Culture Did A Way Better Job Of Signaling Trump’s Win Than Broken Polls
As Bob Dylan famously sang, 'You don’t need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.'As Bob Dylan famously sang, 'You don’t need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.'‘Rings Of Power’ Season Two Isn’t Even Worth Hate Watching
The show’s creators squandered a chance to make a television masterpiece because they were lazy, arrogant, and utterly lacking in affection for their work.After Pledging To Dial Back Left-Wing Activism, Disney’s ‘Star Wars’ Elevates First-Ever ‘Trans’ Clone Trooper
By now, many Americans are familiar with leftists’ unhealthy obsession with forcing transgenderism onto adults and children alike. But as it turns out, these delusions about biological sex are also popping up in a galaxy far, far away. In their latest act of left-wing activism, The Walt Disney Company’s “Star Wars” brand is giving fans […]After Woke ‘Star Wars’ Release, Ubisoft Stock Hits 9-Year Low
Adding race and sex politics to ‘Star Wars: Outlaws’ and ‘Assassin’s Creed: Shadows’ has not gone well for game maker Ubisoft.Disney, Lucasfilm sued for using likeness of actor Peter Cushing 22 years after his death
Disney and subsidiary Lucasfilm are being sued for the allegedly-unauthorized use of actor Peter Cushing's likeness in a 2016 Star Wars film.
For "Rogue One," released in December 2016, Disney's Lucasfilm resurrected Cushing 22 years after his death to reprise his role as evildoer Grand Moff Tarkin. The studio reconstructed old footage from his appearance in the 1977 Star Wars original "A New Hope."
Cushing died in 1994 at age 81 from prostate cancer but allegedly signed an agreement the year before.
As reported by the Times, the actor signed an agreement that his likeness could not be used without the expressed permission of his friend and movie producer Kevin Francis. The agreement was apparently signed while the two were preparing to make a made-for-TV movie that was never completed.
Disney claimed however, that it did not believe permission was required to recreate Cushing due to the terms of his contract from his original appearance, as it pertains to the use of special effects.
Disney was reportedly contacted by Cushing's agent, who facilitated a payment to the actor's estate in the amount of £28,000, or just under $37,000.
'In an area of developing law it is very difficult to decide where the boundaries might lie.'
Francis is seeking $650,000 in damages, Futurism reported, after a judge in the English High Court has allowed the lawsuit to continue. Disney attempted to dismiss the case in December 2023 but was denied by Master Francesca Kaye, who said it should go to trial.
Judge Tom Mitcheson also denied Disney's appeal and said he was "far from persuaded" that Francis would succeed but added that his case was not "unarguable."
"I am also not persuaded that the case is unarguable to the standard required to give summary judgment or to strike it out," the judge said. "In an area of developing law it is very difficult to decide where the boundaries might lie in the absence of a full factual enquiry."
The lawsuit also named Cushing's estate and his former representation, Associated International Management, as defendants.
The Star Wars studio has, of course, used the likeness of other actors since their passing, including Carrie Fisher, who played Princess Leia. The actress died in 2016 but appeared in "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" using previously unused footage.
Lucasfilm has also digitally aged down still-living star Mark Hamill for his subsequent Luke Skywalker appearances.
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Scrapped 'Acolyte' sign of Disney's anti-woke pivot
"The Acolyte" won't be back for a second season. Sensible business decision ... or sabotage?
Some vocal defenders of the recently canceled Disney+ series seem to be suggesting the latter.
'Disney seems to be quietly killing off their "progressive audience" shows like "Acolyte." The numbers are no longer sustainable.'
Rolling Stone magazine lays the blame on "the worst" of "Star Wars" fans.
Meanwhile, an online petition to bring back the show attributes its copious negative reviews to “a small fraction of loud trolls.”
Occam's lightsaber
Back here on Earth, all signs point to a simpler explanation: People just didn't watch it.
