Lewis gives us the verdict: “Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed.”

Notice the order. Andrew recognizes something, resists it, and finally loses the ability to recognize it. His ignorance is learned. What looks like an intellectual limitation begins as a moral refusal.

RELATED: The lion, the witch, and the worldview war

Gisela Schober/Getty Images

That’s why I worry about the film. A director can admire Lewis’s portals, creatures, and cosmic song while rejecting the Creator who gives them meaning. She can retain the scenery and rewrite the moral order. The result may look like Narnia without being Lewis’ Narnia.

A story has more than recognizable characters and scenes. It tells us what is good, what has gone wrong, and what would make things right. For Lewis, creation has a good and authoritative Creator. Sin requires repentance. Redemption answers a need human beings cannot overcome by declaring themselves enlightened.

Could a filmmaker present that vision faithfully without sharing Lewis’ faith? Certainly. But she must first let the author challenge her own assumptions. If Gerwig turns his Christian account of creation into a comfortable endorsement of modern cultural priorities, she will have made Uncle Andrew’s mistake: hearing the song and insisting it is merely roaring.

The trailer cannot settle that question, and I will judge the finished film when it arrives. My concern is what Hollywood so often does to stories whose moral claims it finds inconvenient. An adaptation should not become an exercise in correcting the author.

RELATED: Netflix ‘adapts’ Steinbeck’s ‘East of Eden’ — and Satan gets a sympathetic makeover

Emilio Madrid/Getty Images

Christians, however, should not congratulate themselves too quickly. Uncle Andrew is more than a stand-in for a leftist professor, a politician, or a Hollywood director. Lewis’ warning reaches the church as well.

In Romans 1, Paul writes of people who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. God reveals himself through creation, but human beings refuse to honor him or give thanks. Their reasoning becomes futile, and their hearts grow dark. They claim wisdom as they become fools.

Paul does not describe every unbeliever as someone who merely lacks information. Our desires shape what we are willing to admit. We can demand more evidence while insulating ourselves from the implications of evidence already before us.

Christians can do this, too. We acknowledge God’s revelation in creation, then find reasons to disregard it. We know a biblical command, then use our intelligence to argue that our circumstances make us the exception. We defend Christian books without accepting their correction. Praising Lewis’ theology is easier than submitting to the God he confessed.

That is why Uncle Andrew belongs in a Christian reflection rather than merely a debate over a Netflix film. We should ask whether our explanations clarify the truth or protect us from it. Can we admit that our clever argument was an excuse? Will we confess when God’s Word confronts something we want to keep?

Christ offers forgiveness to sinners who have spent years defending their sins. His grace frees us to abandon our excuses instead of perfecting them.

I hope Gerwig gives Lewis a faithful hearing. The finished film will show us whether she has. Meanwhile, our own hearing deserves examination. God speaks through his Word, and Uncle Andrew shows how a person can become so skilled at defending himself that he loses the ability to listen.

Sensitive Skin: Ossoff Quietly Rebrands $1,700 Payment to Hollywood Makeup Artist as 'Event Production'

Jon Ossoff's makeup tab continues to mount heading into the midterms. The Democratic senator from Georgia paid his favorite Hollywood makeup artist $1,749 in July, according to his latest campaign financial disclosure. Ossoff has now paid Atlanta-based freelancer Stephanie Ponder, whose film credits include The Notebook and The Hunger Games, more than $4,600 since February.

The post Sensitive Skin: Ossoff Quietly Rebrands $1,700 Payment to Hollywood Makeup Artist as 'Event Production' appeared first on .

MEAN GIRLS: 'View' crew preaches girl power ... unless you're Republican



“The View” crew blew a gasket over Shane Gillis’ “Saturday Night Live” monologue mocking scantily clad gym gals. At the same time, they dabbled in actual misogyny.

Even by “View” standards, it was peak hypocrisy.

Biden, the actor said weeks before the president melted down during his final debate, was 'sharp as a tack.'

The hosts trashed Katie Zacharia, who by most accounts had a rough debut as the new press secretary. She’s a Republican, so she’s fair game to “The View.” And that’s fine. We expect the show’s partisanship to trump any “girl power” collegiality.

It’s baked into the nutty cake.

