Tom Hanks Fudged Facts in 'Angel & Demons'

Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. Tom Hanks Fudged Facts in ‘Angel & Demons’ and ‘Da Vinci Code’
2. Miss California Gets the Sarah Palin Treatment
3. TV Networks Lose Money on Obama Prime Time 
4. What Do Spock and Obama Have in Common? The Media
5. Hollywood, D.C.
 

1. Tom Hanks Fudged Facts in ‘Angel & Demons’ and ‘Da Vinci Code’

Tom Hanks, who has the lead role in “Angels & Demons,” the prequel to “The Da Vinci Code,” has admitted that the “A&D” film’s claims about Jesus and the Church are not the truth.

Catholic leaders have declared the movie to be offensive.

The Catholic bishop of Nottingham, the Rev. Malcolm McMahon, called the movie “total rubbish” and “far removed from the truth.”

Hanks seems to agree.

“We play fast and loose with an awful lot of fact, but a trickle of authenticity makes it plausible. It's not important, but it's fun,” the actor told the U.K. Telegraph.

Hanks admitted that his previous Dan Brown film, “The Da Vinci Code,” incorporated fakery as well.

“The movie did OK with its faked contrivances and goofy hunt through the Priory of Sion, but you should have been in Cannes with us when it opened. The reception couldn't have been worse. Everyone slunk out of town with their heads between their shoulders,” he divulged.

He added, “We called it the 'Bonfire of the Unsold Tickets'. Everything ended up in its proper perspective, which usually happens. The audience wins out.”

Thanks for the tip, Tom.

2. Miss California Gets the Sarah Palin Treatment

The media and the Miss California USA organization are putting Carrie Prejean under the proverbial microscope, and it’s not pretty.

This year’s first runner-up in the Miss USA pageant actually stood a chance of losing her title and her standing.

Keith Lewis and Shanna Moakler, who are directors of the state’s beauty contest, have put together a diversity PSA, which stars a bevy of former beauty pageant winners.

Carrie declined to participate in the so-called public service announcement because of scheduling problems. According to her publicist, she had a "prior personal commitment” and if her schedule permitted she “would have been glad to participate.”

But one former winner who did join in on the spot delivers a line in which she says that she believes when she expresses her opinion she has a “responsibility to do it in a way that respects others who may not agree.”

This, and other statements like it, sounds as if they’re aimed straight at Carrie.

Some were even urging that Carrie be fired or resign because a certain photo from her past had surfaced.

The implication is that by being photographed years ago semi-clad, Carrie’s agreement with the pageant has been breached.

If you haven’t yet seen the Carrie photo, it’s along the lines of a lingerie ad you might see on TV or a celebrity cover shoot for a magazine.

Actually, it’s a lot less provocative. It took none other than Donald Trump to trump the naysayers and leave the crown affixed to Prejean's head.

Another attack on Carrie has to do with some accessories she allegedly accepted courtesy of the Miss USA pageant.

And we’re not talking about something Carrie could easily return.

3. TV Networks Lose Money on Obama Prime Time 

TV network execs watched jealously as Fox turned down the most recent request for an Obama prime time press conference spot.

Fox was able to air its regular programming and avoid losing money.

Because the Obama administration has held three prime-time events in the past several months, the television networks have reportedly lost about $30 million in ad revenue.

Several of the beleaguered TV executives spoke to the Hollywood Reporter and indicated that if the White House were to ask them to cancel or move prime-time shows in the immediate future, they would refuse as Fox has done.

One executive revealed, “The Fox decision gives us cover to reject a request if we feel that there is no urgent breaking news that is going to be discussed.”

4. What Do Spock and Obama Have in Common? The Media

Trekkies rejoice.

“Star Trek” was the weekend’s No. 1 movie with an intergalactic box-office take of $76.5 mill.

This actually goes beyond the numbers Paramount was expecting.

So can we now expect to see a sequel to the prequel?

Leave it to the NBC 'Nightly News' to find a way to use the “Star Trek” film to give a boost to Barack Obama.

In a segment on summer films, NBC personality George Lewis mused aloud about how some Trekkies are comparing the half-human, half-Vulcan Spock character to the president.

Could it be that Lewis read Steve Daly’s piece in Newsweek titled “We’re All Trekkies Now?”

Daly had a line in the cover story, which read, “In a certain sense, Spock the character has dealt with some of the same prejudices and problems that our new president does.”

Even more similar to the NBC report is Daly’s contention that “like Obama, Spock is the product of a mixed marriage, and he suffers blunt manifestations of prejudice as a result.”

The Newsweek scribe sums up the White House-"Star Trek" connection with the following phraseology: “Spock's cool, analytical nature feels more fascinating and topical than ever now that we've put a sort of Vulcan in the White House.”

So, if Obama is Spock, does this mean that manning the transporter room of the Starship Enterprise is beam-me-up Biden?

5. Hollywood, D.C.

Who chose Wanda Sykes to be the featured comic at the White House Correspondents Dinner?

Maybe it was the same person who set up the Scare Force One photo op.

The dinner traditionally dishes out humor at the president’s expense.

But Sykes used her moment in the D.C. spotlight to attack conservatives.

She began her routine with a few jokes about President Obama that were actually not-so-veiled compliments.

Not known for her subtlety, she went on to blast talk radio biggies Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and toss cow pies at former Vice President Dick Cheney.

Her jabs at Rush were the harshest and most disingenuous and had no place at the time-honored event.

Sykes falsely ”joked” that Limbaugh said he hopes America fails, and she accused him of treason.

She recklessly compared Rush’s comments to those of Osama bin Laden and used the No. 1 talk-radio host’s name and “highjacker” in the same lame joke.

She went on to express, as pathetic liberals are prone to do, her desire that he experience life threatening health problems.

For Hannity, she hypocritically encouraged the use on him of what the left has deemed “torture” and included a snide remark for bad measure.

When it came to Cheney, Sykes hid behind her lazy wisecracks but inadvertently revealed how unoriginal she really is.

Still, the Hollywood, D.C. crowd (which included Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, Natalie Portman, Jonathan Rhys Myers, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes as well as Brian Williams, Helen Thomas, Barbara Walters, Wolf Blitzer, and other mainstream media big shots) chortled approvingly.

And according to Variety, White House senior adviser David Axelrod called Sykes “very entertaining.”

Very insidious is more like it.