Bond is back — and still a bloke



Could be some awkward times in Hollywood moving forward.

We recently saw nearly 4,000 Hollywood stars sign an open letter pledging to boycott Israeli-based film groups and productions. The who’s who of Hollywood included Emma Stone, Javier Bardem, Joaquin Phoenix, and many more.

Emma Watson became a star for one reason and one reason only — JK Rowling.

Now, roughly 1,200 actors are firing back.

A group including Debra Messing, Mayim Bialik, Liev Schreiber, Gene Simmons, and Howie Mandel signed a dueling open letter attacking that cultural boycott.

“We know the power of film. We know the power of story. That is why we cannot stay silent when a story is turned into a weapon, when lies are dressed up as justice, and when artists are misled into amplifying anti-Semitic propaganda.”

Imagine if some of these warring factions meet on a film or TV set moving forward. Yikes ...

Sorry not sorry

Jimmy Kimmel is back after falsely claiming MAGA killed conservative icon Charlie Kirk. You'd think with all that "free speech" he's once again enjoying, he could've spared a few words for a sincere apology.

After all, Kimmel didn't like it when Aaron Rodgers falsely alleged that he might be on a certain pedophile's list.

In fact, as Megyn Kelly points out, Kimmel lectured the NFL star on his manners for never saying he was sorry.

“And when I do get something wrong, which happens on rare occasions, you know what I do? I apologize for it. Which is what Aaron Rodgers should do, which is what a decent person would do.”

Good advice all around. We're waiting, Mr. Kimmel.

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Mike Malloy/Damon Packard/Cinerama/Manuel Velasquez/Getty Images

Moranis plays 'Balls'

You can’t keep a good Dark Helmet down.

Rick Moranis, the Canadian comic who brought the Darth Vader-esque villain to life in 1987’s “Spaceballs,” is ending his semi-retirement.

He’ll play Dark Helmet once more for the “Spaceballs” sequel, set for a 2027 release. The studio behind the film sent out a black-and-white cast photo, not unlike the still that triggered the media machine behind 2015’s “The Force Awakens.”

This time, the photo features returning franchise stars like Daphne Zuniga, Bill Pullman, and, of course, Moranis.

The busy actor took a knee on his Hollywood career following the death of his wife, Ann Belsky, from breast cancer. Being a dad took top priority, and he mostly left Hollywood behind. He’s done a modest amount of acting work since then, including voice-over appearances. The “Spaceballs” sequel will be his biggest gig in years.

Let’s hope the comedy sequel is more “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” and less “Caddyshack II” ...

He's a man, man!

Media outlets have spent years telling us who the next 007 will be. It was never based on, you know, actual facts, just rumors, wish-casting, and clickbait.

That’s journalism in 2025! (Hard news coverage is no better.)

Now, we’re getting our first real information about the next James Bond. It’s ... no one you’ve ever heard of. Ta-dah!

Director Denis Villeneuve and his team crave a “fresh face,” AKA an unknown star, to step into the iconic role. That’s the best news out of 007-ville in some time. The only other clues? The next Bond will be male and British.

Dylan Mulvaney need not apply.

Millions of woke voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced ...

JK ok with Emma

Don’t call it a comeback. Maybe just a backpedal.

Emma Watson became a star for one reason and one reason only — J.K. Rowling. The British author wrote the “Harry Potter” books, and Watson snagged the role of Hermione for the movie adaptation back in 2001.

It’s that simple.

Yet, when Rowling dared to disagree with the actor on some trans-related issues, Watson indirectly scorched her views on social media. So did some of her “Harry Potter” cast mates.

That was then — 2020 — when the woke mind virus rampaged Hollywood and elsewhere. Post a black square for BLM ... or else.

Now, Watson is singing a more sympathetic tune.

I really don’t believe that by having had that experience and holding the love and support and views that I have means that I can’t and don’t treasure Jo and the person that I had personal experiences with. ... It’s my deepest wish that people who don’t agree with my opinion will love me, and I hope I can keep loving people who I don’t necessarily share the same opinion with.

With age comes wisdom. It’s also safer to praise Rowling today following woke’s significant decline and the author’s refusal to bow to the cancel culture mob.

That’s courage, Hollywood-style.

Iconic actress tells 'James Bond' star to his face: 'James Bond has to be a guy'



Progressive writers should stay away from the "James Bond" series, according to one of the industry's most celebrated actresses.

For years, critics have wondered how long it would take for the iconic macho character to become a feminist version of himself or be portrayed by a woman entirely.

Even actor Pierce Brosnan, who portrayed the spy four times between 1995 and 2002, suggested the iconic character should be played by a female because he would find it "exhilarating."

"Get out of the way, guys, and put a woman up there," Brosnan said in September 2019.

Now, Brosnan's own co-star is telling him the beloved character cannot be played by a woman, ever.

'James Bond has to be James Bond; otherwise it becomes something else.'

During an interview for the upcoming film "The Thursday Murder Club," Brosnan was asked to reflect on what the Bond character means to him after all this time.

However, it was his recent co-star and revered actress Helen Mirren who stole the headlines and put her foot down on the character.