Except the hosts suggested that Zacharia slept her way into the position. Co-host Alyssa Farrah Griffin asked how she “got through the door” to become the new press secretary.

“I’ll tell ya how she got through the door,” Sara Haines said, sparking laughs from the oh-so-feminist crowd and co-hosts.

Titter-titter. Chuckle-chuckle. What’s more empowering than women insisting other women got work through sexual favors sans proof? Let’s hope Gillis doesn’t riff on Kamala Harris’ early days in politics. He might get canceled yet again …

Conspiracy bleary

The truth is out there, but you’ll need a Hulu subscription to find it.

Director Ryan Coogler’s “X-Files” reboot landed on the streamer this week. The project stars Danielle Deadwyler and Himesh Patel, taking over for Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny. The actors play entirely new characters in the series, but it looks like Mulder and Scully will make appearances along the way.

Imagine the new conspiracies the show can tackle! The government spreads massive lies about a China-born infection … a foreign country teams with a political rebel to win an election … a U.S. president’s cognitive decline is hidden for four straight years.

Or the show could bring in the son of the Smoking Man. We’ll see …

Did he stutter?

Well, that was awkward.

Michael Douglas has done it all in his 82 years, at least from a Hollywood perspective. Oscars. Acclaim. Nepo baby-ism. What a life.

What hasn’t he done? Sit with someone willing to debunk his boilerplate Democrat views. He got that chance, finally, when Joe Rogan read him, and his audience, the riot act on progressives gone wild.

An open border? No honest primaries for year after year? And, most specifically, they covered up for a president who clearly had some form of dementia.

You know the thing.

Rogan was on a roll, but the most awkward element of their exchange dealt with Biden’s obvious decline. Why? It wasn’t long ago when Douglas was part of the Biden cover-up.

Biden, the actor said weeks before the president melted down during his final debate, was “sharp as a tack.” Douglas even cited Biden’s “stutter” excuse that mysteriously appeared over the past few years after decades in D.C.

Douglas appears to be legitimately “sharp as a tack,” thank goodness. Let’s hope he took away some lessons from the exchange …

RELATED: Shattered by socialism: 'Escaping Venezuela' offers a warning for Mamdani's America

Yamil Lage/Getty Images

Laugh track

Chuck Lorre blames a Hollywood writers' strike for the end of democracy.

Sort of.

He framed it that way in his new book, a memoir called “Sitcom.” After all, Lorre has made more than a few modern classics, from “The Big Bang Theory” to “Two and a Half Men.”

Credit where credit is due.

The far-Left Deadline.com pressed Lorre on that hyperbolic phrasing, tied to the 2007-2008 WGA strike that helped spark a crush of new reality showcases.

Like “The Apprentice,” starring Donald Trump, he insinuated. Except Lorre might be bad at math, since “The Apprentice” debuted in 2004.

The strike, he said, “brought about these enormously profitable, cheap-to-produce reality shows … and that ultimately led to a show like 'The Apprentice,' which probably would never have seen the light of day had it not been for that.”

Who knew a reality show could end the greatest nation on earth?

Either way, Lorre could ask Young Sheldon for help on his math skills …

Air ball

What the world doesn’t need is another John Oliver. One is one too many, culturally speaking. But former NBA star Blake Griffin sees the far-left HBO host as a model, of sorts, for his new sports-themed late-night show.

“The Stepback with Blake Griffin” soon bows on Amazon and YouTube, with Griffin hailing Oliver as his role model.

The funniest part? Someone thinking late-night TV is the future and itching for a seat at the table.

Meet The Supervillains Ruining America

Peachy Keenan's latest book, Supervillains: Architects of America’s Decline, is funny, concise, and surprisingly profound.

'PRIME' TIME: Failing Emmys flee network TV for Amazon



Hollywood is overrun with copycats.

Remember how 1978’s “Halloween” scared the bell-bottom pants off us? Well, another studio copied that stalker formula with 1980’s “Friday the 13th.” The rest is — ka-ka-ka ... ching-ching-ching — history.

Longtime liberals crossing party lines to oust an incompetent mayor and governor? if only we could import some of that common sense to the left coast.

If greed is good, then copycatting is even better.