The "Star Wars" series got off to a decent start with audiences, boasting 4.8 million views for its first two episodes combined.
Disney crowed that it was the biggest premiere on Disney+ in 2024. Technically true, but not so impressive when you realize only two other shows debuted on the platform this year. Plus, adding up viewer numbers for two episodes is a bit of a cheat.
Despite this initial hype, viewership for "The Acolyte" steadily trailed off in the subsequent weeks.
Deadline reported that inside sources learned of the cancelation after just eight episodes, about a month after the season wrapped up.'
Please clap
The show's future seemed to be in jeopardy when director and creator Leslye Headland asked viewers in July to support the show and share it with friends even if they thought it was mediocre.
"Even if you were kind of like 'whatever' on the show, if you enjoyed the performances, get on their social media, let them know that you love them, or that you support them or that the performances were great."
Game designer and media critic Mark Kern told Align that he thought the cancelation was a signal of an upcoming pivot on the part of Disney.
"Disney seems to be quietly killing off their 'progressive audience' shows like 'Acolyte.' The numbers are no longer sustainable," Kern said. "I believe the pivot is happening and new shows in development will begin to focus on story and quality instead of promoting a message."
A bad rap
It didn't help Disney that actors involved with "The Acolyte" were consistently in headlines for all the wrong reasons, particularly series lead Amandla Stenberg.
Critics of the series inspired Stenberg to release a hip-hop diss track aimed at her oppressors. The young actress spit bars condemning slavery and its effect on her psyche.
"I'm sick and f***ing tired of suppressing my rage. 400 years of taking their bulls*** to compartmentalize like my ancestors had to encaged," she rapped.
"If you don't confront the pain that you live with it'll manifest as addiction, disease, and hate. I've seen the infection repression can give ya, I'm not gonna be the next one sent to an early grave," she concluded.
Separately, co-star Manny Jacinto gave remarks in late July about being cut out of a different project, Tom Cruise's "Top Gun: Maverick."
Jacinta said it "wasn't shocking" that his scenes were cut out given the fact that Cruise had written a movie for himself, but strangely, the lesson he took from the experience was that non-white people in Hollywood need to pursue making movies that are specifically for their race.
"It's up to us — Asian-Americans, people of color — to be that [for ourselves]. We can't wait for somebody else to do it. If we want bigger stories out there, we have to make them for ourselves."
Lesbian Force witches
It wasn't only off-screen behavior that spoiled "The Acolyte;" creator Headland sought to fundamentally change "Star Wars" lore by introducing a litany of progressive characters who brought with them previously unheard of explanations of the Star Wars universe.
The biggest change in the story was the idea that The Force was controlled by a coven who could — and did — perform an immaculate conception for a duo of lesbian witches.
The consistent injection of far-left dogma into the story, which Stenberg described as "so gay already," didn't appear to be quite what fans were looking for.
"It is good news that this show was cancelled," said John F. Trent, editor of culture and gaming site That Park Place.
"It prevents Leslye Headland and her conspirators from doing even more damage to Star Wars by changing the Force, injecting feminism, and attempting to subvert morality."
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The Obi-Wan factor: 5 celebs whose cancellation made them stronger
A classic “Star Wars” line speaks volumes about today’s culture. Two, actually.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Han Solo warned in “Star Wars,” a sentiment that applies to virtually every part of America in 2024.
Wallen’s fans recognized both his contrite nature and the two-tier approach to his 'crime.' A Biden family member? Move along, nothing to see here. A beloved country star? Get ‘em!
The other? “If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine,” Alec Guinness’ Obi-Wan Kenobi told Darth Vader moments before the villain did just that.
And, spoiler alert, Vader regretted it.
The modern left has tried to cancel several prominent personalities in recent years. Yet, one by one, they not only survived but came back stronger than ever.
In no particular order.
Bari Weiss
The New York Times scribe famously fled the paper in 2020 via a scathing open letter. The left-leaning journalist had had enough of the Old Gray Lady’s extreme bias. The newspaper, in turn, refused to defend her against fellow employees. They called Weiss a Nazi, a racist, and more.