At 80, Mirren plays a retired spy in her new movie and was asked by outlet Saga if the female spy is a "better portrayal" of the world of espionage than 007 is.

"So many women have worked in that world. She's a manifestation of a reality, that's for sure," Mirren said, before dropping the hammer on the reporter. "More realistic. But not so much fun as Bond! I'm such a feminist, but James Bond has to be a guy. You can't have a woman. It just doesn't work."

Mirren added that if you turn Bond into a woman, the movie franchise would shift entirely.

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Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan attend Netflix's 'The Thursday Murder Club' New York screening at the Plaza Hotel on August 14, 2025, in New York City. Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images

"James Bond has to be James Bond; otherwise it becomes something else," Mirren declared.

Brosnan, on the other hand, seemingly reversed his commentary from 2019 and stated he is "so excited to see the next man come on the stage."

"I adore the world of James Bond. It's been very good to me," the 72-year- old continued, explaining that he is just a member of the audience now. "It's the gift that keeps giving."

Despite Brosnan's apparent change in opinion, the Bond franchise creators have been much less forgiving to the media when it comes to what gender James Bond can be.

About five months after Brosnan's feminist comments, sentiments of a she-Bond were shut down by Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, relatives of the original spy movie producer, Albert R. Broccoli.

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Eva Green, Daniel Craig, and Caterina Murino during 'Casino Royale' at Le Grand Rex theater in Paris, France. Photo by Toni Anne Barson/WireImage

"He can be of any color, but he is male," Barbara Broccoli told Variety in December 2019. "I believe we should be creating new characters for women — strong female characters. I'm not particularly interested in taking a male character and having a woman play it. I think women are far more interesting than that."

The series flirted with a change in 2021's "No Time to Die," actor Daniel Craig's last foray as the lead character. Actress Lashana Lynch became 007 in Bond's absence during the film, meaning technically 007 was a woman, but the character of James Bond was not.

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How Ian Fleming Birthed James Bond

With 'Ian Fleming: The Complete Man,' writer Nicholas Shakespeare has adroitly written the first authorized biography of the man who created the world's most famous fictional spy.
'Will cause offence': Classic James Bond films slapped with trigger warnings for 'outdated' stereotypes
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'Will cause offence': Classic James Bond films slapped with trigger warnings for 'outdated' stereotypes



Classic James Bond movies from the 1960s received trigger warnings from the British Film Institute ahead of upcoming screenings. The warnings told audiences to expect outdated themes and racist stereotypes.

The two films in question were 1967's "You Only Live Twice" and "Goldfinger" from 1964. Both films star iconic Scottish actor Sean Connery.

The organization has featured the two films as part of a celebration of soundtrack writer John Barry, showcasing Barry's musical scores in the motion pictures.

However, the website warned that the "films contain language, images or other content that reflect views prevalent in its time, but will cause offence today (as they did then)."

"The titles are included here for historical, cultural or aesthetic reasons and these views are in no way endorsed by the BFI or its partners," the institute added.

The newer film, "You Only Live Twice," also received its own specific warning of "outdated racial stereotypes," the Independent reported.

"As a cultural charity with responsibility for the preservation of film and moving image work and presenting it to audiences, we continuously face and deal with challenges presented by the history of film and television programmes and how they reflect views prevalent to their time," the BFI told the Guardian.

"Whilst we have a responsibility to preserve films as close to their contemporaneous accuracy as possible, even where they contain language or depiction which we categorically reject, we also have a responsibility in how we present them to our audiences," the film institute insisted.

"Goldfinger" has been criticized for sexist dialogue on the part of James Bond, who at one point tells a woman to "say goodbye" so he can conduct "man talk," before slapping her on the buttocks.

At the same time, in "You Only Live Twice," the Bond character is disguised to look like a Japanese man for one of his spy missions.

In 2023, original work from James Bond author Ian Fleming were revised due to worries of offence as well.

The N-word was edited out of books from the 1950s and 1960s, with some depictions of black people also removed.

An example of a revised line was from "Live and Let Die," where James Bond described some possible African criminals as "pretty law-abiding chaps I should have thought, except when they’ve drunk too much."

The line was changed to "pretty law-abiding chaps I should have thought."

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Hey, James Bond lovers, you might want to see this…



James Bond is among the most iconic Western media characters of all time. He’s daring and brave, he’s impeccably suave, he drives the most enviable cars, and he always has a beautiful siren on his arm.

But those characteristics that have long defined Mr. Bond are likely going away as woke ideology continues to poison pop culture with its perpetual virtue signaling, eradication of masculinity, and toxic levels of “inclusivity.”

But Lauren Chen isn’t currently concerned about the next James Bond movie, even though she acknowledges that it will likely be “completely off the rails” with “leftist politics.”

What she is fixated on, however, is the “the latest novel in the James Bond canon,” titled “On His Majesty’s Secret Service,” which “was commissioned specifically to coincide with the coronation of King Charles.”

“In theory, the concept of trying to release a new James Bond novel to coincide with the new monarch is kind of fun,” she says, but “it seems to be the actual execution that has failed this project so miserably.”

