The Left Coast Report: A Political Look at Hollywood
Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. British Actress Claims Past Abuse by Polanski
2. ‘Carlos the Jackal’ Says Film Harms His Reputation
3. Plame and Wilson’s Falsehoods to Premiere at Cannes
4. Sean Penn Sent to Anger Management Classes
5. Woody Allen Wants an Obama Dictatorship
1. British Actress Claims Past Abuse by Polanski
Roman Polanski’s legal team has just been given a setback.
The fugitive director is attempting every possible legal maneuver to avoid being extradited to California where he would have to face charges for leaving the jurisdiction after having previously pleaded guilty to having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in the late 1970s.
By now Polanski must have heard about a press conference that took place in the office of lawyer Gloria Allred.
British actress Charlotte Lewis told gathered reporters that Polanski “forced himself” on her in 1982 during the filming of the Walter Mathau movie, “Pirates,” in which Polanski directed the actress when she was only 16 years old.
“He sexually abused me and manipulated me in the worst way. He has scarred me and the experience has definitely put a strain on my life,” Lewis said.
“I will never forgive Polanski for what he has done to me,” she added.
Lewis has already met with one of the prosecutors attempting to have Polanski extradited.
Meanwhile a number of top directors at the Cannes Film Festival have signed a petition calling for Polanski to escape extradition, including Olivier Assayas, Jean-Luc Godard, Mathieu Amalric and Bertrand Tavernier.
To his credit actor Michael Douglas refused to sign the petition, saying it would be “unfair” to support “somebody who did break the law.”
2. ‘Carlos the Jackal’ Says Film Harms His Reputation
The filmmaker who made a new biopic has been given a bad review from an unlikely critic, Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal.
The 5½-hour flick directed by Olivier Assayas titled “Carlos” will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and will ultimately be a mini-series on French television.
While visiting his lawyer’s office, the international terrorist, who remains in a French prison, told the AFP, “I've read the screenplay, there are deliberate falsifications of history, and lies.”
Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, Carlos’s lawyer, has filed one lawsuit and is threatening additional legal actions to prevent the film’s general release.
The Jackal is apparently unhappy about footage of a 1975 hostage-taking by his gang at the OPEC conference in Vienna. The movie describes the attack as one that was carried out on behalf of the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
“They make Anis Naccache [Carlos’ second in command] say Saddam Hussein ordered that hostage-taking. I'm scandalised. It's shameful,” Carlos the Jackal said.
He insists that he was really working for Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
Evidently the Jackal is also upset that in the movie his operations are portrayed by “showing hysterical men waving submachine guns and threatening people.”
The terrorist said that depiction is “completely ridiculous.”
“Things didn't happen like that. These were professionals, commandos of a very high standard,” Carlos insisted.
3. Plame and Wilson’s Falsehoods to Premiere at Cannes
Sean Penn has jumped into another flick that nobody but the far-left is longing to see.
“Fair Game” is the name of a book that should have been marketed as fiction. It was written by Bush-bashers extraordinaire Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson.
Plame made a book deal with Simon & Schuster and filed a lawsuit against the CIA over classified material that she was seeking to publish. The tedious book was a big hit in liberal Hollywood circles.
Wouldn’t you know it? Warner Bros. bought the rights to Plame’s memoir before it was even determined that the CIA would allow her to publish any of it. The studio found money from the left-leaning Participant Media and Imagenation Abu Dhabi.
The “Fair Game” film premiered in Cannes along with two other America-dissing films, Oliver Stone's “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” and “Inside Job,” the Charles Ferguson documentary about the financial meltdown.
The central premise of the Plame story is that Plame’s status as a covert agent was disclosed by Bob Novak via Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, or leaks from Bush administration insiders.
The truth is that the CIA outed Plame seven years before Novak ever wrote a word about her, and prior to Novak, writer David Corn made reference to Plame’s position. Corn’s source was Plame’s husband, Joe Wilson.
Despite the fact that “Fair Game” is based on lies, Penn is likely on his way to another Academy Award.
4. Sean Penn Sent to Anger Management Classes
Sean Penn has been ordered to attend classes in temper training.
Following his misdemeanor charges for a non-Gandhi-like altercation with a photographer, the actor was sentenced to three years probation, 36 hours of anger management, and 300 hours of community service.
Part of the reason Penn has an anger problem could have to do with his parents.
Maybe the sins of the father are visited upon the son. The actor’s dad, Leo Penn, advocated U.S. neutrality in the war in Europe during the period of time where a short-lived non-aggression treaty between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany had been negotiated. After Hitler attacked the Soviets, Leo switched sides like many other liberals in the U.S., and the pacifist urged America to enter the war.
Leo was honest and open about being a communist. He refused to give the names of others to the House Un-American Activities Committee and was blacklisted.
Who knows what young Sean heard at the dinner table?
Whatever the case, he’s living proof that liberalism makes you miserable.
5. Woody Allen Wants an Obama Dictatorship
Woody Allen is in Cannes for the premiere of his new film, “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger.”
“This is my perspective and has always been my perspective on life,” Allen told a Cannes press conference. “I have a very grim, pessimistic view of it. I always have, since I was a little boy.”
Allen certainly is not pessimistic about the leadership of President Barack Obama. In an interview with a Spanish publication, the director-writer came up with a solution for what he thinks America needs — a provisional dictatorship with Obama as the benevolent despot.
“I am pleased with Obama. I think he’s brilliant,” Allen said. “The Republican Party should get out of his way and stop trying to hurt him.”
Allen added that “it would be good if he could be a dictator for a few years because he could do a lot of good things quickly.”
It figures that a guy who marries his stepdaughter would get warm and fuzzy over the idea of an American tyranny.
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