The paper likely figured Weiss would wish she had clammed up and took the abuse.
Hardly.
Weiss picked herself up and joined the Substack revolution. Her newsletter quickly became one of the platform’s most popular feeds. And she wasn’t done.
Weiss went on to create The Free Press, a news outlet dedicated to news, not narrative. The platform became so successful, the New York Times ran a snippy profile on Weiss and her new creation earlier this month.
The newspaper that couldn’t defend her against gross accusations now sees her as more than a rival. Her Free Press is a threat to its news monopoly.
Joe Rogan
The Spotify superstar already stood atop the podcasting world in 2021. And then the usual suspects — as well as a posse of aging rock rebels — allied to bring him down.
Rogan took an adversarial tone to the left’s pandemic response. "Wait," he said. "Why can’t we talk to vaccine critics like Dr. Robert Malone? Should young, healthy people take an experimental vaccine? And if Rogan’s doctors said to take ivermectin as part of a 'kitchen sink' approach to battling COVID-19, why not?"
Rogan didn’t get every pandemic-related item right. Neither did any corporate media outlet, and Rogan never claimed to be a news source.
But by questioning The Narrative(TM) he drew the ire of Neil Young and, by extension, the left. Young yanked his music from Spotify, demanding the company release Rogan. Fellow AARP icons Joni Mitchell, Graham Nash, and David Crosby followed suit.
The left, smelling blood in the water, unearthed old footage during which Rogan used the N-word. He said it without malice and never taunting a person of color, but the lowlight reel forced a rare apology from the comic podcaster.
Things looked grim, and the liberal press piled on.
Except Spotify CEO Daniel Ek stood by Rogan. And, when the smoke cleared, the podcaster renewed his contract and returned to outside platforms like iTunes and YouTube, drastically expanding his cultural reach.
Rogan later spearheaded a comedy revolution in Austin, Texas. His Comedy Mothership is the city’s unofficial stand-up hub, and major talents like Roseanne Barr, Tyler Fischer, Tom Segura, and Tony Hinchcliffe relocated to Austin to partake in Rogan’s free expression revolution.
The 2024 Rogan is bolder than ever, exposing media bias and pushing free speech from his Spotify perch.
Shane Gillis
The husky stand-up forged his fame via his self-deprecating delivery and apolitical musings. He even caught the eye of Lorne Michaels, the guru behind “Saturday Night Live.”
Gillis signed on to join the show’s 45th season, giving the show a voice that wasn’t part of the doctrinaire left.
He had arrived, but social justice warriors begged to differ. They found some of his old podcast routines featuring crude Asian imitations. Gillis was gone, having never set foot on “SNL’s” hallowed stage.
Some SNL regulars fade into the Hollywood woodwork following their show exit. Surely Gillis would fare the same, if not worse.
Except he refused to slink away.
Gillis leaned on YouTube, his loyal fan base, and social media to rebuild his brand. And it worked. He became part of the comedy rebellion, stand-ups who refused to play by the left’s rules. He was neither conservative nor liberal. He was ... funny.
And his star just kept rising.
Need proof? SNL swallowed its corporate pride and invited Gillis on to host an episode earlier this year. That, plus a starring role in the Netflix comedy series “Tires,” proved Gillis out-hustled his critics.
Megyn Kelly
The Fox News superstar left the channel in 2017 for a cushy daytime gig at NBC. Her self-titled talk show struggled in the ratings, leaving her vulnerable on two fronts.
Her Fox News fame had left a permanent target on her back. Weak ratings meant the Peacock network’s investment wasn’t panning out.
So when during a discussion about "offensive" Halloween costumes Kelly wondered aloud why blackface was out of bounds, the left pounced. Kelly’s apology wasn’t enough.
That gave NBC an excuse to cut ties with Kelly even though the network was on the hook for part of her remaining salary.