None should find the novel’s utter failure surprising when you consider that the author, Charlie Higson, wrote the book in three months.

Further, before “On His Majesty’s Secret Service,” Higson had never written an adult novel before; he’d authored multiple young adult novels but never one for the audience that the original James Bond author, Ian Fleming, wrote for.

And to top it off, Higson is “one of the wokest,” says Lauren.

So what do you get when you combine haste, inexperience, and progressivism?

You get “laughable material” that “completely changes the essence of who James Bond really is,” says Lauren.

And that’s exactly what "On His Majesty’s Secret Service" is — a rushed, amateur, woke disaster.

See for yourself — here’s a quote from the novel:

“Which is why Bond felt a deep sense of gloom that this beautiful, civilised, orderly country had been dragged back toward the far right by Viktor Orban, using the crude but effective nationalist playbook. Stirring Hungarians up with his anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, and crude, ‘Make Hungary Great again,’ anti-immigration rhetoric. He’d aligned himself with the likes of Trump and Le Pen and Putin, and, just like them, he was using a paper-thin front of patriotism to mask rampant self-interest.”

“Ah yes, because it’s only right-wing politicians who could possibly be motivated by self-interest, unlike the benevolent left-wing politicians we see,” mocks Lauren.

But it gets even worse. Not only is this next excerpt more virtue-signaling nonsense, it’s also atrociously written.

“Birkett was an ex-Tory, MP, famous for promoting COVID/vaccines/mask-wearing/5G conspiracy theories, which spilled over into the usual anti-immigrant, anti-EU, anti-BBC, anti-MSM, anti-cultural Marxist, climate change denial pronouncements. It was an anti-trans diatribe that had eventually got him kicked out of the party and he’d soon after set up the ‘New Freedom Party.'

"Bond was struck by something. It was a long while since he’d been at any kind of function that was almost exclusively full of men. It felt strange. There was not even a pretence at diversity here. Æthelstan hadn’t been the least bit concerned about ensuring that half of the people he’d hired to carry out his coup should be women, or non-white, or disabled.”

It goes on, but we won’t bore you with more of Higson’s garbage writing.

“Surely, the editors who are working with him should have sat him down and been like, ‘Bro, I know you care about this social justice stuff, [but] I don't think this is the place for it; also this just kind of doesn't seem like how James Bond would act,” says Lauren, who can’t quit laughing at the sheer absurdity.

Even the New York Times criticized Higson’s novel, and when a notoriously left journal “[laments] that America has made James Bond woke, you know this novel is not only woke, but insufferably woke,” Lauren says.


Want more from Lauren Chen?

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'Sensitivity readers' rewrite James Bond books to remove content deemed 'offensive' by modern readers



A week after censors edited Roald Dahl's classic children's books to remove content deemed objectionable, "sensitivity readers" are rewriting Ian Fleming's iconic novels about James Bond.

Fleming's James Bond books are scheduled to be reissued in April to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the publication of "Casino Royale" – the first novel in the 007 franchise.

Ian Fleming Publications Ltd – the company that owns the literary rights to the author's work – commissioned "sensitivity readers" to pore over the James Bond novels and scrub any offensive content before the republication.

The reissued books will reportedly remove the race and ethnicity of certain characters.

Fleming’s books will have descriptions of black people "reworked or removed."

The Telegraph reported, "In the sensitivity reader-approved version of 'Live and Let Die,' Bond’s assessment that would-be African criminals in the gold and diamond trades are 'pretty law-abiding chaps I should have thought, except when they’ve drunk too much' becomes – 'pretty law-abiding chaps I should have thought.'"

The censors will alter a scene where Bond witnesses a strip tease at a nightclub in Harlem, New York.

The original book read, "Bond could hear the audience panting and grunting like pigs at the trough. He felt his own hands gripping the tablecloth. His mouth was dry."

The rewritten passage will read, "Bond could sense the electric tension in the room."

The sensitivity readers decided to remove a description of an accent described as "straight Harlem-Deep South with a lot of New York thrown in."

Racial slurs that denigrate black people which Fleming used in his writing between the 1950s and 1960s will also be removed from the new editions.

The Telegraph noted, "Dated references to other ethnicities remain, such as Bond's racial terms for east Asian people and the spy’s disparaging views of Oddjob, Goldfinger's Korean henchman."

The British media outlet said other expressions that will remain include: "sweet tang of rape," "blithering women," "man's work," and referring to homosexuality as a "stubborn disability."

Ian Fleming Publications issued a statement on the edited James Bond novels:

We at Ian Fleming Publications reviewed the text of the original Bond books and decided our best course of action was to follow Ian’s lead. We have made changes to 'Live and Let Die' that he himself authorized. Following Ian’s approach, we looked at the instances of several racial terms across the books and removed a number of individual words or else swapped them for terms that are more accepted today but in keeping with the period in which the books were written. We encourage people to read the books for themselves when the new paperbacks are published in April.

The revised novels will feature a disclaimer that reads: "This book was written at a time when terms and attitudes which might be considered offensive by modern readers were commonplace. A number of updates have been made in this edition, while keeping as close as possible to the original text and the period in which it is set."

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