That explains the marketing behind “Other Mommy.” Jessica Chastain stars as a mother who is targeted by an evil entity in the new horror flick. Apparently, said entity makes the actress adopt a massive, creepy smile to let us know something isn’t quite right with her.

And if you’ve seen “Smile” (2022) or “Smile 2” (2024), you know exactly the look. It’s one thing to make endless sequels. It’s another to steal the signature visual gimmick from another franchise. Maybe that’s why the studio behind “Other Mommy” hid it from critics prior to its Oct. 9 release date.

The reviews will likely be pretty scary …

'Speech' impediment

This should be a golden era for the Emmys. The trophy honoring the very best in TV programming has plenty to choose from, given the crush of new and existing platforms cranking out fresh product.

And while “The Sopranos” and “Breaking Bad” are long since over, there are plenty of top-flight TV shows to savor.

Yet the Emmys telecast will be moving to Prime Video starting next year. Why?

Ratings. Or the lack thereof. A telecast that used to draw 20 million viewers now scrambles to draw 7 million for a given gala.

Now, Prime Video will showcase the best of the best, in between political screeds. Why, it’s almost like the dawn of politically mouthy celebs had something to do with the ratings free fall …

Outbreak ... of TDS

It wasn’t too long ago that DNC mouthpiece Jimmy Kimmel held up a T-shirt with the slogan "Donald J. Trump is gonna kill you" on his show.

Now it’s Ana Navarro’s turn.

The “View” co-host spun news of a Russian-based plague outbreak to attack President Trump. That isn’t really shocking. “The View” could turn a discussion on Chia Pets into an anti-Trump jeremiad.

Navarro went the extra mile with her TDS moment. To be fair, she really attacked Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but he is tied directly to President Trump via the nomination process.

“There's going to be crisis, there's going to be health emergencies. And, you know, when I think of RFK Jr. heading HHS, I just say, girl, kiss your ass goodbye!”

Should be easy enough for Navarro, considering where her head already is ...

RELATED: GRAVE 'DIGGER': Will Tom Cruise's $100 million eco-flop bury Warner Bros.?

Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images

Not 'Messing' around

Here’s the ultimate "man bites dog" story.

“Will & Grace” alum Debra Messing is such a dyed-in-the-wool progressive that she once threatened to doxx anyone who supported President Trump in Hollywood. The obvious context? Good luck finding work in this town, bub.

That was then, before the explosion of anti-Semitism across the globe and, sadly, within her industry.

To her genuine credit, Messing has been one of the loudest celebrity voices speaking up for the Jewish people in our post-Oct. 7 world. And she knows that the Democrat Party is shockingly hostile to her fellow Jews.

That explains her new endorsement — she is supporting the GOP’s Bruce Blakeman over Democrat incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul in New York’s gubernatorial contest.

“The decline in this city over the last four years has been so exponential and devastating. … Economically, socially, and on every level. And, obviously, we’ve lost so much business here. People are leaving the city.”

In acknowledging Messing's support, Blakeman said the quiet part out loud.

“She is trying as hard as she can to save New York and make sure it’s safe for Jewish people to live in this community and to live in this state.”

She echoed the thoughts shared by fellow Jewish actor Michael Rapaport, who dropped his anti-Trump hysteria in recent years and now targets Big Apple Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D).

Longtime liberals crossing party lines to oust an incompetent mayor and governor? if only we could import some of that common sense to the left coast …

Sorkin's status

Are you sure about that, Aaron?

Writer-director Aaron Sorkin continues the Facebook saga with “The Social Reckoning” this weekend. The film, continuing a story that began in 2010 with “The Social Network,” shreds Facebook for algorithms that hurt one and all.

He’s not necessarily wrong, but the film is actually an attack on President Trump and, more significantly, the January 6 riots.

Except it looks like audiences will be giving Sorkin his own “reckoning.” The film will be lucky to squeak past the $8 million mark this weekend.

“The Social Network” bowed with $22 million en route to a $96 million U.S. haul.

Sorkin is already eyeing a third film in the saga.

“If a good story comes along and it takes place at Facebook, sure.”

If the box office receipts are anything like the experts predict, he might have to start a GoFundMe campaign to get it off the ground. I know just the place to share it!