It seemed unlikely Kelly would slink back to Fox News, and the blackface “scandal” meant no mainstream outlet would take a chance on her. She turned to podcasting, marshalling her velvety voice and hard-news chops to lap the competition.
It worked. The show caught fire, attracting major news players and celebrities alike. The podcast grew and grew, catching the eye of SiriusXM suits.
The satellite service snatched “The Megyn Kelly Show” up, acknowledging its power in an increasingly cluttered media landscape.
Why? Kelly’s brand of reportage is smart, sophisticated, and backed by facts. She slices through corporate media lies and offers transparency at a time when it’s sorely needed.
She even snagged a voice gig on “Mr. Birchum,” the Daily Wire’s irreverent cartoon series to cap her improbably comeback.
Morgan Wallen
The country music star angered the left by defying COVID-19 protocols early in the pandemic. And, as a straight, white country crooner, he checked more unwelcome boxes on the identity politics ledger.
In February 2021, TMZ leaked footage of a drunken Wallen uttering the “N-word.” He didn’t target a person of color, it was just dumb talk amongst friends. Very dumb talk.
Wallen’s career evaporated overnight.
Radio stations boycotted his music. His representatives cut ties with him. Country music awards shows blocked him from attending their galas.
Wallen apologized, went to rehab, and appeared genuinely forlorn about the matter.
Few stars have fallen that far, that fast, for a word uttered away from the stage and without malice. Months later, we’d learn that first son Hunter Biden repeatedly used the N-word in text messages.
Zero repercussions.
Wallen’s fans recognized both his contrite nature and the two-tier approach to his “crime.” A Biden family member? Move along, nothing to see here. A beloved country star? Get ‘em!
Wallen gingerly crept back into the spotlight, and his fans were waiting for him. And how.
“Morgan Wallen Dominated The American Music Industry In 2023 Like No One Else Could,” screamed the Forbes.com headline.
'The greatest teacher, failure is': Disney axes woke 'Acolyte'
Our long national nightmare is over.
“The Acolyte,” arguably the worst “Star Wars” project since the infamous Christmas special, won’t live to see a second season.
The Disney+ series stank to high heaven, a fact that our totally not corrupt or dishonest press tried to cover up. Journalists blamed toxic fans for complaining about a show with a tepid mystery, comically bad dialogue, and plot twists too dumb for even the most die-hard “Star Wars” faithful to swallow.
Stop “review bombing” terrible TV, they cried in near-unison.
The Mouse House finally caved to dwindling ratings and fan apathy. Disney should have heeded Yoda all along.
"Adventure. Excitement. A Jedi craves not these things." But “Star Wars” fans do …
'Beetlejuice' misses HR memo
Take a victory lap, '80s fans. “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” won’t be woke.
So says Michael Keaton, the mind behind the beloved ghoul in Tim Burton’s 1988 film “Beetlejuice.” The sequel, out September 6, brings back the wily character along with Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, and, of course, the creepy dude with the super-tiny head.
Keaton, no Republican he, told GQ the antihero won’t be given a sensitivity upgrade to please the woke mob.
“As for the character himself, there was not a ton of updating to be done there. Beetlejuice, debauched sicko in 1988, remains a debauched sicko in our more enlightened era.”
“He’s a thing. He’s more of a thing than a he or a she; he’s more of an it,” Keaton said. “And I’m not saying ‘it’ to be politically correct. I just viewed it as a force more than anything. I mean, there’s definitely strong male energy, like stupid male energy, which I love. You don’t want to touch that because it’s not like you go, ‘Well, it’s a new year and this thing would now act like that.’”
Now, if Keaton could have told half of Hollywood that, we would have been spared a ton of lousy TV shows and films ...
'Batman' hatches lady Penguin
Hollywood thinks just about everything in pop culture is gender-fluid.
Remember the female “Ghostbusters”? The XX “Ocean’s Eleven” reboot? “The Hustle,” the disastrous “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” remake with Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson?
Now, Batman’s arch-nemesis is suddenly wearing heels.
“Batman: Caped Crusader,” a new animated series on Amazon Prime, features a female Penguin. Just don’t body-shame her!
The show’s creators claimed the Dark Knight lacks interesting villains, which made them turn the male Penguin foe into, well, can we still say “a woman”? Feels triggering …
'SNL' finds its Kamala chameleon
Maya Rudolph may have a steady gig for the next four-plus years.
The “Saturday Night Live” alum previously portrayed Kamala Harris on the hard-Left NBC show. Now, with Harris in a neck-and-neck race with President Donald Trump for the White House, the star appears eager for an extended “SNL” reunion.
Of course, her Harris is the cool aunt with the best vibes, not the word-salad spinner who hides from even sympathetic press.
Rudolph does have standards, though. She told the Hollywood Reporter’s "Awards Chatter" podcast about the female politician she wouldn’t play for an extended period: conservative darling Condoleezza Rice.
“I balked because I was like, ‘That wasn’t a good character,’” Rudolph said. We look forward to Rudolph’s Harris cackling over throwing people in jail for pot. Should be hilarious …
'Coraline' comeback
It’s been a pretty good summer for Hollywood at the box office.
After both “The Fall Guy” and “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” under-performed, hits like “Deadpool & Wolverine,” “Inside Out 2,” and “Despicable Me 4” revitalized the industry.
Caution flags keep on waving, though.
Consider “Coraline,” the 2009 stop-motion film with the button-eyed heroine. The creepy film earned a re-release over the weekend to celebrate its 15th anniversary and managed fifth place on the box-office charts. That’s after appearing on fewer than half the screens most new releases enjoy.
Many moviegoers pine for stories made before the great “awokening.” They prefer modern classics to what’s being force-fed to us today. If you’ve survived “Madame Web,” can you really blame them?
'Star Wars' show ‘The Acolyte’ can’t even do left-wing propaganda right: ‘It still FAILS’
"Star Wars" show "The Acolyte" cost $180 million to produce, and it’s finally over.
But after the season finale, Lauren Chen is wondering where the money went — or whether the writers of the show are even sane.
“I’m beginning to think that the writers behind ‘The Acolyte,’ they’re just bad people. Maybe even psychopaths,” Chen says, adding, “Overall, where this money went, I have no idea.”
In the finale, the protagonist of the show kills her old Jedi master, Sol, in cold blood, and it's presented as being “what’s right.”
“Is she really the protagonist? Like, I’m sorry, am I still supposed to like or relate to this character in any way, shape, or form?” Chen asks.
“Not only does basically the only good character in this show get murdered in the finale by the little girl that he helped raise and that he did rescue from these weird space witches, but on top of that, his memory and his legacy are completely dragged through the mud,” she adds.
The show itself was supposed to revolve around the theme of ambiguous morality, Chen doesn’t think it did a good job of that at all.
“Such disappointing stuff. And here’s the thing: The entire morality of this show essentially hinges on the fact that the writers believe that Sol was in the wrong, but they didn’t really do a good job convincing the audience otherwise,” Chen says.
While Chen doesn’t believe the show is the “worst thing” she’s ever seen, she says it’s up there.
“It’s terrible. It’s not good as a piece of "Star Wars" fiction, and it’s just not good as a show standing on its own. Like, it’s one thing if there were a show that kind of poked holes into "Star Wars" lore and canon, but at least it was entertaining to watch and decent,” she says.
“This is just not good as a piece of media. It’s not very interesting, it’s not every entertaining, and heck, even if we just look at it purely as a form of propaganda to push a social message, which it seems like is really all that the creators were interested in doing, it still fails, because the message it pushes is terrible,” she continues.
“It justifies murder, tries to add moral ambiguity into something that’s unambiguously bad, like having a temper or no control over your feelings. It’s just a failure all around,” she adds.
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